The following challenge was posed to the heralds of the Outlands, and since there was very little 'competition' for this challenge, the answer follows immediately: "What five things would you tell a new herald as advice when it comes to heraldry?"

The compilation of answers (in order of number of times suggested) is as follows:

DRINK WATER: Proper hydration of your vocal chords will stave off loss of voice due to 'wear and tear'... but won't fix it if you're not breathing properly (see Number Three). Also, in the lands nearer to Argonia, proper hydration is also handy because of the dry and dusty air.

PRONUNCIATE/ENNUNCIATE: In the Outlands (and even other places), people have difficult names (re Wales). If you don't know how to say it... please don't 'make it up as you go along'. Ask someone else, or if you're reading off a tournament list, tell the fighters to correct you if you butcher their name. For this reason, carry a pen to annotate the cards. Also, be clear in your pronounciation by ennunciating, and making you words understandable. Affecting a fake accent, drawing out your vowels excessive, or using a megaphone will distort your words to the point of being unintelligible. Finally, don't rush through what you have to say. If you rush, your words will run together, and be useless. Either the people listening will be utterly confused, and ask what's going on, or they'll just hear this person yelling and mutter depricating comments about heralds; neither are the opitmal in any given situation.

BREATHE PROPERLY: One of the biggest mistakes in voice heraldry, particularly town crying and tournament-calling, is to yell without the proper breath-support. Yelling not only distorts your voice, it strains your vocal chords and causes you to loose your voice rapidly. The best way to breathe properly is to "breathe as if you are singing," or breathe from your stomach. The key to being loud is volume of air being pushed out, not how fast that air is moving (singing vs yelling). Breathe often as well, if you run out of air mid-sentance, you'll have to start over again, because it won't be understood.

HAVE FUN: If the herald looks and sounds like they don't want to be out there, doing this... it'll look and sound bad. If you got roped into this, make it seem like you're having fun until you're done, THEN have it out with the person who 'volunteer you'. If you smile while talking, you'll sound like you're having a good time, and others will be inclined to do the same. This doesn't mean intersperse your heraldry with jokes... Heralds aren't supposed to be stand-up comedians, you're there to be the Voice of the Crown, and let the populace know what's going on.

Now I realise that I've only got four responses, but that's because the remaining answers were both scatter-shot and only had one vote each, so they wouldn't compile into one coherent final comment. Again, I thank everyone for their help in this challenge, and I will be coming back soon with Challenge #5!