“I have lived a thousand lives in a thousand worlds. I’ve been praised, deified, cursed and murdered. My actions shook the foundations of the existing order, both divine as mortal, while my inactions reaped souls beyond count. I was of royal blood but also the brother of an indentured servant. Yesterday I explored an entire realm while today I can barely lift a hatchet. In my youth I conquered the hearts of any fair maiden, though when I’m old I’ll be counsel to those who would hear it. These young bones possess no virtues but the mundane, age crippled my life. To those who heard these accounts, I’m a villain of the worst nightmares. To others though I’m a hero, born to save them. I am the reader therefore I am.” 

Participants have until the end of Tuesday the 15^th of November 2011 GMT to upload their specific entry for the competition. Upload your submissions to the ‘Literature’ section. Choose ‘Anniversary Literature Competition 2011’ in the category (Entries will be accepted from the 10^th of October 2011 on).
(NB: If you haven't submitted a story yet, you should ask Guillaume le Courageux or Uther Di Asturien the clearance to be able to post new articles).
 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 create a thread to discuss your story in the subforum ‘The Hall of the Bards’. Keep in mind though that only submissions to the 'Literature’ section count and you cannot change it anymore (at least until after the competition).
Also don’t forget that you can read last year’s entries in the ‘Literature’ section: search in the annual ‘Anniversary Literature Competition’ category.

The Rules

Each member can submit at most one submission

1. Your submission must be related to Bretonnia and be set entirely in the Warhammer World.
2. 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!
3.  The story should at least be one page (+/-1000 words) and at the most three pages (+/- 3000 words) long.
4. 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.
5. 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?