All right, I'll give it a shot.

The story:

So, originally the story began with an organization of animal spies called the Fur And Feathers Association, or FAFA, in their struggle against the Brazen Inquiry Guild, or B.I.G., scientists who conducted cruel experiments on their kind. I wasn't there for most of it, so I'm not clear on what happened in the early days, but it came to light that there were six ancient beings known as the Powers, who were born from a flower that was the first thing to exist. They created all the world's beings. They are Caelani, the gryphon and Power of Wing, Ecio, the clawed serpent and Power of Claw, Ayearth, the sea serpent and Power of Fin, Sylvia, the unicorn and Power of Hoof, Lunee, the angel wolf and Power of Howl, and Claaws, the dragon and Power of Darkness/Fang. They each have two other forms, an animal and a musical instrument, although I'm not sure what all of them are, and an animal guardian for when they are in their instruments.

There also was born from the golden flower a fairy named Celesti. She was the first PowerFriend, and could turn into a human. She went to live among the humans a while after they were created, and married a king named Catastrophe. He was, or became, evil and powerful. He fought the Powers and strove to kill them, but the Powers retreated into their instrument forms, becoming dormant until they were played. And that is how the BIG captured Caelani; by imprisoning his Guardian Zephyra and playing the flute to activate him. He escaped his cage, and I don't recall what happened next.

I think the next few months was a big power struggle, if you'll pardon the pun, with new species, organizations and armies popping up left and right. The BIG, the Society Of Concerned Scientists, Catastrophe, the Mutant Army, the Resistance... I have no idea how to summarize it all here, so go check out the Story So Far? thread in the Power of Claw, accessed by clicking on the Power of Claw symbol at the top of the home page. I and others made an attempt to begin there. There is also a post about the most recent happenings on the last page of it. 

Charries (and what that means):

Charries is short for characters. There are a lot of those. Read The Who's here? thread to find out who most of them are. I will attempt to cover a few of the older, more prominent ones here, with a focus on those who are still active. Sorry if anyone feels left out, causing such things is not my intent. 

Icy and her twin Anwen are descended from Celesti, and are the current PowerFriends. They are very closely involved with the Powers and will do just about anything to protect them. 

Ronan is the son of Catastrophe, but not evil. His father now wants him dead, and also I ship him with Icy.

shadow, also known as Maria Rachel Brown, was the first homo avian (a type of human with wings), and a rogue fighter against BIG, the SOCS and Catastrophe. She was also the Angel of Death, able to grant immortality and bring the dead back to life, but she gave away her powers to someone who's since died. shadow/Maria herself has died at least twice and revived in various ways, the most recent being a contract with Death involving no wings and a promise to take five very specific lives.

Mina is shadow's best friend and a Dolor Felis, a species of cat-people or upright cats. She is currently a Resistance General and Queen of her kind. 

Alexandria is shadow's younger sister, who was raised in the SOCS academy as a multitalented assassin. She escaped upon discovering her true identity and joined the Resistance. We thought she died once, but it turned out that was a body double.

Elliot was a vampire and the ruler of SailHaven, a steampunk island in the sky. He was a vampire and once went insane and evil and then died and then came back and then died for real.

Poe Allen was Elliot's main officer and I ship him with Alexandria, but he died. At least twice.

Sprocket is a vampire mechanic from SailHaven, invented automatons and had a lot of adventures with shadow, Icy and others. 

Cornelia Hornshaw is an admin-created charrie and the founder/leader of the BIG.

Headmistress Rigga was the head of the SOCS Academy and is now dead.

Feel free to ask if there are any more charries you want to know about!

Website stuff and customs (how it works):

Threads are these groups of pages of comments. Comments can be in-character role-plays (RPs) that continue the story, or out-of-charrie discussion. To comment, click on the "Add new Comment" button under the thread description. There is also a "Reply" button in the bottom right corner of every comment that you can click on to reply to someone else's comment, which is just like commenting, but the post will show up thinner and under the comment you're replying to, as a way of making it clear who you're talking to. Comments don't show up immediately, because the admins review them first to make sure no one is posting anything hurtful.

There is a glitch in the RP Board that causes the first comment on a thread to move the thread to the last page of the board, which is like a giant thread itself. This is one reason why people post variations on "Top"; the second comment will bring the thread back to the first page. Another reason is that the more often people comment on a thread, the closer it will get to the top of the first page of the RP Board. Threads on the first page are commented on more often. If you post the first comment on a thread, it is polite to come back a little later and post the second, as I plan to now. Posting the second right away does nothing, strangely.

It is also common to write the words and actions of other people's characters when you RP. However, purposely writing about others' characters doing things that are not normal for them without an acceptable in-story explanation is considered rude.  

There are few rules, and very basic; these are listed on the Rules page.

To post art, open the My Art section below the space where you write comments. Then click on Choose File, select the picture you want to post, and click Upload. Then submit your comment as usual.

You may come across posts that speak of Captcha pets. These are representations or embodiments of the things that generate the image codes you have to type in before submitting a post. Everyone has their own, and some adopt them as pets, give them names, appearances and personalities, and report what they say. For example, mine is named Mexi, and she's a little cat-dragon. Right now she says efaw. I don't know what that means. I can only sometimes understand her.

How to start: 

Joining Kyngdom is easy. Just create a character and start posting. Or read things until you have enough information, and then do that. Authors and characters are separate, and you can have more than one. Some people write the name of the character they're RPing as at the beginning, which I find helpful. But I digress.

You can start role-playing by thinking of what your character would do in Kyngdom and then writing it down from their point of view. Others may join, or you can join others. If you have any questions, just post them. Hope this helps!