Born of hardy northern stock in the land known as Vanaheim, the Vanir share similarities with the Cimmerians: both peoples are considered barbaric by most other nations and live tribal existences where the males train almost exclusively to make war and hunt for food.

The Vanir differ from their Cimmerian neighbors to the south in that they are vicious raiders who attack others for slaves, plunder and sometimes just for amusement.

The Vanir are currently surging south through the mountain borders, beating back the Cimmerian defenders and taking the heads of the warriors who oppose them. Unlike typical Vanir warfare, this seems to be an assault of conquest, not a lengthy raid. In this bitter war, the northerners are led by Ymirish commanders, and these white-haired folk of frost giant bloodlines hold mysterious authority over the Vanir raiders.

Vanaheim itself is a snow-blanketed land of tundra and freezing winds. In the closing decades of the doomed Hyborian Age, it is destined to be one of the first nations to die under the encroaching glaciers, before sinking into the sea. That fate is a distant one, however. The warriors of the Vanir now raid south with vicious abandon. The berserkers of Nordheim fall on the natives, killing the scattered and disorganized Cimmerian warriors, raping their wives and taking their children as slaves.