The Citadels

[imadoofus]

I've been thinking about the Combine Citadel a lot lately, and it got me to wondering about headcanon. I mean, until we see otherwise from Valve themselves, it's all up to our imagination.

My headcanon on the Citadels of Earth is that they all look different, but are made from the same material. Some are smaller or larger than others, and some serve different purposes. For example, City 17's Citadel is very large and serves many different roles as a part of the primary Combine administration; but City 14's Citadel could be smaller, maybe geared towards Synth output. City 21's Citadel could be a communications building or an energy producer. City 5's Citadel may be somewhat like that of City 17, but smaller, with a more contained dark fusion reactor. Maybe it has a depot next to it. When you see the other Citadel-like buildings through the portal at the end of Half-Life 2, they all look slightly different, but with a similar structure. Earth's could be the same.

Although, it seems more likely that they all serve the same roles, because it would be inconvenient to transport Synths, vehicles, and energy across the planet from one area. They aren't built exactly the same, but they do the same things.

So that's what I've put together so far. Do you have any ideas regarding the way the Citadel operates, or how many there are?

Okay, starting a thread. Stay calm. CALM.

 

[Omnomnick]

I imagine you're not too far off. While I don't think it would make sense for them to have each different Citadel focus on a totally different process, it does make sense for them to be larger or smaller depending on their role. We definitely know Earth has multiple Citadels thanks to Kleiner's line in Episode 1, where he mentions that the "destructive pulse formed a damper on the entire network of linked Citadel reactors".

 

[10n02]

Do we know if the others Citadels are controlled by others (puppet) humans like Breen, or by combines?

 

[Omnomnick]

Do we know if the others Citadels are controlled by others (puppet) humans like Breen, or by combines?

It's never really stated. It's more than likely they're automated from the main Citadel in City 17, since both Earth's administrator and the main Advisors are all situated there.

 

[bluechirri]

It's not exactly canon, but I think the background structures in some of the Half Life 3 art leaked in 2012 are intended to be a (possibly incomplete) Citadel, which would support the idea that they don't all look the same.



You have to really look closely with this one, because the front part resembles a regular human-designed water tower and doesn't feel much like a Combine structure (which probably means this design isn't the one they're going with, if this building is still in the game), but behind the faux water tower is a shorter building that's definitely Combine in nature. And with these next two, it's even more obvious.





As far as I know (though I might be wrong), the Citadel is the only structure in Half Life 2 and the episodes that was built with Combine tech completely from scratch - everything else was a preexisting human building or structure augmented with Combine technology. Since there obviously aren't any skyscrapers in the Arctic, whatever this building is was probably built from the ground up by the Combine, which might be enough to classify it as a Citadel if it has the ability to connect to the "network of linked Citadel reactors" when said network is up and running.

This potential smaller Citadel might be constructed before or during Half Life 3 to serve as a base of operations for the Borealis search, which would explain its apparent smaller size and the way some versions of it look incomplete. Of course, it's also possible that it's always been there and that there's a City in the Arctic around its base, but I don't think so - the main Citadel was designed to look like it dropped out of the sky and drove into the ground, and while I'm not sure if it's exactly canon that it fell through a Combine portal or from some Combine device onto Earth, these buildings in the concept art don't have that same feel to me? I feel more like these were built from the ground like a normal building, which maybe means the Combine lost the ability to construct Citadels the usual way after the connection to their homeworld was severed...

Okay, okay, yes, it's a lot to draw from some probably non-canon concept art for a game we barely know exists depicting a setting that may or may not even make it to the final product, but from a design perspective I figured it might be relevant.

 

[TheWiktor]

Omnomnick - I don't really see how that proves there's more than one Citadel on Earth.
I thought he meant the entire network of Citadel reactors throughout different planets/galaxies/dimensions. I could be missing something though.

 

[SteamEmpire]

I remember a citizen stating he hoped he'd seen the last of Breen in city 14 but there was
never a mention of a citadel there so there might just be one.
the only part of the game you see another on is thru the combine portal

 

[Danny_ZQ]

I don't really see how that proves there's more than one Citadel on Earth.

there was never a mention of a citadel there so there might just be one.

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