So, taking stock. After doing all the transcription (and lots of enhancement along the way), I now have about 20 significant factions, 34 significant plots and 104 character archetypes. That's not as many as it sounds like, and it's not enough yet -- a character archetype is just an aspect of a character, and I usually need several to make a really well-rounded one. (And this game is both large and complex.) But it's not a bad start, and there are several actual characters on top of that.
So I'm definitely making progress. Now comes the hard part: finishing the job of fleshing this whole thing out...