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Cultures
Many cultures have blended all together since the After, so there isn't much to say about any given city's culture maybe other than their hero system.
There are a few religions, some even from the Before.
Aeorism is the following of a deer like god names Aeor. This one is from the Before, so a lot of practices, writings, and lore have been lost to time. Some extreme followers blame the After on Exor, Aeor's opposite.
Church of Prime follows a god named XD, sometimes referred to as Dream XD, the god of order. Some variants of the religion believe in his sister Drista, goddess of chaos, and Kristen the godess of death who acts as their mediator. It is common to see devote followers with children name their kids after these gods as a sign of respect and recognition. This is also from the Before Times and is just as forgotten as Aeorism.
While there isn't really a name, followers of the Codfather are probably the most ritualistic of the main religions. There is a "leader" and a "council" of cod. While the Codfather head (a headress for the leader to wear) has been lost for centuries, modern leaders will hand craft their own replicas.
It is notable that none of these religions ever mention powers in their scriptures, as they were founded before powers were even recorded. Some newer religions involve a higher power that gave humans theirs, but most older religions never have a mention.
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Powers
Powers are relatively new, only appearing prominently or frequently during the After and onwards. It is unknown what causes them or what decides them.
Powers are not genetic, and it is near impossible to tell what a child's powers will be from just the parents, though it is not unheard of for siblings to have similar powers.
A child should start displaying abilities at around age three. Their powers will not be defined, maybe showing signs of two or three different powers before the age of five, where the extra powers will fade away and their permanent one will become prominent.
Any given power, with proper training, can become stronger and even "unlock" new abilities. Powers will "branch" or "bush", depending on what they are and how they're trained.
A "branch" power will have a single strong ability to start out with. As it is trained and becomes stronger, more abilities with branch off of it, usually not as strong as the main one.
A "bush" ability starts out with a few weaker abilities, which can be trained into even more abilities at around the same power level.
Powers are usually described as a tingling feeling, like a sleeping body part but dimmer. When a user wants to activate an ability, they will focus on the feeling and bring it out. This is the method commonly described to children as their powers get stronger.
It is near impossible to find two users with the same exact powers and abilities, which can stem from differences in training as well as there are too many powers to correctly diagnose. As well as undefined powers, or powers diagnosed as different ones.
The only powers that are seen commonly are energies. Red energy for making simple machines, orange energy for a sort of astral projection, yellow for light, green for a simplified living telekinesis, blue for shield like barriers, purple for beams and explosions, all energy for healing, and anti energy for withering. These powers in sum make up about 10% of the world's population, yellow being the most common energy type at 3%.
It is not unheard of for powers to "go rogue" and harm the user like a parasite. For example, anti energy, without proper training, can wither the host from the inside out, sucking the user's life force. This can be avoided with careful training and a proper diagnosis for a parasitic power.
Powers from the Before were usually a lot more general and nonspecific. They also seem to be more area of effect, no aim, and rather uncontrollable. Today there are a few towns in ice ages, and there are extreme cases like Clearing City, with a giant underground maze that never holds still.
Powers can be toned down with a drug called "Dim", made with the plasma in the blood of people with the power to control the intensity or power of abilities. It can be used to treat parasitic powers, or can be used to regulate when a power is being used in sports or in politics.
It is rare for a person to not have powers, but not unheard of. Around 95% of the population has powers.
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Last names
Last names are chosen by parents at around the age of three when a child starts displaying possible abilities. The last name is based off of what kind of abilities the child is showing.
If a child does not start displaying powers by their fourth birthday, the city they live in will assign them a last name. If a family doesn't live in a city, the child will inherit one of their parent's last names.
Orphans abandoned before three are usually give group names, usually the name of the orphanage or whatever city they love in. It is not unheard of for orphaned children to choose their own names.
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Hero agencies
Hero agencies are the typical way that cities deal with crime. This practice is usually reserved for cities of more than 500 people.
There is usually one agency per city. There is a president, the one who coordinated with the government of the city, and a mission specialist, the one who directs the heroes and communicates with them while they patrol.
After a city gets an agency, training programs usually open up. It varies from city to city, but training would begin at 15, and then they could become full heroes at 18 or older. This number might be higher or lower depending on how much and what kinds of crime there are.
The standard hero agency has five categories to put a person into.
Civilian: civilians are normal people in their every day lives, all yhe other four categories have a "civilian identity". Most citizens don't use their powers too much.
Hero: a hero is someone who fights villains, vigilantes, and mercenaries for pay and is aligned with an agency. Agencies provide costumes, gadgets, gear, and medics for the heroes to protect the city.
Vigilante: someone who fights villains, heroes, mercenaries, and other vigilantes without a permit, but does no harm to the public or citizens. Vigilantes can be placed anywhere on the moral spectrum, but they will usually protect citizens more often than not.
Mercenary: a person hired to fight who is not affiliated with a hero agency. It is usually large scale villains with a criminal underground mafia who hires them.
Villain: someone actively and purposefully harming the public, citizens, or property. Once again, they can fall anywhere on the moral spectrum, but they will most definetly put their goals before another person's safety.
Some cities invent new ways to fight crime, such as Last City who has volunteers counter criminals, and Empire City, that has a buliten board bounty system. While there are pros and cons to all methods of law enforcement, most cities default to the hero agency.
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Cities
Cities are yousually built upon the remains of old ruined cities from the Before Times, so the architecture style has been the same for a long time.
They usually start when a group of people, usually ten or more, go out and explore until they find ruins, to which they repurpose the parts and rebuild.
It is quite common for people to live in rural areas in the middle of nowhere, building houses only for themselves or their family.
Cities can take a while to make all in one go, depending on how many people are in the party as well as what array of powers they have, so often times a party will rebuild a city to be enough for them and will expand as necessary as new people come.
The capital city is called Mojang, and it is required that all parties that want to become official cities get a pend from the capital. If not, the city will get no provided resources and might even be forced to stop construction.
Of course, the oldest city is Mojang itself, founded by a party that no one can find records of from 500 years ago. The next oldest might be Hermit City from maybe 100 years ago. It wasn't until maybe 200 years ago that Mojang issued a need for other cities, but none until Hermit City have really prospered.
It is important to note that while Mojang has to confirm or deny cities being made, that Mojang does not control the cities once they are made. Any city can invent its own government or hero system completely original from the standard.
Most people originate from Mojang, branching out into different cities once they become old enough. Mojang also has the most wide spread news anchor, Noxcrew.
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The Before
The Before takes place before 650 years ago, and is known today as the "ruined founder". This period ended after several disasters took place at the same time, a perfect storm.
Humanity was infighting and using "nu le r" bombs, reminiscent of the effects of red energy and purple energy. At the same time the world was experiencing many earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as a large meteor event that destroyed the civilization.
Old records have also shown that the Before was a lot less friendly to people with powers, citing them as the reason all the disasters were occurring. But after all of it, people with powers were accepted back into society and nomadic groups.
Certain things remain from the Before, but others have been loss. Things specifically "protected" by people from the Before, like ancient pieces of literature or art works, have survived. But most things contemporary with the ending of the Before were lost.
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The After
This is our current time period, and it has lasted about 650 years. Before Mojang there wasn't much record keeping or even much prospering, but 500 years ago to now has been plentiful in its harvest for humans.
Powers became more frequent and less taboo about 600 years ago. After the initial scare transition from the Before to the After, people with powers weren't being hunted down.
Humanity is in a strange technological phase, as in some areas we've been sent back centuries where in others we've progressed far beyond the Before.
For example, humanity no longer knows how to make things such as a "sma t pho e", but we have advanced far enough medically to know how to alter the intensity of a power. Through studying of ruins, it has been easy to catch back up, and with powers it has been easy to move on.