The Kusari... A space version of Japan, as some people would describe. In the Discovery, it changed into turmoil after the Tau Wars has been won by the third and unexpected side in the conflict. Aside of the new Republic of Kusari, why the Exiles, Kusari Naval Forces (both pre- and post-Tau War), Farmers Alliance, Hogosha and all that, are a bit more harder to roleplay...?
Long story short - it is fault of Japan itself. Pretty long period of Japanese isolation and, indirectly, the Chinese isolation from the European culture created a pretty original culture, which just in the period around 16th Century started to be influenced by the Western culture.
How does it affect shape of Kusari? The pressumable reason behind Kusari is overall inspiration by the Japanese culture, which came out in shape of Kusari as a nation that mixed up various periods and backgrounds of the Japan we known today just from history books. While all four houses were modeled more or less after their Earth counterparts, the Kusari is one of the hardest houses to roleplay, preferably chosen by so-called "weaboos" or "otaku", is it not? Well, it is a bit more complicated.
Liberty is Space America. Bretonia is Space UK. Rheinland is Space Reich... I mean, the Space Germany. But what about Kusari? It seems that original creators, that is, Digital Anvil, wanted to make Kusari as most original as it could be, putting everything Japanese into one big boiling pot. It created a semi-feudal culture with strong ties to the honor and duty, with not weaker sense of modernism and advancement. If we could look at the history of the Japan, we could recognize two most major periods that affected not only Japan itself, but also the fate of the world. One period would be the Tokugawa Shogunate, the other being the 1960s Japan that became one of the major powernations of the modern world.
How does it affect Kusari? Well, the vanillia Kusari has been obviously shaped after several periods of Japan, one being the most recognizeable - the Tokugawa Shogunate. How so? One of the most evident easter eggs, if someone knows little Japanese history, is Shogun Hideyoshi - most obvious homage to the real character, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, that have reigned unified Japan for 13 years before he died and yet another turnmoil affected the Japan. The said turmoil was insurgence of Ieyasu Tokugawa against the Hideyoshi Family and grasping the power for himself in the single battle known as Battle of Sekigahara.
All in all, the vanillia Kusari ressembled that exact period of the early Tokugawa Shogunate, in which new power grasped the power and reigned - being it a-like vanillia pro-Samura government beating out the pro-Kishiro government. The funniest thing is that during that post-Hideyoshi period of Japan, it was pretty likely that Japan would open itself completely - what was opposed to the Tokugawa's reign as he, after 15 years, decided to ban everything that is European and Christian.
Going back to the Kusari, Blood Dragons seems to be mix-up of two rebellious (loyalist) groups, one being the aforementioned Toyotomi Family's remains, the other being - what might suprise you - the loyalists of the Shogunate reign (1868 marked end of the Tokugawa Shogunate). If you watched The Last Samurai, which is kind of close-but-a-bit-wrongly-depicted reality of the true begin of the Meiji Period, you will know what I mean: the reign of the Shogunate went dull and the Emperor was placed as the major leader of the nation. In case of Blood Dragons and Kusari Naval Forces, things however seem to be just the calque of the actual beginning of the Tokugawa Family.
Going back to the topic, which is, "why Kusari is hard to comprehend as roleplay background"... It is simple yet a difficult answer. Kusari is modeled after two different eras that were mixed up and put into somekind of monster that is Kusari Empire and Kusari Republic - the latter however is form of mix-up between 1910s Chinese Republic (Emperor has been overthrown) and the actual national revolution in the Japan of 1930s, in which pro-Nationalists gained the leadership (Emperor became a puppet, once again).
The other problem in roleplaying Kusari was, and still is, the Japanese influence. We have valiant warriors, we have two megacorporations - that might be homage to the Japanese companies, Toyota and Suzuki being the most likely cases after I've done some research - certain "complicated" factions, such as GC or Hogosha. The very last faction is predominantly depicted as a criminal syndicate in space, known more widely under the name Yakuza. The golden age of that criminal syndicate is 1960s and 1970s, what is pretty inside the extreme advancement of the Japan in technology. Going back to the topic of the megacorporations, the actual Discovery Kishiro after the Kusari had the coup, more ressembles the zaibatsu, the group directly influencing (or lobbying) the government, rather than keiretsu - a group being simply a megacorporation.
The very last problem of the Kusari might be a rather non-Japanese reason, being ironically influenced by the Japanese pop-culture and prejudices, as term "Japanese" usually goes with the terms like "Anime/Manga" and overall culture and subculture connected with it. In shorter words, playing as Kusari - as I stated in the very beginning - might be wronly connected with people that could be called "weaboos".
To sum everything up. The difficulty in playing inside Kusari is predominantly connected with some knowledge regarding on how Japanese people would react, adding up some knowledge on the style that was or could have been an inspiration for both vanillia and Discovery Kusari. The house of Kusari is, overall, a bit more specific, more Eastern, more alien, that more familiar pro-Western culture houses. Even Gallia, that has been introduced in the mod, aside of being non-Sirian entity, is more familiar to the players rather than oriental house of (space) Rising Sun.
yeah, I always wondered how much thought microsoft/digital anvil put into the lore of this game, how each faction in Sirius symbolizes a part of humanity's history, or how much humanity refused to let go of it's past (the fact that each system and celestial object is named after something from Earth, whether it's a location or mythological creature).
Actually, reason behind writing that it was more about the possible homages and calques from the real history, with addition of some facts on why Kusari is kind of difficult to roleplay, wether it is Blood Dragons or one of the keiretsu. While the keiretsu are the easiest ones to roleplay, Hogosha is actually a different sort of philosophy behind that faction - same with Blood Dragons or non-vanillia Kusari Exiles, both being the most extreme cases on how roleplay something like that.
Actually, I am impressed that players did not turn the Kusari Democratic Republic into more obvious sort of ultranationalist totalitarian regime - because I think situation in Kusari should be a bit... nervous and uneasy.
I can't get rid of the feeling that Kusari Republic might be something alike the Cromwell's Republic, which lasted only 11 years before the monarchy has returned (in a restrained form).
What is the reason why you want the Kusari to be similar to history?
I mean it would make sense if Rheinland, Brettonia, and Liberty were similar... but they are not.
If you look at Freelancer and Discovery Freelancer, you will find some traces which might and will lead to the real history. All in all, you missed the goal of my essay in here. I wanted to show why Kusari is hard to roleplay and pointing out the real history was unevitable, because it screams with obvious homages - perhaps unseen to the people who aren't interested into such culture and history.
tl;dr - To understand the roleplay behind certain Kusari factions, you need small dose of understandment over the Japanese way of thinking (pretty different to our own), because of the style this house was modelled after. This isn't Liberty or Bretonia which we can reference to on basis of our own culture.
To add one more dime, look at Japan. Over one century they managed to fuse with the Western culture. But did they get rids of they roots? Of course not, they made a mixture that we can see today. No matter how much you would "westernize" Kusari, it will remain "that oriental house" in its spirit.
This has actually given me some ideas of how I could RP a Kusarian character. I have no such characters currently, as I had no ideas.
I love history. I plan to do it for a living, if I am lucky enough to find a job in that field.