@jynmi88There'll be as many factions as people apply. They aren't limited to one faction per alignment, that's just a quick way to see if they're people your character(or faction) may want to deal with.
There'll be a lot of factions fighting and dealing with each other, but if you just want to play a Hero that won't affect you much. The point of factions as a whole is to give a good framework for you to participate in the RP with. This is a big theme in the opening post guides.
For example(Not a prediction)- Lets say the Sith Empire declares war on basically everyone. A coalition of good-aligned factions form a last alliance to stop the Sith Empire from gaining enough Nodes to drain the lifeforce of everyone on the planetoid. Your character can totally participate on either side of the conflict or forge their own path within it. Or you could totally ignore that and worry about a new asteroid that somehow entered the stations orbit with buildings on it. What could be in there? Characters are lining up to explore it, and you can participate in that.
That's a good example of what I intended to do with this roleplay. If you apply a character, you can totally just tunnel vision whatever you want to participate in and enjoy that.