Read Stardust. It's a really good fairy tale that has some wicked uses of confused time and peoples promises to each other. It also uses small gods to good effect. And it's a lovely story.
He is pretty big i think. One of the reasons we thought Unity was because of the way he speaks with the absolute authority of the Council. Well, more than that, he can talk on behalf of the Council if you ask him anything, which i like to think is a hint that he is actually in some way the Council.
Language development is largely based on society. That's where the splits would have come from. English and French have common roots but we use words differently because of social differences. For example the  litteral translation of the French for necklace means river of diamonds. So there...
We've talked about this in our group and we think he's either a powerful God/City Sprit or he's the Council, via Unity Of The Closed Fist. There are hints that the Council are Celestial Exalts so it could be possible.
The Deathlords were given the knowledge to corrupt Solar essences but the  ability to corrupt other essences is a secret held by the Yozis only. However there is no reason why a Db can't work for a Deathlord, there's a Sidereal that does.
Cheers lads, you've just given me a top idea. I'm gonna use something similar to the Fugue from Weaveworld in one of my next chapters. Get the Fae running around in my players city.
I'm getting ready to play in a mixed game. We have 3 Solars, 2 Lunars and i'm playing a Sidereal. My role as a Chosen of Secrets was to bring the group together for our mission. The group has a big background as we are all quite powerful and my character has been working to bring the group...
I've got a NPC in the DB game i run that kinda looks out for my players. He's a Night Caste Solar that was around before the  Primordial War that has survived living in the Wyld since just about the time of the Rebellion. He's the reason that Mask of Winters hasn't stomped on my party as they...
I've used the idea of giving my players dots in certain abilities before. It works at the start of the game but you very quickly find that your players will not like you dictating the way their characters grow. Very often peoples view of the characters change as the game progresses and they like...
How about using an artifact similar to Brigids Mantle that gives the DB access to powers they normally wouldn't have? It also gives your players something to try and get off the DB if they manage to figure out how they got so powerful.
There's also the rules for spirits joining with Dragon...