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Will Treaty 10

As an apprentice, Will displayed amazing talents as a Ranger.

To become a King's Ranger, apprentices went through five years of training. If they passed their first-year assessment, they were awarded a bronze oakleaf necklace and the title of Ranger's apprentice became official,[1] though occasionally they were awarded early if the apprenticed proved themselves worthy.

Selection[]

Apprentices were selected at fifteen years old[2][3] by the Ranger of their fief. Ranger Commandants could offer candidates, though Rangers were free to reject them if they were substandard.[4] The opportunity to become a Ranger very rarely came up.[5]

Prior to 669 C.E., there had only ever been male Rangers;[6] this changed when Madelyn Altman became the first female Ranger. Candidates were not restricted by social class,[7] as Will Treaty been a peasant, Gilan had been nobility, and Madelyn had been royalty. Most Rangers were slim and shorter than average, though it was not a requirement.[8]

Some qualities that Rangers looked for in candidates were curiosity,[9] agility,[10] and integrity.[11]

Cooking[]

As Rangers were commonly expected to camp alone in the wilderness, they needed to learn to cook. If an apprentice didn't know how to cook, it would be one of the first things their mentor would teach them,[12] possibly adding it to their daily chores.

Stealth[]

The Ranger Corps' skill at unseen movement is such that commoners believe it to be the work of magic.[13] However, they mainly relied on simple stealth, such as blending into the background,[14][15] moving silently,[16] and remaining still.[17]

Additionally, apprentices learned common tricks scouts and searchers would use.[18]

Tracking[]

Tracking was an important part of each Ranger's training, with apprentices usually practicing on animal tracks.[19][20] They also test their skills on unsuspecting commoners, following them without making them aware of their presence.[20]

Ranged Combat[]

The principal weapon of the Corps were eighty pound longbows.[21] As apprentices weren't strong enough to use longbows, they were trained first with recurve bows.[22] Training emphasized practicing until one never missed, as opposed to practicing until one got it right. To this end, exercises emphasized only firing at a target once, to avoid reliance on sighting shots.[23]

As a girl, Madelyn would be unable to use to Corps' usual longbow.[24] Although she used a recurve bow, she also continued using with a sling.[25]

Additonally, each Ranger carried two knives that could be thrown, a throwing knife[26] and a saxe knife.[27] Strikers could also be screwed together into one long piece to be thrown, as, together, they had the same weight and balance as a saxe knife.[28]

Close Combat[]

Although not their specialty, Rangers were sometimes expected to fight in close combat. To this end, their main weapons were their knives. The saxe alone could parry a sword strike,[27] but both could be used together in the double-knife defense.[29]

In the event that they were unarmed, Ranger were also trained in unarmed combat,[30] which mostly seemed to involve grappling.[31][32]

Horsemanship[]

Each Ranger recieved their own specially bred and trained horse from Saddler's Farm. They were taught how to ride and care for their horse,[33] as well as the signals each horse was trained to respond to.[34]

Other skills[]

Map reading and chart drawing were both subjects covered during training,[35] as Rangers had to be able to guide forces around.

Rangers learn to tell the time based on the position of the sun.[36]

The courier code is taught to both Rangers and couriers.[37]

Apprentices are trained in what to in a variety of scenarios, such as ambushes.[38]

Assessments[]

After a year of training, apprentices would be assessed at the Ranger Gathering to see if they were fit to progress to second-year training.[39] If they passed the assessment, they would be awarded the bronze oakleaf and officially become a part of the Corps. However, if an apprentice failed, they would have to wait until the next Gathering to try again.[40]

Assessments were overseen by three senior Rangers.[41] Apprentices were tested on unseen movement,[42] shooting, knife throwing, unarmed combat, mapmaking, navigation skills, and tactical planning.[43] If a test was failed but the apprentice was advanced to the next year of training, a makeup assessment would be planned.[44]

If an apprentice failed to graduate to the next year, a small hole would have been hammered through their oakleaf. If an apprentice recieved three holes, they would dismissed from the Corps.[45] One in four apprentices didn't make it past their third year without having to repeat a year.[46]

Third-year assessments were notoriously tough, as this was the time when examiners really began to bear down on apprentices.[47]

The courier code was part of the fourth-year assessment.[37]

References[]

  1. A New Beginning - "'As you know,' Gilan went on, 'when the Corps takes on an apprentice, that title is given as a courtesy until the satisfactory completion of the first twelve months of training. At that point, the bronze oakleaf is awarded and the title of Ranger's apprentice becomes official.'"
  2. A New Beginning, chapter 7 - "Half the fifteen-year-olds in the kingdom were girls. Some of them had to be suitable candidates."
  3. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 1 - "Each year, castle wards turning fifteen could apply to be apprenticed to the masters of the various crafts that served the castle and its people. Ordinarily, craft apprentices were selected by dint of their parents’ occupations or influence with the Craftmasters."
  4. A New Beginning, chapter 6 - "'Problem is,' he said, 'we have no suitable candidates at the moment. And we can’t offer him someone substandard. He’ll simply refuse to take on someone who’s not up to scratch and he’ll be right.'"
  5. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 6 - "'Very few boys are chosen to be apprentice Rangers, you know. The opportunity only comes up on rare occasions.'"
  6. A New Beginning, chapter 7 - "'She’s a girl. We’ve never had a girl in the Rangers.'"
  7. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 23 - "He had always assumed that the Rangers did not come from the ranks of the Kingdom’s nobles. Apparently he was wrong."
  8. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "The great oaf in question--who was, like most Rangers, slim in build and below average height--couldn't help smiling at her description of him."
  9. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 7 - "'Curious, are you?' he said at length, and when Will nodded uncomfortably, he went on in an unexpectedly milder tone. 'Well, I suppose that’s a good trait for a Ranger’s apprentice. After all, that’s why we tested you with that paper in the Baron’s office.'"
  10. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 8 - "'You’re agile. That’s good in a Ranger,' he began. 'And, as we’ve discussed, you can move quietly. That’s very important. You’re fast on your feet.'"
  11. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 8 - "'Oh, no, Will. If you’d lied, you never would have become my apprentice.'"
  12. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 8 - "He led the way to the kitchen and introduced Will to the mysteries of cooking: peeling and chopping onions, choosing a piece of beef from the meat safe, trimming it and cutting it into neat cubes, then chopping vegetables, searing the beef in a sizzling pan, and finally adding a generous dash of red wine and some of what Halt called his 'secret ingredients.'"
  13. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 2 - "The superstitious villagers believed that Rangers practiced a form of magic that made them invisible to ordinary people."
  14. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 8 - "'We use the same principles: to blend into the background. To use it to conceal us. To become part of it.'"
  15. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 15 - "He’d shown Will how the gray and green mottling broke up the shape of the wearer and helped him blend into the landscape."
  16. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 10 - "They’d walked for about half an hour, with the Ranger showing Will how to glide from one patch of shade to the next, as silently as possible."
  17. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 21 - "He practiced his stealth skills, learning to stay stock-still even when he was sure that he had been discovered and learning that, all too often, people simply didn’t notice him until he actually did move and gave the game away."
  18. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 21 - "He learned the trick that searchers would use, letting their gaze pass over a spot and then flicking back to it instantly to catch any slight movement. He learned about sweepers--the rear scouts who would follow silently behind a party on the move to catch out anyone who might have remained unseen, then broken cover when the party had gone past."
  19. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 17 - "They were tracks left by animals and it was Will’s task to identify them."
  20. 20.0 20.1 A New Beginning, chapter 22 - Will and Maddie rode through the fief, looking for and identifying different animal tracks, following innocent travelers without making them aware that they were being tracked and standing, wrapped in her cloak, on the shoulder of the road, while travelers passed by, oblivious to the fact that Maddie was a few meters away."
  21. A New Beginning, chapter 7 - "'How would she ever draw an eighty-pound bow? And that’s our principal weapon.
  22. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 10 - "'It’s called a recurve bow,' said Halt, sensing his puzzlement. 'You’re not strong enough to handle a full longbow yet, so the double curve will give you extra arrow speed and power, with a lower draw weight.'"
  23. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 22 - "'If you fire twice at the same target,' he had said, 'you’ll begin to rely on the first shot to determine your direction and elevation. That way, you’ll never learn to shoot instinctively. You’ll always need to fire a sighting shot first.'"
  24. A New Beginning, chapter 7 - "'But girls have a different muscle structure than boys,' Gilan said. [...] 'I’m not being biased against girls here. It’s just a physical fact. In general, we’re more heavily muscled than you. And Maddie is a slightly built girl. She’d never build up the muscle mass that you need to shoot a longbow.'"
  25. A New Beginning, chapter 17 - "They would break for lunch, and then Will would set her to practicing the sling in the afternoon."
  26. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 10 - "'It’s for throwing,' said the Ranger."
  27. 27.0 27.1 The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 10 - "'This is in case your enemy gets to close quarters,' said Halt. '[...] It’s balanced for throwing, but you can also block a sword stroke with that blade.'"
  28. Halt's Peril, chapter 36 - "After the first few careful turns, he quickened his pace, screwing the two strikers together into one long piece. He hefted it in his right hand, feeling the familiar balance. The strikers were designed to have the same throwing characteristics as his saxe knife."
  29. The Burning Bridge, chapter 5 - "Gilan had crossed the two Ranger knives in front of it, the throwing knife supporting the saxe knife blade, and blocked the cut easily." Strikers could also be used as fistloaders for a non-lethal attack.The Tournament at Gorlan, chapter 33 - "Farrell dropped his brass striker, which he had held in his right fist, back into an inner pocket. [...] Even with the striker to support his fist, the punch had been a painful one—albeit more painful for Tiller."
  30. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 16 - "Always strike first, Halt had dinned into his brain in the hours they’d spent practicing unarmed combat."
  31. The Siege of Macindaw, chapter 17 - "Normally, the two might have closed, grappling with each other, each seizing the other man's knife wrist with his free hand and turning it into a contest of strength."
  32. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 16 - "He landed on Horace’s back and his weight and the force of his leap drove them both to the ground. They rolled there, grappling with each other, each trying to gain an advantage."
  33. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 14 - "Will spent the rest of the day getting tips on riding technique from Old Bob, and learning how to look after and repair Tug’s saddle and harness, as well as the finer points of caring for the little horse."
  34. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 21 - "He learned to use the little horse’s extra senses of smell and hearing to give him warning of any danger and he learned the signals that the horse was trained to send to its rider."
  35. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 10 - "It was a slightly different matter when it came to the less exciting tasks like map reading and chart drawing."
  36. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 18 - "'How much daylight would you say is left, Will?'"
  37. 37.0 37.1 The Siege of Macindaw, chapter 3 - "'I'm a little rusty on the code,' he added, apologetically. 'Haven't had to use it since my fourth-year assessment.'"
  38. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 23 - "Last night, they’d devised tactics for use in case of an ambush just the sort of thing that Halt had mentioned now."
  39. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 21 - "Of greater importance to Will, it was also the time when apprentices were assessed, to see if they were fit to progress to the next year of their training."
  40. The Ruins of Gorlan, chapter 21 - "If he didn’t pass the assessment at this year’s Gathering, he would have to wait another year, until the next opportunity arose."
  41. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "The three senior assessors sat behind a table sat behind a trestle table, in comfortable canvas folding chairs, studying reports from the assessors who had examined her skills and abilities over the course of the Gathering."
  42. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "'Unfortunately, we can't give you a pass on your unseen movement exercise,' he said."
  43. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "Shooting--excellent, he read. [...] Knife throwing--excellent. Unarmed combat--very good. Mapmaking--another excellent result. Navigation skills--above average. [...] Tactical planning--excellent."
  44. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "'You'll take a makeup assessment for unseen movement in three months or so,' he told her."
  45. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "Had she failed the year's assessment, the oakleaf would have been marked by a small hole hammered through the brass. If she accumulated three of those throughout her training period, she would be politely asked to leave the Corps."
  46. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "'One in four apprentices doesn't make it this far--not without having to repeat a year at least once.'"
  47. The Red Fox Clan, chapter 2 - "It was the time when examiners really began to bear down on apprentices."
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