Xen
It wasn't long after the start of the Rookery, when it became clear that Xen would be a staging point and intermediary location for many activities. However one thing to note is that there are, like Earth, multiple versions of Xen. The Xen that Local Lane accesses is just slightly different than Repurposed Keenan does, there are different populations of Vortigaunts or differing stages of destruction to its landscape. One thing that remains constant however, is its origin: it used to be a planet like any other, until a very, very young Nach'lih kallah-vahh accidentally 'touched' it. This extraordinary event caused the world to change radically, breaking into billions of pieces and even shattering the barriers between dimensions around it. Thus it is considered a 'border world' - because it is literally a gateway to as many places as can be imagined, with weak walls keeping it apart from any other realm. In Repurposed Xen, there are a core number of floating islands that Keenan keeps safe, which house spare wildlife and sometimes people. On Rookery Xen, this is less the case, but there are numerous other Lanes and many other Xens that occasionally flex through the one winding up the focal point of the Rookery. Another constant is that Lane will protect this realm with his very soul - no matter what else is going on, Xen belongs to Nach'lih kallah-vahh and anything on it is there with his express permission or has been placed there by him. He maintains that if invaders such as the Combine were to reach it, all life would be at risk: because ... those barriers are weak, and they lead everywhere.
The planet was much smaller than Earth, though not nearly as tiny as a moon. The pieces of it range in size from dust that form nebula-like patterns in gaps between larger parts, the volume of it mostly around volleball sized rocklets, then larger boulders around the size of an apartment building, and the rest up to several kilometers wide at most. In any version of this dimension that encounters the Rookery, Keenan has spent a tremendous amount of time trying to put the planet back together. It's not his forte, matter manipulation has come with difficulty for him, he's a speedster and teleporter. With the teleportation however, he's started realizing that that can be of use too...
It is known to have no original wildlife existing any longer, however it did start with a modest ecology of its own. The gravity and atmosphere of the original world has been maintained for over a billion years (it was around 1.64 billion but who's counting?)(Keenan, that's who's counting), but the existing life has evolved, died out, or been overtaken by the other creatures which he's placed there, or which have somehow found its way, over time. Some isolated pockets of the area have such bizarre creatures that Lane considers them part of a dimensional 'zoo' of sorts. He'll save species or even just individuals, placing them here for them to either thrive or die out, or live out their days in reasonable peace compared to what their remaining socieities have been through. This, he usually claims, harkens back to what his people, the Convocation themselves, used to do with their time... He was the last to continue that trend in most dimensions, the others snubbing the very idea of interacting with the physical realm. This disappoints him tremendously.
Xen Rookery Riders Most are Part Time but all have somewhere to roost or reside |
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Noah the Vort |
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| Ivan | Lois | Claudio |
| Suzumi | Stig | Amon Vahh |
| Peregrine | Pascale | |
| Pax's Vih'den ahlXen | Pax's Marquisth | Pamon |
(Images above, Descriptions below. Maps (c) Valve and Crowbar Collective, Paragon)
'Old' Xen consists of islands like this, which have either the barest of life left on them, or are merely skeletal remains of the creatures which resided on them. Yes, those 'spikey bits' are creatures, alive once, but these are mostly husks. The glowing eyestalks producing small patches of illumination appear in numerous locations and made the trip to Earth, having been teleported both purposefully and randomly while Nihilanth was leading its invasion.
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'Living' Xen: here is an example of what happens when those living creatures thrive on a chunk of the floating islands. Much of the upper area is both organic and inorganic, and is not a construction, however it is often hollowed out by other creatures a lot like a hermit crab will take up residence in another discarded shell in Earth's ocean. The flocking Boids are ubiquitous, some quite small - those shown with pink markings are around 2 to 3 meters across at most, while the other creature drifting toward us on the right, what Vorts call ru'un den ket is simply massive with a mouth at least 3 meters across alone. Plant and crystal matter seem to mix freely, and it's very often difficult to tell whether something is organic or crystaline. They're usually both.
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This rampant crystal growth provides an unusual and beautiful exploration experience. However, some of them are quite dangerous - the largest of them tend to shatter if hit with explosives or a strong impact, causing a massive burst of shrapnel. Smaller bright blue ones contain energy that can be tapped by clever Humans or Vorts, while those glowing yellow ones are the most Vortal and the focal point of the Lambda Labs experimentation - they hum with a frequency that only Xen produces. Thus they can be used to tune dimensional teleportation devices, as well as broken into smaller pieces and often used by Keenan to give to people he values. They are very easy for him or anyone with strong Vortal senses to spot, so he can keep tabs on folks if they're prone to wander. And yes, those islands just float there, in their own gravity that is somehow spread across a massive amount of space equally. There is still an 'up' and 'down' to this world. No one but Keenan has been to enough of it to know whether there's a central hub for this gravity pull or not.
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One extremely useful feature of Xen are the glowing blue pools of liquid that has strong healing power. This liquid is Vortal but comes from the world itself, and is not introduced in any other way. Somehow there actually is precipitation on numerous larger chunks of islands, though this stuff just seems to ooze right out of the rock itself. It's likely that some portion of the planet's environment was spread into the widely broken parts, from a central origin pool of this stuff. But it doesn't seem that it's losing any volume, and Keenan assures people that it is absolutely safe for any organic life to utilize. Ivan relied on a pool of this sort for his tenure on Xen, in fact. (Others over time and disparate dimensions do the same.)
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A number of islands have lush landscapes, with impossibly weird plants that do still serve very similar roles to those you'd find on Earth. From lily pads and pond scum to root systems and vines that animals can use to travel from island to island (the large blue one featured earlier has such a root system leading to it from another island), and flowering plants that can be used for medicinal or narcotic drugs. The locations aren't without their dangers: some of those plants floating on the water are actually barnacle-relatives which scoop up anything that land on the water, pulling them downwards just like a barnacle typically drags its prey up. And yes there are regular downard pointing barnacles all over the place too.
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In the 11 thousand years or so that the Vortigaunts have resided on Xen, surprisingly few generations have gone by. Perhaps a dozen naturally-occurring generations; they are long-lived people. However, they did manage to bring with them some amount of technology - and some of this was made by their master Nihilanth and its Controllers. As a people, the Vortigaunts were slaves for the entire time they resided there, and only freed when Gordon Freeman - or Adrian Shephard - destroyed the creature once and for all. Unfortunately on numerous versions of Xen where this occurred, the bulk of the Vortigaunts civilization resided on or near the same island complex that Nihilanth did - and were destroyed by the massive explosion that Nihilanth caused on its death. Some worlds - like Rookery Xen - however, survive intact, being just far enough away that the inhabitants still thrive.
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Even though they may seem primative by Human standards, the dwellings that the Vorts live in are fully stocked with power, radio systems, complex machinery, and the like, as well as little gardens, paintings both framed and directly on the carved walls, and sculptures to entertain their young. Without the Controllers to dictate their movements around Xen, now, they are free to explore more fully and are highly likely to take up residence on other islands. Keenan of a variety of dimensions encourages this, in fact, because their home world is either lost to the Combine, or has nothing left on it that even they would want.
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One beneficial aspect of Keenan's travels is that he becomes inspired by some extradimensional spots enough to either drag from or emulate items such as the little island above and put it into Xen. This island, perhaps 50 meters across at most, has a naturally-occurring geyser within it (don't ask what it's powered by, even he doesn't know), which has been used by folks in the Shadow Shard, an alternate dimension of Paragon City, to travel between larger islands. A lot of people visiting Xen just do not have the power to teleport or fly, and even when they can leap great distances in the lower gravity of the realm, sometimes that's not all that accurate. These geysers, paired with the 'local' Xenian trampoline plants, serve as directional boosts that can easily be used by virtually anyone to get from place to place. Run up to it, it pushes you right out into the void... and hopefully you'll be aimed at the right spot. He's arranged them so they will put you down on reasonably safe terrain. Visitors to some of these spots have also begun placing supply caches, or even weird bits for games and scavenger hunts. Moraga Vasquez's Geocaching class has visited at least one of these dimensions for his Carramba High class to play in for grades!
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One notable feature of any Xen that is connected to Black Mesa (or Aperture, or whoever else manages to reach it in that dimension) is that exploration happens and often is cut short when the Nihilanth catches wind of them. Thus there are often encampments and even whole scientific installations (or... military ones) where wandering or lost folk might catch a breath and rest up. Many of these spots are no longer connected to their 'home' base due to - well - everything else that usually occurs here. But they often enough have batteries, power supplies, lighting, cots and restroom facilities (read: toilet paper), as well as stocks of food and water, environment kits, even HEV chargers. Several of these locations are now being explored once more and refitted with teleportation panels and dragon-based travel areas.
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That's not to say that a place this old has never been discovered before or by other creatures. It certainly has had its share of nonhuman, or human-like intelligent life pass through it. Whether that was temporarily, or to 'end of life', only Keenan knows. These locales are somewhat distant from the currently inhabited zones, but exploring them can prove both challenging and enlightening. At least a couple dragons have decided to roost on the Temple above.
What's this, a library? Why yes! Do you dare try reading those alien words? With a little cleaning up and creature comforts this place might make a very nice homestead. Just watch the edge, that first step is a doozy.