To partially answer your question:
The current character I'm playing in Alder's FoE&D is the daughter of the dragon god of trickery, assassination, and shadow. Her father, while merely a mid-level player in the setting's pantheon, could have opted to raise her at his court, at the heart of his realm far away from his enemies, in perfect safety and with every comfort he could provide. Instead, he chose to have his daughter raised on another plane, in a city governed by his brother's empire, a brother who has no love for him or his cult. For her protection, she had her mother and one of his most ardent worshippers -- stanch guardians, perhaps, but certainly no match for the entire militia of the city if it came down to it. Her contact with her father throughout the years consisted of intermittent visits when he was passing through on business. Never too close, yet never too distant, either.
It hurt him to have to send his daughter away from the opulence and perhaps even decadence of his court, to distance himself from her in such a fashion and perhaps even have exposed her to a controlled measure of genuine danger. But it was necessary, and in the end when his daughter had come into her own as an agent provocateur in her own right she had the freedom to choose to be with him rather than need it, and was grateful to be allowed that choice.
