We, Béla King by right of arms and Nerissa Queen by grace and favor send heartfelt greetings to the glorious Outlands.

We hope this missive finds you all in good health and good spirits. We know that We would all rather be making last minute preparations for Battlemoor but that is not to be this year. While We miss you all and are sad that We will get very few, if any, opportunities to be with you this summer, We are still very proud of how Our Kingdom has continued to follow social distancing and health guidelines, even while performing their civic duties to stand up and fight against injustices that plague our modern society. Thank you all for having civil conversations about topics of great importance, where passions run high. No society or Kingdom is perfect, but through civil discourse and a dialogue of honest and hard conversations we can all move things in a positive direction. Thank you all for making Our jobs easier.

As you all are aware, there are positions of great honor in Our Court that are determined by a competition. The current Kingdom Champions in the various disciplines are:
Royal Archer: Lord Louchelan de Hay
Kingdom Equestrian Champion: Mistress Arabella da Siena
Kingdom Arts and Sciences Champion: The Honorable Lady Marion Forrester
Windhover Bard: Lord Ronan na f-Fiacal mac Conaill
Warlord: Duke Darius of Jaxartes

All these fine gentles have continued to perform their duties and have done much to help their respective communities. Their continued dedication to their fields of endeavor and to the Outlands is worthy of Our praise and admiration and deserves Our love and respect.

These positions are typically held for a year and then a new Champion is found. Unfortunately, with the cancelation of so many events, the competitions to find new champions have been canceled as well. We have reached out to all Our Champions and had conversations with how to best move forward for them and their positions.

It has been decided that Mistress Arabella and Lord Louchelan will remain as Champions until a new Champion can be found at Battlemoor in 2021. We thank them for being willing to continue the duties and responsibilities of their position!

Our Windhover Bard, Lord Ronan has served the Outlands wonderfully and has decided that it is best to find a new Windhover Bard. We thank him for his dedication to the Outlands, his willingness to perform story time with the children during Our courts, and his passion for the bardic arts. We understand his decision and We support it, to that end We will be hosting two regional bardic competitions through digital means. This will allow Us to find a regional winner from the south and the north, those regional winners will perform in person at Fall Crown Tournament where the new Windhover Bard will be chosen. Please look for announcements from Lord Ronan with the details on how to enter each of the regional competitions. We look forward to seeing and hearing the best the Outlands bards have to offer during the process to find a worthy successor!

Our Warlord, Duke Jaxx, who is in Our Opinion, the greatest Warlord ever, shall remain as Warlord. His Grace will find a suitable event next summer in which to find someone worthy to carry Thunderhead in Our court. However, as his Grace is a man of action and does not wish to rest as Warlord it has been decided that starting in October, should any fighter feel they would make a better Warlord than Duke Jaxx, they may petition the Warlord and the Crown for the right to challenge for the position. Should your petition be found to have merit and be worthy, you will face Duke Jaxx in honorable combat with seven different weapon styles. This will be fought best two out of three per weapon style and the victor will be the first combatant to win 4 weapon styles. A maximum of one petition will be accepted per month. Should the petitioner be victorious, they will assume the duties and responsibilities of Warlord, including finding a suitable location and time to host a tournament to find their replacement in the summer of 2021. We have all faith in Our Warlord and expect that he will be planning that tournament.

Our Kingdom Arts and Sciences Champion, Honorable Lady Marion Forrester has graciously agreed to continue as Champion until this fall. We have consulted with Our Kingdom A&S Minister as well as many people in the A&S community and have decided that moving forward the Outlands will hold A&S competitions in the fall and collegiums in the spring. This will better allow for artists to create master works for the Kingdom competition and then take those works to Estrella War as well. We feel that this arrangement will make it easier for Our artisans and hopefully increase participation at all levels. We would like to thank Her Ladyship Marion for sharing her love and joy of the ats and sciences with any who would wish to learn!

All Our Champions have served the Outlands well and We are indebted to them for their hard work and love of the Outlands! We are very much looking forward to when we can all be together once more. Until then, continue to be kind, continue to look out for one another, and continue to shine as examples of courtesy, hospitality, and chivalry!!

In Service to the Outlands We remain,
Béla Nerissa
King Queen