I wont lie, I am a lore nerd for Destiny, it has made me fall in love with the game itself more than I was already loving it. And of all the Lore, I love the Iron Banner. An order of Risen, who began to push the world back to what it had been by uniting under a cause of good in the wake of a calamity. But of all the Iron Lords, Lord Felwinter remains the most, unique. We know little about him, except he was an Exo. Even his exact class is unknown, as he seems to be able to use abilities of multiple classes as seen through Destiny 1 Grimore. But now with Winter’s Guile, a warlock exotic item, based on the infamous Exo, we learn a little more… I think, we learn about the moments right after he rose.
If you have not seen the lore that is connected to the exotic, you can read it below:
As you can see, in the lore, we can presume a Ghost has resurrected Felwinter, and but something else has occured, Felwinter can remember the past, except his name. He quotes that “Why can’t I remember my name? I always remember my name. Something’s wrong. Was I damaged in Crypt processing?” So we know that he does in fact, remember parts of what came before. He knows what the Crypt was, he knows a lot, and yet we can also tell that there is much he doesn’t remember.
Furthermore, the Ghost tells him to tell them, whoever is coming, that his name is Felwinter. He stops the ghost, telling him that he doesn’t think that’s his name, the ghost tells him to tell them that anyway. Then telling Felwinter that “No one else will help you, its kill or die out there.”
With this, we can assume that this is very early after the collapse. Warlords rising to power, Fallen invading, ect. Desperate times for humanity at large, and what is one thing that will cause the most problems… difference. Tribalism occurs rather quickly in times of need, and if humans were to see something as a threat to themselves or their own, then they would likely quickly destroy it. Notice, often in the lore surrounding Felwinter he has to be adamant he isn’t a Warmind, nor is he controlled by one. I believe something occurred to Exo’s during the collapse, something that put irrevocable fear into people. Why else would Felwinter seemingly always wear his helmet in the lore, why would they constantly ask him of his loyalty?
Why would he take an entire mountain, and live in isolation?
We know the other warlords used those under them as labor, like small monarchies, but Felwinter didn’t. He simply controlled the entire mountain until he joined the Iron Lords. They didn’t see him as a threat, not one serious enough he couldn’t be an Iron Lord at least, and when they went after SIVA, he went to Rasputin to try to make him understand. If you put into it that Felwinter somehow knew more from his past than most guardians, and then learned more when him and Timur went to a Clovis Bray Facility, then suddenly, parts of his story, and the story in large makes sense.
TLDR: “What did humanity fear so greatly, that they created the Exos… and what caused them to then fear their creation?”