>>95919485
I don't think Skulls are necessary for something to be Warhammer.
Factions like Dwarfs, HE, WE, etc don't have them or at least have different focus points for their art design.
Cathay, however, should have been Grimdark and you can do Grimdark without Skulls China itself is producing plenty of things that would probably be considered Grimdark in the west, so I'm not sure why Gw was so squeamish about it.