The Gods of Oerth

Volume 1: The Flan

by Kambellian Yosephus (Eric Filson)

Chapter 1: The Puzzle of History

The study of history is a difficult one - papers decay, memories fade, and ruins crumble. The study of the history of the Flan people is even more difficult. An anthropologist is forced to trek long distances to do the research and even then, the Flan people have not been particularly prolific writers. Instead, their history is wrapped up in wondrous folktales and is prone to change and become more majestic as time passes; we can only ask diviners to attempt to separate fact from fiction.

The problem only begins with the lack of written records. We can learn much about a civilization from what it leaves behind. Scoured ruins reveal tomes of information when one digs deep enough, even trash pits will yield intellectual bounty. The Flan, however, have not built expansive cities like many other ethnicities and many of the cities they did build have had cities built on top of them by the conquering Oeridian and Suel peoples, some over half a millennia ago. An archaeologist friend of mine (who is also a mage of no minor repute) has reported endless difficulties in procuring the necessary permissions to dig beneath cities because of authorities' fears of security and superstition concerning the spirits of the Flan dead.

To make matters worse, the Flan people as a whole have always been nomadic. Different populations have been separated by vast distances. This has led to a total lack of consensus in the mythologies in the different priest hoods of the gods. Since so many Flan were killed during the massive population movements, many variants of tales have been lost and tracking of population movements over any period of time longer than three-hundred years ago is impossible.

With all of these obstacles, one might expect the scholars and sages to throw up their hands in desperation and find new things to study. There are, after all, so many fascinating subjects and this is but one of five human religions which we know something about, to say nothing of our elven, dwarven, gnomish, and halfling cousins. But the scholars and sages do no such thing and for good reason.

The study of the Flan religion is absolutely intriguing! I have tried quite hard to show this in this work and hope I succeed. Now, we know of all the obstacles to studying the Flan people, what are our sources?

In the following chapters, I have wherever possible to give the precise sources, but they all come from three categories:

1. Tales from the priests themselves. These stories are purported to be unerring histories of the Flan, their people and their religion. Due to the number of variations between geographical regions, we can easily conclude that they are not, but we can also conclude that the common elements represent the most important and telling details.
2. Recorded history. The Oeridians, while not the kindest invaders, expressed a curiosity in the conquered Flan and frequently recorded their tales, especially the epics. The truly marvelous thing about these old texts is their availability at any university library; much information can be found once one picks through the commentary which the Oeridians added. Grey elves are also an excellent source, if one can get into their libraries (for which I owe much to my colleague Plenitat Cnaw).
3. Flan remains. Both the grave sites and buried refuse heaps yield up much about ancient Flan culture and provides much contrast between the Flan of different regions. Most particularly, it gives the primary source material for the origins of Rao independent of the worship of Beory.

The reader will quickly note that I have excluded divination. While it has been of extraordinary help (no scholar should be without the assistance of a competent diviner), it should be noted that divinations have proven somewhat unreliable and even contradictory at times. One should not forget the intense debate over the Codex and its origins.

So we begin putting the pieces of the puzzle back together. The picture which I have assembled has been criticized, and is certainly controversial among some sagely circles, but I think it stands on its own. It is the most coherent picture I am aware of, and I hope you find the arrangement of the pieces I have constructed satisfactory, if not illuminating.