The Traveler sacrificed itself to save humanity, using its Light to drive the Darkness away. This is referred to throughout Destiny as the Collapse. One day, a dangerous but relatively unknown enemy of the Traveler known as the Darkness approached Earth, destroying nearly everything in its path and wreaking havoc upon what humanity had created. The many technological advancements during this time came from Clovis Bray, including that of powerful AI called Warminds charged with maintaining humanity's interplanetary defenses, one of which remained through Destiny's present day: Rasputin. Top scientists founded the Ishtar Academy on Venus, while a genius industrialist named Clovis Bray founded a corporation by the same name on Mars, eventually developing Exos, machines with human consciousness.

Its discovery launched humanity into an era of prosperity, as it allowed them to colonize other planets. The gigantic, spherical entity terraformed planets throughout the solar system, though its true nature-sentient being, vessel, deity, or something else entirely-is unknown.

Long before the events of the game was the Golden Age, when mankind discovered the Traveler.