Ranger's Apprentice

Ranger's Apprentice is a series of fantasy novels written by John Flanagan. The series follows the young orphan boy Will who gets apprenticed under the mysterious ranger Halt. Under his guidance and with the help of his friends he travels the world going on adventures, fighting in wars and saving people. 
The Ranger's apprentice series does have an additional prequel and sequel which often get grouped under 'ranger's apprentice' even though they have their own titles. 
== Canon ==
The author, John Flanagan, came up with the idea for the books as a bedtime story for his son, in an attempt to get him interested in reading. When he found the stories again later on, he wrote them down and published the first book in 2004 under Random House Australia. In 2007 the books got translated to Dutch where it gained a big and active fanbase to this day. 
Four series were written within the world of ranger's apprentice. There is the main series titled 'Ranger's Apprentice', the sequel titled 'The Royal Ranger' and the prequel titled 'The Early Years'. All 3 of these stories revolve around the same handful of main characters we meet in the main series, in different stages of their life. The fourth series is titled 'Brotherband' (or 'The Brotherband Chronicles' for the U.S) and though it is set in the same world as Ranger's apprentice it focuses on different main characters.
In the Dutch translations of the books, The Royal Ranger is not seen as a sequel, but rather the continuation of the main series. This may be part of the reason that 'Ranger's apprentice' gets used so much as an umbrella term for all 3 series. 
The Ranger's apprentice books
chron. order	book title 	publication date 	pub. order	Summary
1 	The Ruins of Gorlan 	November 1st, 2004 	1 	
2 	The Burning Bridge 	May 5th, 2005 	2 	
3 	The Icebound Land 	November 30th, 2005	3 	
4 	Oakleaf Bearers ("The Battle for Skandia" in the US)	May 1st, 2006 	4 	
5 	Erak's Ransom 	November 1st, 2007 	7 	
6 	The Sorcerer of the North 	November 4th, 2006 	5 	
7 	The Siege of Macindaw 	May 1st, 2007 	6 	
8 	The Kings of Clonmel 	November 4th, 2008 	8 	
9 	Halt's Peril 	November 2nd, 2009 	9 	
10 	The Emperor of Nihon-Ja 	November 1st, 2010 	10 	
11 	The Lost Stories 	October 3rd, 2011 	11 	
==Recurring fannish events ==
The fanbase might be on the smaller side, it is very loyal. These are some reccuring yearly fandom events.
rough date 	event 	descripiton	host/place
varying dates in july and august	het grijze jager kamp // ranger's apprentice summer camp	an overnight, week long, summer camp in which kids aged
10-13 get to 'train' like real rangers with activities such as 
archery, swordfighting and obstacle courses.	clubadventure.nl, Overasselt, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
the full month of august 	the ranger gathering 	A yearly event with daily prompts for which any RA fan
gets to create any type of fanwork using the prompt
as inspiration.	@rangergathering on tumblr.com
varying date in october 	de grijze jager dag // ranger's apprentice day    	A full day dedicated to the bookseries. Events get hosted
such as archery a fanclub post, varying games, a theater
and a melee	   Het archeon, Alphen aan de Rijn, The Netherlands
October, week 43 	hating Will's beard week    	a week dedicated to disliking the beard Will grows in the 
sequel, often supported by the reasons why he should no 
longer have a beard, according to the participants	
==Fanfiction==
===Fanfiction===
Ranger's Apprentice Cast Reacts! by smug_albatross
Sunrise by LethwynHide and Seek by ThefirstRanger
Source: Archive of Our Own | Ao3
Relationships: Gilan & Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty
Tags: The Gathering, Hide and Seek, Disguise
Summary:At the Gathering, the rangers like to play hide and seek with the apprentices. Will, spooked by the tales Gilan has told him about the apparently terrifying game, comes up with a unique way to hide during the game.Willpower by Lethwyn
Source: Archive Of Our Own | Ao3
Relationships: Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Gilan & Will Treaty, Crowley Meratyn & Will Treaty
Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, warmweed, Butterfly Effect, Suicidal Thoughts, PTSD, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Scars, Slavery, Suicide Attempt, Starvation, it's the whole shebang, Nightmares, Depression, Past Drug Addiction, Found Family, Halt's actual A+ parenting, Parental Halt O'Carrick
Summary: The events of Icebound Land up to Battle for Skandia/Oakleaf Bearers, but with one vital difference: Will does not tell Halt about what really happened when he was a slave. Together, Evanlyn and Will decide to keep the warmweed addiction a secret, fearing that revealing it could get Will expelled from the Ranger Corps.
Halt is not as fooled as they think.
Basically: here's what happens when you take a drug addiction and accompanying PTSD seriously.
To Death and Glory by Merlyn Pyndragon
Source: Fanfiction.net | FFN
Charachters: Will Treaty, Horace Altman, Halt O' Carrick, Gilan Davidson
Tags: adventure and angst
Summary: Five years after the adventure in Nihon-Ja, life seems quiet for Rangers Halt and Will, quiet at last. That is, until a beast from the east comes prowling for Champions. A Toscan lord is recruiting skilled warriors from various countries to fight in the colossal Arena of Romena. Most of these warriors are not willing contestants. And now he's in Araluen, with an eye on a Ranger.Like a spider by MysteriousDeviant
Source: Archive of Our Own | Ao3Relationships: Crowley Meratyn/Halt O'Carrick, Pauline duLacy/Halt O'Carrick, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Gilan & Will Treaty, Gilan & Halt O'Carrick, Gilan & Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Gilan & Crowley MeratynTags: Crack, Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, it's more, seriousness treated as crack, post-Skandia, Canon Divergence - Post-Skandia, Trauma, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicidal Will Treaty, Protective Halt O'Carrick, Protective Gilan (Ranger's Apprentice), Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Family Fluff, Found Family, all the romantic relationships are background, they're referenced like, once - Freeform, honestly i'm hcing halt as ace and greyro, and i'm seeing them as more qprs than romance, but it's not explicit because it's way too background, so you can see them however you want, and i'll tag them romantically, idk ask me if you want it changed, Fluff and Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Will Treaty Has PTSDSummary: 
The life of a Ranger is a hard one. But there is joy in it. 
Gilan: Treat spiders the way you want to be treated :D
Will: killed without hesitation :D
Gilan, Halt, and Crowley: wILL nOSame old songs by Asheik, orphaned Ao3 account.
Source: Archive of Our Own | Ao3Relationships: Jennifer "Jenny" Dalby/Alyss Mainwaring, Horace Altman/Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Crowley Meratyn/Halt O'Carrick, Pauline duLacy/Halt O'Carrick, Horace Altman & Will Treaty, Gilan & Will Treaty, Gilan & Halt O'Carrick, Cassandra | Evanlyn & Will Treaty, Cassandra | Evanlyn/Alyss Mainwaring, Crowley Meratyn & Halt O'Carrick, Pauline duLacy & Alyss Mainwaring, Alyss Mainwaring/Will Treaty, Pauline duLacy & Will Treaty, Jennifer "Jenny" Dalby/Gilan, Horace Altman/Gilan/Will Treaty, Horace Altman & Halt O'Carrick, Horace Altman & Jennifer "Jenny" Dalby, Madelyn "Maddie" & Will TreatyTags: 100 Themes Challenge, Short StoriesSummary: The 100 Themes challenge includes a list of 100 prompts that are to be used to inspire a short story. Each chapter is a different story, featuring various characters/stories/AUs/headcanons from Ranger's Apprentice.
Please refer to the first chapter (index) for characters, relationships, and common triggers that might appear in each individual story as well as a short summary.The Royal Ranger by SolarisHasHerNoseInABook
Source: Archive of Our Own | Ao3 Relationships: Relationships: Crowley Meratyn/Halt O'Carrick, Halt O'Carrick/Original CharactersTags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demiromantic asexual Crowley, Autistic Halt, Ferris is a more competent villain in this one, and Caitlyn has a personality, anti-autistic sentiments, Gaslighting, unsupportive parents, Slow Burn, There's a lot of politics I'm sorry :(, it's almost like one of the characters is royalty or something, not much of a slow burn. more of a gentle toastingSummary: Morgarath is gaining influence in Araluen and has been systemically discrediting the Rangers. Knowing it's only a matter of time before he's targeted too, Crowley packs up and goes to the Hibernian kingdom of Clonmel to offer his services to the King, and in doing so meets a rather enigmatic Crown Prince... 
== Fanart gallery ==
File:Iwanttobepersephone.jpg|alt=a digital drawing of Halt in a punk battlejacket decorated with badges and patches. He has several facial piercings and is leaning against the frame. The background are what looks like several newspaper clippings put up.|Punk Halt by iwanttobepersephone
File:Casyss.jpg|alt=a digital drawing of Alyss and Cassandra, drawn in a dream-like style. Cassandra is leaning towards Alyss in motion for a kiss|Alyss and Cassandra about to kiss by Meiinoe
File:The rene(gay)de rangers.jpg|alt=a poster-style assembly drawing of all the renegade rangers from the early years series. At the very top there are large eyes in the background. Piled in the foreground are the renegade rangers with Crowley and Halt at the top, drawn to be the biggest.|The rene(gay)de rangers by theraven-gil-lyn
File:Dawn Burnin0akleaves.jpg|alt=a digital drawing of Will holding Maddie, she is clearly hurt at the hip, a bloodied bandage wrapped around her leg. set to a background of a mountain sunset.|Dawn by Burnin0akleaves
==Shipping==
The fandom is home to many-a ship. These are some of the more popular ones. They have been divided in 3 'generations'; The Early Years, Ranger's apprentice and The Royal Ranger. When checking for a specific character, go to the name of the series surrounding them and their generation. 
The Early Years generation
Ship 	Shipname 	History and additional information
Crowley Meratyn / Halt O' Carrick 	Cralt 	Crowley and Halt meet in the Early Years series, where they start the renegade rangers and defeat Morgarath together. This ship is very popular due to the nature of the two characters personalities, they often get presented as the popular sunshine / grumpy trope
Pauline Dulacy / Halt o' Carrick 	Haltine - Hauline	This ship is canon. Halt meets Pauline during The Early Years and is told to have gotten an imediate crush on her. They spend years pining for each other but both loved their jobs (which required a lot of traveling) too much to give them up for one another. When both of them retire they finally get married. Hauline is the older shipname of the two, thought Haltine is more widely used now.
Crowley Meratyn / Halt O' Carrick / Pauline Dulacy	Craltine 	this is the most popular polyamorous ship of the fandom. It has been mentioned in the series that both Halt and Crowley had a crush on Pauline, but when Crowley saw how absolutely besotted his best friend was, he decided not to try and form closer bonds with the courier. Fandom said 'well why can't she have both' and thus, craltine was born.
Halt O' Carrick / Duncan 	Duncalt 	This ship is mainly loved because of the possibilities there are between the histories of the characters. Duncan is king and understand what it is like to grow up with these expectations. Halt, on the other side, understands Duncans burden. It is also a compelling thought to think that Duncan knew Halt when he was still crown prince, making it an appealing ship.
Duncan / Crowley Meratyn / Halt O' Carrick 	Duncralt 	This ship is popular for many of the same reasons as Duncan / Halt, only with Crowley added in the mix for some balance between the other two very strong characters.
Ranger's apprentice generation
Ship 	Shipname 	History and additional information
Will Treaty / Alyss Mainwaring 	Wilyss 	This ship is canon. Alyss appears in books 1-11 of the main series. They get married in the short story 'and about time too...' in book 11.
Horace Altman / Will Treaty 	Wiltman - Hill - Whorace	The boys start out disliking each other in book 1 of the main series, but slowly grow a strong bond over the years, until finally becoming best friends. They end up going on many adventures together, growing close along the way. This makes them a popular ship within the friends with benefits, enemies to lovers and friends to lovers tropes. Though 'Wiltman' is the older shipname for the two, Hill has become more widely used since, and thanks to it's funny nature, 'whorace' has gained some popularity since.
Horace Altman / Cassandra 	Hassandra 	This ship is canon. They got married in book 11, in the short story titled 'the bridal dance.' They are thusfar the only couple to have a blood-related child within the series
Alyss Mainwaring / Cassandra 	Alyssandra - Cassyss 	this is the most popular f/f ship of the fandom. Most of the popular ships are m/m because of the lack of recurring female characters in the series. Both women are strongheaded and grew closer in 'the emperor of Nihon-Ja' after fighting a large snowy panther together. While Alyssandra is the older of the two shipnames, Cassyss is the more widely used name now.
Selethen 	Gilethen 	Gilan is a very popular character of whom relatively little is known. He is portrayed as a bright and goofy character. When Seley el'then was introduced in 'Erak's ransom' he proved himself equally sharp minded and able to quip right along with the rangers. He also teaches Gilan how to use the arridi 'bend' sword, as they are both master swordsmen.
Horace Altman / Will Treaty / Alyss Mainwaring / Cassandra	Hillyssandra 	This is the core group of (their generation of) adventurers in many of the books. Most notably is 'the emperor of Nihon-Ja' where all four of them were traveling together and tensiosn were canonically high thanks to some jealousy between the two girls. Much like with Craltine fandom said 'why choose'.
Jenny Dalby 	Ginny 	This ship is canon.
Will Treaty / Cassandra 	 	
The Royal Ranger generation
Ship 	Shipname	History and additional information
Maddelyn Altman / Ingrid	 	
==External links and fannish resources==
===Fan communities and archives===
*Ranger's Apprentice stories and crossovers on FanFiction.Net (FFN)
*Ranger's Apprentice tag on Archive of Our Own (AO3)
*Ranger's apprentice tag on Tumblr.com
===Fan pages and sites===
===Resources===
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger%27s_Apprentice
*https://www.degrijzejager.nl/ // the dutch ranger's apprentice fanclub website
== The Movie / TV series adaptation ==
No one knows
That is not true, for additional information please take a look at the fandom wiki regarding it. 
Though every couple of years there is a new update or development surrounding the movie/Tv series, most of the fandom doesn't have high hopes for it, some even going as far as not actually wanting the books to be adapted. 
==Notes==
==References==
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