Why Darkshadow?

I was walking around in a store with some old friends of mine, whom I hadn't seen in ages. (There was nothing peculiar about that, we used to all the time.) They were telling me how great it was to see me after such a long time (but that's a different story). As we were leaving the store, we were stopped by guards. I'm not talking security guards here, I'm talking about sword-toting, cloak-wearing, Shakespeare-talking (no offense intended to Shakespeare here, of course) mideval guards. They accused us of something - I'm not too sure on what - and took us away. Here the dream shifted forward in time (you know what I mean, everything just changes; where you just know that time has passed), and it was my friends and I in a cell. It seemed to me we had been there for some time - months, perhaps, maybe even longer. We were still joking around and talking about the old times (we were like that). A guard came in, and told us we were going free...something about not having evidence. Again, the dream shifted. I was suddenly outside, in the middle of nowhere, standing in a line of 99 (yes, I did actually count them). There was nothing all around; only this huge stone arch (really huge, it seemed at least 40 stories high), which we all passed through. As each man passed through, a guard (I suppose) was taking the manacles off. Yes, manacles, not handcuffs, but manacles - heavy metal armbands, with even heavier chains connecting the two. It seemed an interminable wait until I arrived to the stone arch...I was, of course, last in line (sheesh, I'm late to everything, even in my dreams). There was no one to be seen besides the guard; all the other prisoners had simply vanished as they passed through the arch. As I drew even with the guard, he spoke: "You I do not trust. I believe you did it. (did what? That, unfortunately, I never learned). So I will not release you from your bonds. Instead, I severe the chains (here he drew a sword and simply cut the chain as if it were but a hair). This is so all men everywhere will brand you for the traitor you are!" (traitor...I wonder what it was I was assumed of doing...?) At this pronouncement of my fate, the guard simply vanished. I stood under the arch, looking at the vast field of grass in front of me (brown; I think it was late summer). As I stood there, I perceived some kind of shadow standing next to me. Yes, a living shadow. I didn't turn to face it, somehow it seemed right. I then realized that the vista had changed to night. I do not know if it happened all at once, or if I had been standing there that long; at this point, the flow of time had ceased in my dream. I also realized that I was kneeling on the ground - again, I do not know if I had been all along, or if the scene just changed to this. The shadow was still there at my side, it had not disappeared in the abscence of light. I could see it out of the corner of my eye, it seemed to be faintly purple. Still I did not face it, just stared out at the stars. I then heard a voice. I believe it was the shadow speaking, though why, I don't know, because the voice came from everywhere at once. And this is what I was told:
At this point, I did stand, and I shouted with gladness (I don't really know why; I'm not given to just cheer when someone tells me to). But the voice was not through yet...
Here, I shouted "Yes! Yes, let it be known to all, I am Darkshadow, and I am on the way. I am...."