Maj'Dul Faction
Within the city of Maj'Dul lies three factions: Blades, Truth, and Coin. Each of these factions wrestle for dominance, and exercise control over certain sections of town. The Court of Blades is the local militant force which guards the city against threats (similar to the Freeport Militia for you EQ1 Players). The Court of Truth has the role of local law enforcement and they appreciate you not littering. Finally, the Court of Coin represent the mercantile and banking interests of the city.
You'll start out at a threatningly level of faction with all three which will allow you to move about Maj'Dul unaccosted (except for thieves). When you do finally make your choice and gain faction the other two will immediately attack you on sight so be sure before you choose. You can always switch factions but you'll never be in a truly neutral position again. Consult with guildmates or people you regularly group with, because a lot of this content will require you to be the same faction.
How to get Faction
Once you've decided on a Court it's time to show your loyalty! First you make your check out to...just kidding. You have three avenues of earning some love. First, by doing quests given by the factions. The earliest ones, are given by reprsentatives down at the dock in Sinking Sands. These quests are great for xp, some money, and faction.
Your second option lies in very simply killing guards of other Courts. Now the goodwill you'll gain on them is miniscule if even exsistant but they will drop coins which you should scoop up immediately. Obviously don't kill guards of your own faction even if they eyeball you like they do me. Keep an eye out for the Sha'ir who is a level 61 heroic. He will make sure to educate you on the anti-brawling laws in town while he rips you a new one.
Your final option is to find a Tears Grifter (multiple locations in town) and complete a randomly selected quest in an instanced in town. The reward for this quest in addition to experience and loot, is 4-7 faction coins.
The Tears Grifters will assign you a new quest about every 30 minutes. There is no lockout timer on these, but but you will have to restart whatever quest you haven't finished if you leave or die.
Ok! Stop yelling and put down that frying pan! All these coins you are collecting, which hopefully aren't from your won court, need to be taken to the Tower of the Moon. On the first floor as soon as you walk in you'll see a representative for each faction. Talk to yours of course and select an option to turn in 1, 5, or 10 coins. Rinse and repeat until you've exhausted your supply. Each one is about 100 faction points so you'll need tons to get your numbers all the way up. These are just like insert trendy card battle game so you can trade these coins with your friends until you get all you need.
Faction Rewards
Let's get down to it. Other than the ability to rag on your friends who chose differently than you, why would you want to join any Court at all? Your first big reward for your efforts, will come when you reach kindly faction and gain access to the faction houses.
What is a faction house? Oh, the gloriousness of the faction house is difficult to describe. Each faction house is set up differently but all the wonders are the same. First you will have the convience of a banker, mailbox, and mender for your transportation, storage, and my group got my killed too many times needs. Since these aren't available to anyone outside of a faction house in Maj'Dul I'd call this pretty handy.
You need the pot sweetened? Ok then how about some merchants? Those are everywhere you say? Not like these. First we have the faction merchant who will sell the advanced T6 crafting recipes. For those of us who don't really craft, he's a great place to dump off that stuff you can't sell on the broker.
Look no further as this merchant will purchase them all! A few other merchants will also sell you the App 2 versions of any Combart Arts and Spells you would receive in the Tier 6 range.
The last merchant, is the Court Treasures who will sell you items unable to be earned/purchased anywhere else. House pets, catalogs, special armor, residency licenses, and mounts are all available depending on how high your faction is.
What else could this wonderous house hold? Brokers from both sides (beware they both charge the markup no matter what city is your own), and tons of quests. One of the quests like Becoming a Citizen of Ro will give you a new call spell that will take you to Maj'Dul. Most others will provide you with a pretty significant faction boost.
Zones Inside Maj'Dul:
Courts: There are three courts in Maj'Dul. There are the Court of Blades, Truth and Coin. You will only be able to enter one of these zones at a time if your faction level with them is warmly.
Tower of the Moon: You can initiate coin quests in the tower to earn positive faction for the court you have decided to work with. The Lore and Legend: Harpy scroll can be found here also.
House/Apartements for Rent: Once you gain warmly faction with a specific court, you can purchase a license to rent a home in Maj'Dul. The only thing dangerous about this is which apartment location you chose. You might not want to pick a place nearby an enemy court. I hear they are notorious for toilet papering and egging the property of patrons they disagree with.
Arena: This is a whole different kind of zone. This paticular zone allows you to purchase a gladiator and fight agains friends in a First Person Shooter (FPS) style. Winning battles will reward the player with new creatures and prizes.
Peacock Club: The peacock club instance is not accessable until a number of different quests are completed first. You will be helping Peacock Lord Wad'dah Haz'Iz in this paticular zone. After helping him out you will be granted another quest from the item he gives you. Click the Peacock Club link to find more information on this zone and the quests involved.