The organization calling itself Operation CWAL remains in theory what it was when the first story was posted on the battle.net forums all of three years ago- a number of authors writing stories that star the members of a paramilitary organization, the nature of which range from chainsaw-wielding beavers to individuals who have a talent for reappearing unharmed whenever they are killed (and usually die often, in a messy fashion, at the hands of their peers), also known as cannon fodder, to mages with pyromanic tendancies, to... well, you get the idea. Since the arrival of Brood War to shelves, CWAL has drifted from its origins to becoming a sort of shared universe that has drifted possession through almost a hundred hands in its lifespan.

CWAL operates out of a reconstructed Starbucks coffee house in Irvine, California, which is convienient because almost every CWALer is addicted to some form of caffiene, a direct result of their playing Starcraft, Half-Life, Diablo II, and other computer games, and because Blizzard is just a block away so it's rather easy to launch attacks. However, when evil calls, CWAL is usually the organization that gets involved in resisting its advance, whether the source of the darkness be a megalomaniacal software company, an evil demigod seeking full deific status, or a shipment of Mountain Dew run three days late.

Of course, with as many people wielding enough firepower to supply a Third World nation gathered in one place as there is in CWAL, they manage to cause havoc on their own. The mere presence of Emperor Maggott is headache enough, but when all of CWAL is considered as a whole, it's easy to see why real estate agents make a killing selling cheap apartments and houses to unsuspecting couples.

Those characters new to CWAL are often shoved down into the admittedly very large basement called the Newbie Dungeon, home of the Newbie Patrol NP, where they get to serve the vets (aka any CWALer who is not a Newbie) as well as be generally harassed by them.

CARV was formed before the Newbie Patrol by a number of new CWALers who were feeling dissatisfied with their newbie status left CWAL and turned their characters into mercenaries working out of the abandoned OEEP headquarters.

OEEP is one of CWAL's more recent rivals- while numerically smaller than CWAL itself, OEEP has a certain goal that they will stop at nothing to achieve- and what else would that goal be but world domination?

As with any writing, a number of independant evils lurk about, pursuing their own agendas that usually are directly opposed to CWAL's stated goals of drinking coffee and playing Starcraft.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.