Mythology: Vanir Origins

[Sander 3312]

((OOC))
This is just a bit of creative writing about the mythological origins of Vanir, inspired by that of the Vanir from Norse mythology. Don't take it as lore, should be seen more as mythological beliefs held in-character. Enjoy reading what I conjured up!

Highlander Mythology: Origins of the gens 'Vanir'
 

It is known to us all without a moment of doubt that this universe GOD has created and bestowed upon us, not to mention us ourselves, the descendants of Horen, are a most excellent creation. Any skilled craftsman can attest that such a grand and perfect work cannot easily be made without practice, and thus we can assume we are not our Lord’s first creation. Tales of old, cast aside as pagan folklore by contemporary minds, can tell of some of Godan’s earlier makings. Among which lies the story of Vanaheim and the old Vanir.

Long ago, when the Holy Craftsman was still learning His craft, he made a vast and rough plane. He created mountains and seas, shores and ores, hills and rills. He filled this rough plane with a cold, harsh landscape, full of forests, rocky terrain, grassy highlands and vast waters with waves in sizes and shapes in all of the shapes he could think of. Being then still a practicing Holy Craftsman, He was often troubled by decisions He needed to make, like whether he should make the rough plane light or dark. Eventually he decided on making it light half of the time, and dark the other half of the time with a sun that disappeared for half of the seasons, and returned for the other half of them.

When He stopped to look at the rough plane He had created, He gave it a name: Vanaheim. And while He was decently satisfied with how Vanaheim had turned out, He was not entirely sure if he thought it was finished or not. Then He turned to his three Helpers, who the pagan highlanders of isolated tribes sometimes revere as fellow Gods or Demigods; the three brothers Wodanaz, Vilin and Kven, to ask what they thought of His creation. The three Helpers looked at the forests, the hills, plains, mountains, the shores and the seas, and came back to Him with their verdict. Vilin and Kven looked to Him and both said Vanaheim was finished, they wanted to stay here. Wodanaz gave the rough plane another glance before looking back to Him and shaking his head. Wodanaz did not think this was finished and wanted to go with the Holy Craftsman, to go on creating new things far away. And so it happened. Wodanaz went with Him to go on creating the universe, while Vilin and Kven stayed behind in Vanaheim.

Vilin and Kven looked at Vanaheim after Wodanaz and the Holy Craftsman had left. The plane was finished, but at a second glance they found it empty. There was none but the presence of Nature and the life that came with it, but there were no creatures. And so Vilin and Kven binded together to create the first creatures of Vanaheim: the Vanir. They created two Vanir, Njorf and Skaoi, the first man and woman of Vanaheim. And Vilin and Kven said to them: go and explore, explore the land.

So they did. Njorf and Skaoi travelled the lands of Vanaheim as nomads, seeing what there was to see as had been made by the Holy Craftsman Godan. They travelled through all of the forests, hills and plains they could find, but there were some frontiers they could not traverse. So they called upon Vilin and Kven for help and said: the mountains and seas! We cannot pass them but we wish to explore further! Vilin and Kven looked at one another and soon came with a solution.
 

Njorf and Skaoi at night as they each in turn long to go to the sea and the mountains respectively.

Skaoi wished to explore the mountains for their sights lured her in. They taught her to make skis and how to use them. And soon she was able to pass the steepest of peeks and became the Lady of the Mountains. Then they turned to Njorf, who wished to explore the vastness of the seas, for he could hear the waves calling to him. Vilin and Kven taught Njorf to make a boat as well as the art of sailing and it did not take long for him to master the practice as he traversed the strongest of currents and highest of waves as he became the Lord of the Seas. After much time had passed, and Skaoi had explored all of the mountains and Njorf had explored all of the seas, they returned to the forests and fields and reunited.

They lived for much time in Vanaheim, bearing many children together. There were however a few notable Vanir born from Njorf and Skaoi. Those were the sons Stanna and Utforsk and the daughters Freija and Asna. Njorf and Skaoi, together with their many children, travelled again as nomads around Vanaheim, letting their offspring explore as they had done before. The Vanir all learned to ski so they could travel the mountains, and to sail so they could travel the seas, just like their parents.

After a long, long time however, Utforsk grew weary from all the exploring and wished to stay in one area. He brought this up with his siblings and parents, who were all not quite sure how to respond to this, as Vilin and Kven had told them to explore the land and even taught them how to. Eventually Njorf and Skaoi said they would all go to sleep and talk more about it later. Later however, they found Utforsk had not waited for them to come to a decision, and he had gone ahead setting up a home that was impractical to move, and collecting animals and growing plants around this home to live off. When Stanna saw that his brother had disobeyed their parents, and not waited for all of them to decide, he became furious with Utforsk. He argued that they should keep exploring and travelling, to see if there were places they had not yet found, to which Utforsk argued there were none, for they had travelled all the land and been everywhere.

Stanna then realized his brother was right. They had travelled all of the land of Vanaheim, and seen everything. But he was sure that there would be more to find in the world, and so he looked further than just the land, and instead to the sea. He would prove his brother wrong, and make his siblings and parents proud by exploring farther than any of them and finding new places he decided. And so he did, building a ship like Njorf had taught him and like Njorf had been taught by Vilin and Kven. After finishing the ship with much care and effort, Stanna set sail to explore the vastness of the seas on his own. He travelled very long and very far and at a certain point, Vilin and Kven came to him, asking where he was going. To this, Stanna said he was exploring like they had told his parents. Vilin and Kven looked at one another, and asked the Vanir if he would not rather stay in his wildly beautiful and peaceful home of Vanaheim, to which Stanna shook his head, determined with his goal in mind. Then the brothers Vilin and Kven told Stanna that Wodanaz had gone with Godan the Holy Craftsman to much further places, to practice more in making the worlds, and that the Holy Craftsman had made a new place, full of creatures much like the Vanir. They offered to show him the way and so Stanna was led to Aegis.

Vilin and Kven showed Stanna this world, they told him that the creatures in this world thought there were no other planes of existence, that they thought theirs was the only one. Stanna learned of how Godan the Holy Craftsman, who these creatures just called God or The Creator, made many different kinds of races, among which the men, elves, orcs and dwarves. Vilin and Kven showed Stanna everything this new world had to offer, the different plants, landscapes, people and creatures, the good and the bad, the flaws and the perfections.

In the end, Stanna was so enamoured by this new place, he asked Vilin and Kven to stay there, and they obliged, on the condition Stanna would go on to fit into the new land of Aegis. They told him to love the descendants of Horen, for they were the most pious and most like the Vanir. They told him to adopt Canonism, which The Creator had taught to mankind. They asked him however not to forget the heritage and name they had given him. Stanna obliged to all of these things. He would be with the descendants of Horen and he would adopt Canonism. He would remember the wanderlust, skiing and sailing that Vilin and Kven had taught the Vanir, and he would pass down the Vanir name to his descendants, beginning with the only son he would go on to bear: Gunnar.
Thus began the long lineage of the Vanir among the descendant races, and thus concludes their origins from the faraway land of Vanaheim.