What is the Winnower in Destiny 2?

The Winnower has always been a part of the Destiny universe. It’s the idea of a devil, the concept of something that isn’t exactly the essence of destruction but more a being that wants the universe to evolve in a specific way. In contrast, its opposition wants something more for their creations.

We’ve had lore entries hinting at the Winnower in Destiny and Destiny 2 before, but the Salvation’s Edge raid confirms that it exists and adds some context to what exactly it is. You’d be forgiven for not knowing what this is because it’s something you’d only really have heard about by reading text entries in the games, and I’m certainly guilty of ignoring those for the most part. That’s why I’ve explained what the Winnower is in Destiny 2 here as plainly as I can.

What is the Winnower in Destiny 2?

The easiest way to describe the Winnower in Destiny 2 is as the devil. But that misses the nuance of exactly what it is. In the game’s universe, there were two beings right at the beginning of all time and space. These beings are known as the Winnower and the Gardener.

The Winnower and the Gardener, being creatures that exist outside of time and space. The legend about them says they wer once in a great garden where one tended to the plants and the other harvested or removed those it didn’t believe wer necessary. The Winnower’s desire for life is close to what the Hive believes is the truth. It wants all forms of life to evolve and battle with each other until only the strongest emerge as worthy of existence.

The Gardener, on the other hand, while playing the same game, wants to give life the option to endure even when it’s not the strongest it could be. Allowing plants to grow in the garden unimpeded by pruning or harvesting to see what they do. For example, it wants to see what the human race can achieve when protected from being wiped out entirely by imposing forces.

The Gardener created the Traveler and entered the game to achieve its goal. As we know, the Traveler grants great power to the races it encounters. Guardians directly result from this, effectively preserving life long past its expiry date at the hands of stronger races.

While the Gardener was making the Traveler and interfering with the great game, the Winnower grew angry, and that’s when it seems to have unknowingly created what’s referred to as The First Knife. This knife is The Witness, a creature in this game that is our universe that believes it sees its creator’s vision. However, what The Witness and Winnower want are still quite separate.

The Witness wants to stop all time and life in its current state. It wants to preserve the universe in stone, calcified, so it can never move or shift again. This is what it sees as The Final Shape. The Winnower’s version of The Final Shape is a universe where only the strong survive, though.

What hasn’t been clarified so far is whether the Winnower controls The Witness. Given their different goals, I’d say it doesn’t. It’s very hard to tell because of the context that comes with The Witness being a knife. Someone needs to wield that knife, but the Winnower may have given it a will and desires so it could move freely through the game.

You can see how the Winnower sort of fulfills that idea of a devil here, and the Gardener our version of God. The thing is, both beings are creators. They just have different visions. What’s really interesting is how their creations, the Traveler and The Witness, come together in a final battle after centuries, but it’s their creations, the power of The Witness, which is the edge of the Winnower’s Knife, and the Guardians, the power of the Traveler, which was created by the Gardener, that finally put an end to the debate of how life should evolve in the universe.

We know for sure that The Witness is not the Winnower because it says as much in Salvation’s Edge. After killing it, Echoes of The Witness spread throughout the system and created the Episodes we’re playing in Destiny 2 now. I don’t know how the Winnower fits in here because its knife has been shattered. Maybe a piece of that knife could achieve its goals. We’ll have to wait and see.