Anacreon Rangers

The Rangers are one of two special forces groups in Anacreon, the other being the Justicars. Unlike the Justicars, who operate through the Church and serve the Anacreon government directly, the Rangers are an official branch of Anacreon's standing military. The Rangers are lightly armored and use mostly guerilla warfare tactics. They excel at survival, performing all the duties in Anacreon involving skirmish attacks, scouting, or moving behind enemy lines.

History

The Anacreon Rangers were put together during the Faustian War after Anacreon formed an alliance with Korth (negotiated by Gavin of St.Cuthburt) and officially entered the conflict. Anacreon was the only country with a standing army at the time, the other societies relying on a more feudal chain of command approach to combat. The military had operated with the typical rules of engagement for the time, where armies essentially march toward each other and fight. This proved to be a problem fighting Omoron's army laced with devil's who did not tactically operate in accordance with conventional warfare. In addition, a number of soldiers proved to simply be bad at this tactic. They eventually came together under the leadership of a lumberjack's son named Rarder and formed an elite unit known as the Rangers to explore another form of unconventional forest based combat.

Towards the end of the war, the Rangers were dealt a devastating blow. A group of mercenaries from Omoron crossed Anacreon's borders in an attempt to conscript soldiers and the Rangers were called. In a turn of events, what seemed like an overwhelming victory quickly became a devastating defeat. The vials of alchemists fire the Rangers had on their bandaliers, a known symbol and staple of the skirmish strike force, exploaded as the result of a shatter spell. In the chaos, many of the Rangers were defeated or conscripted into service themselves. The unit as it was known ceased to exist.

In the years following the Faustian War, Exarch Jodas Werren put together appropriations to reactive the Rangers and bring pride back to Anacreon's military fighting force. Rarder, a decorated veteran, was called upon to guide the unit into this new age and put right their ailing reputation. They do not put alchemist fire on their bandaliers anymore.