Destiny 2, and by extension the first Destiny game, are extremely rich in terms of lore. Bungie is known to build worlds, characters, races, and entities that each have their own immersive story. These stories are very often intertwined in ways that can be apparent or that remain hidden until a specific event sets the course for a new revelation, and such is the case for the Drifter. Little was known about this character when he made his debut in Destiny 2 alongside a new activity by the name of Gambit, PvPvE in nature, where Guardians face hordes of enemies and rival players to gather Motes of Dark to deposit in the bank.
The Drifter has been a relevant character throughout the story arc of Destiny 2, always retaining a role that makes him neither evil nor good, but rather someone who follows his own agenda. Who is the Drifter, what is his true name? To understand this, it is probably best to first understand the Drifter's past, what led him to be the man he is in the present days of Destiny 2, and why he does what he does.
The Drifter's Past Prior To Destiny 2
The Drifter was first revived by his Ghost during the Dark Age, the period that followed the Collapse, after which the Traveler entered a form of stasis to heal its wounds after it protected mankind against its sworn enemy the Darkness. At the time of his resurrection, the Drifter strayed from the lights of the Last City and decided to head in the opposite direction. He kept his Light a secret, and at some point, he disguised himself as someone by the name of Wu Ming and he opened a bar under Felwinter Peak. That's where he met an old Awoken friend called Nasan Ar at the time, who would later be known as Orin the Lost.
In the City Age, the Drifter assembled a crew to leave the Sol system because he wanted to find something greater than Light itself. He didn't believe in the Traveler's Light due to the conflicts it had caused. The Drifter and the Guardians that were with him explored the space beyond for centuries until they found a planet that emanated an energy that seemed to repel the Light, much like the opposite poles of a magnet. The planet's extremely icy temperatures made the stay arduous to say the least, and things started to spiral out of control once the group found alien wraithlike creatures, headless, and capable of suppressing the Traveler's Light.
These creatures were either found in the wilds on the planet, or they seemed to be caged within structures resembling monoliths as if they were in the same form of stasis the Traveler is in while healing. However, the Drifter and his crewmates quickly discovered to their horror that dying on that planet could mean a permanent death, because of the creatures suppressing the Light in an area around them. The Drifter and his companions had the idea to turn these creatures into weapons, or their powers at least, but they failed to understand how they managed to do what they did. Ultimately, he failed, and he was the only one left alive.
The Drifter In Destiny 2: Gambit, The Haul, The Nine, And Pyramid Ships
At some point after escaping the cold planet, the Drifter was approached by his old acquaintance Orin, now the Emissary of the Nine in Destiny 2. They had a falling out back when she found out that the Drifter was a member of the Shadows of Yor before she left to find the Nine. When they met again, Orin greeted the Drifter as Dredgen, though he said he didn't use that name anymore.
She had a gift for her old friend, a gift from the Nine, and she attached it to his ship to the Drifter's bewilderment. This object is referred to as the Haul, and it looks like a sort of icy sphere, but it actually works as a pocket dimension with enough energy to generate and manifest whatever it is that the Drifter thinks of, so he decided to use it for his Gambit project.
The Drifter's main motive behind each and every action he commits seems to be self-preservation, be it dictated by fear, need, or something different. During the Invitation of the Nine quests in Destiny 2, players got the chance to take a closer look at the Drifter's past through visions offered to the Guardian by Orin and the Nine. In these, he is often depicted as a fearful man, and he seems to be afraid of another event like the Collapse, which could happen because of the Darkness and its Pyramid ships. That was how the Season of the Drifter concluded, with the Nine giving the Drifter one of his Gambit coins with a Pyramid ship carved into it, foreshadowing what was to come.
Destiny 2 Beyond Light, The Drifter's Stasis, The Impending Apocalypse, And Choosing Sides
The Pyramid ships did arrive in the end, and they consumed Mars, Mercury, Io, and Titan. The Drifter and Eris were shown separately going to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, to one of the colonies of Clovis Bray that still had Bray tech scattered around the ruins left by the Collapse. In Destiny 2: Beyond Light, the Drifter is finally revealed to be a wielder of the Darkness and Stasis, alongside the Exo Stranger, also known as Elisabeth Bray. She reveals to be from another timeline, one where the Guardians were overwhelmed by the Darkness when they started using it, eventually leading to the fall of mankind.
Prior to this, the Drifter asked the Guardian to pick a side with either him or the Vanguard, and the questline for the former option ended with the rogue Lightbearer saying he had a seat reserved for the main character to escape the impending apocalypse. It is possible that the Drifter will be a key character in the events to come, and he could escort some people to safety if an apocalypse was to actually happen thanks to his Haul, using its pocket space capabilities. This of course remains speculation, but the Drifter does seem to have his own interest at heart above all else.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S