Warning: contains spoilers for X-Factor #7
Mutants are still dealing with emotional damage from the oddest event the X-Men have survived. Nate Grey will never forget the nightmarish alternate universe he came from, and the one he created may have the same effect on the mutants who experienced it.
Prior to the rise of a mutant nation on Krakoa, the X-Men had gone missing from the world and most were presumed dead, after a battle with X-Man, Nathanial Grey. Grey was created by Mr. Sinister during the Age of Apocalypse timeline, from the genetic material of Cyclops and Jean Grey, and is a telepath of immense power. However, knowledge of the potential dark future ruled by Apocalypse haunted Nate Grey and he became obsessed with using his significant abilities to create world peace. The X-Men confronted Nate in Uncanny X-Men #10, and in defeat, Grey admitted he couldn’t force the world to change into a world where mutants belonged and then made the X-Men vanish. In Uncanny X-Men #22, the missing mutants returned miraculously. Shortly after, Krakoa was founded.
As Aurora and Daken grow closer on Krakoa, in X-Factor #7 by Leah Williams, David Baldeón, and Isreal Silva, Aurora suggests her brother, Northstar, has been affected by his experience in Nate Grey’s false utopia. Age of X-Man chronicles where the missing mutants went after fighting Grey. X-Man created a deceptively idyllic reality where the X-Men were beloved heroes and Nightcrawler was a movie star. However, Nate believed that love and interpersonal relationships were holding mutants back, therefore love was outlawed, as were familial relationships. Anyone who dissented was suppressed with mind wipes, prison, and mental reconditioning.
To enforce these insidious new rules, Grey used his omega-level powers to control everything, even using Apocalypse as a puppet. Northstar was a member of Department X, tasked with keeping the world safe from the insidious threat of love. Knowledge of his previous life and those he cared about, like his husband Kyle and his sister, had been taken from him. Having “love” as an enemy made for a truly strange event, at one point a riot was started as mutants held a defiant public mass make-out session, in Marvelous X-Men #4. But as strange as it was, it’s clearly had lingering ramifications on Northstar, the X-Men's newest leader, and likely many others.
Krakoa is almost a direct response to the world Nathaniel Grey created. Grey’s world left mutant procreation the responsibility of hatcheries. One of the first mutant laws established on Krakoa in House of X #6 is “make more mutants”, encouraging more natural means. Krakoa, of course, has its own obstacles and troubles, but allowing romantic love and family members to have close relationships isn’t a threat. Nate Grey’s manipulations tore mutants apart and forced others into unlikely pairings. Bishop and Jean Grey were lovers in X-Man's reality. In S.W.O.R.D. #4, Frenzy admits she’s only ever loved Cyclops, after they were a couple in a different alternate reality timeline, showing these experiences can have lasting impacts.
The failures of Age of X-Man are possible inspirations for the successes of Krakoa. Nathaniel Grey wanted to see mutants exist in a world where they could prosper and work together to lead to peace on Earth. His own twisted beliefs, tainted by his memories of living during Age of Apocalypse, saw him fall well short of that goal. The X-Men are notoriously feared and hated by the world they have sworn to protect. For that, they deserve all the love they can get.