Ranger Archive

a long time ago, in a galaxy not quite as patched...

all wookiees contain within them a desire to understand the cultural history of those around them.. when i was young i was no different, and my interest took the form of archaeology... driven by rumors of ruins of an ancient civilization on yavin IV, i gathered my essentials and prepared for the trip... on my way to the starport i ran into an old friend, a mon calamari who was working on developing a healing device that could be used at long range... naturally, he was interested in seeing the temples and asked to tag along..

when we landed on yavin, it was unlike anything we had dreamed of... there were creatures there, big, mean creatures that neither of us were prepared to face in combat... still, i was adamant about finding these lost gems of an ancient culture; i shouldered my rifle, and we headed off on our long hike into the wilderness...

i did my best to conceal my scent from all the creatures, so as not to arouse their animosity.. my fish friend however was not so lucky, the ranger community had yet to develop methods to hide a companion... here is where our adventure really began... it seems that the creatures of yavin, especially crystal snakes, prefer seafood to anything else.. my fish friend was becoming a liability... when the crystal snakes saw him, we ran until we could not run anymore... luckily as night approached, we found a safe place to set up camp and tend each others wounds... we thought all our troubles were behind us...

the very next day, tragedy struck.. i went ahead of my friend, hiding from the creatures, searching for clear paths through their homes... i did my best to secure him a safe way through the wilderness, and for a while i was successful... but eventually, the snakes attacked... the fish panicked and ran off away from me... i could do nothing but run after him, trying to keep him alive... eventually he tired out, right as he ran into another pack of snakes... they swarmed him, knocking him down and very nearly killing him... i got there in the knick of time, i threw myself in front of him taking several blows, but it was too late... he was unconscious and i was fighting a host of enemies... i contemplated waking him up, but instead decided on another course of action... i picked up his limp fishy body, and ran... the snakes were fast but eventually lost interest in us... we had survived another day, just barely...

the next few days were very similar to the last, except that the fish began to trust in my abilities in the wild... he never ran off again, he looked to me and followed my lead (at least in while we were out there)... we found the lost temples and explored them, and we were quite pleased with ourselves...

the squid and i went on many more adventures, exploring different parts of the galaxy... as he got better at healing, i honed my wilderness instincts... eventually, the ranger's union developed kits for concealing other people, and new technology allowed us to track the creatures around us... we were now unstoppable... his fish smell no longer gave us away, and i was the king of the wild...

---

i know most of us rangers prefer to be alone... we are a solitary breed... it is as much apparent in the design of the profession as it is in behavior of the people who post in this forum...

but there is a paradox... rangers are helpful... we want to be the guide... i can bet that almost every ranger in this game has the 'Helper' tag above their name... it shows in this forum, despite all of our woes, we still do our best to answer the questions of new people... i think this is a very vital part in defining a ranger, and i want to make sure it stays no matter how we rethink the ranger profession...

to me this story showed the relationship between a desire for solitude and the need to guide another... this trip would have been easy alone, using my abilities in the wilderness... but to put my abilities to use for someone else made the trip exciting...

i took many people out into the wild over the course of my ranger career, sometimes when i had things i would rather be doing... and every time i felt i was doing the right thing... perhaps what causes this paradoxical relationship is our acceptance of the responsibility of having power over nature.. whatever it is, i think it is very important in deciding "what is a ranger"

Well said. I know that my "Helper" tag has been up almost since launch (I had to learn a bit about playing the game before I was willing to put it on).

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Rifleman
Eclipse Server

Lythender Nirou
Crazy Bothan

Draknev
The Last Ranger Correspondent
Subterfuge and Sabotage, Concealment and Camouflage:
Colonel: Rebel Alliance

Ehope AeSedi

Master Ranger

Helper

This ledge is pretty comfey these days. I think I'll just sit, swing my legs over the ledge and enjoy the view for awhile. After all....good things come to those who wait?

Gifts From Gamers
State of the Galaxy Report, October 2006

Ehope of Lowca
Fairy tales really do come true.... kinda.

i certainly hope so, ehope...

i just realized, this story to me makes a case for a /rescue change so that /rescue = /dragIncapacitatedPlayer... i swear, after i started using this we covered more ground on yavin in less time than ever... i must have dragged that squid over half the planet...