In a kingdom there is a religious tradition of sending good news by a colorfully dressed messenger on a white horse...

In a kingdom there is a religious tradition of sending good news by a colorfully dressed messenger on a white horse, and bad news by a messenger in black on a black horse.

Some people don't like bad news and have taken to barring or even shooting the black messenger on site.

What are ways the courier can prevent this?

Allow the courier full immunity to being charged with murder or assault.

Wearing a disguise over your blacks, obviously.

Bringing sweets as well.

Making sure you have some good news to deliver alongside the bad, so you're justified in wearing colors and riding a white, or in wearing a mixed outfit and riding a spotted horse so the locals will know they can't bar the bad without losing the good.

Wearing better armor and being more badass in general.

Not delivering news to assholes who clearly don't want it.

Bringing puppets, so your only news is a completely fictitious puppet show the locals can avoid or discount if they feel so inclined.

Not bring messages to barbaric communities, who kill messages because they don't like the news.

Leave messages at secure wide open drop-off points, instantly bolt when somebody comes into sight, all the while never traveling dressed as messenger as you would often have to pass villages who might think the bad news is for them.

Only travel alongside armed caravans under explicit protection.

Institute a system of hostages held in exchange for news delivery. Or only use messengers from those communities as envoys to the same locale.

What sort of ding dong world is this where people literally shoot the messenger preemptively?

I mean eventually peoples that shoot black messengers before hearing the news are going to get killed by their self inflicted ignorance when they don't hear about the raiders/plague/ect. In the short term it's best for such messengers to stay informed about groups that may be so inclined and just not but say they did.

Use ravens, make a little horse figure carving to store the message in, if need be.

Stop being a courier.

Use messaging spells while still dressing up for the technicality.

Require communities to come fetch the news while only riding as far as out into the courtyard yourself.

Better question, what's to stop enemies of said religion from shooting or capturing colorfully dressed messengers?

>courier
Always hire the sixth courier. So long as you don't mind a little wholesale slaughter along the way, your message will get delivered

Ghost couriers.

Rig couriers as kamikaze bombers. They go down, everyone dies.

Use brainwashed slaves.

Use criminals with a geas.

Have the colorful guy go but PSYCHE bring the bad news.

And have an even higher chance of getting murdered because he has just tricked them and broken a religious tradition.

Don't care, news fucking DELIVERED

To be frank, it feels like killing a messenger for the crime of following a religious tradition would make this sort of thing a moot point. For a religious tradition, it's not getting much respect.

The couriers (ideally with the cooperation of the clergy) point out that this religious tradition exists for a reason and that shooting the black messengers is clearly against the spirit of the thing, and will probably result in appropriate karmic retribution. Folk stories might spring up about how spurning the bearer of bad news may lead to worse news that could have been avoided if they'd listened to the first messenger. Black messengers are now protected by the church (if there is one) and/or religious taboo.
A few months or years of sermons and oral stories about preventable/avoidable disasters, and "shooting the black" enters the lexicon as a popular idiom for doing foolish/reckless things out of anger and/or despair, e.g.,
>That damn fool ran back out into the blizzard to save his favorite goat and nearly lost his fingertips to cold. He's going to get himself killed someday, shooting the black like that.

Drive wagon with a team of horses, one of which is black, & a white one as well if you are a full time messager.

Approach in armor of a neutral color, with a cloak in your hands that is colorful on one side &black on the other. Once you get in range to address the person you are delivering to don the side you need

get yourself a bad ass legendary courier,pick him from very young,maybe a lot of orphans,and brutally train them,until only one remains.tell him since very young that be the bearer of bad news is his duty,and that is an important duty,and always have extra courier in case that one dies

America?

Come in at night, sneak the message in, get the fuck out.

Imagine ninja, but they're here to hand you a pinkslip and walk away instead of killing you.

>train them until only one remains
>always have extra courier in case that one dies
What did he mean by this?

Nah, we just call it fake news and blame the leftists.

The shooting is a coincidence and that information is totally unrelated to why we shot him.

Give this man a promotion! Posthumously, but still.

>Deliver a letter
>Get shot
Ah, the glory of american-themed settings.