User:DarkAngel ZERO

David Westphal a.k.a DarkAngel_ZERO is a apsiring author and student at the University of Minnesota.

Contact Information
David can be reached via Email.

Pre-WarCraft Years
While not originally a WarCraft fan, David got his start in the WarCraft franchise back in 1997 with the first game in the series, WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. At the time, the generally slow nature of the game caused him to take more interest in the Command and Conquer series. In 1999, he began work on his first piece of fan-ficiton, set in the Command and Conquer universe. This project, known as "ZERO Level", would become his central focus for the next four years, and undergo several name and plot changes (becoming known as the "Codename: ZERO" series). Eventually, the outline for the project spanned a total of 12 separate parts, but never passed into the early writing stages. In 2004, the project was put on hold indefinetly, and the planned mod, "Codename: Raven", was scrapped.

The WarCraft Years
In 2004, shortly after the cancellation of his project, David was invited to join the World of Warcraft closed beta test. At this same time, he was also part of the Everquest 2 beta test. Testing both games allowed him to create an objective opinion on which game was a better investment. At first, he went with Everquest 2, but after about a month of playing, abaondoned the game and went with World of WarCraft. His first character was a recreation of his beta test character, a Night Elf Rogue. After a period of two months, David had managed to level his character to 60, and negotiated a merger between guilds to form "ÆON", his first raiding guild.

After having some internal issues with the guild, he left ÆON to join Forsaken Fate as per suggestion by his friends and fellow guildmates from ÆON, Felani, Snipafat, Elixera, and Orrick. Eventually, this guild would merge with Evident, which provided his first experience into "true" raiding. While in Evident, he was an active raider and head of research and development, field testing various mods and tactics to help with the raids. After months of raiding with Evident, the guild fell apart due to issues between the guild leader and another member who had hacked her account for personal matters. He then acted as a free-agent for another guild, Poreia, but when that guild crumbled, he joined Endless Hate (as per a suggestion by his old guildmates from his first guild, Lost Order of the Dragon. Hairy, Warstick, and Insomniac were the ones who helped him become immersed in the guild). After a long period of raiding, and and overall good times with many new (and old) friends, the leadership of Endless Hate was re-structured, and the guild was re-dubbed Eternal Prophets. From there, he attempted to keep on the cutting edge of knowledge for the guild, and would eventually gain his full Bloodfang Set.

However, this set completion would come at an awkward time. Due to his job at a local CompUSA, his raiding hours had been signifigantly reduced, almost to the point where many of those who had come to know him in Eternal Prophets would begin to question if he was still even playing. Despite reassuring them that he was indeed still active as best as he could, things seemed to take a turn for the worse following the release of Naxxramas. With little to no time dedicated to raiding, David found himself continually benched by his class leader during times at which he was available. Despite this, he continued to work as hard as he could to keep himself as a active member. He would, however, never attain a item of Tier 3.

Late one night, during the guild's first few Spider Wing attempts of the evening, he recieved a tell from one of his good friends and Paladin Class Secondary Leader, notifying him that the Rogue Class leader was making mention of cutting "inactive or useless members", but making no mention of Sarakesh in particular. While, at first, he attempted to hold out to see the outcome, his worries were later confirmed with the re-arrival of a former guild member and fellow rogue, who was given immediate priority into the raid over Sarakesh. Sensing his time with the guild had finally come to an end, David wished the guild best of luck, paid any debts back to the guild, and left on his own accord.

With his real life friends having previously transferred to another server, and no true reason to remain on Burning Legion, David transferred Sarakesh to the Sargeras server with hopes that the promises of a new raiding guild with his friends would come true. This, however, would later prove to be a curse.

Upon arrival, David found himself stuck in a situation more hostile than his previous one. As it turned out, the "leader" of the guild had accidentally dropped his computer following a mini LAN party, and had lost his ability to play his characters for nearly a month. While David and his friends would remain active on Sargeras until the guild master's computer could be repaired, those that had originally been slated to join the fledging guild would not be as patient, and eventually left to join guilds or even take a hiatus until the release of the Burning Crusade expansion pack. This would eventually boil down to a guild with few active members (an average of 3-4 at any given time) and even less to do aside from PVP and Alts. To this day, David has remained a part of this guild, but recently, a debate between what personal and public gain from the game itself would come into play.

Frustration with his friends would be his primary concern, as their lack of initiative to attain higher gear from any means other than the incredibly simplistic PVP system or non-raid instances would lead David to become more hostile towards them when discussions of who could beat who in a duel would come into play. With half the guildmembers dressed in what they deemed "leet gear", and the near-consistent "oooh" and "ahhhh" of those with Tier 3 items (yet utter lack of determination to aquire said items), David's frustration built at a much more rapid pace, and an eventual outburst of rage could occur at any moment.

With Burning Crusade on the horizon, and the bolsterous claims of his friend's "ownage" abilities in their BoE blues and PVP epics, the idea of transferring back to Burning Legion to be able to ride with the Prophets once again has become more and more of a possibility, and a potential aleviation to his frustrations. But for now, and to prevent the alienation of his friends, David has chosen to remain on Sargeras...

The Loremaster
Shortly before joining Endless Hate, David began to develop an interest in the lore behind the game, and started visiting sites like Blizzplanet and RP-PVP. From there, he slowly began to do his own research into the deep history within WarCraft. Feeling that he was missing something important, David went back and replayed all the WarCraft games sequentially, and took a few notes while playing. Because of his knowledge about the lore behind the game, David was given the unofficial title of Loremaster for Endless Hate, and is often asked various questions covering topics such as character backstory, game technical information, and unreleased content.

In December of 2005, David began reading the various books and publications that were related to WarCraft, in order to aide him in his latest project, "The Sixth Aspect", a new fan-fiction set six years after the end of WarCraft 3: Reign of Chaos. In a matter of one month, he read all seven novels (not including the e-book Of "Blood and Honor"), and read the most recent of the RPG books (World of Warcraft RPG, More Magic and Mayhem, and Lands of Conflict). This allowed him to aquire a greater understanding of the characters found in WarCraft's history, and aided him greatly in his work on "The Sixth Aspect".

The Index
The following books are available for use from David's personal index of Warcraft information. If you would like a citation or information check, please feel free to ask:

Pocket Books:

War of the Ancients (Trilogy)

The Last Guardian

Day of the Dragon

Lord of the Clans

Of Blood and Honor

Cycle of Hatred

Rise of the Horde

RPG Books:

Warcraft: Lands of Conflict

World of Warcraft: Lands of Mystery

World of Warcraft: Alliance Player's Guide

World of Warcraft: Horde Player's Guide

Warcraft: Shadows and Light

World of Warcraft Core

Warcraft: Magic and Mayhem

World of Warcraft: More Magic and Mayhem