The world of Nightshade is a modern day Earth that's on the cusp of a quiet apocalypse.
Extra-terrestrial invaders that lucid humans call Cheshires have come to Earth. Unlike regular invaders, they're not interested in controlling the planet. Very simply, it's made of atoms that they can use for something else, and they will happily consume all of Earth at a leisurely pace… except the water. Pure water doesn't agree with them. Thankfully, that's only a problem on the surface - most Cheshires have settled far subsurface. Those that haven't have sectioned the surface of the planet into territorial claims and are playing with some of their food: The human inhabitants of Earth.
Most humans have been rendered harmless by what the lucid humans call “curiosity toxin”, a strain of nanites infecting the water supply that strips humans of their natural curiosity. Anything not encoded into routine or preconceived aspirations goes largely ignored, and a poisoned human reacting to a Cheshire torturing would not react differently than to any other wild animal mauling them. As to better play with them, Cheshires selectively reverse the effect of the nanites in select human subjects, hoping to make them a little more entertaining.
But the water is a problem. It's making some Cheshires sick. Out of scientific curiosity (rather than empathy, which Cheshires don't have for each other), one Cheshire has been experimenting both with animals and humans, trying to isolate what makes them tolerate pure water and transfer it to Cheshires. Every once in a while, his experiments adopt sentience. More rarely, they learn to rebel. Even more rarely, they manage to escape him alive. Those that do are the Thorns - strange hybrid-creatures that stand at least some physical chance of withstanding the Cheshires.
Nightshade is what the Thorns that have decided to oppose the Cheshires call themselves, along with their human allies.
Most of Nightshade plays in and around Paris, in summer time, in the above setting. The primary Parisian known Cheshires are Lambda and Theta. Most of Nightshade is in this area, trying to make their first difference.
There's no overarching plot other than 'have fun'. If you're unsure what we're trying to achieve, I recommend taking a look at the “atmosphere” article to give you an idea of the direction.
Players are welcome to play any of the following without asking:
You should talk to a gamemaster before attempting to create:
Thorns and Parisian Cheshires are definitely allowed, we just want to make sure you know what you're doing with them, since they come with constraints.
Generally speaking, we encourage character sharing. Nonetheless, the default is that a character belongs solely to the player that created the character. This default ownership expires if the player leaves the game or is absent for a very long time - the gamemasters can transfer the characters to NPCs then.
Shared characters will be marked as public or collaborative on their character page.
For shared characters, dibs still go to the original owner if they are playing. Beyond that, for the duration of a session, a character will belong to the player that first plays them, unless otherwise agreed.