Vanas Heritage (Original Title: Vanas Erbe - Nordgard) is a German fantasy novel written by Lucian Frey and first published in Germany in 2024. The book follows the young protagonist Nirvy, who attends a military academy named Nordgard. Her unusual appearance and heritage make her a lot of enemies and she has to struggle for acceptance. But being accepted turns out to be the least of her problems when powerful enemies lay their eyes upon her.
Vanas Heritage contains examples of:
- Accidental Aiming Skills: Ylvie, misses her target – the chest of a Shor-Warrior – and kills him instantly by accidentally hitting his brain stem instead.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Most of the students of the warrior and ranger classes on Nordgard dislike Nirvy, some see an easy target for ridicule in her, others are afraid to be victimized by Nemdes and her gang if they don’t join in, too.
- All Trolls Are Different: Some Skjalla-Bands bring Tryll into battle; huge brutes with their size-range starting at bear-sized, who usually carry clubs and are very hard to kill.
- A Taste of the Lash: Vladr uses a whip, a lash, a cane, and a bullwhip on Nirvy. Yes, he has an obsession.
- Adults Are Useless: Played with. The warriors of Vátnfall, who could have easily chased the mercenaries are preoccupied fending off an invasion in the east, so it all comes down to Ylvie, Halvor and Namar. Avaron accompanies them, but he zig-zags between desperation and fierce determination, while not being the greatest warrior himself.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: In the middle of the book, the perspective changes abruptly from Nirvy to Halvor. Just as if something happened…
- Animal Eye Spy: Vladr uses a seer-crow to scout the land and carry messages.
- Armor Is Useless: Averted in the whole book. At one occasion Halvor swings his axe at a Shor warrior and the mail he is wearing stops it from penetrating. Halvor must bring him down with repeated axe-strikes and stab him into the armpit to kill him. When Avaron is later hit in the head, he is “only” knocked unconscious due to him wearing a Helmet.
- Bad Boss: Vladr excels at threatening, killing, and upsetting his subordinates. In his arrogance he doesn´t even realize that this might come back to bite him later.
- Barbarian Long Hair: Vladr has a long mane which is described as ashen and wild.
- Barely-There Swimwear: Played straight, played for laughs and discussed. While Northeners skinny dip without shame, the Eldamirians don´t. When confronted with naked Northeners, the ambassador from Eldamir demanded that schools where eldamirian students are present should employ mandatory swimwear. The Northeners complied by introducing barely-there swimwear, which barely covers anything.
- Beach Episode: In northern culture, swimming and socializing near and in the water takes a huge role. That´s no different at Nordgard, which is in the near vicinity of a lake.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: After slaying Vladr, Halvors face is dashed in blood. And so is Nirvy, after her fighting the Skjalla.
- Breeding Cult: The Shor try to create a master-race through selective breeding.
- Breeding Slave: Shor women are this. Their only purpose is to raise as many strong children as possible. If they fail at this, they get demoted to sex slave at best and “removed” at worst.
- Cat Scare: While intruding Dubransk castle, Halvor gets scared by a cat. He then uses this cat to play a cat scare on a guard. When the guard is relieved, that it was just a cat, and lets his guard down, he gets surprised by Avaron and Halvor and is subsequently slain.
- Chosen Conception Partner: Siyana can be impregnated by a man-wolf, so she is given to Vladr for reproducing.
- Citadel City: Vátnfall is an enormous bastion, which guards the northern lands from invasion.
- Clothing Damage: In her first fight, Fjor grabs Nirvys shirt, and it gets torn halfway through. Downplayed, as it doesn’t expose anything and Nirvy isn’t too bothered at first.
- Combat Medic: War-healers are this. In the north, they accompany soldiers for treatment of typical soldier diseases and wounds and are protected by a personal bodyguard, called Fjorbera.
- Common Tongue: All sentient beings created by Vana understand a common tongue, even if they have a completely different mother tongue. Creatures of Vânor have their separate common tongue.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: While looking for Nirvy, Yvlie shouts her name so loudly, even the still sleepy Namar gets a good scare of it.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Downplayed – Nirvy usually isn´t clumsy at all but when Halvor sees her naked she is so overrun by her thoughts that she gets really clumsy.
- Death of a Child: In the skirmish with the Skjalla and the direct aftermath, three teenaged students lose their lives.
- Denied Food as Punishment: After Nirvys failed attempt to flee from captivity, Vladr starves her to weaken and punish her. He goes so far; she almost starves to death.
- Exposed to the Elements: Justified with Nirvys Outfit because Inari are not affected by the cold.
- Fan Disservice: Nirvy spends most of the second half of the story naked, but her treatment by Vladr makes it anything but erotic. Siyanas Sex scene is outright nightmare fuel as well.
- Fate Worse than Death: As’Saif sees Nirvys captivity as this because he expects that she will get abused and tortured even before she is brought to Vânorak. Nirvy disagrees at first and is determined not to give up, but she changes her mind, after she is being left alone with Vladr.
- Fetus Terrible: After Vladr impregnates Siyana, she feels that her Baby is possessed by an evil force. It has quite an effect on her.
- Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: Halvors and Nerons stand-off ends in a fistfight, when Halvor compares Neron and his gang to a past war criminal.
- Glass Weapon: The Skjalla, Nirvy encounters on the road to Vátnfall carry weapons not too different to a maquahuitl.
- Heroic Resolve: After Avaron is defeated by Vladr, Halvor realizes that he must step up and face him, to save his friends.
- High-Pressure Blood: Nirvy hits a Skjalls throat with her sword and his blood splats in her face.
- Hope Spot: After she gets abducted by Vladr and his mercenaries, Nirvy tries to escape captivity as the opportunity presents itself. She almost manages to escape but gets caught by Vladr in his beast form.
- House Fire: Avaron sets fire to Dubransk keep, hoping to kill Vladr with it.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Vladr threatens As’Saif to kill one of his subordinates if he fails watching Nirvy. He fails and Vladr stands by his words.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Nirvy has no nudity taboo and at the beginning of the story doesn´t care if anyone is looking at her naked body. While the story progresses, she starts to care about it more, but her outfit remains somewhat revealing.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Nirvy kills a Skjall by hitting his throat with her sword.
- It´sPersonal: After Vladr abducts, tortures, and rapes his daughter, Avaron is determined to kill him by himself. His justification for this may also be that he tries to protect his teenage companions from the dangers of facing a man-wolf in combat.
- Javelin Thrower: Avaron and Halvor use Javelins to ambush the Shor-Warriors.
- Lap Pillow: After the climactic fight, Nirvy falls asleep on Halvors lap. After she wakes up, she is spooked by the fact that he was freezing the whole time and didn’t want to put a shirt on, in order not to wake her.
- Lima Syndrome: As’Saif and some of his mercenaries have pity for their captive Nirvy. It does spark conflict with their master, but it´s not enough for them to betray him.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shields – like armor – work in this setting. Unfortunately for Avaron, Falxes work, too.
- Maker of Monsters: Vânor frequently tries to create able servants for him. In the process he creates the Skjalla, the Tryll and were-beasts.
- Malicious Slander: Nemdes spreads lies about Nirvy being a spy from Ilum.
- Mature Work, Child Protagonists: Even though the protagonists are mostly teenagers, when the first kids get brutally killed in a skirmish it is made clear that this is not a story for kids or even teens. And that’s even before the second half…
- Mercy Kill: As’Saif on one occasion tries to kill Nirvy to spare her from the abuse by Vladr but gets interrupted by Vladr.
- Moe Greene Special: Nirvy shoots an arrow into a Skjalls eye. Jord gets speared in the face by Ghazghar.
- Mutual Kill: Nirvy fights and kills a Skjall but screws up her guard and gets hit by an afterblow note just before her opponent drops dead. She is not killed though, but severely injured.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: Inverted. Despite her being vastly different from typical Northeners, Nirvy was always accepted in her hometown. Her stepdad had a play in this acceptance, so when she is separated from him, she learns the hard way, that not everybody in the wide world is nice and without prejudice.
- No Dress Code: On Nordgard, students and teachers don´t have to adhere to a dress code. Nirvys midriff-baring tops are no concern for any of the teachers.
- Not in My Contract: In the climax, Vladr orders As’Saif to disarm the opposing mercenary force with his mercenaries. As’Saif responds that he is hired for escort duty on the road, and they haven’t left the city yet.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: When Nirvy is finally rescued, she is so emaciated that it is apparent that she was only days from starving to death.
- Off with His Head!: Nirvy cuts at a Skjall from behind and severs a good chunk out of his head.
- Older Than They Look: Nirvy is almost fourteen at the start of the book, but gets mistaken for much younger, because of her being very short and flat-chested.
- Only in It for the Money: The Dhash Mercenaries help Vladr to kidnap Nirvy, but they are mostly not fine with his actions.
- Our Nudity Is Different: Inari usually don’t wear clothes and Nirvys sense of nudity differs greatly to the standards of her fellow students. In addition, the nudity standards of all northerners differ greatly to the Eldamirians, who perceive Nirvy as being as good as naked, while the northerners see her outfit as an acceptable summer dress.
- Our Orcs Are Different: In the mountains of the north live the Skjalla; humanoids that come close to the Orcs as defined by Tolkien.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: When Nirvy goes out to the ocean, Halvors Family sends him to watch over her, if she decides to swim. She does and gets a good scare when Halvor suddenly appears.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Vladr is one of the Shor-people, whose culture is all about the strife for being the fiercest warriors in the world.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The mercenaries will do what is demanded from them – but only as long as the contract obliges them to do so.
- Rape Discretion Shot: The chapter ends as Nirvys punishment begins but it is later implied that she got raped.
- Rising Empire: It is implied that the Shor are being serious in establishing an empire of their own in the east.
- Ship Tease: There is nothing that comes out of it so far, but Nirvy seems to be interested in more than being just friends with Halvor.
- Skinny Dipping: At Stínhavn Nirvy touches the ocean for the first time and spontaneously decides to go for a swim.
- Slashed Throat: Vladr kills Sadak by unsheathing Sadaks own dagger and slashing his throat.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Northeners sleep in the nude, when around family or friends.
- Storming the Castle: Avaron and Halvor enter Dubransk Castle to rescue Nirvy, who is held captive there.
- Stupid Evil: Vladr in his hybris doesn´t worry about antagonizing any of his supporters. This attitude is the key to his downfall.
- Suicide by Cop: Siyana wishes to die but is unable to do it herself. She turns to Nirvy and tries to make her kill her. She succeeds, even if it is accidental.
- Teeny Weenie: Nirvy notices that Halvor doesn’t respond well to Ylvies joke about penis size and makes a probably right conclusion.
- The Chase: Taking place over forty days, Avaron and Nirvys friends chase after Vladr and the mercenaries.
- The Federation: The Northlands form a loose federation of several kingdoms, with Valheim and Vesthris being the most influential parts of it.
- They Have the Scent!: While looking for Nirvy, Avaron brings three dogs. They immediately scent the man-wolf and chase after it.
- Torture Always Works: Nirvy, a fourteen-year-old girl, doesn’t need too much torture to start talking, because the past weeks have scared her so much, that she fears it will get much worse than that. It doesn’t stop Vladr from brutalizing her, though.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: “Man-Wolves” of the Shor can change into their beast form at will. There are two stages: An animal-man-hybrid, that is closer to traditional werewolf myths and a beast-form, which is much bigger and has almost nothing humanlike left.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: After Nirvy gets out of the water, she grabs her blouse, but due to the wetness of her skin and her nervousness she can’t pull it over her head and must unbutton it to finally get dressed. All while completely naked. While Halvor is staring at her.
- Whip of Dominance: Vladr uses his whip to show Nirvy her place.
- Would Hit a Girl: Vladr has no remorse, beating Nirvy up.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After all her struggle beforehand, Nirvy is finally happy and with her friends. Then shit hits the fan.
