"The Flan peoples, who had settled in the lands just
west of the Hellfurnaces in what is now the Sea of Dust,
eventually fled their homelands to escape the persecution
and threats of their warlike neighbors, the Suel. Traveling
under the protection of their patron Powers Beory, Pelor and
Rao, they crossed the Hellfurnaces en masse in SD 3,250
(2,265 years before the crowning of the Overking in Rauxes)
and entered the lands of eastern Oerik. These were the first
humans to enter this part of the continent, and they made
contact with several demi-human lands, particularly those of
Celene." - The Lortmil Mountains, Sobrach, Oerth Journal #2.
So, this is interesting. I know Oerth Journal isn't canon, but this is dramatically different than I have seen. I have assumed that the Flan were present since time immermorial.
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Well, that's easily early enough for them to be seen as having been there forever (except by the elves), especially if they were the first humans to arrive.
I distinctly remember Gygax responding in one of his email answers that the Flan peoples predated even the demi-humans in the Flanaess. I've always preferred that interpretation, personally, given the name of the subcontinent. Also, humans predating demi-humans is more interesting and gets us away from too much Tolkeinization.
Somewhere (in the Mona article on aquatic elves, maybe?) there's a reference to the elves first setting foot in the Flanaess upon the Spindrift Isles—originating either elsewhere on Oerth or (my preference) the moon Celene, now a dessicated apocalyptic ruin.
The dwarves seem to have drifted/migrated east from the Crystalmist chain.
In my WoG campaigns, humanity itself predates the demi-humans, humanoids, and most of the 'monsters'. The Flan were in the Flanaess loooong before the Twin Cataclysms drove the Oeridians, Baklunish, and Suel eastward.
I decided that there are (were) many different 'races' of Flan before the great migrations from the west. The dark-skinned, Swiss culture of the Perrenland, the Plains Indian culture of the Rovers of the Barrens, and the Celtic culture of the people of Geoff are the most intact remnants of different 'Flan' cultures/peoples. The 'Flan' of Caerdiralor, Tostenca, the Isles of Woe, and other places were of distinctly different cultures and appearance. They had a trade network at least as well-developed as that currently in effect across the Flanaess. Their 'common tongue' was as prevelant as the Common Tongue currently used. Their ancient 'common tongue' word for 'The People' was 'Flan'. Thus, when the migrations of the Oeridians, Baklunish, and Suel brought those peoples into contact with the myriad cultures already living in the Flanaess, those people always referred to themselves as 'Flan'. So, the modern Common Tongue simply calls all native peoples, Flan.
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