Hello there~! I figured I would introduce The Duality of Man since I believe it fills your points. We're an original fantasy role-play which has been open for a little over a year now. There are quite a few role-players with a vast majority being very polite and oftentimes searching for new plots to involve their characters into. Our plot also offers plenty to work with, especially for characters who live for thousands of years. I will do my best to explain it, but there are quite a few details to work with.

Around two thousand years ago began the war which decimated the peace between species, the war between Heaven and Hell. When Akari (Heaven's Goddess) and Volos (Hell's God) began a large scale war, people began betraying one another to fight for the god they believed in. The war went down in history as the War of Traitors and was a brutal brawl which was fought on Earth, the gateway between Heaven and Hell. After two-hundred years of dealing with the war, the Earth god, Enki, was forced to search for a way to cease the destructive fighting. He spoke with both Akari and Volos, but each side refused to stop the war and bring peace to the dimensions. With little choice, Enki turned to the god of Purgatory, Thanatos. Their solution was to seal Akari and Volos to their realms, closing the gates between Hell and Heaven's gateways to Earth. They were successful, the gates being sealed so nobody could enter the dimensions and nobody could leave. After sealing the gates, Thanatos was forced to return to his realm while Enki hid away and drifted into a deep sleep. Once the gods disappeared, the species on Earth began only seeing the differences of one another, the scars of the war running deep.

Years past, the war sparked a need for a revolution in the eyes of one woman who would later be feared by all. In 1454, a woman named Zeredah stated things needed to change and promised happiness to all. At first, there were people agreeing with the statement until Zeredah displayed why people needed to fear her. The enforcers of her ideas were shadow creatures of varying shape and mutated animals with metal implements. The rules became more strict as she proceeded to explain, and while some agreed, a majority decided to fight against Zeredah. The sudden brawl was brief, but they managed to push away the sickening creatures, although, a new war was on the horizon. After her loss, Zeredah formed the Assembly of Phantoms (AP) and became more determined to spread her ideas across the globe and to fight against her, the Terror Response Syndicate (TRS) was formed. Alas, the scars of the past continue to cause fights among the TRS, with some cities, like Lorsette, wondering if they were survive the years in the future. Are you a hero or a villain? And are you prepared to show the duality of man?

As of character spotlights, I personally leave a lot of high-ranking roles in the TRS open for members to take. The only character which is controlled solely by staff is Zeredah for the purpose of starting plot-based events and to avoid somebody suddenly stating she wants peace and defusing our primary conflict entirely. Even then, she is more of a hidden character who does not interact much. We do have a few members planning plots and when plot events come up, I try to keep them open to allow mass joining from members and staff alike. This is actually due to similar pet-peeves, although, this was more geared towards site-wide plots which only invoked certain members and made it difficult for newbies to join in. For myself, it occasionally gets boring when you cannot get remotely involved in any events because you must know so and so when the said person may not be able to have a thread with you specifically so you can get involved.

Anyways, I wish you luck on your search and if TDOM does not work, that you at least find a nice place to roleplay~! c: