Nuclear Beasts

Recruiting Rangers

There aren't nearly enough Caretakers to recruit or train Rangers. The Oracles don't like to leave the Sacred Hills, although their Lorekeepers might be sent out.

So the major sources of new Rangers are:

• Volunteers who travel to the Sacred Hills expressly to join.
• Possibly some recruited by Lorekeepers, especially as some sort of official levy.
• New recruits given a Ranger seal and directed to the Sacred Hills.

I'm thinking that the last is the most likely source for new recruits... when a Ranger encounters a likely candidate who really is willing to travel that far, they give them a special seal (perhaps a metal eagle holding a shield over its breast, some sort of ancient design) and direct them there.

The seal carries certain benefits; it allows you free passage and free room and board through any Beast settlement... so long as you keep heading towards the Sacred Hills and don't come back again. Beasts who misuse a seal tend to eventually get caught and are punished severely for their temerity.

When you return to the Sacred Hills (as all Rangers are expected to do periodically), they check up on your recruits and determine whether or not you should be given more seals. The biggest black mark isn't recruits that washed out of the training; it's recruits that never showed up at all. It's not unknown for Rangers to track down "missing" recruits and demand the seal back. That may be the only way that they can get another one.

Posted by Kiz at August 28, 2004 07:47 PM