Humanity has gained many unlikely allies over the past few years in Destiny 2. With The Final Shape and Lightfall expansions promising to bring an end to the saga of Light and Dark that started with Destiny’s release in 2014, it’s unsurprising that one of the key allies among that cast is one that has been with us since day one.
The Exo Stranger—or Elsie Bray, as we would come to know her—first appeared to assist the Guardian during Destiny’s vanilla campaign. Shrouded in mystery and with a knowledge of events and people that bordered on omniscient, she quickly became a character that players heavily speculated on. Unfortunately, they would have to wait six years for her to return in Destiny 2’s Beyond Light expansion and provide any answers on her origins. These answers would shatter any preconceptions about the scale of Destiny’s universe and the future that awaits us in the next expansions.
With Elsie serving as an integral character to the recent Season of the Seraph storyline and undoubtedly maintaining a consistent presence throughout Lightfall and The Final Shape, now is the perfect time to brush yourself up on her story and the Dark Future that she speaks of.
Who is the Exo Stranger in Destiny 2?
Elsie Bray and the Golden Age Bray legacy
The story of Elsie Bray begins back in the Golden Age, long before the current era of Destiny. As part of the legendary Bray household back then, Elsie was an extremely talented engineer. Two pieces of technology she designed—the Eon Trespass starship and the G-335 Anseris Overdrive Sparrow—can even be found in the Warmind expansion.
Because of the machinations of her grandfather, Clovis Bray I, Elsie’s potential future legacy was hindered by a genetic disease passed down from her father Clovis Bray II. Her grandfather had done a number of experiments and adjustments with her father’s genetics throughout his lifetime, and this meddling doomed his descendants to early deaths. Clovis Bray I used this limited lease on life that she had to his advantage, convincing her to come and work with him on Europa on his new Exo project.
Elsie would become one of the first successful Exo transformations, but only after the threat of the Vex from Europa’s Glassway portal became too great a risk to her human body. She would aid in further experiments occurring on Europa after that, dedicated to her craft and protecting the staff around her despite her growing hatred for her grandfather.
One of these experiments would center around time travel, made possible by the mysterious No Time To Explain Exotic pulse rifle. The weapon seemed to act as an anchor, but whether the abilities were true time travel or just passage between timelines wasn’t clear to her at the time.
The cursed Exo
As the rest of human civilization did at the end of the Golden Age, Europa eventually fell. The Vex that they had previously been able to hold back invaded from the Glassway with a full force, and Elsie only narrowly evaded death to inform her grandfather of the incoming threat. At his request, Elsie activated a backup AI copy of Clovis at the same time as Clovis additionally booted up an Exo version of himself. That Exo would one day become Banshee-44. These events can be found detailed in Legacy’s Lament.
The original Clovis Bray I died, but his plans continued on through his newly booted AI. He wanted to lure the Vex away from Europa towards other populated colonies, preserving his legacy but otherwise condemning the rest of humanity. Elsie and the remaining Exos refused, and instead concocted a plan to shut down the Glassway portal no matter what it took. The waves of Vex were unrelenting and every Exo fighting had to reboot many times, but eventually, they were successful in reaching the portal and stopping the onslaught.
After shutting down the Clovis AI as well to prevent him from causing further damage for the sake of self-preservation, Elsie and the newly renamed Banshee-44 parted ways.
The Dark Future
While, chronologically, we next know of Elsie’s whereabouts from when she arrives to follow the Guardian during Destiny’s vanilla campaign, her story stretches back far longer. Our timeline isn’t the first that Elsie Bray has experienced.
After the Guardian gained her trust in Beyond Light and adopted the power of Stasis, she revealed that the current timeline is only one in a long line of failed futures. In her original timeline, dubbed ‘The Dark Future’ by the lore book that details it, humanity lost to the Darkness. In this timeline and many others, Eris Morn is corrupted by the Darkness and Eramis lives to become a far more significant threat than she is in Beyond Light.
A key part of humanity’s downfall comes thanks to the presence of ‘Dark Guardians’. The first of these emerge when Zavala reportedly sends in fireteams to investigate the Black Heart at the center of The Black Garden, with those same fireteams returning corrupted and cruel. The influence of the Darkness spread through the Vanguard ranks, and when The Witness and its forces finally arrived in Sol, there wasn’t a unified fighting force left to stop it.
A final stand ends in failure and Elsie perishes alongside the rest of humanity and its allies. She, however, discovers that she’s stuck in a time loop—one she theorizes she can’t be free of until she is able to stop the Dark Future from coming about.
‘The Exo Stranger’ and protecting the current timeline
The current loop is the first of many that appear to be yielding new results for Elsie. This is thanks to her interventions with you, the Guardian, specifically.
While she admits that in previous timelines you fell to corruption like everybody else, her guiding hand on Venus that leads you to the Black Garden in Destiny’s vanilla campaign ends up representing a major shift for this loop specifically. By destroying the Black Heart, the Guardian prevents the early emergence of the Dark Guardians and gives humanity more time to prepare for what’s to come.
When the opportunity to seize Stasis for humanity becomes available, the Exo Stranger takes it upon herself to teach Guardians how to wield it. Fearful of them falling to corruption without guidance, she figures that acting as a teacher on Europa is far safer. She chooses to employ the aid of Eris Morn and The Drifter for this task as well, allowing her to keep a close eye on Eris Morn and prevent her from becoming the Witch Queen that she has in previous timelines.
She keeps a watchful eye on her sister Ana Bray as well. While Ana was resurrected as a Lightbearer, reborn without memories of her past life, she was resurrected with her name badge still close by. She spent much of her time as a Lightbearer digging into her life in the Golden Age and resumed the work that started back then with the Warmind, Rasputin. During Beyond Light, Elsie decides it’s the right time to try and come back into contact with her and rebuild their relationship.
She is scared of that contact due to the knowledge that in previous timelines, Ana too has fallen to the corruption of the Darkness. Elsie doesn’t want to have to stop her sister again but doesn’t want to be estranged either. These fears are most present in Season of the Seraph as Ana rebuilds Rasputin with the help of the Clovis AI. It concludes, however, hopefully with Ana pulling away from the lure of legacy and the Bray name to focus on her relationship with her sister.
What awaits Elsie Bray in Lightfall and beyond
The Exo Stranger confides in Mara Sov that she is unsure what awaits us in the current timeline. The steps that she’s taken this time, as well as the actions of the Guardian, have built a future she hasn’t experienced yet. The uncertainty scares her, but we can take solace in knowing that we may have already prevented the darkest timeline from happening with her help.
With The Witness now on Earth’s doorstep and the Traveler locked in orbit, unable to run, a final stand approaches. Elsie will be one of the many allies we’ve managed to gather to face this threat, and it will be more important than ever in Lightfall when the newly appointed Disciple of The Witness Calus threatens to destroy us.
