When ... Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)—Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.

— The Hobbit

The Herald is a person, message, or crystallizing incident that sets the Hero/Protagonist on the path of adventure. They bring the Call to Adventure. If a story's setup is similar to this:

"Nothing interesting happened in The Protagonist's life... until, one day, X stumbled into her world and changed it forever."

then "X" is the Herald. Oh, and you'd better hope "X" isn't also the Big Bad, cause that tends to get messy.

The Herald can be non-human (a newspaper or news report, for examples), but a more memorable force has more impact.

Common subtropes include:

The Herald may have to bribe and/or enforce the call. Not to be confused with Heralds on TV Tropes.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Luna in Sailor Moon; she sticks around to play the Mentor later.
Fruits Basket: When they find Tohru living in a tent on a Sohma land, and insist that she come live in their house. Repeated when it appears she will go back to live with her family, and Kyo and Yuki track her down to insist that she return.
Rukia from Bleach, in a way, as she is the one who turns Ichigo into a shinigami.
Tsukiuta's idols were scouted by magical rabbits, who live with them as dorm pets once they become idols. Possibly a Shout-Out to the above Sailor Moon example, especially considering the moon motifs - particularly the moment when Hajime saves the black rabbit Kuroda from some kids who were picking on him. It also has some air of Alice Allusion - down the rabbit hole and all that.
In Reborn! (2004), the title character Reborn comes crashing into Tsuna's life with all the power and grace of a lightning bull in a china shop.
Yuuno in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha delivers both the call and the Empathic Weapon to Nanoha when she found him injured.
Naota's life in FLCL was entirely uneventful until Haruko shows up, trailing traffic accidents in her wake, to smack him in the head with her Rickenbacker bass, turning his brain into an inter-dimensional portal through which robots emerge to do battle. It Makes Sense in Context, you just have to pay attention.
Nothing interesting happened in the Madoka's life... until, one day, Kyubey stumbled into her world and changed it forever for the absolute worse. The parallel with Nanoha is there.
- Madoka herself serves as the herald for Homura. She and Mami introduce her to the world of magical girls and sets in motion the events that would lead to her wish
Most mascots in the Pretty Cure series are like this.
In Himenospia, Himeno is stung by a red wasp that grants her a sting with brainwashing powers. When she converts her bully Nagisa and some other people in self-defense, that now friendly bully shows up insisting Himeno creates the titular feminist utopic nation. After Himeno does end up taking over her hometown out of revenge for a mass shooting at her school and some conflict with American wasp-queen Serena, it is revealed Nagisa was a fellow queen the whole time who engineered nearly all the happenings in the story and used Himeno to bait and hunt Serena.
In Yugioh Arc V, Yuto serves as one to Yuya and Yuzu, bringing them the Call to Adventure due to his resemblance to the former. Yuya's manifested Pendulum cards in the first episode also count, attracting the attention of Reiji.
- The manga version has Yuya, a time-traveler in this version, serving as one for Yuzu.

Comic Books

The Silver Surfer inverts this. He is the official Herald to Galactus the Planet Eater.
- The Surfer is the most famous of Galactus' Heralds, but there have been others. Their job is basically to announce to a world that Galactus is coming. Ostensibly this is to give them a chance to flee the planet (The Trial Of Reed Richards features several space-faring races who survived the destruction of their homeworld), but Galactus tends not to fret too much if, say, the inhabitants can't leave due to not having advanced enough technology.
- Parodied by Dial M For Monkey as The Silver Spooner, who was a herald for Barbequor.
- Also parodied in DC Comics with the Scarlet Skier, Herald to Mr. Nebula, a flamboyant Galactus ersatz out to maliciously redecorate the universe according to his own tastes. When the Skier disobeys him, Nebula punishes him by making him wear increasingly ridiculous costumes.
Thanos is a particularly dark version of this for Drax the Destroyer. Prior to stumbling onto Thanos arriving above the Nevada sky in a flying saucer (resulting in Drax himself, his wife and his daughter all being slain), Drax had been a simple real estate agent and aspiring jazz musician named Art Douglas. After, well... Roaring Rampage of Revenge doesn't begin to describe it.
The Transformers: Befitting a Planet Eater similar to Galactus (while also being a God of Evil), Unicron is sometimes depicted as having heralds of his own.

Fan Works

The young bard in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, who walks past the four singing “Norwegian Wood,” which instantly catches their attention. He's grateful to have found them—the gods sent him on the mission to play the song until the right people heard it—and delivers the gods' message, then disappears from the story as the four hurry away.

Films — Animated

The Lion King (1994): Nala, when telling Simba what has happened to the Pridelands. This jerks him away from his 'Hakuna-matata' lifestyle and back to his responsibility as king.
That rhyming butterfly from The Last Unicorn. As pointed out under Literature below, the hunters as well. Their conversation is how the unicorn learns that it is supposed to be the last of its kind in the first place.
Korso brings the Call to Adventure in Titan A.E.. He shows up and tells The Protagonist that he is needed to find a spaceship and rebuild Earth.

Films — Live-Action

Morpheus promised to many that The One would return to bring an end to The Matrix. He scours the virtual world for this special person. On finding him, Morpheus sends a cell phone by courier to Thomas Anderson at his desk as a literal Call to Adventure.
In Men in Black, the NYPD officer who would become Agent J chases down a perp who moves much too fast to be human. He eventually corners the suspect on a rooftop... and is told "Your world is going to end" before the guy's irises blink and he jumps to his death.
R2D2 of A New Hope, when presenting the message "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Thus begins Luke's journey to find Obi-Wan and leave Tatoonie.
In Willow, Elora Danan's arrival is the start of Willow's journey.
Bumblebee serves this function in Transformers (2007); a difficult task since he couldn't speak at the time.
"Uncle" Felix in Spy Kids; he informs them that their parents have been kidnapped, that they are spies, and tells that 'the third brain lives'.

Literature

The Trope Namer is "The Herald" described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It's defined as something which upsets the hero (or heroine, or heroes')'s state of affairs and sets them off on their adventure by announcing it.
Ford Prefect of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a downplayed example; while he whisks Arthur away, he hasn't got a clue where they're going.
Harry Potter:
- Harry's letters of acceptance into "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". One is ultimately delivered by Hagrid after the Dursleys do everything in their power to screen the call.
- It's explained that Hogwarts sends special messengers like Hagrid to Muggle-born students when they are old enough to attend Hogwarts, as they would otherwise not know about their magical affinity. Harry was originally just sent the letters because Hogwarts assumed that he had been told by Petunia (who knew about magic), but she didn't, and the family kept sabotaging the letters, so Hagrid was sent.
The hunters and the butterfly both play this role in The Last Unicorn.
J. R. R. Tolkien has Gandalf play this role in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, for Bilbo and Frodo respectively — and then again in The Lord of the Rings for Théoden.
Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest: Seers are a go-to for any person assigned a quest, acting as a middle-man to give the quest-givers just enough information to go on since the gods themselves don't think it's important enough to tell them themselves.
- Pollux Castor is a seer who runs a food truck called The Meat Wagon in a neighborhood that was once the Sacred Glen. When he's not serving brisket and fries, he sends quest-havers on their way.
- In the case of the Wild Hunt motorcycle club, they are assigned Peggy Truthstalker, a seer assigned to them by the Orc-God Grog. She's known as the most feared trader on Wall Street thanks to her skills at reading omens.
In C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, the function is split in two: first the nobleman who tries to buy Shasta, and then Bree telling him they can flee to Narnia together.
The Death of Rats seems to have appointed himself Susan's personal Herald in the Discworld series. Either that, or he really, really likes swiping her chocolates, and uses warning her of her grandfather's difficulties as an excuse to get near enough.
Black Legion has a Herald and a Herald-behind-the-Herald.
- The first is Falkius, for Khayon and Lheor. He summons them and asks for their aid in the daring plan to find Vengeful Spirit and raid the Canticle City to reclaim Horus' corpse, setting everyone on the path leading to the Black Legion.
- The second is Sargon, for Falkius. If it wasn't for him letting himself be captured by the Justaerin and telling them about Spirit's location, the plan wouldn't be created in the first place.
The ten Heralds of the Almighty from The Stormlight Archive, tasked with leading humanity against the endless cycle of Desolations. When a Desolation beings, all ten Heralds return to fulfill their duty, before returning to Damnation to hold the enemies at bay until the next Desolation. The plot of the series starts in the Distant Prologue when nine of the Heralds can no longer bear their time in Damnation and refuse to return, deciding instead to give up their duties and wander the world anonymously. Taln, the only one of their number who died in the battle (and thus was already in Damnation), is left to bear the tortures for all of them. Four thousand years later, at the end of the first book, he returns.
Taln: Who am I? I... I am Talenel'Elin, Stonesinew, Herald of the Almighty. The Desolation has come. Oh, God... it has come. And I have failed.
In Teresa Frohock's Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Matthew Kellogg serves this purpose to Lucian, telling him he can escape and reminding him of his duty.
In The Hunger Games, Effie Trinket serves as the Herald by picking Prim's name from the reaping ball, causing Katniss to volunteer as tribute on her sister's behalf.
Adventure Hunters: Claude arrives at the capital, sleep deprived, panicky, and begging for help against a goblin raid. This leads to the trio discovering the golems nearby.
Watchers of the Throne opens with Tieron being visited by Chief Astropath Kerapliades, a living Subspace Ansible, who begs Tieron to send aid towards the besieged Cadian system.

Live-Action TV

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Into every generation, a Slayer is born." Giles serves as Herald, and later as Mentor. His official title is 'Watcher'.
- She also had a Herald in the movie: Merrick, her first Watcher.
Doctor Who did this on a number of occasions, such as in "Colony in Space", where a Time Lord gives the Third Doctor a mission, allowing him to leave Earth for the first time since his exile. Of course, the Doctor is frequently in the role of Herald for their many companions.
The Town Crier in Rome is perhaps the ultimate example of this trope. He stands at Forum Romanum reciting the latest happenings in politics and the military, as dictated by whoever holds the power at present, allowing both the citizens and us viewers to follow the events. It's often used with great success to jump from one political/military event to the next, without having to waste numerous scenes on exposition.
Bryce Larkin's e-mail to the title character in Chuck.
Power Rangers
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
  - Zordon is the Herald to the original team, teleporting them to his command center and offering them to become the titular Power Rangers.
  - Rita is the Herald to Tommy, forcibly turning him into the evil Green Ranger.
  - Goldar is this to Adam, Rocky and Aisha. By kidnapping them, he exposed them to the conflict between the Power Rangers and the Evil Space Aliens, which eventually led them to becoming Rangers themselves.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy two of Heralds, depending on the character. Furio is the Herald for Maya, attacking her home planet in a bid for the Quasar Sabers. Maya herself takes the position of Herald for Kendrix, Leo and Mike, as she is thrown into a wormhole leading to Earth's moon, where the former three were doing combat training. The three of them then decide to follow Maya into the wormhole to help her defeat Furio. This leads to them becoming Power Rangers.
- Captain Mitchel is the Herald to the team in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. Each of the teammembers were ordinary humans handpicked by Captain Mitchel for their skills and, apart from Dana, none of them had any knowledge of the Demonic threat they would soon face.
- The Dino Gems from Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. After they are found by Connor, Kira and Ethan, the three teenagers are sucked into the conflict with Mesogog.
Star Trek has this as part of the Klingons' funerary rites: at the moment that a Klingon dies, other Klingons hold open the eyes of the recently deceased, then unleash a mighty roar to warn the hereafter that a Klingon warrior is on their way.
Super Sentai:
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger: Asuka is the Herald to Ryouga, Ranru and Yukito, giving them their Dino Braces and informing them about the invading Evolians. Mikoto is actually an interesting subversion as him finding the Dino Minder and Top Galer's egg gave him the power to temporarily become the Big Bad.
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger: The Troll appearing in the first episode is a Herald, as it forces the mother of the main characters to reveal the existence of magic and the evil Infershia. She then offers her children to become Magirangers to battle the Infershia.
- Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters has a strange example of this, as the Herald, the sentient computer virus Messiah, appears in the childhood of the characters, but the main conflict of the story only starts 13 years later. In the year 1999, Messiah attempted to enter this world, but was stopped by the parents of Hiromu and Yoko. Because they knew Messiah could come back in the future, they inserted the Vaccine Program in their Hiromu, Yoko and Ryuuji, making them the only ones able to fight Messiah and teleported them to safety. From then on, the three trained relentlessly for the day Messiah would return.
Kamen Rider:
- In many of the classical Showa series of Kamen Rider, the evil organization forcibly turns the main hero into a cyborg, who then escapes before they can fully brainwash him. After this, the main hero starts actively fighting the villains. This makes the evil organization the Herald to the main characters.
- Kamen Rider Hibiki: The titular character is the Herald to Asumu Adachi. In a subversion to this trope, Asumu doesn't really get involved in the supernatural conflict, but the mentor/student relation with Hibiki does allow him to step out of his comfort zone and improve himself as a person.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Stranger's fall from the sky near Rhovanion is this for Nori Brandyfoot, and she firmly believes their meeting was fated. She takes his arrival as a call to the adventure she always wanted to happen, and by the end of Season 1, she and the Stranger head for the Lands of Rhun to learn about the mystery behind his coming to Middle-earth.

Religion

John the Baptist fits the announcement function of the herald: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!'"
Archangel Gabriel could be said to fit this role in both Christianity and Islam. He tells the Virgin Mary about Jesus's arrival and Prophet Mohammed about his duty with the holy faith.

Video Games

Leopold Goenitz from The King of Fighters '96 announced the coming of Orochi.
Elner of Wisdom in Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (specifically in the prologue of the first game). Anyone who missed that only knows Elner in the Mentor role. (Yuri Cube might qualify in her very first scene in the second game.)
Duncan in Dragon Age: Origins shows up right about the time events conspire so that he catapults the not-yet-Warden into a world of adventures.
- The Warden later shifts into this role, serving as the herald to bring their various companions on the path of adventure. Providing they survive Origins, they continue this role in Awakening and Witch Hunt.
- Ariane serves as a minor herald in Witch Hunt, kicking off the plot when she was mistaken for Morrigan by the Warden's scouts stationed in the Korcari Wilds, joining forces with the Warden after discovering both are searching for the Witch of the Wilds.
Colette in Tales of Symphonia is an odd case of the Herald having lived with The Hero for years, and her Herald-ness being expected. They were ready to start the journey and were waiting for a sign.
Ingram Plissken in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation. In fact, he could be seen as a multilayered example, as not only is he responsible for setting up the attack that drew Ryusei into the war, he was also the pilot of the artificial planetoid Neviim and (re)opened the Earth to interstellar civilization and all the wonders and perils that implies.
In the instruction manual for The Legend of Zelda, Impa was being attacked by a band of Ganon's minions while she was searching for a man brave enough to save Hyrule. As luck would have it, that's when Link showed up.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past featured the Take Up My Sword variety when Link's uncle um...passes out really bad or something moments after the story begins.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had the Great Deku Tree pull an I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin on Link.
- At the very beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the Skull Kid steals most of Link's items and turns him into a Deku Scrub, which forces Link into the plot proper.
- In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker,the Helmaroc King kidnaps Link's sister.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had a complete Humiliation Conga with all the children of Ordon Village kidnapped and Link dragged into an already-overrun-with-shadows Hyrule and turned into a wolf before being locked in a dungeon.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, while they are flying through the clouds, Link and Zelda get separated by a dark whirlwind, which drags Zelda to the surface. Link is then led to the surface by Fi, the spirit of the Goddess Sword, to rescue Zelda and defeat Ghirahim.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the diaries of both King Rhoam and Princess Zelda mention a fortune teller who foretold the imminent return of Calamity Ganon; said prophecy kickstarted their search for and research into the ancient Sheikah Magitek used to defeat Ganon the last time.
In Tales of the Abyss, Luke's boring and repetitive life was changed when Tear broke into his manor and tried killing his swordmaster. Luke and Tear's magic collided and now the two of them are on the other side of the world.
Buzz-Buzz in EarthBound (1994) is the official Herald, but had Pokey not come knocking at Ness's door for help, the adventure likely wouldn't have happened. Paula herself turns out to be the Herald of Jeff, and Ness possibly the Herald for Poo. Maybe. We're not too sure.
A possible inversion, as despite being The Protagonist, this is arguably Shepard's role in the Mass Effect series. Most of the squadmates are clearly a Hero of Another Story, but none of them ever really stepped up until Shepard waltzed in, offered them a place on their crew and gave them the chance to save the entire Galaxy.
- Harbinger has his name for a reason: he is the Herald of the Reapers... as well as their leader. It is also his actions that kick off Mass Effect 2 (and, by proxy, Mass Effect 3); everyone thought the Reaper threat had been dealt with for the forseeable future until he showed up.
The Elder Scrolls:
- In Oblivion, Uriel Septim VII is the Herald for the Player Character, who not only frees the Hero from the prison cell s/he was sitting in, but also hands him/her the Amulet of Kings and charges the Hero with delivering it to the Grandmaster of the Blades before being assassinated, thus kicking off the game's Main Quest.
  - Shortly afterwards, the Player Character becomes the Herald for Uriel's bastard son, Martin, rescuing him from Kvatch and dragging him into the role of the hero at his late father's behest.
- In Skyrim, Alduin ironically serves as the Herald for the Dragonborn, with his attack on Helgen taking place at the precise moment they were due to be executed, inadvertently saving the very person destined to thwart him.
In Dragon's Dogma, the titular dragon himself serves as Herald to the player character. The dragon attacks the player character's hometown, rips the heart from the player character's chest and turns him or her into an Arisen, rendering the player character ageless and incapable of falling ill. He then challenges the player character to seek him out in combat, should he or she want their heart back, kickstarting the adventure of the game.
In The Spectrum Retreat, the player character's daily routine is broken when Cooper hacks into his phone and reveals she wants to help him escape.

Webcomics

"The Child" from Scary Go Round heralded great change in order to inspire chaos. This worked due to lack of Genre Blindness: if a small bald child tells you that "Things will change... soon!", people know that panicking is the right thing to do.
In The Adventures of Shan Shan, Shan Shan's life has been plagued by strangeness, but Julius gives it an actual focus.
Chocolate Explosion in Dragon Mango. Her daughter had become a Lolita knight with two friends, but then she appears to urge them to a greater struggle.
Michael Kappel in Collar 6 was propelled into his adventure when he rescued a half-dead young man from the woods near his home, exposing an international arms race and sending him on the run from political assassins. (The rescued man, named Gunther, stayed with him and rescued him several times over, so there's that...)
Stand Still, Stay Silent: If it weren't for Torbjörn organizing the expedition, the members of the crew wouldn't have met, or in some cases even left their homes. Chances are that Reynir's plan to hide in a food crate to be able to visit a foreign country would have gone a little less sideways as well.
Goji, the rider we see on the very first page of City of Somnus, has been sent to find help for his village (which is currently being terrorized by a monster). He finds prince Paollo and his retinue who readily take the Call to Adventure.

Web Original

Dr. Griffin in KateModern, first by the blood test he gives Kate, which leads to a complex series of events, and later by his possession of the list of girls who Kate and her friends need to save.

Western Animation

The minor character Mo-Ron in one episode of Freakazoid! has an important message for Earth, but he keeps forgetting what it was, to Freakazoid's mounting frustration.
Melody, a muse apprentice trapped in a mirror, in Barbie & The Diamond Castle.
Played with in BIONICLE: The Mask of Light. The mask tries to cast its light on Takua, but Takua tilts it with his foot so it looks like it's choosing Jaller. Jaller is then proclaimed to be "The Herald to the Toa of light", but Takua and Jaller know who the "real herald" is. Jaller agrees to go on the quest, but drags the reluctant Takua along on with him. Since it later turns out that Takua IS the Toa of light, Jaller's role as "herald" turns out to be correct.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang serves as a herald to Katara and Sokka, bringing them the Call to Adventure by promising them to find a waterbending master and providing an opportunity to beat up Fire Nation soldiers, respectively. Interesting case in that Aang is the real hero of the story, but Katara and Sokka follow The Hero's Journey more closely. However, Aang's herald could reasonably be Zuko, as his arrival at the Water Tribe village is what forces Aang to begin to accept the mantle and responsibility of the Avatar.
Arcee serves this role in Transformers: Prime by managing to blow The Masquerade in a way that drags three human children into the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. And she's not particularly thrilled with it.
Samurai Jack features an episode where Jack, while walking through a ravaged landscape, hears a voice saying "Come to me". After following the voice through a mountain path filled with death traps, Jack encounters and fights against The Lava Monster, who is actually a man of Norse background who was imprisoned into the rock by Aku and denied an honorable death.

Herald

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Video Example(s):

Yer a wizard, Harry

Alternative Title(s): The Herald

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Yer a wizard, Harry

Herald

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Video Example(s):

Yer a wizard, Harry

Alternative Title(s): The Herald

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Yer a wizard, Harry