Most of this has been answered well already; I just wanted to tack one comment on about the whole lifespan thing.

There's genuinely a lot of character variety to CF versus any game of the kind I've personally seen, both in terms of character builds and viable RP choices, and because this isn't the kind of game where a player keeps one character or even a main character for the duration of their stay, the players tend to feel free to exercise those options. I've seen very advancement/achievement-oriented games where some players will have decided they're pretty bored or otherwise in a rut with their character, but the thought of "throwing away" all of the time to get to where they are in order to try something else is just too daunting. In CF, if you're playing dumb, unsavory, and brutish fire giant Imperial soldier who has build choices all picked around offense and big damage vs. finesse, and decide one day that you'd really like to try out an elven thief with skills based around poisons and traps, you probably aren't going to think that you can't do it because you're throwing too much work away. Because none of the characters in the game are thousands of hours old, the gulf between a character a month or two into play and one nearing age death is typically pretty small, and those two characters would play so differently that a lot of the game would suddenly be extra fresh and new to you.

That's not to say there isn't always room for improvement in terms of your skills, or more edges or special awards your character can gain by exploring, demonstrating great RP, etc., but you would pretty much never say, "That character is a RL year of play older than mine. I can't go head to head with that guy and compete."

That being said, there are some good examples of character longevity within the bounds of our system. The current Empress, for example, is a character over a RL year old, having been played pretty regularly all that time. There's definitely time to RP a character and make your mark on the world, but you equally know that, one way or another, someone else will be Emperor this time in 2008, so if you want to make an Imperial character and gun for the throne, sheer character longevity isn't going to beat you down.

I'm not sure if that helps you out at all... if not, ask more questions and we'll field 'em!