Vannan is one of the secondary antagonists of Marlfox, the eleventh book in the Redwall novel series. She is a Marlfox who, with the rest of her siblings, was assigned by their mother, Silth, the tyrannical queen of Castle Marl, to get rich items for her chamber and went to Mossflower to get them. Along the way, they come across Redwall Abbey where they steal a tapestry after setting up a battle against its residents. After a series of events involving Mokkan manipulating them, stealing the tapestry for himself, and escaping Mossflower to leave them to be dealt with by the Redwallers. As such, they actively try to conquer Redwall Abbey by any means necessary, even trying to kill some so they can rule over the others in the process.
Biography[]
As a Marlfox, Vannan has been living with her siblings in Castle Marl under their mother Silth, who is shown to be a tyrannical ruler over the island. They would occasionally be assigned by her to get rich and beautiful items for her chamber to fulfill her vain vision of being surrounded by beauty. During one instance, they come onto Mossflower for the objective. While on there, Vannan, with Ascrod, had been wandering the woods and then hear the sound of a young female squirrel named Songbreeze singing for her father, Janglur, and the others in her family. Getting the idea to capture her for Silth as a singer in her court, they go to the area where they heard it in and prepare to make an attempt to kidnap her only for this attempt to be foiled by Janglur, who was aware of them being about, by shouting at them through his flute before driving them away by shooting a dart onto Ascrod's nose and slinging a stone at Vannan.
After Gelltor returns from an attempted attack on Redwall Abbey with a water rat guard of his called Fatchur being killed, Mokkan informs his siblings at camp of a plan he thought up of to steal something from Redwall Abbey. He starts this off by tricking one of the abbey's dibbuns, Dwopple, into falling into his trap to hold him hostage as ransom before explaining the rest of the details to his siblings, telling them that they will engage in battle against Redwall Abbey's residents when they arrive to rescue Dwopple, knowing what they'll do to serve as a diversion while Ascrod and Vannan sneak into the abbey to steal from it. As they sneak in while the battle starts, they spy a bit on Friar Butty and Nutwing as they close the gatehouse door before going to the abbey.
They manage to get in with the help of one of the water rat guards with them, Beelu, who warns them of the three youngsters, Dannflor, Dippler, and Songbreeze, who had been assigned withh guarding the abbey, though only the other water rat guard, Dakkle, was paying attention as Ascrod and Vannan were focused on the tapestry on the wall in the abbey. When Nutwing and Friar Butty came in and spoke, Songbreeze notices Ascrod and Vannan and alerts the two to get away. Ascrod and Vannan, however, slay Nutwing while Friar Butty runs off to raise the alarm before knocking out the three with the help of their water rats. They then proceed to steal the tapestry and escape the abbey, bringing it to camp, showing it off, and gloating about their victory.
During the battle, Ziral, one of them has been slain which Gelltor rants about at the camp, specifying that it was Janglur who did it as he also rants about Mokkan before he shows up to camp himself after spying on them through a tree while pretending to be limping badly. Reminding them that the code of Marlfoxes is that blood calls for blood, he encourages them to continue battling against Redwall Abbey under the pretense of wanting that code to be followed through to kill the one responsible for Janglur's death and drag those they spare back to their island in chains when in reality, he intends on getting them disposed of by the Redwallers' hands. As they get read, Vannan has Beelu spy on Mokkan and report to her if he tries anything odd, unaware that Mokkan, who had pretended to be sleeping, had overheard this. This would lead to Mokkan tricking Beelu into going with him to an area in the forest where he throttles him to death before taking the tapestry and destroying all but one of the logboats with the logboat he didn't destroy being used by him and Fenno, a traitorous shrew whom he forced into steering the boat under the threat of his life.
When they arrive at the abbey, Gelltor gives a declaration of war, telling the abbey's residents that they are surrounded and that they'll stay there until they're slain or surrendered. Later on, Vannan makes an attempt to burn Redwall Abbey's wallgate with the help of a water rat Dakkle carrying a piece of smoldering rope, though as they approached, an arrow shot by either Janglur or Rusvul killed the water rat while Vannan hides in the trees before being grabbed by Gelltor who told her that they'll need to think of another way to burn the door down. Vannan suggests fire arrows, though Gelltor reprimands her for the idea before telling her he's come up with one of his own. He later issues orders to a rat to tell Ascrod and Predak to pull back from the north wall they were at and to meet him back there while telling Vannan to liven up as they need to plan their next move after the plan didn't work. After a few unsuccessful attempts in their siege, Vannan returns to camp and converses with Ascrod about it before Ascrod informs her of Mokkan having killed Beelu, taken the tapestry, destroying all but one of their boats, and abandoning them, much to their fury. They then make plans to put all their cunning into defeating Redwall with intent to have the shrews build them new boats once the abbey and its treasures are theirs so they can start back for the island when Mokkan's least expecting them to start a reckoning.
They make their attempt with the other two with the help of their water rats by using a siege ladder to get in with Gelltor being the one going first, though they get spotted by the Redwallers, leading to shrews pounding around from all sides of the walltops. Despite this, Gelltor ends up going down the wallsteps as the water rats climb with a few being killed while Vannan, Ascrod, and Predak urge their troops on. Eventually, the ladder fell with the rats on it while Gelltor fought against Mayon and his six Guosim with the help of his water rats before engaging in a battle against Janglur that ends with him killed and his corpse taken outside the wallgate onto the ground. In the aftermath, Vannan ordered a retreat into the depths of south Mossflower where they had lots of food, rousted out the bloodthirsty Raventail and his tribe and continued to scheme up ideas to conquer Redwall Abbey with what they have to work with. Knowing that they need reinforcements more than anything, Vannan suggests they use Raventail and his tribe as means of assistance which while something Ascrod was initially against due to ferets never having served those of Marlfox blood is something they came to agree to before they manage to get them on their side.
With Raventail and his tribe's assistance and them having killed an otter that is likely to be a Redwall scout, they lead a charge against Redwall Abbey by climbing the battlements, though this attempt gets foiled by the Redwallers pouring in several types of oil onto them as they're carrying torches, causing them to be caught on fire and burnt. They make another attempt to get in by cutting down an oak tree, though this only leads to them getting attacked by termites and stung by bees. Later, at night, they make an attempt to break into Redwall Abbey through a plan concocted by Ascrod where they opened the gates by causing the gate bar to hit the ground before entering only for this to be spotted by Friar Butty, who alerted the Redwallers of this. This resulted in a brief argument between Ascrod and Raventail that was interrupted by Vannan who pointed out that Friar Butty alerted them before they capture and tie up Mayon, the one hostage the ferrets haven't slain.
After a bit, Ascrod had a large fire be lit in the center of the lawn before announcing to the Redwallers that they're surrounded and showing them the hostage they have. The Redwallers respond by shooting an arrow at Ascrod, leading to Raventail shooting fire arrows onto the abbey to burn it as the Redwallers try to put out the fire before they are all forced by Predak to come out unarmed under the threat of having the archers double their fire. They pretend to comply only to unleash twoscore Redwallers who charge against them as Vannan prepares to try to kill them while drawing her ax and remarking this to Predak only for her to be slain by a javelin thrown at her by an otter from the otter crews that charged over the abbey lawns against the forces, leading to the rest being killed and the battle lost on the Marlfoxes' behalf.