Tomorrow is Caid’s Twelfth Night celebration, at which two things involving me will happen. (No doubt a great number of other things involving other people will also happen, but I know less about them.) First, I will be made a Herald (note the capital letter). In many kingdoms, heraldic ranks (Herald, Pursuivant, Macer, etc.) are attached to particular offices. When you serve in that office, you hold that rank. In Caid, titles are attached to offices, but ranks are attached to people and indicate levels of proficiency. (You can read the Caid College of Heralds rank policy if you want to.) I currently serve in the office of Dolphin and have the rank of Pursuivant, ergo I am Dolphin Pursuivant. Tomorrow I will become Dolphin Herald. So that’s pretty cool. There’s a whole ceremony based on a period text that involves swearing a series of oaths and getting some water dumped on your head, and one of my friends will be becoming a Pursuivant as part of the same ceremony, so I’m looking forward to it.

The second thing is that I will competing to become the next Bard of Caid. This competition is held once a year, and usually involves four performances. This year those four are: a historical piece, an original composition about an event occurring within the last two years, a piece that you consider your best, and on-site composition involving three words that will be announced in opening court. Last year’s was the first of these competitions I had seen, and I immediately knew that I wanted to be involved this year. While I certainly would like to win, it is not so important to me whether or not I become the next Bard of Caid. The important thing is that I give a performance worthy of the Bard of Caid. If someone else comes out and presents something that just blows mine away, there is nothing that I can do about that, and it would in no way diminish the work that I do. My goal is for people (and, perhaps most importantly, me) to think, after they have seen me perform, “That guy could be a pretty good Bard of Caid.”

Wish me luck.