The Vanir of Itelion were among the first to draw blood in the War of the Wyrmborn. Having long surpassed their progenitors in arcane knowledge (by studying ancient Mythar runes), they believed themselves rightful heirs to the dominion of Rift Magic. Their floating spires and etherborne cities shone as symbols of ambition—and temptation. In the wake of The Riftfire Rebellion, the Aether Drake were greatly weakened, some already cursed, others vanished. The Vanir sensed a vacuum of power and, spurred by whispers of Malekith, sought to claim what remained.
Malekith, ever watchful, appeared to their most gifted seers in many guises. He whispered of Solir hypocrisy and of Njordir stagnation. He spun tales of betrayal and buried knowledge, suggesting that their allies hoarded secrets of Rift Energy which they coveted. Thus did the scholars of Itelion become conspirators, their pride inflamed and their curiosity unbound.
Led by their magi and driven by a prophecy of dominion, the Vanir waged war across sea and land. Vanir longships descended on the sunlit shores of Itela as their arcane engines turned verdant fields to nothing but ash. They unleashed horrible weapons of mass destruction—riftfire engines—upon the earth itself, forcing the Njordir to rise in response. What began as a clash of ideals became a war of annihilation.
Their greatest folly came upon the Vale at Spine's End, where Vanir battlemages, bolstered by shard-born power, faced the unified wrath of Solir Sun-Rifting and Njordir Earth-Rifting. For nearly a hundred days, the battle raged across the Spine of the World, scarring it beyond recognition. The Vanir, manipulated Ether to tear open the skies—but not even their mastery of the arcane could halt the tide of ruin they themselves had helped summon.
The war ended not by victory but by calamity—the Second Continuum Crisis, born of the Cult of Infinitum's meddling, shattered Itelion and erased the Vanir heartland from the map. Their floating citadels crashed like stars from the heavens. Their great libraries were consumed in voidflame. Entire bloodlines vanished in silent screams.
In the aftermath, the Vanir of Aerenal severed all ties to their elven kin. They cloaked their sanctuaries in arcane wards and turned their gaze skyward once more, choosing seclusion over the seductive call of conquest. To this day, they call the War of the Wyrmborn the “Schism of the Shards” (or the Sharborne Schism), due to the beguiling influence wrought by experimenting with the Infinity Shards.
The Vanir’s legacy in this war is one of ambition unmoored, brilliance bent toward destruction. And though their Aerenal cousins endured, the stain of Itelion's fall remains a shadow across their skies.