WELCOME TO THE NIGHTSIDE - FAQ AND SETTING

[nightside]

Where am I?
You're in the Nightside of course. Upon arriving, your character will blearily wake up at the epicenter of what looks to be a City Square. Complete with very trying-to-live trees, a fountain in the middle, and streets that go off in every direction, the biggest thing your character's eyes are going to be attracted to is a giant sign that sits gaudily over the entrance to the most lit up street. It features a scrawny, bird-like man with spread out wings and curled antlers poking out from under messy locks of deep pink hair.


Welcome to the Nightside. We're all in this together.

You seem to be in one piece. You're wearing the last outfit you remember having. Maybe your last memories aren't exactly being kidnapped and dropped into what looks like a derelict city, though. Were you last run through with a sword? Jump off a cliff? Go for a nap? Left to go shopping?

Well, whatever happened between then and now, you're here now. No worse for wear, either. No wounds from any possible fight you were in the middle of. And if you are sure you were dead previously, well. You're not now. Weird.

Your personal belongings? Not on you. You don't have your weapon, or your bookbag--your cellphone or that lucky rock you always keep in your pocket. No, actually, upon searching yourself, you come up with just these items, all of which you don't recognise:

A handheld communicator. Even if you're from a fantasy setting, weirdly, you know what this is for. It's already in your brain, which is unsettling, at worst. It can be used to send messages across the network, or privately, to individuals--so long as you know their username. It doesn't have a keyboard either, but you know that if you hold a finger or thumb over the touchpad, any thoughts you have can be converted to text. All of which are conveniently translated when received by others, of course! Can't write? No problem. The machine does it for you. Can't read? Don't worry about it--there's a function that will read it out for you, if necessary. This communicator can also send voice and video calls. Record messages to send out to others, and even send out anonymous messages. Convenient, right?

Moneypurse. A cute little raven-black wallet or purse, depending on how you're feeling, is in your possession. The type of money that's in it is money that your character is used to! Nightside takes all sorts of currency, so don't worry about it. However, while your kidnapper seems generous, he isn't stupid. The money inside is probably enough to last you about a week for food or other necessities. Run out, and you're on your own. Find a job. There are plenty of jobpostings around the Nightside if you just Look.

A Map! See, isn't the king nice? He isn't here to watch you get hopelessly lost. Even though you will, even with this thing in your pocket.

And that's it. You have nothing else on your person. Who knows if you can get it back. No harm looking, right?


Why am I Here?
That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. All you know is that you weren't here before, and you are now. You also have a feeling that someone named the Raven King is involved. But that's it. You can't even picture what the Raven King looks like, but your memory IS drawn towards that large billboard you saw earlier...

What do I do, now?
It's still your life. Figure it out for yourself.
Noone's certainly going to do your work for you.

What is the Nightside?

The game's setting is a place known as the "Nightside", a strange metropolis located nowhere in particular -- but they say the basis of the city took reference from the city of London and its surrounding atmosphere. Once someone has wandered into the Nightside, there's no guaranteed way out; it could be a strange pause in your old life, or this could become your new life. Whatever it is, the fact is that people don't typically choose to come live in the Nightside. The city chooses them.

How you got to the Nightside is unclear. Mayhaps you passed through a familiar door, distracted, and faced forward only to see a brand new world before you and the gateway behind you gone. Or perhaps, a terrible rift tore open the air above you, and it dragged you in, only to spit you out into the city's horrid streets. Or better yet, the path just appeared to you one day, inviting, and you took it, out of curiosity or from lack of care in your original world, not anymore. There are many ways to get into the city, of course -- a city needs citizens to function, and the city is always hungry.

Once you find yourself in, you might never go home. You might as well consider this your new home, right away.

As mentioned, the Nightside is a metropolis, whose structure is similar to that of London and its surrounding cities. It is contained in a pocket dimension between realities, never truly existing in any other world than its own -- this is proven by the furthest borders of the Nightside, which drop off into the darkest abyss, no further territory to be found but darkness. At the very least, though, there is more than plenty to see and to do within the city itself, as well as its immediate surroundings. The city, ever-hungry for more, continues to take and consume things from the outside with rarely a way for them to get out; as such, there's plenty of beings and things that have learned to make a living here instead. The contents of this melting pot reaches beyond different cultures, even going to different times, different worlds, different realities -- it's not uncommon at all to see overworked Chinese businessmen circa 2008, sharing train cars with Arthurian knights with shining carbon fiber armor and circuited swords.

The city gives ample opportunities for new citizens to adjust and assimilate, too. As they say, what happens in the Nightside, stays in the Nightside... maybe. There are plenty of experiences for the citizens to pursue, from the bustling Uptown for the honest, to the lurking Downtown for those less so who have gone their stray ways. If urban life isn't quite for you, the city was ever so kind enough to even supply a stretch of forests, lakes, mountains, and whatever else for a short distance surrounding the city -- but be wary, as some of these places are outside the jurisdiction of the city, and you're out of their protection.

Also, of course -- the place is called the Nightside after all, for a reason: a majority of the city is always night, a heavy and black sky hanging over with a moon far too large, watching down on the metropolis like a huge eye. Strangely, but perhaps also fortunately, there are some sections of the city that seem to alternate between day and night, the dark sky parting to shine sunlight down upon these areas only.

The supernatural and the strange run rife here. Monsters wander the street, as if they're just citizens themselves. Wolf packs that don't quite seem like wolves dash through the streets. The cars that pass have headlights that look more like eyes than they do higbeams. And you're certain you just saw a centipede the size of your leg just scuttle into a sewer grate.

This place is dangerous, and the streets are just as much the city as it is a nightmare. Th chaos and danger is mundane here, and a cry for help is oft ignored as your perils are your own. Noone here will die for you, unless they really have a sense of justice.

Or, maybe it will become your goal to protect the weak and failing from what dangers might lurk here.
Either way, this is your life now. Better get used to bringing a weapon with you.

For general references to what's in the city itself, please refer to the Locations folder.



If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I'll be happy to answer them.