Mythbusting Lore Speculation. There has been a wealth of speculative theories out there that I’ve seen lots of support for. Some theories operate in the gray areas where there is either support for or against them, so they are [i]possible[/i]. Others are flat out in contrast to established grimoire and are wrong. I’m far from a lore expert, but do know it well. So let’s get to mythbusting our favorite lore theories. If anyone else has ones they’d like to add, let me know. Personal Favorite: The traveler tried to flee and abandon humanity during the collapse like it had done in the past. BUSTED. [spoiler] Three different grimoire cards specifically state that this time the traveler stayed. Excerpt from card: The Traveler “Where did the traveler come from? Why did it offer us so much? Did it know it was being hunted across the stars? [b]And why, when the Darkness came, did it choose to stay and fight for us?[/b] Excerpt from the card: Ghost Fragment: The Traveler 2 “This has been such a long chase. [b]This will be the place you will fight. Fight and win. [/b] Excerpt from the card: Ghost Fragment: Mysteries (my notes in parenthesis) “IT (the darkness) is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener (the Traveler) and she held power beyond me (Rasputin) [b]but the gardener did not shrug (abandon humanity) and make herself alone[/b]. IT always wins.” What confuses people is card Rasputin 5, where it clearly shows rasputin talking about attacking the "O", traveler, if it tries to leave. Many read this card as present tense. It is not, it is future tense. Rasputin 5 is Rasputin developing what if scenarios and his response if those scenarios occur. So IF Rasputin sees the traveler flee, he will attack it to cripple it. Read the darkness cards. They show rasputins actual response (what he did do) when the darkness showed up. He ran all the protocols he planned in Rasputin 5, except LOKI Crown, which is the attack the traveler scenario. His last act is going midnight (in hiding) and signing off. Rasputin didn't run LOKI Crown. To be clear, something definitely damaged the traveler during the collapse. And the traveler may very well have been damaged by Rasputin and its “aurora knives” doomsday weapons through collateral damage as Rasputin fired on the darkness. And yes, Rasputin was prepared to attack the traveler if it thought the traveler was leaving as noted in Rasputin 5. But the traveler didn’t flee, so something else happened that day that we don’t yet. [/spoiler] A Classic. The traveler is evil! BUSTED. [spoiler] Without getting mired the semantics of what is good vs evil and their relative views…let’s keep it simple. Good = promotes life; Evil – eliminates life. The classic good vs evil in Destiny is the Sky/Light vs the Deep/Darkness. The Traveler is aligned with the Sky, the Hive/Worms aligned with the Deep. In the book of sorrows, the traveler, agent of the sky, is described as follows: Excerpts from Verse 1:8 “Sky builds gentle places, safe for life. Beloved fundament, refuge of trillions. The Sky treasures this rich place.” “The Sky builds new life. Against the onset of ruin. Towards a gentle world” Throughout the book of sorrows, the worms repeatedly talk about how useless the traveler and the sky were for building up and promoting life, and that their efforts only prolong the inevitable outcome the darkness seeks to speed up by eliminating life. So no major plot twist. The traveler is genuinely trying to promote life and growth, aka not evil [/spoiler] Eris is actually Savathun/Xivu/Taox. BUSTED. [spoiler] Eris is a guardian, hunter actually (yes, a hunter, even Luke Smith admitted he incorrectly called her a warlock once). Eris had a ghost, from the traveler, before she lost it trying to defeat Crota. Meaning she was once dead, and her ghost revived her, just like us and every other guardian. So unless Savthun/Xivu/Taox came to earth, took on a human form, died, and was able to fool the Traveler’s ghost into reviving them, then no, she is not any of those three. [/spoiler] Cayde-6 used to be/is a mind copy of Dr. Shim. BUSTED. [spoiler] Cayde’s journal says it all. Cayde, when he was human, was a mercenary running jobs for Clovis Bray (founder of the Clovis Bray facility on Mars, creator of the warminds). Cayde messed up one of the jobs and ended up owing Clovis Bray a lot of money, to which Clovis Bray offered Cayde an…opportunity, to forgive his debt. Next we see Cayde in his journal, he’s an exo after taking up Clovis’ offer. And as an Exo, he is placed in a security role over Maya Sundaresh and her research. In fact, it appears Cayde is attracted to Maya, but Maya doesn’t pay him any attention, as he is just a “fixture, an unwanted necessity”. Cayde says it himself, he’s “no egghead. Never was”. Dr. Shim worked with Maya on the pre-cursor exo technology at Ishtar. Shim was definitely an egghead. Maya knew Shim well. Cayde was just a robot sentry in the corner of the lab keeping watch, that Maya never really noticed. [/spoiler] Maya Sundaresh is the Exo Stranger. PROBABLE [spoiler] Maya makes a lot of sense, but there is no definitive grimoire statement that says she is the exo stranger. So let’s at least look at the reasons it is possible: Facts about the Exo Stranger: · It’s a she (female) · She’s an exo · She doesn’t have a ghost, aka, not a guardian · She can teleport/jump between timelines So for any theory to work, the person has to be able to satisfy or be tied to scenarios on all 4 bullets. Start with the easiest, Maya is a she. For grimoire sake, I’m saying Exo’s maintain the gender of the original human mind it was created from. Second, the stranger is an Exo. In the Vex ghost fragment card, it shows Maya and her other Ishtar scientist participating in research of the Vex. They get trapped in a Vex simulation, only to be saved by a warmind. They also save copies of themselves (mind copies) which they then later, using remote mechanical bodies (Exo precursor), upload their mind copies into the Vex network. This is the pre-cursor research that lead to the Exos being created. Later, in Cayde’s journal, we see Maya working around Exos. So, to that point, we can at least link Maya back in the golden age to being both participant in the development of Exos, and also being around them. Maya is definitely not a guardian, never had a ghost. She can teleport. Who else teleports? Vex. Maya knew more about the Vex than anyone in the golden age. She uploaded copies of her own mind into the Vex network to explore and learn. What are the odds one of those mind copies figured out how the Vex manipulate timelines? In fact, to date, only the 4 Ishtar Scientist (Shim, Chioma, Duane and Maya) are known to have put their minds into the vex network, and would appear to be the only ones in a position to have a mind copy capable of the vex time jumping knowledge. But there is more that makes Maya possible than this. After the whole mind copy Vex research, Maya starts a new project… the vision machine. The vision machine, later referred to by the FWC as the device, has strong links to the Exo Stranger. Back in the golden age, Maya and a warmind are putting humans in the vision machine that allows them to see other timelines (again, this is likely only possible with the knowledge her mind copies would have gathered from the Vex). Despite the use of drugs, they can’t get humans minds to last in the machine, and either kill them or drive them made. So they need Exos whose minds are more capable to survive the machine (another tie back to Maya’s Exo connection). Maya is sad, she misses her love (Chioma) and as noted in the Vex 5 card, Maya starts to enter the machine herself, and does eventually encounter Chioma in one of the timeline visions. Maya wants to be back with Chioma, and says she’s quitting her research and will join Chioma in the vision machine soon. This should be noted as the origins of the FWC, as Maya states in Vex 5 “Maybe it’ll become a tradition. The gospel of our little cult”. Maya would have known from her research that she couldn’t permanently enter the machine as a human. She saw the long term effects it had. She would have needed to be an Exo to do so. Later, in the FWC cards, as the FWC puts people in the device much like Maya used to, some people encounter a “stranger” as they view future timelines. Also, Lakshmi-2, leader of the FWC, talks about the exo stranger as well. So what do we have amidst all my ramblings? Maya is the most likely known candidate to be the Exo Stranger. She was uniquely positioned to have both the vex knowledge, and exo knowledge, and the motivation to become exo. She laid the ground work for the FWC which to this day continues to have ties to the Exo Stranger. If Maya isn’t the Exo Stranger, maybe she is Lakshmi-2. Either way, I’d say the myth is probable right now. [/spoiler] Link to more below: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/193652918/0/0/1