Dr. Fo-Lan is a fictional character created by August Derleth and Mark Schorer for their short story "The Lair of the Star-Spawn".
Biography[]
Doctor Fo-Lan was a famous Chinese scientist and philosopher who resided in Peiping. By the time he met Eric Marsh, Fo-Lan was an old, white-haired man. He is slightly over 6 ft tall (~ 1.83 m) and speaks English fluently. Like Laban Shrewsbury, Dr. Fo-Lan is incredibly knowledgeable in the matters of the Cthulhu Mythos and has even mastered the art of astral projection, although he refers to it as "telepathy".
At the end of the nineteenth century, Fo-Lan was abducted from his home in Peiping by the Tcho-Tcho people, who brought him to their hidden city of Alaozar, in the Burmese Plateau of Sung. Fo-Lan's brother was killed, presumably disfigured to prevent identification, and left in Fo-Lan's place, leading the world to believe that the doctor himself had been murdered.
For the next three years, the captive Fo-Lan reluctantly helped the Tcho-Tchos and their leader E-Poh to dig deeper into the heart of the Plateau, until they found the chamber where Lloigor was imprisoned. Unbeknownst to his captors, Fo-Lan spent all his spare time trying to use astral projection to contact the Elder Gods in the Orion Belt. When the Tcho-Tchos captured an American explorer named Eric Marsh and brought him to Alaozar, Fo-Lan convinced them to spare the man's life by claiming that Marsh could help them.
Fo-Lan told Marsh the story of how the Elder Gods imprisoned Zhar and Lloigor in prehistory, and how the Tcho-Tcho people were formed from "seeds" left by the latter and now live to serve their masters, seeking to free them from their subterranean prisons. Fo-Lan enlisted Marsh's help by asking him to stand guard over his body while he was busy trying to contact the Elder Gods or their allies in Rigel. At last, their plan succeeded and the Star-Warriors of Orion descended from the stars to destroy the twin monstrosities and their servants, followed later by the Elder Gods themselves, one of which transported Fo-Lan and Marsh to safety.
A Tokyo newspaper later published the news about Fo-Lan being still alive.
By the time Eric Marsh wrote his narrative, he told readers that they could seek out Fo-Lan in the village of Bangka, in the province of Shan-si, if they wanted to confirm the veracity of the events narrated. (AWD: "The Lair of the Star-Spawn")