The Destroyers

Destroyers have a harder time reconciling their former purpose with the need to maintain Cover than the other Incarnations. Guardians, Psychopomps, and Messengers can all find uses in human society for their inbuilt talents and instincts, but Destroyers were built for murder and brutal, efficient demolition. Coming to terms with that is the stereotypical preoccupation of the Incarnation, especially for all the Destroyers who fell by rejecting their orders to kill.

Successful Destroyers find equilibrium, setting limits for themselves on when they will commit violence and using those limits as the foundation for a personal moral code. Some antinomian Swords are complete pacifists, other Destroyers kill according to strict guidelines they lay down for themselves, but no member of this Incarnation willingly takes commands to kill, even from other demons. They avoid Covers like police officers or soldiers where it might become an issue. When a Destroyer does decide to kill, though, they prove they haven't lost their angelic skill even if they he no longer have Numina. Other demons see Destroyers as troubled souls, prone to brooding on their angelic lives, and know to make sure of any individual Destroyer’s limits before requesting their aid in violence.

As they Descend, many Destroyers experiment with turning their talents to less literal forms of death, applying themselves to the destruction of ideas, societies, friendships, or other concepts. Although some were sent on similar missions by the God-Machine, it reserved warrior angels for cases where an idea or cause had to be completely eradicated. For everything else, Messengers and Psychopomps were better suited. That doesn’t stop Unchained Destroyers from learning Etudes and Cadenzas along those lines, though, and while learning what they feel about physical conflict most Destroyers discover at least a few conceptual Etudes.

Guardians and Destroyers are similar in that they view their Covers as means to an end. As loyal angels, many Guardians spent a long time — sometimes years — imitating humans. Their human identities, however, were nothing more than veils to hide their angelic nature. While many Guardians come to enjoy the company of humans, even as demons, they retain a utilitarian attitude towards their Covers. A Guardian’s Cover isn’t their real self – it’s just the mask they wear to keep humans ignorant and the God-Machine at bay. Destroyers are similar, except that they are not quite as likely to enjoy human company. When the Swords were loyal angels, they only imitated humans long enough to get close to their targets.

Even when Swords and Shields identify strongly with humans and try to form human relationships, they are still likely to see their Covers as tools rather than goals. Covers allow them to walk in the human world, but it isn’t who they really are.

When it comes to humans, most Destroyers and Guardians can’t escape their pasts as creatures of force and violence. Whether they are frustrated by human frailty or impressed by human bravery depends on the demon’s personality. Some Swords and Shields are protective of humans; others are dismissive. A short-tempered Guardian might chloroform a stubborn human and throw him into the trunk of their car — for his own good — and a short-tempered Destroyer might be inclined to solve problems with their fists. On the other extreme, antinomian Guardians and Destroyers eschew force completely.

Ultimately, most Guardians and Destroyers define their relationships with humans by an awareness of how fragile humans are. This awareness usually prevents them from identifying as human themselves, because Swords and Shields are also aware of how much more durable they are than the humans they live amongst.