It is a widely held belief that the Rangers first arrived in the Drakenwood area in the year 14AE. This however is far from the truth, with this date merely being when they applied to Lord Atmos, the then Lord of Drakenwood for formal guild status. The Rangers predate the founding of the town now known as Drakenwood by many years. As long as there have been towns there have been those who have made a decision to live in the forests outside of them. People who have made it their business to learn how to live in harmony with nature, more so than the mere balance, which the Druids strive to maintain. A ranger does not cut down a tree, light a fire, or kill an animal lightly, only doing in so when there is great personal need and as Rangers are hardier than the dwellers of the towns, referred to somewhat derogatorily as “townies"; their needs tend to be smaller.



Melissa Draken founder of the town is widely believed within the guild to have been one of the earliest Rangers in these parts and from her time onwards there have been Rangers in the forests around Drakenwood. Despite the life of a woodsman being by definition a solitary one the Rangers soon learnt that some human company was need occasionally and started to set up certain camps where they would meet for a cup of tea and a chat around a fire. As time went on it was decided that some formalisation of this arrangement was needed and so a delegation ventured into town and met with Lord Atmos in his residence not far from Krasna Square to state their case for guild status. At first being a "townie" and given the Rangers distaste for taxation Atmos was reluctant to grant such a move but once it was mentioned that such a decision may lead to his "ganja" habit being made public he soon came around to the idea and thus the Ranger guild was formed. With the aid of Groggie one of the immortal wizards that live just outside of our field of sight, a permanent camp was founded at the western edge of the part of the Drakenwood forest known as the wandering woods. Time went on and some of those Rangers who had been around at the time of the formalisation, Gilthalus, Jack and Stranger started to find the idea of living so close to the townies distressing and went off deeper into the forests, however a new breed of Ranger had now appeared Sangoku, Metaphor, Eldge, Whitefox, Cobra, Shadowmoon, Venarian (famous for his hot chocolate with marsh mellows), Jubay, Plant, Atom, Smaffers and Stom. This group of rangers spent many years of high activity honing their skills and fighting the good fight with periodic reappearances from Stranger in a pattern that was to become familiar. It was around this time that two things of great note occurred Sangoku became the first member of the Rangers to join the nobility, and in what can only be down to thinking he was Robin Hood joined the rogues to learn some of their fiendish tricks. The second thing of note was that having developed the belief that they were missing something out of what it meant to be a Ranger the guild sent out an expedition to search for the near mythical Ranger masters hoping that they would be able to teach us new abilities and remind us of what we had lost through living so close to the so called civilisation of Drakenwood Town. Whitefox, Cobra and Jubay vanished around this time and it was believed that they had perhaps gone off to join up with the expedition.



A few years later the Rangers gained their second noble as Eldge too joined the nobility followed in due course by Stom. As the Rangers waited for the wandering tribe to return Gilthalus made a brief return before accepting a commission in the town guard where he worked from the roof tops of the town. This going "townie" on the part of the former leader led to his being shunned by many of the more vocal members of the guild.



As well as old faces returning the Rangers gained some new faces, the most notable of these being Leefuss. Now from the start it could be seen that this young elf would be one to watch. He was one of the youngest ever Ranger councillors and was accepted into the nobility in an amazingly short space of time, where he has done much to add to the prestige of the guild. Together with Eldge he won the noble arena contest in 29AE much to the shock of all non-Ranger spectators. The couple of years following this triumph were full of excitement for the Rangers as reports started to come in that the wandering ranger tribe were heading home having located the fabled master. Stom who by now had moved to join the immortals in their great castle in the clouds "Duncoding" still kept a careful eye on the Rangers and persuaded his brother, Alaf Galeth’riel, one of the veterans of the guild, indeed one of the few who can remember the times of Melissa Draken, to return to Drakenwood and set about tidying up the camp making new clearings in preparation for the expected growth in numbers and building new walkways in the trees. Most importantly however as far as the Rangers were concerned he found the kettle!! At the elections for council in 30 AE Leefuss decided to take a sabbatical and Eldge was elected leader having previously served as deputy on numerous occasions, unfortunately he was unable to take up his post due to a freak accident while out searching for signs of the wandering tribe. He fell through a small rift in space/time and found himself trapped in a strange dimension, a friendly wizard named Torallion fed him scraps and passed messages back allowing him to appoint first Leefuss and then Stranger to speak for the Rangers in his absence, while he strived to free himself to return. While Eldge was incapacitated ironically the Ranger tribe returned home and after a rather raucous party that led to complaints from the neighbouring druid guild and once various drunken Rangers had been helped down from the trees, the tribe set to work teaching their fellows what they had learnt.



The guild set up four clans “The Wolf”, “The Bear”, “The Stag” and “The Eagle” in recognition of the fact that certain rangers had greater affinity for certain animals and remarkably this tended to also be reflected in which of the new skills they found ease in learning. All of this however took place under the reddening sky and searing heat that plagued the Western Realms in 31 AE. When the inevitable disaster hit and the town of Drakenwood and much of the landscape was destroyed the Rangers split up into smaller groups and moved off deep into the forests in search of food and fresh clean water. Only Alaf remained behind stating that he felt that someone had to tend to the injured animals and that when things improved and the guild returned he would have things restored to some semblance of normality. Over the next 20 years he worked hard rebuilding the main Ranger camp a short distance southwest of it's prior location and together with Jarren Oakenstaff of the Druid guild who too moved to the southwest he tended to the animals and forests of Drakenwood bringing them back to their previous health. The Rangers slowly began to filter back in and reports of their precise location during the 20 years are not forthcoming as to reveal that would risk the "townies" learning things that the Rangers would prefer to keep secret.



Eldge finally freed himself from the rift and returned just in time to serve out the last week of his term of office as the restored town of Drakenwood had called new elections to the council. Choosing not to stand but to explore and attempt to make sense of the many changes in the immediate vicinity, the Rangers in a very close fought election elected Leefuss from Stranger on the basis of second preferences. Choosing Stranger to stand beside him on council Leefuss took up the role of Ranger Leader once more and together they went off to argue the case of the Rangers and prevent the townies from further encroaching upon the forest. Recently Leefuss reached new heights within the nobility becoming the first person in the area to attain the rank of Duke, within a month he was joined at this rank by fellow rangers Magius and Eldge. Which brings us neatly up to the present day, numbers are still low not yet returning to the peak level experienced years before although the reputation for sturdiness and supreme personal fitness have ensured that today even more so than before the Drakenwood Chapter of the Ranger guild are more than able to hold their heads up high and proud.