I thought I'd make some remarks on the OOC purpose of the factions, which I think will be helpful for players trying to come up with an application for their character to join the faction. The following are very rough guidelines, and there are plenty of exceptions, but they may be of use.

(1) Faction members should promote conflict and rivalries between their factions. Conflict is good, it gets people involved and interested, and it makes the world more interesting. The factions are specifically designed so that interesting, flavorful, non-mindless rivalries and conflict will come into play between them.

Conflict is a lot more than PvP combat.

(2) Possibly the biggest request I make of faction PCs is that they make a very concerted effort to involve new players and characters. Every faction PC gets perks, the trade-off with that is we ask you to identify talented new role-players and help them appreciate the server.

This is IC too, as many of our factions are very dependent on the Town Council for their budgets and other issues. Getting new characters to vote for a Councillor that supports a faction is generally one of the bigger IC duties faction PCs will be assigned with, soon as our election cycles start to wind up (which will be soon).

(3) Faction PCs (in particular) should adhere to a high standard of role-playing, and create characters that other players enjoy interacting with and which are fun for the DMs to observe and watch.

I may add more to this list with time, in the meantime happy to answer any questions if anyone has them.