Analyst

The Analysts are one of the most mysterious Incarnations of the Angels created by the God-Machine, often unreckognized even among their own conspecifics. They act as the eyes of the God-Machine, observing, cataloguing and evaluating information, but without actively shaping it, like Messengers do.

Analyst angels are perhaps the most common of the God-Machine's servants, but they also often go unnoticed. Many Analysts are sent simply to watch and report, though some -- the ones most susceptible to the Fall -- have instructions to retrieve samples, measurements, and other data. Analysts are seldom given solo missions; more often an Analyst accompanies Destroyers to learn how to kill and break more efficiently, Guardians to check the efficacy of their tactics, Psychopomps to time their construction or travel, or Messengers to report back on signal-to-noise ratio in their communications.

The Fall
Analysts risk Falling when they express a desire to interact with their subjects rather than simply observing them. When they draw conclusions from the data they have accumulated and assign meaning to the numbers, the Fall is imminent. This can range from feeling sympathy to a target, witnessing the Fall of another Angel or becoming disillusioned with the tasks the God-Machine assigns them.

Arguably, Analysts are a recent phenomenon and did not experience the Fall before. The reasons why this changed are unclear. Is it a ploy of the God-Machine to learn more about the renegades or does the hold of the Creator over its minions begin to crumble?

As Demons
The most telling fact about Analysts, 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 Keys in a Cipher, and so forth. Demons who delve deeply into the angelic mindset, though, realize that these distinctions are for the most part self-inflicted. For the God-Machine's purposes, an angel's classification is its mission, meaning that a near-infinite number of "Incarnations" exist. Once they Fall, Incarnations serve as a way for demons to classify themselves. Analysts are normally mis-characterized as Messengers or Psychopomps, but they are unquestionably different.

What separates an Analyst from other demons is her ability to reconfigure and reinterpret data. 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 her unique skills. In practical terms, the Eyes have an easier time creating Exploits and Gadgets out of Embeds than most other demons do. Since they are already prone to analysis and calculation, they find it easier to apply the variance to an Embed that turns it into an Exploit, or to change its "state" and Install it into a Gadget.