The factions are confusing as all heck! Halp!

[Burusagi]

Basically all I know is that everyone is a d!ck trying to d!ck over everyone else.

Paladins, White Magisters, Red Magisters, Black Ring - all trying to out-d!ck the others, lol.

So, without as many spoilers as possible, could someone clear up their relationships? What I think I've gotten is this:

White Magisters are the few rulers/leaders of the Red Magisters who are the rank and file of that faction?

The Paladins are "on the same side" as the Magisters but not answering to them at all?

The Black Ring are basically the bad guys who oppose anyone not willing to follow their own agenda (something about the God-King as far as I understand)?

Who are the Divine Order though? They are mentioned a lot but never directly interacted with (at least as far as I've gotten into the game).

[Darkfiro]

I might be wrong on this but the Paladin were on the same side as the Magisters it ended around Fort Joy incident. The Divine Order (I could be wrong) is pretty much Lucian Order compose of Paladin and Magisters. Black Ring are the Cultist of the game (The feeling I get with the interaction I got).

[THAC0]

Paladins and Magisters use to work along each one both trying to do good things to help people out but had a falling out rather recently in the game (Aka Fort Joy which is like the start of the game)
Magisters are basicly magic users trying to experiment and they had a falling out due to how should they experiment, Aka White Magisters / Red Magisters and so on so forth, However they both tend to have A-holes in em and such Just a differnt way of doing things
Black Ring are basicly Evil Cultists
Divine Order works for the nation you in King basicly which has members from all other members just working for the king/lord and differnt Goals in mind, So expect to see Paladins/Magisters and such in em.

this game isnt that confusing truth be told I was able to follow it kinda easy.

[Chaoslink]

The divine order is pretty much the alliance between Paladin and Magisters. The Magisters are an army composed of the common folk of the land. They follow the White magisters, the "inner circle" magisters that are essentially the ones barking orders. The Red magisters don't really know the truth in what they're doing and simply follow orders. The White magisters know the truths behind most of everything enough. Dallis leads the Whites, working entirely for her own agenda and manipulating all the magisters for her own goals.

Paladins are similar to the Red magisters, but instead are composed of mostly nobility instead of the common folk. Somewhat made obvious by their shiny plate armor and overall more expensive equipment. They are run separately then the Magisters and made up the other part of the divine order. This pact was broken when they learned what really happened in Fort Joy where the two factions declared war and fought each other in Arx.

As for the Black ring... They're just a cult that was nearly destroyed in the war before the game's timeline, where Lucian the Divine used deathfog to destroy them, killing many elves in the process. The Black Ring that we see in game allied with the God King, the 'leader' of the voidwoken, after this event because of how broken they were from the deathfog. At this point, they're just evil minions used to serve the voikwoken.

[Darkfiro]

^ I think you fumble you hit K instead of D