This is my own experience coming to the server:
I had a friend who played here that tried to get me to play for several years and I finally decided to give it a try. They didn't play with me at first and I was on my own. Another friend did decide to play with me and abandoned the server after the first day because they were unhappy with the leveling system. So, Day 2 I was completely on my own. I roleplayed my character, she met like minded individuals and made friends, none of whom I knew OOCly. The one person on the server I knew OOCly decided to take a break so on an ooc level, I was totally alone.
I really enjoyed the roleplay of various individuals I saw and, after a month of being on the server, the NCE hit. I made a new character and joined it. The NCE is by far my favorite time of the year on POTM, I have enjoyed both NCEs thoroughly. I made my character with another player who I didn't really know but it turned out amazing. My character met a lot of people that I roleplayed and dungeoned with, and I eventually made a lot of friends on an ooc level as well. I've made several characters since then.
One character I had that I did differently on was Juliette Germain. She was not a very social character and upset far more people than she made friends with, up until the very end from some very persistent Ezrites. She's the character I have not had as much fun on because I felt very limited (self-imposed, I admit).
My advice to you is, make a character concept that is at least somewhat social, especially as your first character. They can meet others, hang out, dungeon, etc. Maybe even join a faction since factions are IC and not OOC. I think you'll have far more fun.
Just like on every server/game, there are going to be groups of people who enjoy playing with each other. That doesn't mean they won't play with others or that you have to join one to be able to enjoy the game. I like to think I play with everyone, especially people I don't know. While I do have people I love playing with most, I ABSOLUTELY love playing with people I oocly haven't interacted with before and I've found that this server is extremely friendly on an ooc level, especially to new players.
Sometimes concepts don't pan out ic the way you want them to and that's okay! The great thing about POTM is that it's so big and full of unique spots that just about any concept you have will be accepted somewhere. You only need to look. I hope you make friends IC so you can enjoy the server as much as I do and I look forward to seeing you in game, Somma!