There,s a level of evul somewhere between petty crime and maniacal necromancers likewise missing from rp, and that is political corruption and conspiracy, or corruption in other institutional powers. I guess the quests give a hint of such flavor in the world, but since PCs can not rise to any such level of authority, there are really no means for players to run such plots. I tried to do something in this vein through a forum rp, but it petered out :/
I think it'd be cool to pull off. Maybe I've been watching too much x-files.