Obviously each group will have their own preferences for campaign style. However, I would imagine that the typical campaign would follow the development arc of the heros, much as Jean-Christophe suggested.
In other words, the characters start out as the big fish in a small pond. Whenever something goes wrong, people turn to them to right it. Gradually, they will grow in competence, reputation, and knowledge of the world. Eventually, either their reputation or their own philosophy will drag them into the great conflicts of the hero wars. Then, much like Humakt, they may decide that they have to sever (at least partially) their old relationships in order to protect those that they loved.
Let's face it, if you become some of the leading lights of the Orlanthi campaign against the Lunars, and you are opennly living with your clan, what do you think the lunars are going to do to your clan? (go and read what both sides did to certain villages during the Vietnam war if you need inspiration).
Similarly, if you are great Lunar heros, eventually you are sent to the front lines where the action is, and your involvement in family estates or whatever will wane.
Now, if you want to jump right into a high powered campaign, you might skip the whole first part, and start things off where the heros have had to leave their old life behind. Even in a moderate or low powered game, you can dictate that that for whatever reason the characters have had to abaondon their old lives--just tell the players *before* they put a ton of work into writing their relationship with family and what-not.
Or to summarize using the game's tag line. The old world is dying. This applies as much to individual characters as it does to everything else.
--Bryan
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