JohnBiles/DragonbloodedHeroism

Why the Dragonblooded Can't Save Creation

The key thing to understand is that while all Exalted are heroes, this is old-school heroism, where killing an entire village because they wouldn't bow to you is heroic, since most people can't kill an entire village. What this means is that you can be a filthy rat-bastard and still be a hero, so long as you do impressive deeds.

There are two basic groups of Dragonblooded. Those outside the Realm are too divided and scattered and lack the opportunities for training and a source of shared identity which would enable them to save Creation. Outside the Realm, Dragonblooded are likely to either be devoted to their homeland, which will only have a very small number of Dragonblooded, or else travelling mercenaries with no loyalty to anything but themselves. Neither condition allows the Dragonblooded to use their greatest source of strength--that Dragonblooded operating in groups can become much stronger than the sum of their parts thanks to their ally-boosting/assisting/saving charms--to full extent. Nor do they have the resources and training which greatly strengthen Realm Dragonblooded.

The Realm, on the other hand, has wealth and temporal power and artifacts and manses and training coming out of every orifice. Realm Dragonblooded are ideally positioned to become the focus for Dragonblooded unity to save Creation. Sure, they still don't have the full power potential of Celestial Exalts, but even the degenerates who now spend most of their time bonking concubines and murdering their superiors in the bureaucracy started out from their schooling as extremely good at some things.

The problem, however, is that Realm culture totally undercuts the ability of the Dragonblooded to work together. Dynasty Dragonblooded are raised to view other dragonblooded not as allies, but as rivals. Instead of being trained to work together, they're divided into houses which ensure that they'll view the majority of other dragonblooded as pawns at best, but more likely as people to be shoved aside and forced into submission. In some cases, they're raised to blindly hate members of some other houses, due to old rivalries of earlier generations. Their political marriages largely fail to build real ties because they're carried out on the basis of both sides expecting to use each other, not on any kind of loyalty or respect. They're alienated from any of their siblings who don't exalt, who will basically be discarded as human garbage for their failure. In otherwords, Realm culture atomizes the Dragonblooded. The Empress did this in order to keep them from banding together to defy her will.

And that's why they will fail. No single house can save the world by itself, and most Realm Dragonblooded are too arrogant and self-centered to break out of the spirit of competition and undercutting each other to work together.

Sure, there are exceptions to this atomization--brotherhoods, the military, etc. But now the legions are broken up and you can expect every house to purge its legion of officers who aren't loyal only to them. Brotherhoods are too small of scale to counteract the culture and tend to fade as you age and are drawn off into your house's politics, your job, etc.

The Immaculate Order is probably the best bet for Dragonblooded unity as it's the only institution left in which members of different houses work together without an emphasis on stabbing your way to the top. But even the order has many members still loyal to their houses.

And so the greatness of the Dragonblooded of the Realm is channeled into things like 'how many mortals can I rape to outdo my brother' or 'how many other Dragonblooded can I murder to become the head of the Treasury' or 'how can I humiliate and force the removal of the ambassador to Harborhead, I know, I'll start a civil war and make it look like his fault, then our house will get the appointment'.

The real threat to the Empire isn't Cynis degenerates who write snuff opera and perform it with their slaves. It's highly competent and ambitious Dragonblooded who see the best way to achieve their goals is by tearing down everyone else until they are on top.