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Skin Tone
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Adept Greytalker

Joined: May 14, 2003
Posts: 349
From: the Free City of Dyvers (Kansas City, MO)

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Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:53 pm  
Skin Tone

The skin tones of the humans of Oerth are described as "golden tan", "olive tan", "bronze" and "fair". Several folks I know interpret these tones in different ways. Just look up "bronze" and you'll see a wide variety of hues, from a deep reddish-brown to a deep gold. In my view, there's a lot of room for variety. So, my Flan are bronze-skinned - deep red-brown to deep gold. Bakluni are golden-skinned - deep gold to a light yellowish complexion. Oeridians are olive-tan - light tan to fair. Suloise are fair-skinned - fair to pale. Facial structure is little mentioned; are all the humans of the Flanaess Caucasian-featured with different skin tones? I seem to remember the Flan as having flat, broad features, but I could be wrong. I typically have the Bakluni and Seul as fine-featured, both with angular faces and aquiline noses. Oeridians have more classical, Greco-Roman faces, and the Flan as above. Any thoughts?
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Grandmaster Greytalker

Joined: Nov 07, 2004
Posts: 1847
From: Mt. Smolderac

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Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:06 pm  

I always thought of the "pure" Baklunish as being very mixed in blood anyway from their days of empire so I imagine their facial features as ranging from Persian to Middle-eastern/Semitic through what most would describe as eastern (Korean, northern Chinese, Tibetan), with the majority looking more like many central asians. Baklunish people are described in the LGG as "long of limb and facial features with high cheekbones." My assumptions above are kind of off on that.

Oeridians as pretty much just your average person of European descent, with all the range that entails. They are described as having square or oval faces and strong jaw lines.

Suel I also think of as fine featured for some reason. Maybe it's the Melnibonean association many people make, except my pet peeve is that they are almost always depicted with straight hair while they are described as having very curly or even kinky hair. They are described as lean with narrow features so my assumptions fit pretty well.

Flan for some reason (And as far as I know I'm the only one) I've always thought of as having features most closely encompassing the range of sub-saharan African peoples depending on what part of the Flanaess we're talking about. The largest groups of "pure" Flan, those in Tenh and the Rovers I see having the features of eastern African peoples like many in Somalia and Ethiopia. I think of this group as eastern Flan so places in the northeast and east with OF bloodline populations (Like North Province/Kingdom, Bandit Kingdoms) you see many of those features. The western Flan (Sheldomar), fairly "pure" in Geoff and mixed in Sterich and the County of Ulek with Oeridian blood I imagine as having features more like Bantu peoples. The northern Flan in Blackmoor and Perrenland as Nilotic speaking peoples like many in Southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania. Think Maasai. Given the range of skin tones described for Flan I assume the eastern as having the light coppery skin, northern Flan the dark, deep brown, and western Flan in the middle of that range with some variance in each group. They are said to have broad, strong faces and sturdy builds.

Given how mixed the populations of most countries in the Flanaess are though you get even more variance depending on the bloodlines involved.
Journeyman Greytalker

Joined: Mar 04, 2003
Posts: 156
From: Nyrond

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Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:13 pm  

In general terms I've always visualized them as:

Oeridian = European
Flan = American Indian for northern Flan blending to African for the southern.
Baklundish = Persian/Middle Eastern for the more organized nations, mongolian hordes for the more tribal/nomadic
Suloise = I know its very odd - Albino Japanesse.
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