Transfer of the Watch

The Transfer of the Watch is a ritual enacted at sundown and sunup in the capital of Brankara. The ritual is the handover from the Night Watch to the Day Watch, and over the decades has grown into a formal event with much pomp and ceremony attached.
The Watch is responsible for both the policing of the streets to protect from criminals, and the guarding of the city walls to protect the city itself against invasion. There is a small but real threat thanks to the hobgoblins of the Dhargul Empire to the north, who periodically test the defences of the realm. The handover is clearly delineated, as squads of Watchmen parade along the streets to their watch-posts, announcing the relief of the guards who have held the line for the previous twelve hours. The central Square plays host to formal pageantry in front of the main Watch House of the city, and visitors to the city usually watch at least once as brightly-uniformed squads march formally across the square, drums rattling a snare as the squad pennons flap in the morning and evening breeze.
The pageantry holds the mark of ritual and tradition, but the swords of the guards are always razor sharp and their armour carefully checked beneath the mirror gleam, as they know their responsibility is very real, and they may be called upon to depend the people of their city, or the city itself, at a moment's notice. The Wall Watch are the troops who will have to defend the city until the ordinary army can reach their posts.
The squads are accompanied by the city investigators, who investigate crime reports, and have a formal handover process of their own - usually both more subdued and more thorough than that of the patrol squads who maintain the peace of the streets. Each investigator will have reports of murders, thefts, arson or assault to pass along, together with the results of any investigations, any additional resources they have called upon such as magical spellcasting or divination, and the like.