A Collection of Ranger's Apprentice Theories

How Many Blasted Rangers Are There?

It's common knowledge that there is one Ranger attached to every fief. This means that if a fief, for example Gorlan, got broken up and absorbed by surrounding fiefdoms, then there would be one less fief and one less active Ranger.

Apprentice Rangers get fully instated once a Ranger takes the Gold Oakleaf and retires or, sadly, dies ('The Siege of Macindaw'). It is clearly stated the newly minted Ranger takes on the number of the Ranger they replaced, and so is not equated to seniority; being Ranger Fifty (like Will) is not the most junior position.

In 'The Sorcerer of the North,' there is a direct correlation between Bartell retiring and Will graduating to become a Ranger. Bartell was Ranger Twenty-six, which throws into question how Will became Ranger Fifty, and why Meralon, Ranger Twenty-seven, thinks he can make a remark about seniority based on their respective numbers.

However, this remark on Will's Ranger number equated to lowest seniority calls into question either the number of fiefs or active Rangers being incorrect. And again, in 'The Battle of Hackham Heath,' Crowley comments he needs 50 Rangers. Does that number include him, or does the Commandant make 51 Rangers total? Was that simply him rounding up from 49?

The discrepancy is made worse through 'The Ruins of Gorlan,' where it's said King Herbert once brought together 50 fiefs—presumably including Gorlan before it was dissolved, and King Herbert's own Araluen fief—and then a few paragraphs later, Halt mentioned that the Rangers were established at 50, one for each fiefdom, with his 49 colleagues stationed at the other 49 castles in the Kingdom.

Even though the total of 50 Rangers includes Crowley, there should only be 49 fiefs in Araluen post-Morgarath, or King Herbert should have brought together 51 fiefs, leaving 50, yet neither appears to be the case when combining all three novels.

One possible explanation is that Araluen shifted in the 150 years between King Herbert and King Duncan. After all, what's now the United States and Canada weren't colonized into countries all at once. In 1776, the USA was only 13 states, and in 1867, Canada was just Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the province of Canada (what's now Ontario and Quebec). The territory of Nunavut only split off from the Northwest Territories in 1999!

A new fief may have come from a smaller castle, like Cobram Keep, who was also dissatisfied with the way Modern Araluen came together, pushing until it became a new fief. That is, rather than stick to passive aggression with the Diplomat Service of the host fief ('The Burning Bridge'). Then, when Gorlan was dissolved into the surrounding fiefs, what was 51 fiefs became 50 once more.

Except... 'The Hibernian,' mentions Araluen having fifty fiefs, and the short story took place right before Gorlan is demolished.

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Alternatively, Flanagan simply cannot count to save his life.

In 'The Tournament at Gorlan,' Crowley and Halt stumble upon a list of twelve Rangers that have been dismissed from the Corps. Eventually all the Rangers on this list band together (or were murdered/exiled/etc). Flanagan forgot a Ranger though, because the numbers don't add up. In order of picking them up, the list read: Crowley, Leander, Berrigan, Egon, Norris, Samdash, Lewin, Berwick, Jurgen, Farrel, and Truscott. That's eleven Rangers. Pritchard had been exiled for a while, and Halt was never an official Ranger or Ranger's apprentice, so neither could have been on that list.

In 'The Battle of Hackham Heath,' nine of "the originals" (from the above paragraph) were gathered at Castle Araluen, excluding Crowley and Halt. That makes eleven originals. Keep in mind, Truscott and Pritchard were murdered prior to this point, so this math does make sense. Except, either Flanagan rounded high or excluded names, as Crowley manages to wrangle 20 Rangers together, 18 not counting Halt and Crowley, with only Denison, Cedric, Robert, Bedford, and Chase mentioned in addition to the original group from the prior book. That makes more like 15 Rangers.

In good news, this leaves room for more canon-compliant OCs! In bad news, the true number of Rangers will forever be a mystery to confuse Araluen's enemies... perhaps an intentional tactic by the Corps.