The Analysts

The human world has a great need for beings able to analyze information. Finding information isn’t difficult for demons in general; the very nature of the Descent and the ability to influence the mystical subroutines of reality make investigation instinctive. Understanding what to do with that information, however, requires looking at it from multiple angles, playing out possibilities and correcting for variables. An Analyst, therefore, might show aptitude for police tactics, mathematics, programming, logistics, engineering, or any of hundreds of other vocations that require their unique skills.

The most telling fact about Analysts, though, is that many of them don’t realize that they are Analysts. It is a commonly accepted fact among the Unchained that only four Incarnations exist, along with four Agendas, four starting spells, and so forth. Demons who delve deeply into the angelic mindset, though, realize that these limitations are for the most part self-inflicted. Analysts are normally mischaracterized as Messengers or Psychopomps...but they are unquestionably different.

Any Analyst’s primary task has always been to gather information, record, or sample, not for the purposes of tactical planning but simply to feed the information back to the God Machine. These behavior patterns still persist as the Unchained. As Demons and an Incarnation, Analysts are the most likely to feel like outsiders or that they don’t mesh with the rest of the Symphony. This holds true for humans as well. As beings that have always reduced things to statistics, of whom rarely, if ever, truly interacted with humanity in any meaningful way as an Angel, an Analyst will find it difficult to connect with humanity, and are often trapped behind layers of dehumanization.

The same vein of thought applies to Analysts and their Covers, and how they approach Cover at all. Most Analysts experience a distinct lack of personhood, and are the least likely to identify or become attached to their Covers out of all the Incarnations. Particularly, an Analyst will often take on the Cover of an unobtrusive working drone — a salaryman, cubicle haunt, secretary, or any other white collar worker that has access to scores of data of which to pick through. Other Analysts may work in laboratory and forensic settings, or positions of remote consultation, though often they will not have connections or ties of importance. The more innocuous, utterly average, and nondescript, the better. It may surprise a human to discover that HR may be entirely composed of Analysts, to a point where the Analysts may not even be aware of it themselves.

Humans are sources of data to an Analyst. While most may not connect deeply with them nor identify with them, the Incarnation is often split on their interest in them in general. Some may see humans as generators of infinite information to be collected, while others may be either overwhelmed or perhaps uninterested all together, preferring to focus their data collection instincts on a specific field or topic.