No fires or littering!... Seriously, this thing isn't for show.
No, we aren't talking about the kind fellow at the national park who wears the snazzy uniform
(but there's more of a connection than you might think - see below).
We are talking about the forest-dwelling recluse who serves as a self-appointed guardian for their ancient and enchanted home. They may wear green in an attempt to blend in to their forest surroundings. They guard their forest with their bow slung across their back, and would rather take your hat off with an arrow than post a polite notice to please put out your campfire before you leave. They are often extremely (if not supernaturally) talented in the taming and commanding of wild beasts, and might be accompanied by a faithful Attack Animal appropriate for their terrain. In a Standard Fantasy Setting, expect at least one elf to be this trope.
As a character who maintains a close affinity with and protects unspoiled natural landscapes, this is a subtrope of Nature Hero. Related tropes include the Druid, for nature-hero wizards who use magic themed around plants, animals, and natural phenomena, and the Jungle Princess, who lives within a tropical forest and protects its inhabitants. In many depictions, the Forest Ranger will function as a druidic sort of Magic Knight, with access to low-level nature magic (like Animal Eye Spy, Speaking Fluent Animal, and/or a low-grade version of Healing Hands), while they will lack the mightier spells of a more specialized magic user.
Primarily meshes with Aloof Archer, but Rangers wielding an axe or spear are also common. If they are more civilized, they might use Bow and Sword in Accord, and in many of these cases, they will be fond of Dual Wielding elegant, elven-coded weapons such as curvy daggers or scimitars. Lesser known fact — the word "ranger" does not mean "one who fights from range", but "one who watches over a range". Like modern-day Park Rangers. So they are not at all limited to the Aloof Archer. Not to be confused with bushranger, a term for a 19th-century Australian outlaw. Compare Roguish Poacher, another character archetype associated with woodlands, elusiveness, and ranged weapons.
Supernatural variants, be they The Fair Folk, tree-creatures or Nature Spirits, may also be a Genius Loci. Compare Nature Hero, Mountain Man and Classical Hunter. Contrast City Guards.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Queen's Blade: Allyene and her protege Nowa wield staves instead of bows and use the mobility and cover of the trees they protect.
- Robin Hood (1990): The bandits led by Little John consider Sherwood Forest their home and are protective of it, even vowing to save it as it falls to rot and starvation. Robin in particular is so determined to keep it away from outsiders that he burglarizes anyone who happens to pass by it.
Fan Works
- Call of Nudity stars Zavine, a tiefling druid who lives alone in the wilderness. Her driving force during her adventure is to root out and defeat a mysterious pyromaniacal cult seeking to burn her forest down.
- A Hunter or Something turns Jaune into an animal hunter who chases prey with bow and arrow, wears green for camouflage and lives in Wildlands, an inhospitable forest in Vytal. This lifestyle has made him reluctant to fight in close combat so he prefers to use traps and shoot the target from afar, as well as trying to avoid any conflict in general while he is in the forest.
Films — Live-Action
- Broken Arrow (1996): One of the characters who helps the hero along the way is a forest ranger. She carries a large survival knife and occasionally freaks out over the destruction of important natural features, to comedic effect.
- Crocodile Dundee: The titular hero is a bushman familiar with the Australian Outback and offering his services as a trail guide. Subverted in that he's not quite the Nature Hero he appears to be and is happy to play his image up for tourists.
- The Ranger has a literal forest ranger serving as a villainous example, seeing himself as protecting the national park from people who trash it and using a hunting rifle (the modern version of the bow and arrow) as his weapon of choice alongside bear traps and axes, in contrast to the group of punk rockers from the city who serve as the protagonists. He also kidnaps the Final Girl in the hopes of awakening her more "natural" side.
Literature
- Dungeon of Undeath is set in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse with Monsters Everywhere, so the Rangers are an official counterpart to the City Guards, patrolling the wilderness for creatures that could threaten settlements. The most prominent Ranger character (with the [Veteran Ranger] Class, no less) is a half-elf who also dabbles in Dungeon Crawling as an agile, observant combatant.
- Heralds of Valdemar: Tayledras scouts keep people away from the dangerous Pelagiris Forest, kill dangerous monsters like coldrakes, and keep the inoffensive magical creatures safe from poachers and other threats. They are explicitly compared to field Heralds, both in purpose and in the likelihood of dying young.
- The title character of The Lorax presents himself as the one who 'speaks for the trees'. Unfortunately, he can't do more than warn the Onceler that his greed is destroying an irreplaceable habitat.
- Portal of Evil has the wood sprites, elvish guardians of the woods with bark-like skin.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Ents were created for this very purpose, according to The Silmarillion. As the Shepherds of the Trees, their main reason for existence is to prevent humanoids from abusing forests and to prevent trees from getting homicidal.
- Despite the name, the original fantasy Rangers, those among whom Aragorn lived in The Lord of the Rings, weren't this trope, being more partisans/marchwardens/monster hunters than guardians of nature.
- The Elves often fit this trope to a lesser degree, being part of the reason why travelers are advised not to stray from the marked path. That said, this is not necessarily out of concern for nature, but because their own territories are concealed within the forests and they don't like uninvited visitors. This is explicitly the case with the Green-elves or Laiquendi of Ossiriand in the First Age, who regard intruders as "unfriends" and who enforce No Trespassing with camouflage, stealth, and arrows.
- The Wise Man's Fear: Played with. Fae archers stalk the forest surrounding the Cthaeh to kill anyone who talks to it, since it's omniscient and picks the ending to every conversation that causes the most chaos and suffering in the world.
- The Witcher's short stories provide a dark deconstruction to this trope. There are Rangers who fit the general description, being master bowmen and spending most of their time in the forests — but they spend it hunting elves, dryads, rusalkas, and other non-humans, some in revenge of their kin who were murdered by the Scoia'tael terrorists, others simply for the reward or out of racist hatred.
Live-Action TV
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has the Canon Foreigner Silvan Elves like Arondir, Revion and Medhor, who were stationed for 79 years in the Southlands to watch over the natives and make sure they don't make same mistake as their ancestors. They are the only Elves shown carrying bows with them and wear carved wooden body armor.
Myths & Religion
- Robin Hood and his merry band, traditionally depict as outlaws and peerless archers living in Sherwood Forest, serve as a partial ancestor to this trope. Note, however, that they lack a number of modern elements — primarily they aren't interested in protecting the forest as a goal in itself, as it instead serves them mainly as a base from which to pursue their primary goal, which is to protect the poor and oppose King John and/or the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Podcasts
- Cool Kids Table: Stege from the game Small Magic is a hunter who lives in the forest.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Druids are divine spellcasters who worship — depending on the setting, edition, and subclass — nature itself, natural spirits and forces, nature and elemental deities, or some combination thereof. They are typically dedicated to protecting and preserving the wilderness in the face of external threats, which can range from encroaching civilization to extraplanar and undead corruption. Their attunement with nature is such that they can magically take on the shapes of animals and speak in the language of beasts.
- The ranger class and many of its five million variants are generally themed around being hinterland trackers, wilderness scouts, and hunters and trackers. Their chief signature abilities are getting animal companions that travel and fight alongside them and being able to choose a favored enemy that they excel in hunting and tracking. Specific subclass options for them in 5th Edition include Hunters, who specialize in protecting the wilderness from civilization; Horizon Walkers, who fight against extraplanar incursions instead; and Monster Slayers, who hunt powerful monsters such as dragons or the undead.
- Kercpa are sapient squirrels view themselves as protectors of their forests, and take very great care to shadow intruders to make sure that they do not harm the woodland. Those who cause damage to it will be harassed with volleys of tiny arrows from all directions until they either leave or die; otherwise, they will be allowed to go in peace. The kercpa do no strongly care whether intruders are from "civilized" or "barbaric" cultures or species, only whether or not they harm the forest. They are on good terms with elves, sprites, and treants, and occasionally with human druids and rangers, but are otherwise suspicious by default of any outsiders walking beneath their canopies.
- Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: There are a ton of prestige classes that are all about defending nature, such as the Beastmaster, which focuses on communicating with and directing animals; the Primeval, who embraces natural savagery and a bond with a spirit animal at the cost of losing intellectual skills; and the Wild Soul, a spellcaster who fosters a bond with the fey courts for the ability to summon a wider variety of fey, outsiders and magical beasts for aid.
- Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: Several classes such as druids, barbarians and rangers are grouped together as nature-themed "Primal" classes themed around the defense of nature and aligning themselves with primal elemental forces over the divine ones of Astral Sea. A new one introduced in this edition is the Warden, a warrior charged with defending the natural world and allowing primal spirits to use their body as a conduit to command nature and shapeshift into inhuman, spirit-bestowed forms.
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: The Scout subclass for Rogue is a guerilla fighter that can survive and thrive in the wilderness.
- Forgotten Realms: Aerosclughpalar, called the Druid Dragon, is a gold dragon druid and worshipper of Mielikki who dedicates himself to protecting the High Forest of northwestern Faerûn from mortal invaders and extraplanar threats.
- In Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, the goddesses Mielikki and Ehlonna respectively are considered to be this, with the former being known as the Supreme Ranger, and both being basically stand-ins for Artemis when the latter is not also present.
- Pathfinder includes several of these:
- Among playable classes, rangers, druids, hunters, shifters, and some shamans all tend to revolve around this trope in some form or another, depending on how focused they are on protecting the wilderness from humanity versus protecting humanity from the worst of the wild's monsters.
- Treants, leshies, other plant creatures, and many types of fey and kami likewise live to protect the wild places of the world against both the axes of civilization and creatures of dark magic.
- Bliss dragons consider themselves guardians of animals and the wilderness, watching over sanctums of pristine wildland and expelling even fey and magical beasts that don't measure to their exacting standards.
- The empyreal lord Cernunnos casts himself as an embodiment and protector of the wild places of the worlds, and his worshippers tend to be rangers, druids and other protectors of nature.
- Warhammer:
- Amber Wizards spend most of their time protecting the wilderness from intruders and despoilers. While they do deal with poachers and the like from time to time, they're mostly involved in preserving nature from the ravages of the Beastmen and other forces of Chaos.
- The Wood Elves are extremely protective of their forests and will murder anyone who tries to cut them down. There's a specific class, the Waywatchers, for whom this trope is the entire job description.
- Dwarf Rangers cross this trope with Mountain Man, their haunt being mountains and valleys rather than forests. Generally consisting of dwarfs who do not fit in their society, Rangers range overland routes and valleys between major dwarfholds alone or in small groups, keeping passes and roads open, hunting monsters, or keeping watch for orc troop movements. They fill a vital if unappreciated role in dwarf society.
Video Games
- Backpack Battles: The Ranger has the aesthetic of a forest-dwelling archer, wearing mostly green in her default outfit while one alternate cosmetic for her bow appears to be made of a freshly-picked branch with leaves still growing on it. Some of her subclasses have synergy with Nature items.
- Baldur's Gate II: Being a game based on Dungeons and Dragons, this is a class option for the player character in both this and the previous game. Furthermore after a certain point in the main quest a ranger PC can take up the mantle of a true forest ranger, and do their bit to protect (or exploit) a woodland of their own.
- Battleborn: Thorn checks on the boxes for a typical forest elf with her bow and arrows, and adherence to nature except she's more wild jungle than peaceful forest.
- A Dance with Rogues: Anden Goodmanner is a clear, classic example of this, as he's an archer who wears green clothing, is an excellent tracker, feels comfortable in forests, and laments their mistreatment. He does possess a few differences in that he isn't hostile to people or self-appointed as a Ranger, but rather is part of a guild that maintains the safety of the forested roads to Betancuria and seems to observe the condition of the woods. Anden is also a human, instead of an elf, and what little is seen of the guild seems to be composed of humans as well.
- Dark Souls: The Forest Hunters, effectively The Wild Hunt, guarding Darkroot Forest and the grave of Abysswalker Artorias.
- Dota 2:
- Traxex the Drow Ranger is not an actual drow, but was raised by them after her family died. Having learned the ways of stealth and archery, she retreated into the forest in order to live out a solitary existence.
- Lyralei the Windranger is the Red Oni to the Drow Ranger's Blue Oni, a much more cheerful take on this trope. A blessing from the winds helped turn her into a Master Archer who can fell trees with a single arrow, launch a Trick Arrow that binds enemies, and unleash a Spam Attack of shots at blinding speeds. She uses those talents to protect the forests where she was born.
- Dragon Age:
- The Dalish elves have this aesthetic, although they're more territorial than custodial and never stay in one place for long if they can help it. A Dalish Warden is introduced keeping humans away from their camp, can get lines reflecting this archetype, and bow use is encouraged by the provision of better quality equipment in the Dalish origin story.
- There is also the "Ranger" specialization for the Rogue class, which gives the character a +5 resistance to natural attacks and allows them to summon predatory animals to attack their enemies.
- The Elder Scrolls:
- The Bosmer (Wood Elves) of Valenwood are masterful archers and are bound by the "Green Pact", an agreement they made with their patron deity long ago to never harm or allow harm to come to the forests of Valenwood.
- The Imperial Legion has a variation in the Imperial Foresters. During peacetime, they can be found in Cyrodiil's forests. During wartime, they serve as archers and scouts.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy V: The Ranger class uses bows, wears green, and summons animals to fight alongside it.
- Final Fantasy VIII: Rinoa is a Mythology Gag to the job class and a shout out to this trope: She's a crossbow-using fighter who fights with a dog and lives in a city built in the middle of a giant forest.
- Final Fantasy XIV: the archer class is obtained in the city-state of Gridania, a Hidden Elf Village in the Black Shroud that is largely populated by Wildwood Elezen. The main military organization of Gridania, the Order of the Twin Adder, has many archers in their ranks.
- Gauntlet: The Elf Ranger wears green, protects the forest, and uses a bow.
- Gigantic: Voden is a "forest-lord" who protects the wilderness from anyone who would despoil it. His methods seem to mostly involve shooting people with arrows and poisoning them with toxic spores.
- Guild Wars 2: The Ranger is a class focuses on attacking alongside trained animals, and has moves that include setting traps and wilderness survival.
- Gyromancer: Laska Terrado, a royal ranger who is assigned to help the mage Rivel track down a group of rogue knights in a large, magical forest. When she's killed there, she's revived in short order by the spirit of the forest, which considers her at least a potential protector.
- Hollow Knight: The Mosskin tribe inhabit and protect the jungle of the Greenpath, where they worship the Higher Being whose dreams created both the jungle and the tribe and aggressively protect their land against intruders.
- Majesty: The Ranger class. Although their main function is as Bold Explorers who dispel the Fog of War, they also vastly prefer nature and wilderness to the city, have herblore enough to poison weapons or make healing potions from the plants your other heroes sow, and will team up with the highly anti-civilization Barbarians when they're present. Their guilds are mobile campsites, and once the whole place is explored they'll go off to more wild regions. They also wear green and fit the Aloof Archer Archetype. (Although it's downplayed, as they're more preferers of untamed forest than active guardians of it.)
- Richman: Wu Mhi eventually starts a national park in the forest where she grew up and protecting the animals from poachers with her trusty spear in her ending from Rich Man 7.
- Team Fortress 2: The Sniper has an aesthetic halfway between this trope and Great White Hunter, and clearly draws some inspiration from Crocodile Dundee despite not getting to spend much time in the actual countryside.
- Warcraft:
- High elves and blood elves (rangers), night elves (sentinels), and Undead elves (dark rangers) have these.
- World of Warcraft has the hunter class, available to every race. Of special note is Nathanos Marris, who was the first, only, and last Human Ranger Lord of Quel'Thalas.
- Warframe: Ivara invokes this aesthetic, and even comes with her own bow.
Webcomics
- Goblins: Dellyn Goblinslayer is presumably this (Ranger class, Bow and Sword, half-tree), but he seems to be more inclined to city life now. Then again, he agreed to go adventuring again, so...
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: In that Plague Zombie infested world in which Raising the Steaks applies to all non-feline mammals, army scouts have the duty of killing the Plague Zombies in forests surrounding human dwellings to help protect the non-infected animals and humans alike. Lalli is a night one by profession, taking the shifts during which the infected individuals are the most active.
- Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: Cadugan is the guardian of Wyldwood Forest, protecting and helping the animals and magic beings. Hence he is initially not too friendly with Charlotte who has chased pixies for her supper and Lucas who was hunting foxes in the forest before.
Western Animation
- Craig of the Creek: The Green Poncho is a mysterious kid who wears a green hooded poncho and uses a bow and arrow to keep kids from crossing the bridge leading to the neighborhood on the other side of the creek. He is not protecting the wooded area itself per se, but rather the kids in Craig's neighborhood from being subjugated by The King of the Other Side of the Creek, a tyrant who bosses the other kids around and punishes anyone who doesn't do what he says.
- Gargoyles: The Guatemala gargoyle clan have made it their mission to protect "The Green". They destroy equipment to protect the rain forest but are careful not to harm the locals, only scare them.
Real Life
- Interestingly, rangers in both the "fantasy warrior" and "national park" senses actually stem from the same source. In Medieval Europe, a ranger was someone employed to guard and maintain royal forests, which were essentially game preserves for the nobility. Since everything in such a forest was considered the personal property of a lord or even the King himself, poaching was a major crime; part of the ranger's job was to catch poachers and other trespassers, in addition to serving as foresters and gamekeepers. Note that in this context, "forest" referred to royal and noble hunting preserves in general and did not necessarily mean a wooded area — many forest rangers were thus charged with watching over areas of moorland, grassland, wetland, or mountains.
- Roger's Rangers during the mid-18th-century colonial North America whose mission was to protect British settlers from raiding Native Americans and their French allies. In the North American wilderness, the European style of standing armies and linear warfare did not work in the woods because the Native Americans did not play by the same rules. They would fight using ambush and Hit-and-Run Tactics. The concept of the "Ranger" was to take frontiersmen who are able to live in the wilderness and adopt the Native American's guerrilla tactics and Beat Them at Their Own Game. The Rangers did two things in history: they patrol and they raid. The idea of "Ranging" or being a borderer means protecting the boundaries of your nation or your home.