About the Writer
Hello, my name is Matthew Kajiwara Hernandez (he/him).
I am an upcoming writer based in the Pacific Northwest. I graduated from Arizona State University with a double major in English and philosophy, and currently working towards a Masters in English. I am a proud Hawaiian Kingdom National, and multiethnic individual—Uchinaanchu (Okinawan) on my mother’s side, and Mexican (Nahua), on my father’s. I live with my lovely girlfriend, Lauren, and her cat, Kida.
What is the purpose of this blog?
Simple—to satisfy my love for writing and my love for the famous tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons.
What even is a Suburban Ranger?
Rang-er
/ˈrānjər/
a keeper of a park, forest, or area of countryside; a member of a body of armed men (a mounted soldier, or a commando/highly trained infantryman); a person or thing that wanders or ranges over a particular area or domain. (from Oxford Languages)
In fantasy and science-fiction storytelling, and games such as Dungeons and Dragons, a ranger is an archetype who exhibits many of the above characteristics, usually portrayed as a warrior (often, but not exclusively, proficient in archery or marksmanship), and outdoor survival expert capable of hunting and tracking; oftentimes, however, rangers in fiction also possess some form of magical or magic-like abilities such as a supernatural bond with animals or sometimes even plants and healing abilities through miracles or herbalism.
Those who fall under the ranger archetype usually fall under one of two categories: an organized military such as U.S. Army Rangers, the 19th-century North American mountain men, or the fictional Rangers of the North and the Rangers of Ithilien (aka the Rangers of the South) from Lord of the Rings; or guardians who protect an area of nature and its inhabitants, such as Park Rangers or characters like San of the Wolf Clan from Princess Mononoke.
Rangers are often portrayed as woodsmen, but many prefer the mountains, deserts, grasslands, the ocean, or even massive cities—call them urban rangers, this is the origin of my own term, suburban ranger. A suburban ranger is simply someone who knows the “environment” of the suburbs well. This self-created title is wordplay more than anything, as I, an avid D&D player and lifelong suburbanite, know next to nothing about fighting, outdoorsmenship (not that there’s much to know about survival in the burbs), or the like—although, I do possess an affinity for animals.
The Suburban Ranger 