The Chosen Ones

Hi, I find some of your points really interesting.

Personally I think it's most likely that the King is responsible for promoting the dragon slayers.
To the meaning of their ranks, I would offer the following perspective:
Dragon Slayers are a group of Elite Fighters, there is a Basic Training, which makes them a Rank 1 Dragon Slayer. From there on, they start accepting missions and fighting against different evil creatures.
If the take part in some especially hard fights and gather enough reputation, the king will eventually decide to honor them, by promoting them. So the Rank of a Dragon Slayer displays not only his strength and experience, but also the number of his great deeds.
If you look at it this way, you can easily explain different ranks.
Galeoth: He is the oldest and fought in the war with the dragons for many years. In this time there were many battles, to gain reputation in. Furthermore is he the son of a legendary Dragon Slayer, Vandart. So Galeoth had enough time and through his father good opportunities to earn himself promotions, until he became a fith ranked Dragon Slayer.

Phodom: He is much younger than Galeoth and only fought in the last years of the war with the dragons. So it is safe to assume, that he had not half as many chances, to win himself reputation within the kindom. Despite of this, he became famous for his kind heart and his willigness to protect the innocent. It was this attributes that made him famous and if he had not left the Dragon Slayers to become a farmer, he would have had the potential to become a fith ranked dragon Slayer too.
In my oppinion this rank is a result of timing (he only joined the war, when the greatest battles had already been fought) and his kindness, which made him retire almost immediately after the war.

Fradz: He is the youngest, and I doubt, that he could fight a lot during the war. He must have been a very young man back there. Nevertheless he is a third ranked, which implies, that he has already proven to be quite capable. Personally I assume, that his low rank is more due to his childish and disrespecting behaviour combined with his youth, than to the fact, that he is no match for Dragon Slayers like Galeoth of Phodeom.


However Aero stated in his story Thread that the rank of Dragon Slayers is directly linked to their respective powers.
If this were the case, Fradz is definitly wrong ranked. Additionally some aspects of the campaign do not fit into this image:

--> Why does Phodom say about a only 3rd ranked Dragon Slayer: "A better Dragon Slayer would be hard to find" (this would implie there are only a very few higher ranked Dragon Slayers)

--> Why does the king call them his best dragon Slayer team ? From what we have seen, Tharo alone is by far stronger than this "team", although Galeoth is a 5th ranked Dragon Slayer just like him.
Alfred is a 4th ranked Dragon Slayer. Means he is significantly stronger than Fradz.

(Got to go now, would love to keep discussing l8r on )

TTH