>Isn't the skull of Atyar buried in the catacombs of a Kralori
>city (based on old Cults of Terror) having been found by a
>wandering Lankhor Mhy sage on a tropical island (the East Isles ?).
It may be a fable to mislead. ToTRM#14 states that the skull of Atyar is deep within Than Ulbar and I think of it has a gigantic horned skull that one heroquests in. Kinda of like the Head of Yeshpotoom-Kahlai in the Unholy Fortress adventure from "Sea Kings of the Purple Towns for Stormbringer".
>I would have thought that the Kralori bureacracy was ripe for
>Krashti penetration (just like the current EC bureacracy perhaps
>- everyone complains but nothing changes).
The Kralori bureacracy is highly resistant to Krarshti corruption IMO. Its foundations are the Mandarin who are not very common (they are as prevalent as High Priests in Central Genertela) and who are thoroughly vetted for their good character amongst other things.
The Mandarins do not have any formalized bureacracy underneath them but appoint people ad-hoc to serve them. Even then they are utterly dependent on the Good Will of the community to rule effectively.
Hence if a Mandarin starts appointing fellow cultists who exploit their powers, the communal Good Will disappears, the Mandarin becomes ineffective and he is soon replaced. There _is_ ample potential for Malfeasance in Kralorela but Krarsht by its nature is incapable of exploiting it.
>Then again Kralorela
>claims to have not been particularly affected by the Greater
>Darkness - so may be only subtle chaos has successfully
>penetrated.
To be perfectly honest, Kralorela (like most of the east) has a radically different perception of mythical times. If they claim not to have been affected by the Great Darkness then they were not particularly affected. But that misses the point that they were immensely affected by _other_ things, such as Oorsu Sara conquering the Whole World and Avanapdur laying waste to the land of Keranderath (pre-Daruda Kralorela) with a simple curse and leaving it to the tender minstrations of the Kingdom of Ignorance.
It is possible for a God Learner to say that Oorsu Sara corresponds Umath's conquest and Avanapdur to the Great Darkness and he would be correct to do so. However the Eastern perception of the Cosmos (that the Material World is but a Temptation to mislead us into error) gives Chaos/Other/Antigods a radically different feel there.
An example: Sheng Seleris and Shang Hsa (may his name be cursed) are considered to be prime examples of would-be antigods in the east because they have striven for the ultimate and fallen to the temptations of this world. They do not look chaotic to the average west-central genertelan who could be persuaded that they are 'subtle chaos' but their horrid nature is immediately obvious to the average Easterner who would find the label unsubtle to be absurd.
Similar arguements hold for other parts of glorantha.
Kralorela does have oozy creepy-crawlies as they were conquered by the God Learners and have been exposed to their views of chaos.
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