In vanilla Destiny, there was a character who seemed to embody the Frankenstein’s monster-style narrative that Bungie had pieced together after scrapping the plot during development: the Stranger.
Remember me?
The Stranger, an exo character who zipped in and out of the world like a robotic Doctor Who, guided the player throughout the campaign, spouting enigmatic, riddle-like phrases. At a certain point, when the player was desperately seeking some explanation, the Stranger declared: “I don’t even have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain.”
Now, nearly four years later, it might finally be the time to shed some light on this. With the recent launch of the Destiny 2 expansion Warmind, the series’ secret hunters have discovered and solved an elaborate ARG. This led to a group of players finding a real-life replica of an in-game spear called the Valkyrie hidden in upstate New York.
This ARG began when players found a symbol within the bunker of the Destiny AI Rasputin. The raidsecrets subreddit, thrilled to have found something captivating to delve into, got to work. Symbols led to codewords, which eventually led to a secret message uncovered by redditor Randomiser. This message contained a set of coordinates pointing to a mountain in New York state.
The message reads: “thank you for taking the time to piece together this message, friend. the time of our final conflict is drawing nearer and you and ana have a crucial role to play in the upcoming events. so keep an eye on her, guardian. i would have no life without ana or the exoprogram. i regret that we have become strangers, but we each have a path that we must follow. and, ironically, there never seems to be sufficient time. tell her, rasputin’s first attempt was in the correct location, but at the wrong moment. look here: 43.549573, -73.544868 – e”
The Ana mentioned in the message is Ana Bray, a character who plays a significant role in Warmind’s story. The “e” refers to her sister, Elsie Bray, and, according to Destiny’s most knowledgeable lore experts, the Stranger.
Let’s reexamine that message. “I regret that we have become strangers.” That’s the first hint. “, ironically, there never seems to be enough time.” That’s a very clear second one.
There is more evidence: as redditor Quintero_J noticed, the Exo Stranger and Ana Bray sport the same symbol.
It turns out that Elsie was in contact with the Vex research group known as the Ishtar Collective, which is well-known to those who played vanilla Destiny. She ended up tampering with Vex technology in an attempt to separate herself from space and time and “diverge”.
The general consensus is that Elsie survived this process (became an exo) through the “exoprogram”. And it’s by using this Vex technology that the Stranger is able to visit the player in Destiny’s campaign, seemingly possessing knowledge of the past, present, and future, as well as alternative timelines and realities.
Further evidence comes from the release of two new sparrows with the Warmind DLC: the Eon Drive and the Anseris Overdrive. The Eon Drive resembles a future version of the Anseris Overdrive, which Elsie constructed.
“I’ve always used science to create art, whereas Ana applied art to science,” the Anseris Overdrive text reads.
“I couldn’t have completed that Sparrow without my sister’s assistance. The original prototype is long gone, but I’ve held onto one of the final models. It won’t be of much use to me where I’m headed, so I leave it to you.”
And here’s the Eon Drive text:
“I’d forgotten what this place looks like. It feels like only yesterday I had a badge and a desk. Not much survived, but somehow this old thing is still here. If you’ve come this far, we have a lot in common. You feel that same drive to see something through to the end, don’t you?
“I’ve never been the sentimental type, but at this point I’m a stranger to my own nature. It just feels right that I’m back, for now. By the time you read this, we’ll have just missed each other. I’ve run the simulations, and I can’t stay. Not yet.
“Take care of her for me.”
That sounds like the Stranger speaking. And another hint: “at this point I’m a stranger to my own nature.”
Finally, the Worldline Zero exotic sword, which has the description: “A single strike can alter the course of history”. The lore text for the sword contains an email exchange between Dr. Willa Bray (another Bray) and Elsie:
“El, congrats on your success! I saw the latest readings. This will be huge! I did have some thoughts on potential applications of your research. Let’s have a chat, dinner will be on me. :-)”
Elsie proceeds to delete this email and all other files.
The only reference to Elsie in vanilla Destiny is in the form of the in-game description of the rare spaceship Eon Trespass (a trespasser in space and time?).
“Born from the mind of Elsie Bray, three years before she disappeared.”
So, it appears highly likely that Elsie Bray, Ana Bray’s sister, is actually the Stranger from Destiny. However, there’s no guarantee that she’ll make a return in the game in a future expansion or even a potential Destiny 3, so this theory may remain unconfirmed. And questions persist. Why did the Stranger assist the player in Destiny’s campaign? What’s her objective? Who is the person she communicates with over comms? What does she know about The Darkness – Destiny’s long-standing menace that players hope will finally be properly revealed through those pyramid ships glimpsed awakening in Destiny 2’s post-credits scene?
Meanwhile, this latest revelation is a thrilling payoff that Destiny lore enthusiasts have been waiting for nearly four years. And while we’re still awaiting the Stranger’s in-game reappearance, it seems she’s finally prepared to explain why she doesn’t have time to explain.
