Orion D'Oschon - Warrior of Light, Scholar, Painfully Nearsighted

Orion is a quiet, bookish man who was born and spent his early life in Idylshire before the colony was abandoned by Old Sharlayan. He spent his adolescence as a refugee on the outskirts of Ul'dah before getting a job as an Arcanist in Limsa Lominsa. From there, his life followed the typical trajectory of a Warrior of Light.


When not fighting gods and saving the world, Orion leads a fairly peaceful and ordinary life. Through his travels, he developed an interest in botany, especially medicinal herbs. So he spends much of his free-time exploring, gathering samples, gardening and recording his findings.

Hihi, Orion! I see you have an interest in botany! What are some of your most fascinating things that you've learned while out and about collecting herbs, spices, flowers, or other fun little flora?

PaintedScales wrote:

Hihi, Orion! I see you have an interest in botany! What are some of your most fascinating things that you've learned while out and about collecting herbs, spices, flowers, or other fun little flora?

Thank you for your question!

I've recently been fascinated by how varieties of flax from all over the world differ from one another. What we in Eorzea simply call flax, and others from further afield label as Shroud flax, has seeds that produce a remarkable amount of linseed oil. On top of that, the oil has remarkable antimicrobial qualities not found in other varieties!

Meanwhile, the snow flax of Northern Ilsabard produces far less oil per plant since it generally grows in shorter, denser clumps. But the oil it does produce is much clearer than that of the Eorzean variety. Garlean carpenters have used it for centuries to season wood since it has a nice luster and doesn't discolor the surface.

Do you miss what Sharlayan was before it became Idyllshire? What do you think of the changes?

I can't help but be nostalgic for the Idyllshire I knew as a boy. After we left, it crystalized in my memory as this perfect, idyllic childhood full of curiosity and wonder. 

Seeing it again, as it is now, came as a bit of a shock. I mourn for some of the greater intellectual losses like the Great Gubal Library, but I think that Idyllshire's story is ultimately one of hope. The people who remained, goblins included, actually preserved much of the knowledge and wisdom of my childhood home, just in unexpected forms. They adapted the city and the outlying ruins to their needs and did not let what was left behind go to waste. 

These days, when I pass through, the city fills me with both nostalgia and hope. Idyllshire is a testament to the intrepid adaptability of common people when abandoned by their leaders. The Forum did not make Idyllshire. The people who lived and worked there did, and many of them are still there, still doing that same work with or without access to outside resources and influence.

Hello Orion, I love your glasses!
What's the furthest you've got to procure samples of certain herbs? Any in particular you're looking out for?

amaurot wrote:

Hello Orion, I love your glasses!
What's the furthest you've got to procure samples of certain herbs? Any in particular you're looking out for?

"Ah, thank you," he says while bashfully pushing them back up his nose. "I can barely function without them, so I suppose it's good that I finally found a pair that looks nice." (He would be blushing if his skin wasn't already red   )

"I have routinely dragged myself all the way back to Ultima Thule of late. There's a particular variety of cotton that grows amongst the shades of the dragons that is the finest I've ever encountered. And it has more tensile strength than any plant-based fiber I've ever come across. The textile merchants in Radz-at-Han can't get enough of the stuff. They buy it up faster than I can pick it! Of course, one person teleporting back and forth from the end of the known universe isn't really a sustainable foundation for a burgeoning market. So, we're working on some cultivation trials in the highlands of Thavnair to see if we can coax the same qualities out of the plant closer to home. Initial results look promising! We're getting decent germination rates."

"There was also that time I camped out in the Sea of Clouds for almost a week to harvest a particularly evasive variety of mistletoe. It can only be harvested under very specific weather conditions in order to capture all the desired aetherical qualities. I caught a cold for my efforts and spent a week laid up in the Foretemps estate wheezing like a perforated bellows."