Nightshade

One of Nightshade's many "marks", which they hide around urban areas to communicate with one another.

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### Base of Operations

* Tokyo
* New York
* Manchester
* Various others

### Founded

2056

**Nightshade** is an infamous faction of black market merchants and assassins that operate all over the world. Leaders in the smuggling of illegal contraband, they are known to pay the homeless to be their eyes and ears, providing Nightshade with key information on competitors, customers, and the authorities.

Nightshade is a well-known supporter of Activita, mainly due to the business in selling weapons and equipment to them. Due to this, Activita has agreed to not charge Nightshade for the illegal trading of contraband once they overthrow the Coalition.

## Organization

### Recruitment

Recruits (often known as "envoys") are oftentimes young adults from poor backgrounds, or freelance criminals in search of better pay. Most times, the recruits search out Nightshade on their own, hearing about them in rumors and gossip. This allows the faction to stay safe in the shadows, avoiding any run-ins with the authorities. Recruits are often challenged with an "initiation job", usually consisting of carrying out a trade deal, intercepting a package, or even directly attacking a competitor. Those that succeed are allowed entry into Nightshade. Those that do not often find themselves incarcerated, if not killed.

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### Ranking & Structure

Nightshade is loosely structured, with only a few different ranks for members to reach. This system provides the illusion that just about everyone has the same rights and privileges, which not only increases productivity, but boosts morale as well.

Envoys, being the lowest rank, have very little power in the faction. Mavens are entrusted with enough power to lay orders on the Envoys. Spectres are very high ranking officials that only take orders from elite members of Nightshade, of whom gained their titles by being personally accepted by the Warden(s).

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### Leadership

The highest ranking leader (or leaders) of Nightshade are known as the Wardens. The Warden assumes the place of the previous one after they have died, retired, or been expatriated from Nightshade. To do this, one must be a Spectre or an elite official, and have been voted in by a majority of the guild. Wardens have ultimate power over the guild, and can only be outed by a majority vote that can be initiated by anyone over the rank of Maven.

## Defense Procedures

Most members of Nightshade are self-armed and trusted not to get killed on the line of duty, though sometimes missions are too important to entrust unto just one or two individuals. On important operations, a group of armed security guards are provided.

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### Deadly Nightshades

When an mission calls for precision and high levels of expertise, the faction deploys deadly assassins known as "The Deadly Nightshades". These extremely skilled assassins are no only the most feared members of Nightshade, but also the most sparse. There are only 102 Deadly Nightshades in the world, and training more is not on anyone's priority list. Each assassin has been trained in various martial arts, including Karate, Kung-Fu, Kickboxing, Capoeira, and various others. Not only this, but each Nightshade has been specifically selected from mercenary groups and special forces units across the globe. They truly are some of the deadliest fighters Nightshade has to offer.

## Trivia

* Nightshade does not produce their own technology, but instead, modifies preexisting products under their own name. Most of their equipment can be identified by a single purple stripe going down the side.
* As of 2080, Nightshade has had two Wardens leading it; Anais Groves and Christopher "Twitchy" Groves.