Vanir

Historical Account

Thousands of years ago Hárronfall hosted a powerful and ancient race known as the Vanir. Their entire culture and way of life was ruled by one major philosophy, it is not our place to change the land, let the land change you. They didn’t work the land or erect great buildings but were one with the earth that gave them life. In exchange the land blessed them great powers of nature. They never needed to worry about drout of famine. All they had to do was ask the land for storms and food and the land would provide. Because of their blessing, the vanir became great in number, almost too much for their territory to provide for the way it did. Instead of changing their way of life to better suit their numbers, they choose to divide and find homes in far off lands.

The vanir split in two groups, one traveled north into the mountains and the others to the south where there was a great forest. The ones who traveled north found a young and developing race known as the dvergr. The dvergr were struggling to survive in the only land they knew. They tried forcing the land to accept them by paving deep ravines into the earth to farm. They carved and flattened the mountains to build homes. Every year the spring rains would come and flood down the mountains bringing great slides of mud tearing apart their homes and washing away their crops and soil. They didn’t know how much the trees, moss, and plant life of the mountains were needed to hold back the floods. By tearing apart the carefully balanced ecosystem, they were causing their own misfortune.

The vanir told the dvergr of their misguided ways and offered to help them build homes under the mountains where the life above ground wouldn’t be disturbed. The dvergr heeded the words of advice. They were barely surviving as it was. Maybe this change in life would help them grow strong.

In refusing to change the land the land instead changed them. Both races became better adapted to living underground. They were blessed with great abilities and talents with working the metals and ores found in the hearts of the mountains while the vanir could manipulate darkness with their aura. The vanir changed so much that they were no longer recognizable as the race they once were and instead adapted the name dökkálfr.

The vanir that traveled south discovered a sick and dying forest. The entire ecosystem was in ruin and in need of some guiding hand to push things back into balance. It wasn’t going to be an easy task and would require generations of work to revive the forest. The vanir already dedicated their entire livelihood to the way of the land. None of them were willing to turn their backs on a land that needed help.

As life was breathed back into the forest by the vanir, the land blessed them with changes better suited to their environment in show of gratitude. Their skin changed to a brilliant white color that could feed off sunlight like food. They could use their aura to manipulate light and nature. They also adopted a new name as the ljósálfar.

Diverged ethnicities

• Dökkálfr/Dökkálfar
• Ljósálfr/Ljósálfar

The Vanir in Nose Lore

The Vanir are one of the three tribes of gods. They had great powers over magic and nature. In the early ages the Vanir and Æsir fought a great battle where neither tribe of gods ended up truly victorious. They made a truce that in order to keep the peace between the two tribes some Vanir were chosen to live with the Æsir while some Æsir were chosen to live with the Vanir.