Pre-Migration Human Races

[howandwhy99]

As the Catalogue begins on this, "There are few pure racial groups extant on the Flanaess..."

But prior to their mass migrations into the Flanaess, displanting the Flan, there are 3 Major Western Human Races:

1. Baklunish, "golden-hued skin tones", "gray-green or green" common eye color, "blue-black to dark brown" hair.

2. Oeridians, "tan to olive" skin tones, "honey blonde to black" hair though "brown and reddish brown are most common", "Eye coloration is highly variable"

3. Suloise, "very fair-fair skinned, some being almost albino", "light red, yellow, blonde, or platinum blonde hair", "Eye color varies from pale blue or violet through deep blue, with gray occasionally occurring."

My question is, How did these races originate in the latitudes they did?

The whole group is appears inverted. The darkest skin tones, hair and eyes should be near the maps 15 degree parallel. The Baklunish. And the near albino blondes should be near the 60 degree parallel. Right? What the heck is going on?

I'd swap them out regardless of the migration map in the original works, but the Suel were the target which created the Sea of Dust. And the Baklunish are a Persian/Arabic counterpart ruled by Sultans and Caliphs near abouts mid-Canada.

There are A LOT of great things about Greyhawk I love, but make little sense on first reading. And I can use magic to explain these, but this one I can't figure out. Any help?

[howandwhy99]

Also, here's the last sentence under the Suloise entry:

"Those bands that migrated into the vast Amedio Jungle and Hepmonaland are so altered as to be no longer typical of the race; they are tan to brown with heavy freckling."

[scottenkainen]

Your problems are solved if there was no permanent, pre-migration status quo. What is known as "pre-migration" times is then just an unknown prehistory of more migrations. You could back-fill this history to get the races to whatever latitude feels right to you.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[howandwhy99]

You mean there are more Suel elsewhere? Wicked

[scottenkainen]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much. The distribution of human races is meant to make as much sense as the distribution of red, green, white, and black races on Barsoom.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[howandwhy99]

It's odd as heck is all.

[scottyg]

"I am Darius, the great king, the king of kings
The king of many countries and many people
The king of this expansive land,
The son of Wishtaspa of Achaemenid,
Persian, the son of a Persian,
'Aryan', from the Aryan race"
My ancient Suel are based on the Persians. If you follow the history of some fanciful versions of the Aryan race, it's a lot like the history of the Suel, starting in Persia and moving west and north, with the blond, blue eyed Nordic barbarians up in Scandinavia. Flip that around and you have the Suel migrating across the Flanaess.
It's fantastical bread and butter.
If you're being odded out by the latitude the races developed in you're definitely overthinking it. 'They come from here and they look like this because the god that made them and put them there liked that look'.

[howandwhy99]

When I generate the history I want to make sure it conforms to the campaign setting. Which is all good considering all the advice. I especially like the Babylonian verse.

But "God said so" (or even "I said so") is an endpoint for and in a game and disables players from being able to play the design any further. It's not just final and flat, it ends the game. Well, at least that portion of it. More properly, it is a dead end in the maze that is the game.