As you level up in Shadowlands, you'll earn the various covenant abilities while running through the four leveling zones, allowing you to try them out before you make a pick.
You'll get two abilities in each covenant, one that is specific to your class, and another that everyone of the covenant will have access to. You generally get the class-specific one first, which you can figure out how to work into your rotation.
I've been leveling up my Death Knight (I think I've realized that I often level him up first in a Beta, but let my Paladin be the first in the live game) and thus have gained access to the DK abilities.
First, a note on abilities, which could be its own post: Remember when the transition from Mists of Pandaria to Warlords of Draenor saw abilities pruned? Well, say goodbye to empty slots on your action bars! I generally run with the full action bar and the one above it keybound to 1 through =, and then the row above is that with a shift, and those 24 aren't quite enough for every ability you might need quick access to in combat. While it's very exciting to have things like Raise Dead back as a Frost or Blood DK, it's also a bit overwhelming. Between Pillar of Frost, Empower Rune Weapon, Lichborne, Icebound Fortitude, Frostwyrm's Fury, Death Pact, Anti-Magic Shell, and Anti-Magic Zone, there are a lot of good damage cooldowns and survival cooldowns to make it through tough fights, but you're really going to need some space for them.
And that's on top of two new abilities you get for your covenant.
So let's go through them:
Kyrians:
DK-Specific One: Shackle the Unworthy:
This is a rather simple fire-and-forget ability that deals damage over time to the target and reduces the damage they deal to you. Spending runes while it's on the target reduces the cooldown, so if you have enough haste, you can keep this up nearly all the time.
General: Summon Steward:
You get to summon one of the little owl-people, who brings you essentially three healing potions and can play music for you. I suspect the music might help with some treasure/puzzles in Bastion, though I haven't found a use for it.
Necrolords:
DK-Specific One: Abomination Limb:
This is a 2-mintue cooldown that does damage to enemies near you and pulls them to within melee range. The animation here is more ethereal, so it doesn't actually look like you've got a third arm sprouting from your back, which is... a little disappointing.
General: Fleshcraft:
A decently useful soloing ability, you channel this for a second and get a damage-absorption shield that lasts until it's expended or for the two minutes it takes for the ability to cool down. Something you'll basically want to always have up if you can. The shield is increased if you do this near fallen foes.
Night Fae:
DK-Specific One: Death's Due:
This actually replaces your Death and Decay, and reduces damage dealt by enemies in the area while increasing your Strength, and allows some abilities to hit multiple targets (though I don't know if that's just replicating D&D's boost to Scourge Strike and Heart Strike.) Frost DKs do have Death and Decay once more, in addition to Remorseless Winter, so you'll be doubling up on AoE abilities. (I don't know how effective it'll be to cast Death and Decay itself as a Frost DK, but I imagine if you go Night Fae, this should be tuned to be worth it.)
General: Soulshape:
This is a bit like a Shaman's Ghost Wolf, transforming into an ethereal fox (I think you get other animal shapes if you work with the covenant,) granting 50% increased movement speed, and then getting a pretty quick cooldown (only 5 seconds or so) to let you teleport 15 yards forward (using other abilities causes you to drop the form. A decent option for classes without much in the way of mobility.
Venthyr:
DK-Specific: Swarming Mist:
A bit like Abomination Limb, this causes an AoE of damage around you, though it's on a shorter cooldown. You also get an increased dodge chance (10%) and every time it deals damage you get 15 runic power, making this a very solid defensive cooldown - I've often used it when I'm surrounded by bad guys and spammed Death Strike.
General: Door of Shadows:
This lets you target an area within range and, after a short cast, teleport there. While I don't know how effective this will be in combat (the cast time makes it only a little faster than just running) this will let you reach places that you couldn't otherwise, and I'm sure clever use could be very helpful in PvP and other situations in which your foes aren't going to be able to immediately react to your new position.
Right now, my plan is to base my covenant choices on what seems right for the character, rather than mechanical reasons. A such, I think my DK will probably go with the Venthyr - it doesn't hurt that Swarming Mist is maybe my favorite of the DK abilities.
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