Thanks for the nice words!
It is an open world, so everything is possible. In the beginning the factions are limited to two and yes, there are also fugitives / exiles, so... we'll be going places :)
As for the lore, it has grown a lot and we'll be pushing out and publishing more of it in the near future - working on it literally as we speak. Stay tuned - and feel welcome to add any ideas or suggestions here on the forum, everything is taken into consideration and implemented, if possible, one way or another. From the community, for the community (and vice versa) is not just empty words here.