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I really, really enjoyed Flight of Separation's control effect. I can see characters taking it for the control effect and not for the basic effect, even.
After all, who wouldn't like to have a little bird tell you when something interesting happens?

Oh, Torrential Cascade Control is also very powerful, if niche. If you don't let it reach long range, it stays on indefinitely. Get yourself a bodyguard and this is all but guaranteed to rout every battle group ever.
I am now imagining the sorcerer on top of a low-altitude cirrus skiff, protected by a powerful demon, rushing...

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Gambits are decisive attacks, which are forbidden in crash....

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Just a friendly reminder that this isn't Vampire. As The Wizard of Oz is saying, if you think up a character that is really damn fucking good at a thing, throwing 5s at that thing is perfectly in character.
For example, the zenith of one of the games I STd once.
"He's a patrician general that stood out in the house of bells even against his exalted kin, but after one too many campaigns where he had to do something he saw as immoral in the name of the house he betrayed everyone and left to wander in the desert, where on the brink of death the sands whispered to him that his cause...

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The difference is diegetic, so at least there's no clash in game.

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Usually my games last a couple years until we make something else. Grandiose, definitive endings are rare, but the open stories are finished. Leto's story ended after a series of war events where the death tolls scaled up and up and then he claimed every single corpse as a servant that he then took to his fortress of ice. Monsoon Dancer's story ended when she killed yet another petty tyrant that terrorized her beloved wu-jian, but then crowned herself "queen of all that shit" and people accepted. Ivory Wasp's ended when she was blinded in a fight against a grave behemoth, decided her...

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What would someone do with a bunch of trees, right?

A good start is cutting them down.
Cutting wood is as much a local activity as an international one, and the setting's technological era allows for it: cargo ships in the lower hundreds of tons, immense beasts of burden, wide-reaching empires and well established trade between all major hubs mean that Eastern woods can be relatively cheap to import, especially those with properties uncommon elsewhere. There should be hundreds or thousands of villages and towns specialized in exporting wood, especially along the two gargantuan...

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Mhmm, somewhere between the Lair of Ma-ha-suchi and Rathess, just west of Ixcoatli, and the place plays a role in the story....

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I narrate a game in the West (Azure, specifically, on the brink of war with Skullstone) and play a game in the East (we're colonizers taming a wild land and improving on the relics of a bygone era). Both games have solars, dbs and lunars. The Eastern game technically has an abyssal, we're using a fan port.

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Good point on the comparison with fighting chain.
If I'd still want it to be a different weapon, I'd trade grappling for smashing to emphasize the more "punchy" strikes. Should be particularly interesting for an artifact version.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_hammer
It's a chain with no handle and two weights on each end, or a handle and a weight. The single weight version plays more on its extended reach.

As with most chain weapons, most movements rely on you winding it up with your body, lest it's just a glorified thrown rock.

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Given MA is kinda expected for this weapon, the "penalty" to parry using such restriction will amount, in practice, to nothing if it's a light weapon.

That said, what's the basis for calling it light, medium or heavy? It's one of the more "wind up" weapons around, so Medium sounded like a decent compromise of being complicated to use and packing a punch.
I'd also rather not make melee weapons that strike past Close range. It's one of the most easily exploitable mechanics around. The books tend to leave such treats to powerful evocations and hulking creatures...

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Bashing, Reaching, Smashing. Maybe Flexible.

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He's also described as good looking or appealing, and his dream visits haunting and opulent. You pop in my head and sit on an ivory throne before a table made of a single sapphire, the last thing I'll be inclined to trust is a kind smile.

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The rainbow shine is in the glow projecting from the yellow eyes....

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The difference between the two images, both being quite clearly different perspectives on the same creature, is also useful to remind us that he can be viewed in different ways by different characters...and different players.

No one here will do the character a disservice for not using either image. Take his write up and make it your own for your games.

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The art also looks like he's well into explaining to that lady she's about to steal some peoples' dreams.
I find it faithful to his description.

We can certainly disagree on this.....

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"I cannot parse this sentence. Who is changing what now?"
You are complaining about the 3e Makarios' writing.
It's not doing anything the previous writings of his didn't, except for a couple elements of his appearance. There isn't word count to change him even if that was the intent.






And this is why I think you read too much into a single lineart of a single edition. He never looked deceptively kind. A bland smile and short hair became a punk haircut and a grin.
If anything, it's that lineart that did him a little bit...

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The 100Devils write-up is so concise that they wouldn't be able to change Makarios if they wanted. It's the exact same guy, only his appearance changed.

Makarios always was shady. His dealings are shady. He treasures his commercial empire, he tries very hard to spread his dream-stealing, soul-hooking sigils, and the particulars of that were never nice.
He presents himself as an honest trader, and the parts of that that were true before remain true now: He will give you a fair price, and he will demand as much from you.

The only thing that truly, radically changed...

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For all that talk about octavian having intimacies, you are awfully unwilling to see people that are willing to sell mortal souls would sit down and talk to the guy in a dream.

It's just a punkier appearance. There are plenty lunars and dynasts I'd hesitate longer to sit down and talk....

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Here they've been used largely as markers for story hooks. An oddly grounded deja vu, a password you somehow knew, a familiar name, an unexplained nervousness looking at an altar with shackles...