Those Who Range
Those Who Range are the orders of rangers to ally themselves with certain orders, druids, and institutions to assist in safeguarding the realms. They can move through all manner of weather and terrain at the best rates defined by Travel in the Steel Realms. Druids of the Wyld in their Briarwoods are often in contact with rangers who have settled nearby or are moving through. “Those Who Range“, despite the fact that they range far, they often have a place where they call home. Where the people and animals know them and accept them and they can find refuge guaranteed. While they do not spy upon them, the Druids of the Wyld will receive messages from animal or earth spirits when senior Rangers return home in case they are needed to be summoned by the druids. All Rangers in Good Standing with their oath(s) can find refuge in Ynth in exchange for their knowledge. Here they ‘recharge’ and reflect on the core elements of their mission:
Culture of the Ranger
- Be the intermediary between the supports of the Wyld and civilization.
- Range for and wide, uncover the threats to nature and civilization alike and report them to those they effect.
- Defend the wilds and civilization against the intrusions from outside the boundaries of the world.
- Know the perspectives of both the Green Church and the Wyld Faith.
- Report the happenings you observe to the World watchers, other Rangers, bards, and sages.
- Safeguard the Navels of the Great Forests of the realms.
The Ranger code is a bond of loyalty to their ranger brotherhood and service to the High King – as are the World Watchers. Firstly, it encompasses the standard group-loyalty oath, by which they know each other through a series of markings and habits, signs, phrases, and symbolic stories. Secondly, it is an oath of service against the darkness, Orrish encroachment and violence, and to support the lawful and orderly rule of the High King in Oerdney. Almost all take the Oath of the Day Watch.
- The core of the Rangers are made up of those on the Ranger/Seeker Pathway.
Trail Clearers: Many Ranger Brotherhoods have a signature weapon, or rather implement for trail clearing that can be used as a weapon as well. More than a thousand years ago, a Ranger of the southern border kingdoms is said to have begun this tradition and it just became prevalent over time. These weapons usually reflect the areas they normally range in, but rangers have no absolute borders and so can change them to one more suitable for the terrain and habitat they find themselves in. Their mystic bond allows them to spend a Long Rest cycle in the wyld and attune their weapon to nature. It must be a 1 handed weapon, but gains the ability to be used 1 or 2 handed, won’t catch or blunt when trail clearing in a Natural Habitat, and gains a +1 Initiative when in a Favored Habitat. Many rangers will have a personal weapon made for them.
Pass-Sign/Wyldsign: The Rangers almost never leave any written trail of their passing; they communicate to each other and the Druids using the ‘Wyldsign’ (pictographs used by the Pine Tribesmen and Druids)’ They leave the signs in hidden places only they would know to look. When collaborating in combat, they also use a Stalkers Sign to silently denote paths, movement, and combat.