Hey gang, I am posting this in response to the chat and some discussion in the GM lounge.
Factions were created to further help immersion and the sense of community. They're pretty well explained and flesh things out pretty well. As you can probably tell, there's really a faction for classic RPG archetypes, though by no means are their members chosen by the 'class' and so on. They are more likely to have you join should you align to their ideals.
Now, factions are inactive at present. Whilst it's a grand idea, it takes people to run them. We were thin on people to help in this regard any most of them never got off the ground. With some key players having left, that's left a flux in the factions.
IF factions are to be successful, there will have to be a reinvention of sorts. I MAY have them a choice upon creation, at the time of the system revamp. The issue with this is new players choosing to belong to a faction but then not following their code and such, which makes for work for the other faction members.
At this time, I have no issue with them being NPC entities, so long as the GM represents them sincerely.
I am not taking them off limits, but would recommend you don't pursue them presently as the experience won't quite be up to the high hopes I had for them.