Orchid Botanical Foundation

The Cautionary Assurance of Resplendence

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As seen in

Jason's Cirsea Odyssey

Even before the Crooked Mile Circle was created, the Orchid Botanical Foundation played a role in sharing information and sparking conversations about mystical bleed. While the organization was not founded for the purpose of investigating Flare thinnings, the secret group grew and evolved over time. The Garamunds founded the Orchid Botanical Foundation during the first year of their marriage. They aimed to collect flowers, conduct hybrid experiments, and adapt traditional recipes for medicinal use. Cathaleen Garamund and Circle Founder, Jason Garamund were unaware of the impact their followers were experiencing from different blends, some of which had healing properties, while others were harmful. Medicinal remedies and elixirs were often sold without concern for safety or efficacy, solely for profit, especially to impoverished workers in dangerous conditions who relied on inexpensive yet harmful products for healing and pain relief.

Discovering the booming arcane prescription industry, they recognized that focusing solely on the orchid was insufficient. They invited their gardener and farmer friends to join them. Cathaleen taught them about the side effects of plants and flowers they developed for distribution.

Orchid Botanical Crest

Orchid Crest by ROD w/Midjourney

Public Agenda

The Gazette and several widely subscribed magazines wrote articles about Cathaleen and Jason Garamund’s Botanical Foundation. Hundreds of dedicated orchid and exotic flower enthusiasts were captivated by Cathaleen's newsletter. Rarely were their subscribers critical. They enjoyed using her hybrid process and recipes for homeopathic remedies.
Only a handful of residents in Faireland and Crooked Mile were more informed. During the "local editing process," Jason and Timothy Lignon, Artist were notified by their friends about the details of their secret experiments with seeds, bark, and flower extracts. The Gazette retracted their conclusions after erroneously reporting the foundation's involvement with the production of Scarlet, an illicit substance.

Orchids on Display by ROD w/Midjourney

Crooked Mile developers helped spread the news when Muriel Lister and Gertrude Marvel opened the Marvel's Boarding House Garden to the public.

The garden's beauty is immortalized in a tintype photograph. The beautification of Crooked Mile indicated that development was about to happen. The Orchid Botanical Foundation provided a significant boost to the Crooked Mile Committee, who are specifically interested in 19th-century electric lighting housing projects made secure with streetlamps and decorated with lighted fountains.

— The Crooked Mile Gazette

Assets

Not only orchids were used in experiments for healings, rituals and medical practices. Jason eventually convinced Cathaleen to join him in the purchase of a Manor House in Crooked Mile where they could continue her scientific and magickal study. There they could expand their biological research project, while she taught college at Briarbank. Her students consistently asked her questions about the fragerance of the flowers, colors and variations that could be use to attract a classmate, dissuade their parents from asking them about their grades, or confuse their athletic competition.
The research project was directed at resolving health issues with organic solutions. A botanical foundation that appealed to serious growers would never disclose what was going on behind scenes. They could work on projects no one expected them to investigate.

History

The Research Foundation's First Endowment

The Seasway Resort played a significant role in bringing Jason Garamund and Cathaleen Orchid together. With her sights set on attending Briarbank College, a frugal young woman wasn't keen on spending a fortune on rent. As she walked into the hotel lobby, she noticed a gentleman observing the guests. Cathaleen asked the man whether he thought the hotel experience was worth the cost? He communicated to her that he did not know. He earned sufficient funds to purchase a farm in a region beyond Bridleborne Mountains. Despite the complaints about expensive accommodations, he remained patient, knowing it might take a few more years. Later, Cathaleen discovered the glum fellow she met was the owner’s son. He requested her company for dinner.

Jason Garamund Orchids and Refund by ROD w/Midjourney

She declined and chose to have room service instead. On her tray, she stumbled upon a refund that matched the expenses of her room and mineral springs, which she hadn't even paid for. Unaccustomed to accepting charity, she intended to return the money. Thinking it was room service to collect the tray, she opened her room door only to find Jason standing there smirking at her. Clutched in his hand was a gorgeous orchid that he gave to her. From that point forward, they were inseparable for the entirety of her visit. He attended summer classes with her, and she joined him for swimming in the springs. He asked her to marry him before her "vacation" came to a close. They eloped the next day while heading to meet her parents, who were not receptive to his charity offer. Jason clarified that the so-called refund was not actually a refund. It was his first contribution made to the Orchid Botanical Foundation.

Disbandment

Even after disbanding in 1906, the Foundation kept distributing leaflets and books to botanists and folk medicine makers. Members and contributors were notified by Jason Garamund about the larger organization, Candela Obscura Secret Society, that was organizing small circles in their hometowns. He was unsure about the level of distribution they intended to undertake. Following the war, multiple communication channels were employed, and security became a problem. His focus was on telekinetic machines capable of managing encrypted information. But it would take several months for the machine to be tested.
It could be a bit of a challenge to find a Circle. The best course of action was to create a society if none existed. Cathaleen, his beloved wife, never expected the remarkable growth and success of the Orchid Botanical Foundation. During the Six Year War, it provided support and funding for many not-for-profit groups. Fairelands and Crooked Mile residents were protected by the groups from hidden corruption and deadly side effects. Its printing production facility worked night and day to send and secretly send out newsletter. It dispatched doctors and legal advisors to the most serious unexplained incidents within hours. Members of the organization assured him they could use the energy they absorbed working with the foundation for upcoming assignments.

Education

While on their initial trip to Cirsea Isle, Cathaleen stumbled upon a plentiful array of orchids. Over the next few months, she noticed a decrease in shellfish, particularly crabs, close to the island, but snails were plentiful. The Garamunds planted a north beach Orchid garden that occasionally seduced crustaceans trying to catch a snail for a meal. The crabs died after breathing in the exotic fragrance.
Cathaleen read that researchers on the island wore protective amulets and charms to ward off ghouls and shadows that led them astray. She recorded the remedies she created, including cures for fevers, wounds, and snakebites. Those in the circle who read her agreed to join her cause. Contributions from the foundation supported her experiments for multiple unorthodox uses of orchids.
When joining the Crooked Mile Circle, 1907 Candela Obscura members contribute in honor of Cathaleen, who gave them instructions for combining Orchid parents with alchemic toothpicks. The initiates who were unaware of Cathaleen's potent potions were pleasantly surprised by their impact on orchid pollination. Muriel Lister, the only member of the foundation who never officially joined the secret society filled a greenhouse wth orchids with specific Cathaleen’s growing process.
Cathaleen perfected the growing process, while Jason focused on researching locations where mystical varieties were utilized for various purposes. When Jason feared hybrid fragrances , sweet to musky were being used to lure butterflies and bees into captivity, he created an alarm system for the greenhouse and moved the flowering plants into black lighted seclusion for further testing. Cathaleen's students were taught how to perfect the tests.

Mythology & Lore

The Orchids were targeted for elimination by the Orfiens and The Order of Shadows, even on Queen Cirsea's Curses Isle. The enticing scent and vibrant colors of the orchid lured the Crusthoulians into consuming them. When they neared the flowers, their scales shed, exposing them to vulnerability through three creature evolutions that affected their lives. The Crusthoulian species was revered by the Orfiens and Shadows. They did not want their gods harmed or their populations diminished.
For two years, Cathaleen researched the traditional ailment of crustaceans until she witnessed its first evolved saltiness and collapse on the Isle's shores. She got in her canoe and attempted to row to the spot the crab fell, but the current caused her boat to spin in circles. The mist filled her lungs with a smog that reeked of decaying human carcass, yet she persisted in rowing until her boat sank in the wet sand of the island. Cathaleen's testing confirmed the existence of two other islands shrouded in mist, although she never witnessed or reached them during her life.

Cathaleen's Evolved Crab Rendition by ROD w/Midjourney

The note she penned for Jason remains attached to a palm tree in the exact spot where she placed it. Visitors are cautioned to picnic near the orchid garden for their own safety. While the fresh flowers won't be dangerous, their qualities will ensure they're safe from a never-before-photographed human-sized crustacean. In her grimoire, she kept a memory drawing of the one she saw.