My guess is that there's actually a difference between earth-born and reef-born awoken. Reef-born awoken were transported to the Distributarey (i think that's what it's called) and gained special powers while the earth-born awoken did not. I think when the Darkness and the Light clashed during the Collapse, it sent out waves of paracausal power that transformed some people. The closer people were to the source of the wave the deeper they were effected. [spoiler]of course this is just a wild guess. I don't really have any evidence supporting or denying my theory[/spoiler]