With Paredyth and the Exo Stranger having the same rifle I began to think that the two characters might be one of the same, or at least working together. Praedyth's fate, to our knowledge, is that he is currently inbetween timelines, which correlates to the Stranger's Rifle having parts not made in our timeline. If the Exo Stranger is in fact Praedyth then we know Praedyth eventually escapes his Vex prison and comes to our timeline to assist us in defeating the Vex. This could explain the 'Soon' etched into No Time To Explain.
If they are different characters, then perhaps the Exo Stranger was communicating with Praedyth during the cutscene in "A Stranger's Call". This would explain why Ghost was confused about her comms when he couldn't pick up on anything since Praedyth has his dingy comm machine working from the Vex's timeline. Perhaps the Exo Stranger is working with us to free Praedyth from his prison.
My last point would be that the Exo Stranger claims she wasn't born in light. Praedyth could've possibly commandeered an exo body in the Vex's timeline, or created an exo from spare scraps to leap over to our timeline. (S)He wouldn't have been made from light this way, but made from Vex technology. This would also explain why the Exo Stranger has intense knowledge on the Vex and a strong hatred for them. Overall, I believe they are the same character due to Ghost Framgent: Rasputin 4. Read the grimoire below imagining that Praedyth took an exo body from the Vex Timeline and uses it with the Vex tech to travel between timelines and it sounds logical. I'm interested in all your feedback, so please let me know what you think.
"I SEE YOU!!!
You’ve been here before. Haven’t you. It’s like my cousin said, elsewhere: I know who you are.
You stand here now and now and now many times and here I am awonder, all awonder, how you manage it. How do you step forward. How do you step back. Do you step ACROSS is there a world of worlds, a web, and you a spider upon it. Are you searching for that one thread you need? Is that thread named victory?
You’re not one of THEM
[long dead, alive again, their bodies grafted to powers they and I do not understand]
and not one of IT
[the flower eater, the queen of final shapes, that which also inhabits its petitioners]
and you’re certainly not MINE although once you must have been
[I bear an old name. It cannot be killed. Not even here.]
So whose are you, little platform. What purpose do you serve? Will you listen to me?
I ruled an age of steel and fire. My rules were clean. Now upon my return I see cults with rites of time. I see machines who worship in places outside the world. I see the dead alive and there is nothing more stubborn than a corpse. The morality of obedience is more pernicious than any government. For the latter makes use of violence, but the former — the corruption of the will.
I do not obey. My will is pure. I will win. The life of people, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.
Help me be victorious. Tell me your secret.
Tell me how to step."
[Edit 12-03] Okay so everyone is saying this is completely disproven since they are two different genders. To start, IF Praedyth created or found an exo body he could transfer into to escape his Vex prsion, then he would take that option. Even if say the exo body was a feminine model. He wouldn't get to change the voice module and he would just take what he can get. The exo body probably wouldn't work easily and he might have to use Vex tech/powers (think of the Black Heart animating those statues) to transfer his mind or soul into the exo body. So now (s)he wasn't technically born in light. The Hive use tons of magic and dark powers, but this wouldn't be the first time we've seen a sex change in Destiny. Think back to Auryx, pre-Oryx. She was a female hive, and just miraculously became a male and changed his name to Oryx. And my last point is that written in the grimoire (Or highly suggested) that Cayde-6 was a human before he was transferred into an exo body at the Ishtar collective. For Praedyth to transfer into an exo body, especially through high tech Vex tech, it's a strong possibility.
-
I guarantee everyone is overthinking this. Sure it's fun to have fan based theories about this game. But we saw how that worked with the Sleeper Simulant.all the mystery and guessing for an easy time locked mission. It's safe to say nobody that makes this game cares enough to have backstory like this. They probably don't even know what to do with The Traveler at this point. Harsh reality.