Thus Spake Zargrabowski/InvadingNexus

>>>With that being said, really, what is stopping a few dozen DBs from wiping out the council and doing whatever they please?<<<

• The might of the Council of Entities. Presumably, having held that post as long as they have, the Council is a able to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

• The city itself. What are you going to do, come exert political order on Nexus? Congratulations, now *you* own your own personal Iraq. Have fun down in the tarpit.

• The city itself. Nexus contains probably the third-highest density of Essence users in Creation. Like a half-dozen Solars canonically in residence, Seven Devil Clever the Lunar, and so on. Lots of *powerful* people live in Nexus and have a vested interest in it remaining as it is.

• Regional ldefense establishments and alliances. Your army of conquest is going to march from where to where? Even if con can convince them that you're all just going to conquer Nexus, that is not the answer they want to hear. The Council is the original King Log -- hefty bribes for all the local rulers and no agenda other than survival. People thereabouts have King Stork right across the Great Inland Sea to remind them how very different that could be if Nexus suddenly got a mad on for being the local locus of power. Also, the Seventh Legion is going to be like "too bad, so sad, now you die" when you threaten their lines of communication. You had better be ready for the Dragon-Blooded in powersuits and thermoptic camo the instant you do something like this, and I think people are acutely aware of that.

Also don't forget the triple-gods up the road, including at least one who is apparently powerful enough to either totally befuddle a Deathlord, or else mighty enough to tell a tale of one's vulnerability and make it true. If you want to make it an affair of canon, that also means you not only have to hold Nexus, you have to hold it with the Mirror Flag stirring up trouble.

Basically, you can't get an army in without getting the region on your ass, and you can't feasibly hold the city without a garrison. Ultimately, it comes out the way the ST says it does, but it's hardly implausible the Council has hung around. They're smart oligarchs who know their place and have managed to avoid ambitions beyond prosperity and sovereignty. If they fall, then that's a matter for your game's plot. It's certainly not implausible they'd get worked and replaced -- Exalted's range of plausibility is pretty darn huge.

Geoffrey C. Grabowski\\ Exalted Developer, WWGS\\ raindog@white-wolf.com