Never Another Paris: The Backlash Against Arcana

In the aftermath of the Boston Deletion and the subsequent Paris incident, public perception on arcana and humans demonstrating the Knack has been sharply divided. While many metroplexes have outlawed the use of magic outright, attempting to stamp it out completely has only forced covens to go deeper underground to avoid detection. Cities that maintain lax approaches to the Bleed and its side-effects risk devolving into another Paris… or worse, falling victim to the machinations of Outsiders and suffering a fate similar to Australia.
  The Megacorps themselves, of course, can’t officially condone the practice of arcana… but they all have departments that specialize in esoterica and how they can best use it to their own benefit. They sponsor PR campaigns to whip up anti-practitioner sentiment, then advertise safety and salvation for those with the Knack by signing their life and their talents over into corporate service. This often comes in the guise of a shell company offering a hopeful future for those who’ve been touched by the Bleed, but those organizations are merely fronts for corporate recruiting operations. If practitioners who seek safety within try to back out, they are rarely heard from again.
  Having engineered such a hostile world for those with the Knack, it’s hardly surprising that many retreat further from society, or openly rebel against the powers that be. Covens must work to keep their existence hidden, and those who practice openly do so in defiance of WATCHTOWER and the local authorities. In some cities, however, local Citigov mandates are more relaxed; so long as the practitioner isn’t harming anyone or co-opting their will, they are free to practice as they wish. This doesn’t mean that people with the Knack aren’t strictly monitored by WATCHTOWER, but they won’t move to act unless they believe the practitioner is a threat to the general public… or about to become one.
  Neo Vegas is one of these cities; sorcerous acts are part of the draw of the Strip, despite the grey zone of legality. North Vegas is riven with cults, but WATCHTOWER can’t take them all down without two others popping up in their place for each one they quash. The situation isn’t boiling over, so the powers that be are content to leave the whole of the city on a quiet simmer, ever-watchful and wary for potential calamity. WATCHTOWER works to keep the worst of the worst contained, but with the rise of Outsiders making their way into Neo Vegas society, they can’t keep track of every Intruder and the acolytes they might amass.
  This attitude clashes dramatically with the stances held by the other members of the once-United States of America. The Great Lakes Compact, having seen Boston evaporate in the blink of an eye, is staunchly against arcana in all its forms. The Eastern Alliance, however, believes the Knack should be another tool in the hands of corp executives and their families… and in their hands only. The Free Staters, of course, believe that the only way to stop a bad guy with a fireball is a “good” guy with a fireball, and have attempted to forcibly recruit practitioners into their local armies with mixed results. The Cascadian Accord, on the other hand, is happy to use arcana on those same practitioners, binding them with hexes to keep them in line and organizing their own line of witch-hunters to monitor and bring down any practitioners that violate those bonds of responsibility.
  Lastly, the ill-fated Midwestern Alliance tried desperately to use arcana to forestall the ravages of climate change in a last-minute gambit. The ruined megacities, the millions of displaced refugees fleeing to safety, the killing heat and the alarming number of strange beasts now roaming the Midwest are testaments to their ultimate failure.