This is my personal theory for the game that I have been constructing from lore posts in tbe forums, grimorie cards, and in-game cut scenes. The game world you see and play in is in actuality a massive vex simulation, the vex have used simulations before to predict human activities, when you start the game you are not actually being "reborn" you are being inserted into the simulation. The reason the traveler does not speak and is inactive/dead is becuase he is not actually the real traveler he is just a vex simulated placeholder for him/her/it. Rasputin did actually survive the collapse and I believe is attempting to hijack into the "matrix" which is why any system he takes over can not be accessed by anyone including your ghost. The stranger is also on the outside and is jumping in and out of the "matrix" in an attempt to help you defeat the vex from inside. Shes kinda the morpheous character of the game. Her rifle says it contains parts the shouldn't exist yet which some have taken to meaning she is a time traveler. I think the outside world in which she comes from would be considered the "future", the vex have dialed back time/altered time to a world in which they can more easily control/simulate. The confluxes you see which are "a collection of data seeming to go nowhere" (not the exact quote but close to it) are just glitches in the simulation which would explain why they are usually defended by vex and/or bring lots of vex when messed with. VoG would serve as one of the control points for the simulation which would explain why time is screwy in that place, different versions of the matrix. Gorgons and oracles are "pulling the plug" on you so to speak when they kill you. There are a few holes in my theroy which im sure someone will point out. But my theory within a theory is the Mercury is the main control point for the simulation, a cpu or processory if you will, and if rasputin can gain control of it we would be free of the simulation. The VoG was probably an attempt to create a secondary control point. TL; DR you're in the matrix and your name is Neo.