The Apocalyptic Form
During the Age of Wrath, the fallen could alter their physical form at will. When they battled the Host of heaven, they could be titans of living iron or horrors wreathed in raging fire. Among humans, they often assumed the forms of men and women, luminous and terrible to behold, or wore the guise of animals that best suited their needs. The modern World of Darkness does not possess the atmosphere of Faith to allow such effortless transformation from spirit to flesh, but the fallen can use their stores of Faith to alter their host bodies temporarily and gain superhuman capabilities. This Apocalyptic or revelatory form is a reflection of a demon's true nature, and its capacities vary depending on the character's primary lore (see the Lore section for details). When a character takes on her apocalyptic form, mortal witnesses suffer the effects of Revelation, with reactions ranging from terror to rapturous wonder.
A character's primary lore dictates which apocalyptic form she can manifest. In order for the transformation to occur, you either roll a number of dice equal to your character's current Faith pool against a difficulty of 6, or spend a point of Faith to gain an automatic success. If the roll is successful, your character's transformation occurs instantaneously.
When your character manifest her apocalyptic form, she gains access to a number of special capabilities ranging from trait increases to physical capabilities such as wings and claws. Each apocalyptic form provides eight special powers, but only four are available to characters with a Torment of 6 or less. The remaining four manifest when your character loses part of herself to her demonic nature. When your character's permanent Torment score reaches 7, you may select one of the form's four high-Torment powers and add it to her apocalyptic form. When her permanent Torment reaches 8, you may add another, and so on. If your character's permanent Torment is reduced later, her high-Torment powers are lost at the rate of one per point, in the reverse order in which they were gained. So, the power gained most recently is the first one lost when permanent Torment is reduced. Characters retain their low-Torment special abilities regardless of their Torment score.
In times of peril, a demon can tap into her dark nature and temporarily manifest a high-Torment power. The capability persists for the duration of a single scene, and your character gains a point of temporary Torment. Finally, your character doesn't have to manifest all of her special abilities when invoking her apocalyptic form. (A set of eagle's wings might be inconvenient in a crowded elevator, for example.) Declare which powers you want your character to invoke before making your Faith roll. If she wants to manifest different or additional abilities later she can, but another roll is required. There is no penalty for failing a Faith roll, but a character loses a point of Faith if the roll botches.
One's apocalyptic form persists for the remainder of the scene, or it can be "turned off" at any point before then that your character wishes.
A fallen's Visage grants several abilities:
The fallen becomes resistant to lethal damage. As long as fallen are in their mortal forms, they are only as resilient as normal mortals.
The fallen changes appearance according to the general appearance of the Visage - e.g. a Halaku will always be wreathed in darkness and silence to some degree. This change also temporarily restores missing limbs and body parts until the demons return to their mortal forms.
The fallen gain four low-Torment aspects of their angelic selves. They may choose to "switch off" any of these features whenever they assume their Visage (e.g. they may choose not to extend their wings when they are about to enter a confined area).
The fallen may also gain up to four high-Torment aspects of their demonic selves. These aspects start manifesting automatically as soon as the demons' Torment is high enough - the demons are overwhelmed by their darker natures and cannot choose but display this. Even angelic demons may utilise their high-Torment features (usually because they offer useful abilities like armour, claws, or endurance), but this causes their Torment to rise by one point per activated feature.
A mortal witness may be overwhelmed by the presence of a fallen's Apocalyptic Form. Depending on whether the demon has high or low Torment, the mortal may either flee in terror or fall to their knees to pray to a divine agent. Most people tend to forget their divine encounter, but strong-willed individuals are less affected.
((See Visages for more details))
What happens to a Demon's clothes when they take Apocalyptic Form? What about weapons and other items?
When a demon takes Apocalyptic Form, their host's clothes fade away. Why? Because the Apocalyptic Form is the true nature of the Demon superimposing itself over the host's mortal frame. The Apocalyptic Form is "more real" than the physical form, and thus all physical traits are replaced by Apocalyptic traits during the change. All other items similarly fade away. The clothes the demon is wearing are replaced by what for now, we'll call "Apocalyptic clothes." This could mean that the demon is naked, wearing shining robes (or a chains, a black robe, and gauntlets for those High-Torment types), or is even suddenly dressed in majestic battle armor.
Note that this doesn't mean that the Fallen's new and shiny battle armor grants him any aditional soak dice. Its just how his apocalyptic form looks.
When the demon reverts to his host's form, the clothes, keys, gum, wallet, or whatever comes back with the form.
This means that you should not expect to take Apocalyptic form, then march up to the door of a club and expect to pay the cover charge. Nor should you expect you will be able to take that katana you've been carrying around and hack away at people with your Apocalyptic strength. Permenent magically imbued items, on the other hand, stay with you through forms. (So any relics you have stay with you.)
Apocalyptic form errata: (Player's Guide)