I reckon the nine involve three races who support the light, three who support the darkness and three who remain neutral to keep a sort of balance, this would then make some sense of the exo stranger who is neither from the light or darkness. this would also explain the grimoire card pertaining to the queen of the awoken. in the grimoire card Ghost Fragment: The Queen, the part where it says "more of your brothers crows have entered the cauldrons of rhea. the witch before her spoke with a dry buzz, the Nine do not approve" hints to a sort of council of superior strength. so maybe the nine orchestrated the collapse as a way to stop man from taking away there power, and once the collapse had destroyed most of the human and exo race, they stepped in to help so they could always have a way to assert there dominance. Does anyone else think this might be possible??