From what I've pieced together, and reading all the calcified fragment cards (the book of sorrows, Oryx' very thorough origin story), the Traveler is a sufficiently advanced machine the size of a small planetoid created by some form of sufficiently advanced species that embraced the Light and hit that evolutionary wall where they became pure energy... more or less, and a single entity. This single entity resided in the Traveler and brought forward Golden Ages amongst all the civilizations it touched. The place where the whole mess began was in the Fundament system, and then a young Aurash and her(his? they made him switch genders almost on a whim between cards) found the Deep, accepted the terms of their deal they made with the "Worms of their God" and basically kicked off the eons-long hunt for the Traveler. In their game of cat-and-mouse, the most recent stop was the home world of the Fallen, or as they prefer to be known by Variks, the Eliksni. Why would I suggest this? they worship a machine god, for one, two, all their servitors are spherically shaped --which they worship, and the Whirlwind was basically their version of the Collapse. The Traveler was there, sensed Oryx and Xivu-Arath and Savathun were on their way, and picked up and scattered... to our solar system where we discovered it on Mars. Now, as to why the Traveler stayed on earth, and didn't leave and ended up 'dying' for the cause, I've got a solid theory about that, which I will do my best to make sense of. The one that I know makes the most sense has to do with why Rasputin (Warmind of Earth) is still very much alive and kicking and Charlemagne (Warmind of Mars) is not. The final(? .. 4th if that changes) Rasputin grimoire card gives us an impression that he and Charlemagne and the Traveler all knew what was to befall Mars during the events of the Collapse. I haven't seen enough 'word of god' lore floating around to prove this theory, or I'd have confirmed it. From what I can discern, Rasputin overwrote his own programming to prioritize his own survival over protecting humanity, and part of that equation to get the result he desired actually turned into him opening fire on the Traveler, thus 'wounding' and crippling it and keeping it floating over Earth where the Last City currently is, and where we can sit and admire it from the tower, wondering if that ball is ever gonna wake up with all the butt-kicking we've been doing to try and save humanity. Part of my reasoning as to why the Traveler chose to make the Ghosts and create the Guardians has to do with musings from Toland, but more on that later, as that's got to do with unraveling Sword Logic and the laws of the universe as understood by those who worship the Deep. Anyway, so Rasputin injures the Traveler and then decides to shut down, screwing over Charlemagne (who may NOT actually be completely dead, based on the Dust Palace mission, and the following strike and the Psion mind flayers trying to break into the protective layers Rasputin put up to keep his hold on Charlemagne's core systems and warsat networks (and possibly more)). Charlemagne puts up what fight he can, and then it's not clear on what happens in the calm afterwards... but our friend the Exo Stranger clearly knows something, because she's visited Rasputin's bunker numerous times, and very likely turned him back on... at first I thought it might have been Cayde, but Cayde can't be in the several places at the exact same time... and the Exo Stranger has that ability to time travel, clearly to try and find the best outcome of winning this possibly millenia-long war with the Vex across time. Now, as for Toland's views of the laws of the universe, the basis is pretty simple. The Dark wins simply by sentient, intelligent species doing [i]whatever it takes to survive[/i]. To the point where nothing else is allowed to exist. The Hive take this a step further with the Sword Logic, which is basically RPG rules (kill something, prove you're stronger than it is, and thus it doesn't deserve to live, etc), especially when applied to their own pocket universes known as the Ascendant Realms. With that in mind, thus the way to properly worship the Deep/Dark is to simply [b]take[/b]. Take what you need, take what you want. In Toland's analogy, he defines the laws of the universe and their principles more or less to coincide with 3 queens. One rules fairly, her laws are just, one thirsts for knowledge, and builds a tower with a library etc, etc. The third queen builds an army and kills everybody else and rules. Again, that's basically how you work for the Dark. Somehow, the Traveler, the representative of the Sky, the Light, did not seem to understand that running away every time its enemies, the Dark came to get it did no good in terms of trying to survive. Species just kept getting extinct and/or [i]Taken[/i]... as that word would imply with the capital T. So the Traveler comes to earth, and somehow, between Rasputin, it, and Charlemagne, it FINALLY figures out that running away isn't going to make the Darkness stop coming, and that the only way to finally make the Sky's ideals understood is by becoming a martyr, and beating the Darkness at its own game. This is to say, Toland's final musing. The Light can exist in this hostile universe as one country, but ruled by the principles of each of the three queens. A fair and just society where learning can be achieved, surrounded by a ring of spears. And because of that ideology, that we as Guardians follow unwittingly, that is how we are able to take down Oryx, which is totally left field of the actual thread topic, but I felt like it might be better understood with some insight. With all that said... I would remain wary and extremely suspicious of Rasputin and his goals... We're tools to him when convenient, nothing more (perfect example, read what the Sleeper Simulant card has to say...). Also, Rasputin might actually be keeping Charlemagne quiet, given that Rasputin took over most of his networks when we, as the unknowing player guardians let him spread his reach across the system. Thanks for reading my rant lol --If there are any questions about what I've mentioned thus far, feel free to ask in your replies, I'll answer as best I can.