➵Ranger’sApprentice ➵

I’m gonna cry because I don’t have ANY Ranger’s Apprentice posts on my dash

Drawing of Will ☀️

Crowley when Morgarath does anything, even breathe

So this is something I’ve seen a lot of people wonder about, so I decided to do a little bit of digging. To start, I think it’s pretty commonly accepted that Araluen is essentially an AU version of Medieval England. In medieval England, the royal family didn’t have a last name. In fact, they didn’t have a surname at all until 1917. Back in medieval times, royalty had only their first names and the name of the house or dynasty they were part of. Some notable dynasties you might’ve heard of include the House of Tudor and the House of York. So it’s pretty likely that Cassandra and Duncan just didn’t have a surname. But. Queen Rosalind actually does have a surname–Serenne. Medieval surnames had a far more important meaning attached to them in Medieval England than they do now. Surnames usually meant something very specific, such as their occupation (a baker would usually have the surname Baker and whatnot). Now, I didn’t exactly do a ton of research, but I couldn’t find anything at all about a possible meaning or origin of the surname Serenne, aside from a tentative French connection. I’m guessing it’s based on serene, but who knows. So what we have is an essentially meaningless, and thus more modern, surname for someone who is likely either a noble or royalty herself. Nowadays, other royals use their family’s territorial designation (like Wales or York) as a last name. And given that Araluen is chock-full of anachronisms (*cough cough Malcolm’s stethoscope, Jenny’s oven, germ theory cough cough*), as well as Rosalind’s rather modern surname, I could buy that this applies to Araluen’s royal family as well. So tldr: Cassandra either a) has no last name or b) has Araluen as her last name

You can also read chapter one via the following link: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/8fa7cbeb976af75161f9d63c0/files/ba541988-7be8-4553-b746-c4f480e3825d/Ranger_s_Apprentice_The_Royal_Ranger_2_EXTRACT.pdf

And they deserve all the love and appreciation in the world for that.