Yep, you should pick a faction that you like and apply. Different clans roleplay different things, and some don't roleplay at all. If you want to join strategus, you might want to consider clans that are active and large enough to effectively play strategus.
Some examples of North American Clans:
PROs (the self-proclaimed pro players of crpg who all joined together in attempts to make the game easier than it already is) ;3
NH (strict hardcore follow all orders and get barked at by self-proclaimed tacticians - always working together clan)
RL (Samurai/Ninja only clan that is pretty much recovering from heavy losses to its roster)
Hospitallers (Probably the most active clan in the North American servers. Has the most active members I believe. They RP knights hospitallers >.> kinda)
Astralis (A well-rounded clan with a good active player base. Lots of variety as far as the gear they use.)
SemenSTORM (Troll clan consisting of one of the most, if not the most, annoying builds in the game - a mounted xbowman)
FIDLGB (A pub clan as far as I know. They just get on to have fun, not sure about any uniforms, gear restrictions, or roleplay).
Occitain (French speaking Canadians. They are a pretty good bunch.)
Hyrule (A not so new, recently made official clan of hylians. We just roleplay characters from the Legend of Zelda series.)
Krea (A Queendom clan with a very strict gear requirement consisting of only the Queen, Queensguard, and a countess. - Female characters only)
CHAOS (A once great clan, (might still be) that has suffered heavy losses to its roster recently (from what I can tell).
AoW (Mostly a 2h longsword stab clan. Pretty skillful bunch, but you might be the oddball if you use anything other than a 2h sword.) - I could be wrong.
TKoV (A well-rounded clan I suppose. They have plenty of members with different builds and are active in strategus)
That is all I can think of off the top of my head. Hopefully no clans rage at me >.> but there you have it.
Really, you would probably want to play a few weeks and see which clans are most active during the times that you tend to play. No point in joining a clan that isn't online when you are.