I think the big thing that's making this story hard to understand at some points is that the author does not do exposition. There's no information dumps, and we barely ever have characters talking about the "state of affairs" in the world. Most characters speak with each other as they would normally; that is to say, they don't explain things because these characters already know what's going on, and it would be redundant to repeat it. But for us readers, it makes it a bit of a struggle as we have to piece together motives and goals as each chapter comes along, and the time frame between chapters makes it harder to remember where our speculation was at before.
It's a valid way to write a story, but it definitely puts the burden of the story on the reader.