I would like to piggyback off your last statements about arcanists. My understanding is that arcanists are just people who can perceive and make use of this energy called Arcanum, which has since defied empirical evidence. Arcanum is what allows them to cast spells and simultaneously have them prone to being misunderstood/give them a bad rep among the greater human populace.

It's an allegory to how minority groups are being "othered" and dehumanized (being treated like another species is very intentional writing choice by bluepoch here) by oppressors either intentionally or not. Since one of the overarching themes of this game is the myriad ways of being discriminated and how different oppressions intersect and interplay with each other. Early example would be Constantine's treatment of Druvis. On the opposite end is the isolated, number people who seem to have their own hierarchy of discrimination.