A Cover is a human identity used by the Unchained. Much more than a simple human disguise, when she first Falls a demon's Cover is the remnants of the Infrastructure that supported her as an angel. A Cover is much more than a backstory and a few props, though. When she Fell, the demon interfaced with reality rather than the God-Machine and wrote her disguise into the world.
Demons have entirely human bodies, fully-detailed backgrounds, relationships, possessions, jobs-whatever was needed for their Cover. The people "related" to the demon don't realize that anything's wrong. In some cases, they didn't even exist until she Fell.
Cover can be damaged if a demon deviates too sharply from her human life. The most powerful demonic magical abilities shake Cover, risking exposure. As a demon grows in power, becoming more connected to the universe, her Cover may develop glitches — obviously inhuman traits like metallic skin or a need to drink mercury, strange emanations of power such as damping radio signals, or bizarre behavioral tics and compulsions like a need to remove the eyes from photographs in case the God-Machine sees her through them.
Cover can be replaced. Demons can learn to steal the Infrastructure of angels or take a human soul and "move into" the life it vacated. Demons grow to the point that they can maintain more than one Cover simultaneously, switching between disguises. If Cover is stripped away entirely, the demon has to run. Trapped in her true form, desperate to find a new Cover she can move into, the fugitive has to face groups of angels attempting to capture her before she can go to ground once more.
Cover and Morality[]
Demons, as the result of having been created by an unfeeling, nearly all-encompassing machine, have as much moral sense after the Fall as a copper gear. A human’s grossest sin could be something a demon considers laudable in himself, and he isn’t wrong. However, by taking Covers, a Demon slowly forms a semblance of Morality thanks to residues of their former owners. Demons often integrate aspects of their human façade into themselves whether they want to or not.
As a result, most demons have no clear Morality score. It depends instead on their defining Virtue or Vice that they have adopted during their Descent, as well as their chosen Aspiration, and is thus highly individual.