Half-Life's Extraordinary Lost Episode | Epistle 3 | Full Half-Life Lore

[Music] the uprising of humanity left the combine empire weaker than they had ever been since their invasion of planet earth 20 years before with the fall of nova prospect the destruction of the citadel and at the pinnacle point of the war between the resistance and the combine's brutal army the battle of white forest led to yet another victory for the resistance and with this gave them their chance to close the forming super portal above the remains of the once feared citadel in city 17. with this story almost coming into its third act and the chance for the players that have been with the series since its inception the fans would wait for half-life 2 episode 3 to come along but it never came many years later a story was released but not in the conventional sense in which the players were used to what was their story how did it fit into the already constructed half-life universe and would it give closure to a series that had made giant strides in the video game industry here we explore in the law and story behind epistle three after a brutal war with the combine empire a multi-dimensional alien force set on dominating all sentient life within the multiverse it seemed that they had finally met their match when humanity struck back while their occupation on other planets may have gone extremely easily planet earth had the strength to fight against this force at the war's height judith mossman had been sent to the north by dr ahn magnuson to seek out the codes of the combine homeworld in the event they would need them while there she was captured by combine forces but not before she could gather information about a mysterious lost vessel that could change the tide of this war after discovering both the combine homeworld portal codes and information on the borealis a lost ship created by aperture science that held an immensely dangerous but powerful secret that could bring great change to the war dr eli vance and dr isaac klein clashed with their views on what the borealis should be used for once they got their hands on it in isaac's view they could use the lost research vessel to make a great change and give the resistance more of a chance in defeating the combine while eli believed that using the borealis for any purpose could lead to another event just as bad as the resonance cascade with this eli pleads that gordon and alex destroy the ship when on their upcoming trip to the north to save judith and now firstly discover the lost piece of technology and secondly decide what to do with it the resistance forced a final wave of combine forces and sent off their rocket with the intent to close a forming super portal that would if allowed to grow into maturity allow the combine to send through their vast armies and take over the planet once again and crush the resistance to the resistances luck their rocket was launched successfully and the portal closed leaving the combine units on earth abandoned having fixed up an old helicopter alex gordon and eli head to the hangar to set off unfortunately combine advisors attacked the group in a last-ditch effort to stop their plans during the attack one of the combine advisors brutally murders eli in front of his daughter leaving yet another victim to the combine rule to gordon and alex as luck dog crashes through the ceiling and fights off the advisors saving their lives but the damage had already been done and now the resistance had to decide what to do next without one of their strongest leaders to guide them with eli vance having been murdered by the combine advisors within the hangar of white forest both gordon and alex as well as the rest of the resistance mourned the loss of one of the great and prominent members of their cause as eli had the information about the borealis in his brain when he had died the resistance feared that the surviving combine advisor may have absorbed important information about the resistance his cause fearing any future plan of the rebellion to have been compromised with the resistance full of sadness they came together to bury eli and honor his memory soon talk came of the plan ahead and the mystery of the borealis following the wishes of their beloved leader the resistance decided to follow through with the plan to travel to the north to seek out judith's fate and discover the secrets of the borealis that she had found just before her capture as gordon and alex prepared to leave the people spoke of what to actually do with the borealis upon discovery some believed that it should be destroyed just like dr eli vance had wanted as it could not only potentially give the combine access to whatever advanced technology was on board but also if used incorrectly by the resistance this could have the potential to trigger something just as bad as a resonance cascade or maybe something even worse the others within the resistance believed that upon the discovery of this lost research vessel they could use the technologies within to aid the resistance in a success against the combine empire and free humanity from their awful rule but as no one actually knew what resided on the borealis the decision would be left to gordon and alex if they were even able to discover it with judet's coordinates to hand alex and gordon set off using the helicopter hoping that the combine had not discovered the borealis yet either with the combine having stormed judith space as well as their advisor taking whatever it could from eli's brain it was clear that the combine had information but if it were enough to go on they were unsure aware that this trip to the north could be quite dangerous another group of the resistance chose to follow alex and gordon in a separate helicopter where they could supply additional support if they were to come into any trouble with the combine after hours of traveling gordon and alex make it to the north but for an unknown reason suddenly and without warning the helicopter was unable to transport them leaving the duo to continue to follow the coordinates on foot continuing on gordon and alex finally come across the borealis but to their disappointment they find that the combine had already made it here first with their technology the combine had constructed a fortified barricade around a field of open ice while at first there appeared to be nothing of interest within it they watched as the borealis faded in and out of existence one moment there one moment gone at first gordon and alex thought that the combine technology around the ship was somehow manipulating it but upon further inspection they understood the ship to be actually teleporting itself in and out of the area and now they could see the combine technology surrounding it was attempting to bring the ship into complete coherence with this amazing feat happening before their eyes this confirmed to gordon and alex that the technology on board had great potential to either aid the resistance or destroy it understanding that the combine had placed the technology around the ship to seize and then study it they continued to follow the coordinates that judith had given them believing these coordinates to be the place where the ship would materialize for long enough for them to get on board before it disappeared again on their journey to these coordinates combine soldiers have become aware of gordon and alex's presence where they were later captured to their look the duo discovered that they had been spotted by dr wallace breen but not a version that they have been familiar with during their last interaction wallace had been attempting to open up a portal to the combine homeworld in the hopes he could leave earth and avoid the wrath of the resistance for his part in working with the combine but this version of wallace was different although his physical body had seemingly died after falling into the depths of the citadel after gordon had destroyed the dark fusion reactor the combine had used an earlier version of wallace's memories and imprinted them onto a combine advisor where he would now live as one of them unaware of what had actually happened to his physical form aware of the reputation gordon held amongst his fellow combine members this slug version of wallace slightly feared him but he feared the combine even more he confessed to gordon and alex that he was just like many others simply a prisoner of the combine and a tool to their continued dominance over the planet disgusted with what the combine had turned him into he asks gordon to end his life believing breen to have been partly responsible for her father's death as well as the awful conditions losses and situations that the resistance had found themselves in alex believed that a quick death would be too good for wallace regardless of whether this version had no memory of the pain he had caused while alex did have strong feelings about how wallace should suffer gordon felt pity and compassion for this brain grub and upon having some time away from alex he may have followed through with the grotesque creature's plea of release from a miserable existence free from their brief detainment of breen's forces gordon and alex later come across judith after finding her locked inside of a combine interrogation cell as judith had been captured by the combine and detained as the uprising continued without her she was unaware of the brutal murder of eli in her grief alex blames judith for his death believing her actions and betrayal to have had a major impact on the war increasing the wedge between them in their relationship upon hearing this judith attempts to convince both gordon and alex that eli had been aware of her cooperation with the combine all along and she had been using them to gain an advantage against the dominating alien force she had known how it would look to the rest of the resistance that she would be branded as a traitor but the reward for taking part in such a dangerous mission would give the resistance that advantage they needed with her explanation complete gordon believes her to be telling the truth but in alex's highly distressed state she refuses to believe a word judith says regardless of whether alex believed judith or not she possessed the knowledge on how to bring the borealis completely into this plane of existence where they could then board it fighting through combine forces the trio reach a combine research post here while judith attempts to attune the frequencies required to bring the research vessel completely into this dimension gordon and alex fight off the combine forces stationed here to protect the post with more combine units on the way judith completes her task bringing forth the ship still avoiding the combine forces the trio bored the borealis just in time before it phased out of existence looking back they see their resistance reinforcements arrive and now the combine could hopefully be held off long enough for gordon alex and judith to figure out how this ship worked on board the trio begin to understand where the ship went when it disappeared looking around them they watch as the borealis jumps from universe to universe here they see distant worlds free from any combine invasion as this ship had the ability to teleport gordon alex and judith wander it searching for the power source that allowed it to perform this extremely advanced task finding the control room the trio discovered that the journey of the ship not only covered various other worlds but also various other times its non-linear timeline showed them that during its development a team had constructed the bootstrap device a self-contained device capable of creating a field large enough to cover the entire ship when activated it was designed to send the ship anywhere in space and time the team working from the aperture science research facility had seen this as the next stage in their scientific path but without testing they could not be sure of the risk that came with such an advanced piece of technology as the combine invaded the planet the scientists became aware that the dominating alien force was searching planet earth for its research facilities with the black mesa having been destroyed and aperture known across the planet as a rival they knew that it was only a matter of time before the combine would come for them with this they activated the bootstrap device unaware of the consequences in doing so selecting a place as far away as they could the scientists programmed the borealis to send them to the arctic north away from any conflict upon activation the ship created a field around itself and then flung through space and time landing not only within the chosen destination but also simultaneously in many time zones planets and dimensions existing before during and after the combine invasion all at once gordon watched as the borealis flung through time and space he could see the scientists left behind attempting to board the ship as well as the combine soldiers fighting with the members of the resistance that had come to aid gordon time moved and stayed still at the same time through these glimpses alex saw what she believed to be a staging area for a combine invasion ready to attack an innocent civilization just like they had to earth many years before as the ship stretched and navigated space and time gordon alex and judith attempted to discuss what they plan to do with the ship now that they had it in their possession destroy it or somehow control and manipulate its technology to aid the resistance against the combine as they discussed this the ship sent through waves of side effects caused by the bootstrap device time loops sent through the ship like bubbles resulted in additional versions of gordon alex and judith all in one space with their minds confused emotions heightened and a tough decision to make the discussion increased into an argument between alex and judith on what the best course of action to take was already angry and distrustful of judith alex argued that the ship should be destroyed following her father's wishes while judith argued that they should deliver it to the resistance and study it as the argument escalated alex suggested that they should set the ship to self-destruct and send the ship into the heart of the combine homeworld where it would hopefully destroy them and save not only humanity but countless civilizations across the entire multiverse from their dominating reign in response to this judith attempted to overpower alex and turn off the bootstrap device to allow it to rest within the ice surrounding it with this in a heated struggle alex shoots judith killing her with her death alex had honored her father's wish and whether gordon liked it or not they would set the borealis to self-destruct and ride it together into the combine home world as alex arms the ship essentially turning it into a time traveling missile the duo who had already been through enough pain and war for one lifetime accepted their fate as the borealis began its final trip in this moment the g-man appeared aboard the ship this time taking an interest in alex instead of gordon through her life alex had interacted with the g-man twice once as a child during the black mesa incident and secondly after she had been attacked and almost killed by a hunter in the outlands although she had not properly seen this mysterious entity since her childhood she did indeed recognize him with their imminent demise coming up the g-man tells alex that they have places to do and people to be upon saying this alex follows the dream man through one of his portals out of this reality closing the portal behind them leaving gordon alone looking outwards gordon watches as the borealis enters the combine home universe and ahead he sees just how vast their empire was the dominating alien force had managed to construct part of their empire around an entire star they had constructed a dyson sphere something humanity had only thought to be theoretically possible their empire knowledge and power was much larger than anyone had ever thought and then it dawned on him just how low of an impact humanity had and ever would make that's the borealis upon impact would merely be registered by the combine believing all to be lost and all hope gone gordon waited for his fate but to his luck the vortigunt had discovered his location and using their abilities plugged him out of the borealis where it hit the combine homeworld and exploded landing on an unknown show in an unknown time gordon did know that a lot of time had passed since he had stepped onto the borealis in the north he believed that enough time would have passed for those that have been around during his time with the resistance would remember his name but most of those he had known best had either been murdered disappeared or aged with time even now after everything he had been through gordon was completely unaware of whether the resistance of humanity had defeated the combine empire or whether humanity had fallen just like many other civilizations with this ending having left the series and fans still without an actual conclusion of how the whole story ended on august 27 2017 mark tweeted small changes to this story stating that a sketch is only a starting point and that everything changes as you try to make it real he further went on to say that alex shooting judith just wouldn't work as i am assuming here it just did not fit alex's character and so mark made a few tweets suggesting changes to his posted story in one he offers a change in judith and alex's fight in this alternate version alex pushes judith into a time loop or a portal bubble instead of shooting her leaving judith's fate unknown to gordon i think this one makes more sense than alex shooting her what do you think moving on mark suggests that barney would likely have a part in this too as well as dog sadly he did not go into more detail about a role they could play you will also notice here that he refers to barney as bernadette and dog as cat something i will get into shortly finally and this is my favorite an alternate ending that as the borealis exploded it triggers a huge time loop that sends gordon back onto the inbound train in black mesa beginning the whole story again now this could go two ways either gordon lands on the tram platform fully aware of what is to come and can now stop the experiment stopping the combine invasion from ever happening or the second way it could go is that gordon lands on that platform losing all memory of what had happened and the loop begins again in my opinion that would have been a pretty great ending for the half-life series posted onto his blog on august 25th 2017 mark laidlaw gave the fans exactly what we have been waiting for for a whole 10 years epistle 3 clearly a reference to episode 3. not a complete conclusion of the story but still something that could give us some sense of closure now as some of you probably know epistle 3 was written as a sort of fan fiction i guess even by mark's own account from a deleted tweet we can see he stated this my website's down for now i guess fanfic is popular even a gender swap snapshot of a dream i had many years ago luckily this tweet was used in multiple news articles at the time so there were still traces of it out there for me to find during my research following on from mark posing epistle 3 to his blog both he and other developers that worked at valve did state that there was never an actual plot put into place for episode three and epistle three was actually just a thought mark had about the series and in turn is not to be considered the official canon ending for the half-life series moving on mark wrote epistle 3 as a letter to the player being us i guess as you can tell during my telling of the story i used all of the names we are familiar with in the series but mark wrote this as a gender-swapped version of the story with different names i'll do a quick run-through of the differences in this gender swap story gordon freeman is referred to as gertie fremont what was interesting about this is that mark actually gave us insight into what gordon was thinking a good example is when alex does not believe judith to have been working for the resistance all along and we get confirmation here that gordon agrees with her anyway alex vance is referred to as alex bondt her father eli is named elivont judith mossman is dr jerry mass the transformed wallace breen also known as breen grub after transformation is called dr bree before transformation and debris slug after transformation in the story and the g-man is referred to as mrs x with the characters out of the way vortigorns are given the impressive name of ghastly haunts the borealis is given the name the hyperborea a nice nod to the ship's original name during the development cycle and into the beta the combine are named the disparate the separate i hope i said that rightly and the aperture science research facility are named the toxin island research base i wanted to create the video this way with the characters real names so that those who had never read epistle 3 could a follow the story easily and b actually gave them an excuse to read it this is the closure we never got and it is absolutely worth a read i have put a link to it in the description with bring rub having been mentioned in the story it is actually really interesting to note that mark also created a breengrub twitter account in 2012 five years before he posted epistle three the bringrub twitter account adds a little background to his story after half-life 2. after his memories are imprinted upon a combine advisor he wakes up in his new form on may 31 2012 breen makes his first tweet seemingly adapting to his new form and over the following days he attempts to contact members of the resistance in an attempt to help them against the combine by dropping pieces of information to help the rebellion on a channel he believed to be secure through 180 tweets up until 2014 his tweets show him adjusting to his new form attempting to help the resistance by making them aware of the enemies around them and finally breen is seemingly taken over by an evil force where his motivations later change to trying to find out where the resistance were hiding i will not go too much into detail about bringrub as i do intend to make a whole video about it but with the existence of this twitter account while mark was still at valve and bringrub appearing again in epistle 3. i would say that it is a strong possibility that breengrove was meant to be in episode 3. i would have hoped that we as the player would then have had the choice on whether to put him out of his misery or let him continue to suffer in his new form two years after bringgrub stopped tweeting mark left valve now this is something completely different for me normally in the videos i put together i try to stay within the actual game world but with events around this topic set within the half-life universe and within the real world it was a little tricky to balance these two differences i enjoyed putting this together regardless this video would not have been possible without the gary's mod workshop where most of this video was filmed within and with the add-ons available created by the loyal fans of the game it was fun to work with the creations to put this story into a visual format in my style i hope you enjoyed it i'm going to briefly mention half-life alex and some events within it so if you want to avoid the spoilers skip to the timestamp on the screen right now in my head i was hoping that if we do eventually get a continuation of the series it would be similar to this but with some obvious changes but with the ending of half-life alex alex's employment with the g-man and eli now not being dead it will be interesting to see what placed not only the gman and alex have in the future of the series but also how the borealis will function it is clear to me that not only mark but valve had a good idea of what the borealis could do as its events in epistle 3 still match up extremely well with the limited information we will hold about the ship in episode 2. if they are to continue with the series i'm sure it will be a challenge to adapt whatever ideas they did have into the next game that was the story and the law behind epistle 3. if you enjoyed this episode i would really appreciate it if you could leave a like and a comment on your thoughts if you really liked it then go ahead and subscribe i know you have already watched a couple of videos so why not subscribe and then you will get notified when i post new content interacting in any way will help the video with the algorithm so give it a like give it a dislike share it with your half-life communities it would help a lot if you would like to stay up to date with what i do outside of youtube and some behind-the-scenes content then go and follow my twitter and instagram finally i would like to thank my patrons who are helping to support the channel i really appreciate you thank you to the old gods talus detroit avi wv brunetti nas jojo scotia imaginary holly ruber mendoza and pupper i would also like to give an extra special thank you to the elder ones tier jonas lewis and queen abby thank you guys so much what did you think of this lore video for me episode 3 was the closure i needed for the half-life series it gave a great conclusion to a fantastic story even if it is not considered canon the best part about it for me are the tweets after mark had posted the story where he suggested that a huge time loop could occur sending gordon way back to black mesa just before the resinous cascade occurred that would be my perfect ending which ending do you prefer do you consider epistle 3 to be the true ending to the half-life series and what did you think of the names mark gave the characters my favorite was the ghastly haunts i don't know why it was just a great name if you have any suggestions for future half-life lore videos please let me know the next few i am thinking about are zen the half-life 2 beta story and raven ravenholm any suggestions are welcome that was everything i wanted to cover in this episode now combine unit enjoy your day and hit that beating quota bye [Music] you

Channel: Skyrionn

Views: 298,991

Keywords: Half-Life, Lore, The Borealis, Aperture Science, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 3, Episode 1, Episode 2, Valve, Gordon Freeman, Cave Johnson, Lemons, The Combine, Teleportation, Skyrionn, race x, adrian shepard, opposing force, Nova Prospekt, Epistle 3, Episode 3, Borealis

Id: lM-m-Betbpw

Length: 29min 15sec (1755 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 31 2022