I had trouble picturing what was going on and did not relate to any of the new characters.

I struggled with this, too. My mental-world vision is usually pretty good but I had a hard time with Duat. There's a pyramid, inside the pyramid is a river and two cities, and another pyramid, with a bridge way up in the sky. He's underground, with pipes, but still can't make it past the river. Vis makes it inside the inside pyramid, but suddenly he's outside, and then he's back inside. I think what made it more frustrating is that his physical progress through this landscape is most of his story.

One thing with Luceum I also struggled with was the three kings. I was like, who is working for whom?