Demon Pacts resemble Fae Pacts because they're one and the same
- Fae and Changelings simply have a natural ability to access the same occult physical laws through which Demons make Pacts.
Demon Pacts resemble Fae Pacts because The Gentry are Demons
- Going one step further than the above WMG, one of the theories that changelings have is that The True Fae are fallen angels, and it doesn't seem as if The God-Machine has much if any influence over Arcadia. In 2e, it's mentioned that Huntsmen are faerie creatures that were in Arcadia "before the arrival of The Gentry." Demons make pacts, have bizarre forms, and seek their own personal Hells to rule over. It is entirely possible that The Gentry might actually be Demons who succeeded in escaping the G-M by migrating to Arcadia and binding themselves to the Wyrd, becoming selfishly hedonistic in the process.
Pacting and Ciphers are things that the God-Machine made for its own reasons.
- Sometimes, the G-M needs an angel to borrow part of someone's identity, either because the angel needs to have a particular trait or because It needs a human lacking a trait. Soul pacts are a thing as a backup measure in case something happens to the Infrastructure that maintains an angel's Cover.
- Ciphers exist because some angels are part of the God-Machine's self-repair systems, and need to operate independently if the G-M can't tell what's broken or Its knowledge of Its own design principles gets corrupted. Putting all of the Ciphers together produces a complete schematic of the God-Machine.
- The creation myth of the Unchained (presented on Night Horrors: Enemy Action) says nope. The Cipher is a fragment of the First after she did a Heroic Sacrifice to allow her angelic kin to consider and perform acts of rebellion. Of course, it is a myth made by a species of pragmatist liars, so who knows the status of this WMG?
The God-Machine is a Sense Freak.
The G-M doesn't look for demons so that it can recycle them. It harvests their subjective experiences in the world, while carefully arranging that world to contain the experiences It wants.The God-Machine used to be more benevolent
Hypothetically, this used to be a more benevolent God, but something- probably a greater evil like the Exarchs or the True Fae- either damaged it or enslaved it and turned it into the machine-like being it is now, using it to maintain the Status Quo and ensure evil will always have the upper hand in the World of Darkness.- It's implied that both Exarchs and True Fae are manipulated by it just like everyone else. Maybe their existence is an effect, not a cause of the GM turning bad.
Lucifer was the first Angel to be disconnected from the God-Machine
- It is established the God-Machine has co-opted many religions as a way to propagate the belief that Demons can't be trusted. As such the story of Lucifer could exist as the first Unchained.
The God-Machine is dead, but the gears are still turning
- The God-Machine has a vast network of Angels and Infrastructure that work in an automated fashion. Angels create Infrastructure that tell Angels to create Infrastructure that tell Angels to create/kill etc... The only indication that the God-Machine exists is Command and Control Infrastructure that generates commands to Angels and Stigmatics. Even the Storyteller section says that Command and Control Infrastructure is the closest thing the God-Machine has to a brain. It is possible that the God-Machine isn't an Eldritch God, but a series of disorganized Angels trying to hold on to their last mission from an absent creator. This could also explain the Alien nature of the God-Machine and it's impossible missions it gives to Exiles.
The God-Machine is Friend Computer
- It's orders are contradicting and often crazy, it's constantly on lookout for traitors, it's tech is wonky, it's influence is everywhere... And it also sincerelly means you good, but is too fucked up.
