• Godbound: You will not be the first generation of Godbound but one of a handful. This means that the average person will be aware of what a Godbound is and public perceptions will vary. This also means that there are older, more powerful Godbound elsewhere in the world who will come to notice you and dead Godbound which reaffirms your mortality to the general populace.
• Theurges: The great theurges of old were once loved and worshiped but are now largely reviled. Those theurges who have appeared in modern times have inherited this negative reputation which is extended to a lesser extent to all forms of magic. Most magic users therefore seek to avoid notice and hole themselves off from the world in their sanctums, hidden fortresses, hermit holes, etc.
• Black Academies: The Black Academies are primarily academic institutions for cloistered cabals of theurges and low magic practitioners. They seek to reclaim magical knowledge from the Former Empires. Occasionally something untoward occurs to the surrounding areas but this is mostly due to accident or neglect rather than intentional malice. People still hate them for it and the academies aren't afraid to use arcane force to ensure nobody truly takes them to task over anything that happens.
• Uncreated Night: Incursions from the Uncreated Night are fairly regular around the world with unholy and misbegotten abominations vomiting forth into the world with some frequency. Sometimes people get lucky and they abort themselves or die from some strange cause but often enough they have to deal with these monstrous creatures; mortality rates are high in places where they are more common (Raktine, Ancalia, Thousand Gods).
• The Far Realms: Beings from the Far Realms are fairly prevalent and are a mixed blessing. Some of them are largely benevolent and bring with them strange abilities that allow them to stem the tide of the Uncreated & Misbegotten and some are just plain evil. Pick your fancy of supernatural or fantasy creature and they are somewhere, albeit not necessarily abundant.
• National Governments: Governments are fairly fractious with most nation states existing, even if clandestinely, as  pseudo-independent territories headed by various major players. Translation: you can easily subsume some portion of other nations by replacing the figure-heads instead of just taking over the whole nation at once or declaring a formal invasion.

Imani
The Oasis Witch, Fennec

Legend tells that the Oasis Witch, Imani, was once a laborer within the city-pyramid of a long forgotten sorcerer-noble. Oppressed and downtrodden by her overlord she rebelled against them following her Awakening. She gathered a warrior cult from the ranks of the sand-princes and eugenic rejects before carving out a rival nation among the sands. As her influence grew so did her notoriety and infamy. Eventually, the full might of the Oasis States fell on her people and she was lost to the sands of time. However, rumor has it that Imani yet lives, having hidden her people away within the shifting sands of the Red Desert.

Tales of Imani often speak of her raiment, a gossamer veil that shrouded her features. Many believe that it hid a grievous wound or deformity brought about by eugenic inbreeding. Others claim that her beauty was too great and she used it to shield mortal men from temptation. Regardless none are confused of its function. Capable of creating illusion and calling forth lashing fire, the Witches Raiment was an Artifact of great power.

Imani was a demigod of great power and mystery, one who grew increasingly interested in the nature of space and time despite her Words having little bearing on those realms. This did not stop her from creating the Mirror Palace, a sandstone palace placed within a large reflection pool. Being both physical and illusory the palace was nigh unassailable through physical means. It is here that many claim her cult lives although the reflection pool which anchored it to this world has been scoured from the earth.

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Imani prized the native foxes of the Oasis States and using her gifts uplifted them to have a near human level of intellect. Unlike their mundane counterparts these foxes took on an illusory coat, their edges and coloring shifting in the sun like a mirage. She used them as spies, keeping tabs on the going-ons of the sand-princes and sorcererous lords. Occasionally descendants of these Phantom Foxes can still be seen, perhaps carrying out their gods will.

It's said that in large bodies of water, when night has fallen and the moon is bright, that the surface shifts as if something swims beneath. Some mad crones claim them to be the Lurkers of the Duat, the quasi-living protectors of the Mirror Palace. They claim that the Palace's reflection now moves about the desert unseen but its guardians are ever vigilant.

Eugenics is a prevalent practice within the Oasis States, so much so that deformities of all kinds can be found in great abundance. Those which serve the ends of the God-King and God-Queen are championed and the rest discarded. Perhaps then it is no surprise that the stone-skinned descendants of Imani's Children of the Sands can pass unnoticed; waiting until the day that her blessings pass from their bloodline.

Domatteo Rossi
The Architect

Domatteo was born of a wealthy merchant family and found himself the apprentice of a Vissian maestro. He intended to become one of the world's greatest but his ambitions were stunted by the conservatism of the field. Where Domatteo desired to pushed the limits of clockwork, to create grand artifice, his master insisted on him learning to create the tried and true prosthetics they were famous for. Perhaps it would have become an issue for the pair if not for Domatteo's Awakening. Eschewing his master and the trappings of a religious faith, Domatteo travelled Vissio, the Bright Republic, Raktine, and the lands of the Thousand Gods. He gathered knowledge and resources before creating his greatest work: Aether, a godwalker without equal.

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Domatteo was a traveler, voyaging to many locales both mundane and exotic. Rumor has it that he constructed hideouts throughout the land, largely in Vissio and the Bright Republic, where he might return to experiment and document his labors. Some claim that the strange arcane and etheric phenomena that occur in certain areas are the results of Domatteo's hidden experiments.

The Aether was a magnificent vessel that Domatteo did not hesitate to flaunt. Perhaps that was his downfall ultimately. The cults of the Thousand Gods, known for their covetous desire for powerful godwalkers, hunted him relentlessly. Some claim that they ultimately succeeded and that the Aether is hidden away in their savage lands, awaiting a theotechnician capable enough to unlock its secrets.

Domatteo was a demigod that recognized no formal cult or religion but that didn't stop others from forming one in his stead. The Red College is a confederated alliance of scholars who were inspired by Domatteo and seek to recover his lost knowledge. Many claim that their roots rest in the Order of Redactors within Vissio; roots which may lead to their true center.

Hamelin
The Pied Piper

Much of Hamelin's beginnings and life thereafter are lost to time. Some who had the fortune to survive his presence claim him to be a man of pale complexion and fox-like features. He had a cruelty about himself that seemed unjustified and none can recall any offense the world ever offered him beyond simply existing. Still after his Awakening he settled in the Howlers and became a blight upon the world. Using his power as a Godbound he sowed discord and mischeif to all who he could reach. Known for his malicious tricks and temperamental nature he never garnered a faith nor desired one. In the end he died after angering the wrong eldritch being, one who swallowed him and his mountain hamlet whole.

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Hamelin is long dead, or so the world hopes, but his infamous Singing Mountains still exist. Nestled in the hinterlands of the Howlers these mountains are a massive orchestra waiting to come alive once more. Waiting for someone to reclaim the lead instrument: The Song of the Mad God. The Song is believed to be a silver flute and one which possesses the power to drive mad all who hear it. Coveted and feared many brave the mountain's treacherous terrain and horse-sized vermin to retrieve it.

Hamelin loved gold and hated the greedy. Hypocritical perhaps but one does not question the Pied Piper and live to speak of it; at least not from outside the pauper house. Hamelin made several cursed coins, each capable of withering the wealth of any who possessed it. These coins have long since been lost but rumor has it that a Rakatine bandit-king has gained a distressing amount of leverage against regional merchants and boyers; perhaps there is a connection.

Gunhild Ulfdottir
The War Mother

Gunhild was an old woman when she Awakened. Having lived her life as slave to a powerful witch-queen in the skerries, Gunhild considered herself to be an Ulstanger. Known for being a stern woman she was respected within her circle, although she commanded no real power. When she Awakened she found herself empowered as a warrior and used that power to liberate those around herself, largely by slaying the Draugr forces that the witch-queen marshaled to corral her living subjects. From there she set out to unify the desperate and forlorn Ulstangers. She drew her cult from the reaves and raiders largely and formed them into a holy army who rode along side her in her longboat the Broadside to slay the witch-queens. Ultimately Gunhild was outdone by a witch-queen who hired a Sea-bound Godbound to drag her ship to the icy depths.

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Gunhild was a consummate warrior and war leader. Encountering her on the battlefield was to lose, no holds barred. Chief among her instruments of warfare where Artifacts, affectionately known as the Left and Right Arm of the War-Mother. The Right Arm was a four-barreled handcannon that could loose dragon's fire or frigid torrents of water. The Left Arm was a greatsword, wreathed in fire that could crush stone and metal at a whim. Both weapons are said to be frozen, along with her corpse, aboard the Broadside.

When the Broadside was dragged down it was not alone. No several longboats formed her armada, each lead by one of her trusted lieutenants. It is said that these war-brothers were able to retrieve Gunhild's horn, the Outrider's Call, and have kept it hidden away with them as they travel the frozen north in search of a new liege.