Vanh was a Black Company sergeant from Hsien in Soldiers Live. He was one of the 26 "brightest and most trusted youngsters" in the reconstituted Company, all described as "pathfinders" and "rangers". His first mission, under Blade's command and stationed at Shivetya's fortress, was to be a thief: to bring packs filled with large amounts of ancient treasure found in multiple caverns deeper below the ground than even the Cave of the Ancients up to Shivetya's throne room at ground level. The treasure would be used by Sleepy to finance the upcoming Protectorate war. He was well-trained in glittering plain discipline to avoid death by shadows. When moving about the prehistoric fortress, he benefitted from "a ball of earthy brown glow" provided by the golem Shivetya which "hovers above and behind one shoulder or another". He would have become acquainted with the elderly Baladitya in this role, and subsisted upon manna supplied by the golem and rations of spiced rice.
Croaker described Vanh and his 25 companions as follows:
| “ | the thieves, the Company pathfinders, includes twenty-six of the outfit’s brightest and most trusted youngsters, all Children of the Dead. They need to be both smart and trustworthy because Sleepy wants to exploit the treasures in the caverns beneath the plain and because they really have to understand that the plain itself will not forgive them if they do the wrong thing. | ” |
Blade encountered Vanh on the seemingly endless staircase, and notified him that Sleepy had decided to begin her attack on Soulcatcher and her Protectorate loyalists over in the homeworld. Shortly after this, Blade discovered Goblin was still alive after 4 years in Kina's chamber.
Vanh is not mentioned again in the Annals by name, but he may have been among the "rangers" from Hsien – now serving directly under the brothers Runmust and Iqbal Singh – who shed the first blood in the war.