My name is Sir Guillaume d’Atainville, a knight in search for the holiest of relics. It’s been three years, avid reader, since I left hold and kin in pursuit of visions. Two weeks since I stumbled upon a crumbled keep in the depths of a foreboding forest with no name. A discovery which seem to claw its way out of the mists of time and back into memory. Few and obscure short tales still exist still of this place and I find myself in the company of legends. According to the records the ruins are the remains of the long-lost keep of Earl Cadfael, the great compromiser. Hundreds of years ago one have to imagine the halls filled with knights, hailing from all corners of our young nation, the stables filled with purebred chargers, servants running in all directions to serve their masters’ needs. Uplifting music dwelled the corridors and great hearths warmed the minds of mortal men. This was a great gathering of the finest warriors of the land. I stood at a stout oaken table in the main hall, curved round as to indicate the seating of peers, and reminisced that Bretonnia was better for it.
Participants have until Sunday the 31st of October 2010 to upload their specific entry for the competition. Upload your submissions to the ‘Literature’ section. Choose ‘Anniversary Literature Competition 2010’ in the category (Entries will be started to be accepted from the 1st of October 2010 on).
(NB: If you haven't send in a story before this, you should ask Guillaume le Courageux the clearance to send in new material).
If you want other members to proofread the first draft and listen to their opinions in order to build the strongest story, you are free to do so in The Hall of the Bards. Keep in mind though that only the submissions to the 'Literature’ section count and you can't change your submission after sending it in (until after the competition). Don’t forget that you can read last year’s entries in the ‘Literature’ section in the ‘Anniversary Literature Competition’ category.
The Rules
- Each member can submit at most one submission. I. Your submission must be related to Bretonnia and be set entirely in the Warhammer World.
- Your submission must be a new one: i.e. you may not have submitted it to the literature section here or on another website in the past. Plagiarism will not be tolerated!
- The story should at least be one page (+/-1000 words) and at the most three pages (+/- 3000 words) long.
- Please use a standard font (Times New Roman 12, Calibri 11 or use the default font styles in the Editor when sending in the article), standard interpunction and interlines.
- It should be a stand-alone short story with no ties to other stories.
Here are the four criteria the Judges will base themselves on to grade your submission:
- Creativity (20): how creative and fresh was your story? Did it enthral the reader or was it more like a newspaper article? Another damsel-in-distress story or a true ballad of heroism? Does the story have a certain depth or is it a walk from point A to point B?
- Readability (10): How well written was your piece in fact? Was it a smooth read or was the reader's experience hampered by too many interpunctions, degradations and so on?
- Consistency (10): Does the entire story add up or is the reader lost in the many contradictions? No plotholes or does the character's colour of hair change with every page for example? Is the usage of tenses correct or does the writer change between past and present?
- Correctness (10): Is the story conform with the rules set out for the competition or did the writer choose his own path at his own risk?
The Staff of the RoundTable wishes the inspiration of the muse to you and good luck.