It's allright if you want to be karavaneer, but you should read the lore and make your own story, not necessarily an open RP one, maybe you don't want to RP at all ... but for your own pleasure of the game see what you like more.
Make your own mind about it. That's the best in Ryzom, compared to other games, the freedom of an open story. Now I know freedom can be a burden but having in mind this is a game you plan to play for a long time, your image of your own character is important to give you full satisfaction of your future line of action.
Sniff around who are the lore keepers in game. It's always better to hear the stories from a friend rather than reading web pages. I know Kyerna is very good for neutral lore and Rushin for kami lore, somebody will point you players that do the same for Karavaneers.
Equal important criteria is your friends. If most of your friends are karavaneer, go karavan, if most of them are kamis think more about it.
You don't need a faction at all for a long time (at least a month in my opinion), whatever people might say. But once you picked a faction your fame, slower or faster will increase and if you want to change is a darn lot of not so funny work to do to get it inversed.
You want to dig PR: go North Dyron or Grove of Dementia and go inside the PR. There are plenty of mats you might need right in the safe area at entrance. You want pvp then duel or make sure you know when the OP wars are taking place.
Don't listen to advices that sound too excentric. I remember a respected old player who told me if I go Kami I will never be able to enter Faihaven anymore (*chuckles*).
Listen to all but use your judgement and you'll feel good
