A female Kislev Ranger; the majority of Kislev Rangers are female as their men-folk feel a duty to serve in the armies of Kislev to defend the Motherland rather than wandering.[1]
A Kislev Ranger is an expert scout, tracker and survivalist who sometimes lends their considerable skills to the armies of the Motherland while sometimes serving other employers in the Empire and beyond.[1]
Role[]
Kislev is a wild and untamed land; a place of endless horizons, rocky steppes, and icy tundra, its plains stretch as far as the eye can see. It is here that the Kislev Rangers are in their element. Capable of great endurance, travelling on foot for days at a time, they negotiate this hostile land, patrolling its borders, ever watchful for dark forces.[1]
Kislev lies deep in the heart of the icy north and many of its stanitsas and cities are not far from the dreaded Chaos Wastes. Many times have Rangers been the first to encounter such Chaos abominations as they wander mindlessly across the lands, savagely attacking any they find.[1]
Kislev Rangers have much experience fighting such creatures and are adept at felling large monsters from a distance with their preferred weapon - the bow. With hawk-like vision and blade-keen instincts, many foul beasts have been slain by a Ranger's arrow, the sleeping Kislevite civilians unaware of the danger at their very doorstep.[1]
Rangers are also good swordsmen, like most Kislevites, taught to fight and ride at a young age. it is the way of the Ranger to travel light, and they seldom wear much armour or carry weighty packs or provisions. They must be at one with their environment and live off what the land provides. A bow, sword and a heavy, fur-lined cloak to ward off the worst of the weather is oft all a Ranger carries on their travels.[1]
Although they are capable warriors, the true strength of a Ranger lies in their ability to track. Having travelled the length and breadth of Kislev and beyond, the Rangers are excellent scouts and guides, and many warbands and generals of other nations hire them for this purpose. Many times, has it been, when a Ranger's warning has averted an ambush or found a clear route through perilous conditions.
Such skill is in great demand, and many Kislev Rangers have travelled further afield than their native lands, some journeying down into the Empire in search of fortune and glory there.[1]
Perhaps most peculiar of all is that most of the Kislev Rangers are women. The menfolk of the northern lands are committed to its protection from the ravaging armies of the Kurgan marauder hordes and the other servants of Chaos. It is the Kislevite women then, often those shunned by their families or banished for some misdeed, that range out from their homes, perhaps hoping to redeem themselves or even make their own fortunes in the perilous lands beyond.[1]
Whether man or woman though, all Kislev Rangers are possessed of the same demeanour. Living alone for such long periods, with self-sufficiency as their creed, Rangers are reclusive and saturnine. At heart they are loners, particularly so with other Kislevites, whose strong, kin-based culture makes them feel alien because of their wanderlust.[1]
Sources[]
- 1: Mordheim: City of the Damned - From Across the Steppes (Specialist Game)