Web, I think the way you end up answering this question really depends on whether it is more about world-building or storytelling.
With that in mind, which of the proffered scenarios best furthers your desired end? Go with that one.
My advice, for what it's worth, is keep it simple. If you're telling a story, too much complicated, esoteric exposition can lose a general audience pretty quickly. You can solve that with a hand-wave, but then you risk losing some versimilitude. If this is world-building for an RPG, some people really appreciate a high degree of "chunkiness" and those that don't can gloss over it.
I think that all of the approaches presented in this thread so far can be made to work, although, IMO, some require a slightly greater disbelief than others.
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