I think I get it now. So, on Alderaan, would be faction specific, because any republic or empire character can perform these missions? But on the same planet, all the class specific stuff takes place across the board.

Awesome! Thanks to both of you who responded. I guess that all 8 stories are supposed to be happening at the same time? That's pretty neat. I guess what made me doubt that was planets like Alderaan.

I've beaten the game with at least 3 characters and I still feel like I didn't pick up half the stuff on this thread. Also, I'm still confused as to how each of the individual story-lines connect. For example, are the Republic stories all connected? If so, do these stories conflict with the Imperial story-lines? Or is it that all 8 story-lines happen together and there's 4 heroes on both sides? An example of this issue would be So I really don't know how to look at the story, or how it was intended to be viewed.