Getting the "corrupt politicians" although a better term is just "entrenched leaders" is quite literally the ONLY thing that will ever change Atamara's future. Unless the leaders of CE, Tara, Talerium, and Strombran are somehow removed via deletion, pausing, or being forcibly removed, the political atmosphere on Atamara will NEVER change at this point.
As someone playing in Darka, I'd be pretty disappointed if the GM's stepped in and decided to do something to break up the CE block. I'm also less than convinced the situation is as horrible and hopeless as you make it out to be. Did Merlin get treated badly? Yup. Was some of it his own fault? Damn right. He made some serious mistakes in his diplomacy and how he presented things and how he reacted to certain things.
Look, you seem to think putting hundreds of hours into getting change will mean you succeed. It just doesn't work that way. You have to actually do the right things. Merlin did not do the right things. He had a history weighing him down, he made poor choices and moved too quickly. Had Silnaria been ruled by anyone else but Merlin, the realm would probably be fine.
Now, that doesn't mean someone else can't succeed where he tried. You completely dismiss the chance of the rest of the island ganging up on CE and friends because it failed once. That's the situation Abington, Minas Ithil and Falasan were in many years ago, but they kept trying. And then suddenly Tara was a single city realm and Eston lost half its lands. It has happened before and it will happen again. The mighty will get toned down when people have enough of it.
