Elided Enduements of the Expanse (2003)

From publisher blurb:

While druids may be said to be the children of nature, or even the guardians of nature, the ranger makes no such pretension. Rangers are, at their heart, those who are simply “at home” in the wild and are able and willing to make it serve their ends. To this end, a ranger does not truly seek to bend his will to the wild; rather he tends to bend the wild a bit to serve his will. To a ranger, the wilderness is simply “home” – neither unfamiliar nor foreboding, but a place he is both familiar and comfortable with. Hence, he only disturbs it in the smallest of ways – because he only needs to disturb it in such ways. This outdoorsy approach makes a formidable woodsman, trapper, or mountaineer. The ranger is hardened by his lifestyle, relying upon none of the creature comforts that serve to make men weak, but rather the ranger is hardened and strengthened through his spartan lifestyle. Rangers tend to live by the strength of their arms and the strength of their wits (unlike druids, who gain divine power from their worship of the land). The ranger combines the tracking instincts of a wolf, the combat ferocity of a bear, and the wiles of a fox to be a formidable foe anywhere men normally fear to tread. To the ranger, the wilderness and the elements are not enemies to be subdued, but friends to be welcomed.