I admittedly haven't read much of the grimoire from The Taken King yet, so if there's anything in there that debunks any of this, let me know! This is pure speculation and I'd love to hear thoughts. I'm sure that in the coming months/years we'll find out more and more, and this is bound to change. As it stands right now, I think the Stranger is Maya Sundaresh. Came to this conclusion yesterday with a friend, only to see that someone on [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/397ph0/the_nature_of_the_exo/]Reddit[/url] already beat us to it. Damn that luck. [b]EDIT:[/b] For reference, I only briefly skimmed their topic. The following is based off of what I've read myself in the Grimoire and inductive reasoning. But I also think that with the revelation of [url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Card-701370]Ghost Fragments: Vex 5[/url], Maya Sundaresh is heavily tied into the Future War Cult. It's fairly obvious that the machine they're using is the same machine the FWC uses, especially with the little nod at the end of the grimoire card... [quote]Maybe it’ll become a tradition. The gospel of our little cult.[/quote] And also with the two grimoire cards being identical in structure. [i] RECORD [__] - CHASM [___][/i] Maya starts wondering about time travel in [url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Card-203044]Vex 4[/url], specifically [quote]"Maybe you could bring something back to now. Something you needed." Maya runs a hand across the surface of the Vex aperture, feeling it with sensors ten thousand times as precise as a human hand. These proxy bodies are limited— they crash and need resetting every few hours, they struggle with latency, they can't hold much long term memory. But they'll get better. "Or go forward and learn something vital. If you knew how to control it, how to navigate across space and time."[/quote] The Stranger seems set on making [i]you[/i] do something to change the course of history, but refuses to get directly involved herself. (She does kill a Vex that was already dying, however. No real impact on the future.) Our Ghost notices that she's not a Guardian, and she responds that she wasn't forged in Light. That might indicate that her EXO body was created well before the collapse [speculation]. Up in the quote above, you see Maya talking about the proxy bodies that need resetting, very clearly early EXO technology. We know that the numbers after EXO names are how many times they've reset. Banshee says "How many times have I been reset? 41? 42?..........43?" Snippets of [url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Card-102100]Ghost Fragment: EXO[/url] [quote]Why are Exo minds human? What's the design imperative? Why does a war machine - yes, absolutely, I am a war machine, built by human hands; and you are a survival machine built by the engine of evolution. Why does a war machine have emotions? Why should a war machine have awareness? These are not useful traits on the battlefield. [W]hy should the Exo mind mimic the human architecture so closely? Now. This is what I believe happened, back in the time before any Exo can remember. It explains everything. I think someone wanted to live forever.[/quote] Perhaps the Ishtar Research Team (Maya, Chioma, Duane-McNiadh and Shim) saw the usefulness of having a synthetic body and went forward with creating the EXOs. But I think that with Maya's interest in changing the future, she perhaps became an EXO before they were forged in Light, thereby "living forever." She went into her Future War Cult machine, saw a future of the destruction and wanted to change it. [url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Card-104020]Ghost Fragment: The Exo Stranger[/url] points me in that direction. The Exo Stranger is clearly using the FWC machine, and has done it many times too. Seeing as Maya was the first one to ever start it up, even if she wasn't the first to use it, there's a pretty clear connection. Lots of speculation, and my mind is buzzing right now, you'll have to forgive me for starting to ramble. I might come back and try to fill in some more. [b]EDIT:[/b] The Exo Stranger also wants to meet you in the Ishtar Academy on Venus, a place that Dr. Maya Sundaresh would have known quite well. The Stranger has an intense and fierce hatred for the Vex, much like Maya would've probably had. [flimsy speculation]This could be due to simulations that the Vex unit have based on their lives. For all intents and purposes, the Vex has created a "real" environment for the fork-versions of themselves. [quote]When Maya and Chioma look at each other they can tell they're each wondering the same thing: how many of them will stay together, wherever they go? How many fork-Mayas and fork-Chiomas will fall out of love? How many will end up bereft, grieving? How many will be happy, like them?[/quote] It's possible she could hate the Vex for this reason alone. ([url=http://destiny-grimoire.info/#Card-203044]Ghost Fragment: Vex 4[/url])[/flimsy speculation]