Although Archduke Xan began his adventuring life as a ranger it would be Butch Beerstride that would become the realm’s preeminent warrior woodsman. Working closely with Esma the Druid Duchess of Foret Verte and eventually with the Lotharingian fallen knights lodge of Shadow Doom, Butch was able to bridge the gap between the harmony of the wilderness with the need for nimble and often deadly rogues to help the archduchy deal with enemies far afield from Renatus.

Butch almost immediately upon becoming one of Xan’s adventuring companions fell head over heels for Sidra Shadefiend, the shadow elven wood witch who worked in her father’s bowyer shop in Resurrection. After a somewhat lengthy courtship, and having secured the blessing of her father, Niemand, Butch married Sidra and settled down to a comfortable life in the wooded area just west of the capital. Both he and his bride were kept busy with their own duties and together they made a formidable pair. When Lotharingia became a part of Renatus it was Butch that was given the task of integrating the Shadow Doom lodge into the complex quilt of life and society in Renatus. Already a close ally of Duchess Seraphina, who oversaw all of the intelligence gathering for the archduchy, Butch and Sidra were frequently on the prowl in neighboring states taking notes and doing whatever they could to foil the schemes of the Fourth Imperium. It was not a quiet life, but nor could it ever have been called dull.

Over time Butch was given a number of titles over estates in different parts of Renatus. However, the life of a landed gentry was not his style and he rarely stayed in one of his properties more than a few weeks. As he was fond of saying, “a ranger has to wander.”