After fifteen years, Morgarath prepares to unleash his power, except using two strong beasts called the Kalkara, which are very powerful appe-like assassins, to attempt to strengthen the Kingdom before trying to take the Kingdom once more. Wargals have little will of their own, and are easy to control, therefore being suitable as soldiers in Morgarath's army. Now he silently plots to rebel again, rallying hideous creatures known as Wargals to his side. His former fief, known as Gorlan, was long ago brought to ruin as a result of his unsuccessful rebellion against King Duncan. Morgarath, the exiled lord of the bleak, barren Mountains of Rain and Night has been waiting fifteen years in his dark realm, carefully planning his revenge against the Kingdom of Araluen. Most importantly, Flanagan wanted to show his son that there was an advantage to being small and that not all heroes have to be tall and weak. Will was based on Michael, and shared some of his physical attributes, including his small stature and agile movement.

Flanagan was careful to make the distinction that Horace was not stupid, since he was, in fact, a straight thinker which helped balance Will's wild thinking. He planned this parallel storyline in Battleschool to develop and show how Horace could help Will through his 'linear thinking'. Flanagan thought that the idea of a bully being bullied was a strong concept that was not in the original stories and was later incorporated into the novel. In the stories, Horace disappears after Will saves his life on the boar hunt, while in the novel, Flanagan was able to make Morgarath the main villain and 'rehabilitate' Horace to keep him as a main character. The character Horace was based on Michael's friend Jeremy, but in the original short stories Flanagan made Horace the villain. About ten years later, Flanagan returned to these stories and decided to write them into a full-length novel. Flanagan wrote one story each week for thirty weeks. The Ruins of Gorlan was originally a set of short stories written by author John Flanagan for his son Michael to encourage him to read. Ten years later, he decided to turn them into The Ruins of Gorlan, the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series. Flanagan first conceived the world of the novel in a series of short stories he wrote for his son to incite his interest in reading. It was first released in Australia on 1 November 2004, and in the United States on 16 June 2005.

The Ruins of Gorlan is the first novel in the Ranger's Apprentice series written by Australian author John Flanagan.

The Battle of Hackham Heath ( Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years)

The ruins of gorlan book