I believe the Exo are going to be the resurrected dead. Humanity had its back against a wall, they needed more man-power, so the next logical choice was to take the dead, dying or volunteers and turn them into men (and woman) of metal and electricity to fight anew. The dark and sinister-ness comes from the fact that they are cybernetic undead, fighting with the zeal of people born again. Their purpose is to destroy the enemies of man-kind with extreme prejudice. However... they seem conflicted. Questions of who... what am I? The image I provided evokes feelings of focus, rest, but he also seems transfixed and concerned. It's amazing how a metal face can still show emotion. But, in the end, regardless of what they become they will forever be remembered as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice and lived to pay it again and again. They will never be forgotten, their names etched in the halls of history, hallowed in time. It's almost beautiful when you think about it.

I think/hope that the Exos are like Transformers, they are their own species, with their own culture(s) and history. I love that picture so much. Edit: I don't really give a care about the Awoken, they can be snowmen for all I care.

A while ago someone mentioned that we all all start as a Human and later on get a choice to stay Human or become Exo/Awoken. So I think it will be tied to a storyline or path that you follow. For example an Awoken storyline (just an example, don't hate): After days of ripping the mindless Hive apart you reach the Queen. You're surprised to find her alone. She turns around and approaches you until you can smell her rotting flesh. She speaks, but the words appear in your head instead. "You're the first, Guardian." she says. "Everyone must die eventually" you say. "I can not die, it happened a long time ago, fragile mind. If you shoot me, your bullets will be wasted. If you strike me down, you will see that it does not affect me. Even your Traveler won't do you good in here." You quickly grab your best gun and shoot her straight between the eyes. You hear the bullet hit the wall behind her. She lifts her figher and touches the gun. It immediately freezes and crumbles before your feet. "Don't you see, Guardian, you have no chance. No victory. No future. No life. The only path you have left is to join me." The same finger that touched your gun penetrates your armor like it is nothing, straight into your chest. You feel the cold entering your body, the life flowing out of you. You know that you are dying. You're overcomee with peace as there is nothing left that you can do. Suddenly the rest of your fireteam reaches the same chamber and start throwing everyting that they have at the Queen. Then with a flash she is gone, not one trace left. Vanished. Your team brings your body back to the Last City as you're balancing between life and death. The physicians know that only the Traveler can help you and ask the Council for permisison to put you in the heart of it, where the power is at it's strongest. There you lie for weeks when you emerge as something else. The Traveler replaced the cold in you, left by the Queen, with it's own power. You're changed inside but also from the outside. You're Awoken. Exo storyline: You are victorious. The battle in the Dead Forest between you and the Cabal is yours. You've taken the smaller Cabals, responsible for the maintenance of the bigger ones, as prisoners as they aren't fighters. The other fireteams start to collect the wounded to bring them to your ship as it is equiped as a temporary field hospital. You decide to go to your quarters to fresh up when you walk past the wounded. There is no glory in there. Only suffering. One boy strikes your eye. He's can't be older than 15/16. The field medics are trying to get him back, to kickstart his heart, but it's too late. You see that one small group of your prisoners is also looking at the boy and discussing things with each other. You feel the anger rising in you and grab one of them. "You like what you see?!" you say. The little Cabal looks nervously to his friends. "Tell him!" they say. "Tell me what, Cabal!". "Wel.. uhm.. lord Guardian.." he says. "We can save the small Guardian.." You can see the fear in his eyes as he knows for sure that you will shoot him. You look at the boy, lifeless. "Do it." you say and you put the Cabal down. They immediately start working on some device that they picked up outside. All eyes are looking at you, whispers can be heard. You hope that you've made the right decision. They come back with a small egg formed thing and give it to the field medics. "Put it in!" they say. You nod and they start the surgery. The small Cabal advise them on the way as the field medics remove the heart and plant the device in the boys chest. The body of the kid starts to shock and glow. After a while it stops and you can hear him breathing again. One of the Cabal approaches you. "This will keep him stable for now, but we need to fabricate more for him to keep him alive. We can do this in a matter of days as our equipment is still in our base. We only ask our freedom in return." A few days later you set the Cabal free with some supplies to make it back home. The boy is unrecognisabe, full of mechanicle parts. He's clearly awake but says nothing. Then he looks at you and whispers with a strange voice "Thank you". "What was there on the other side?" you ask. You try to look him in the eyes but they are gone, replaced with strange lighting. ".....Nothing.. nothing but darkness." he answers.

I came up with a theory where Exos are guardians that where near death and the Vanguard found the guardian and turned them into a cyborg, they're called Exos because they where exiled of their humanity

Exos could be like transformers biotechnologicaly advanced machines maybe built but the creators of the traveler but have ne recolection in there data bases to explain there origin sense the traveler is inactive

My guess is that they are similar to daleks or other handymen in that they are damaged humans/human consciousness uploaded or built into a protective exoskeleton.

They add just a crap ton of classes like WoW or something. A huge diversity like that would be really cool.

I think the awoken are kind of like zombies or vampires- resurrected humans. Hence the name "awoken"- they woke up from death.

This reminds me of something I read last week about a Russian Tycoon who believes we will be able to achieve immortality. Check out the link above for more about this idea^ "Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov predicts that the human race will achieve immortality within 25 years as a result of minds being transferred into computers, and that robot bodies capable of housing human brains could even be available by 2025." Now imagine this idea many years in the future where we have this ability to its full potential. Exo's could possibly be some of the strongest guardians who we could not afford to lose. Exo have been described by Bungie as "sinister, powerful, and tireless." In terms of player design, Bungie drew its inspiration for the Exo from such sources as the Master Chief, The Terminator, and the undead. - [url]http://destinypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Exo[/url] I am intrigued by the Exo's and their place in the Destiny Universe.

My opinion is that the Exo are the result of human essence transfer. The contents of our minds are digitized into an evolving piece of computer software, which is uploaded and executed within a mobile platform.

the Awoken are their own individual species, they aren't Human or even close for that matter, the Exo are a bio-mechanical species that also are not Human or even closely related. The Exo are also and individual species in their own right and Cyborg at that!

Yea. Why is everyone saying the three are on the same evolutionary tree?!