Vanir

The Vanir are the fierce, iron-clad raiders of Vanaheim, the northern realm of the Nordheimers, and the agents of destruction who shatter Conan's childhood in the opening act of his saga. Their brutal dawn raid on the Cimmerian village is the primal catastrophe that sets the entire narrative in motion, transforming a boy into a slave and, ultimately, into a man-slayer. As the first and most impersonal of Conan's enemies, the Vanir represent the raw, unforgiving violence of the Hyborian world, a force of chaos that strips away innocence and forges the steel of his character through suffering and loss. They are the catalyst for his call to adventure, the initial threshold he must cross into a life of hardship, and the reason his path becomes one of blood and vengeance.