Onions

Spooktober 2021: #20 Scent

Onions are a vegetable that are known to grow in many different regions of Totania, all with different variations to the taste, toughness, and texture of the Onion.

Udai Onions

Udai Onions are a staple food in the Western Continent of Udai. It is a simple crop to grow, and is one of the few that is grown by every Orc tribe.
While some variation does exist among Udai Onions, the main distinguisher between Udai Onions and other Onions is its toughness. Biting into an Udai Onion is tough, as it has both a hard exterior and a hard interior.
The taste of Udai Onions is said to be bitter compared to the other ones, though some Orc tribes have been said to cover them in honey to give them a sweeter taste. When sold in Elone, honey is often paired with it at the beginning so one would not need to worry about the bitter taste.
Udai Onions have a greyish-brown coloring to them, which has become the more common look for Onions in Totania.

Fraeton's Onions

The first type of Onion from Elone is Fraeton's Onions, the most popular Onion with Elves, Humans, Dwarves, and Draconians.
Fraeton's Onions, more commonly known as Elven Onions, grow in The Elven Forest, where Wood Elves are known to pick them. It is a major export of Wood Elven civilization, though there is someone who disagrees with that classification.
Fraeton the Usurper, the Green Dragon Lord that lives in the Forest, claims the Onions are all his. Patches of them are known to grow around his nest, making the harvest incredibly dangerous for Wood Elves.

Onion Dance by Max A Million

Fraeton's Onions are softer both inside and out, being much easier for the common person to eat. It is sweet, though some have instead described its taste as Treacly, or oversweet. This turns some people away from them.
Fraeton's Onions have a darker outer shell, with a reddish purple coloring to them. They look a bit strange compared to the typical onion, which has made imagery of them quite popular. This only is added onto with the strange phenomenon that has been known to occur with Fraeton's Onions.
If left in the ground too long after they have fully matured, they will begin to dance. The reason is unknown, but this is used for many things. People plant these before festivals so that the dancing onions will be there when the festival begins to add to the atmosphere. Some theatre troupes even bring pots of dirt with onions in them, which dance along with some dance sequences.

Desert Onions

Desert Onions are self-explanatory, as they grow in the Uncharted Desert of Elone. Gnomes mastered a technique to grow crops in such a harsh climate through magic and such. Onions were the first crop they tested it on, making a new variation of Onion. They even passed the technique to the Emetians to help them survive in the desert.
Desert Onions have a hard exterior like Udai Onions, but their inside is softer like Fraeton's Onions. The taste is closer to the bitter taste of Udai, but with the addition of a spicy flavor that makes it popular with Goblins and other similar cultures with more spicy foods, but makes it nearly never sold in Human and Elven markets.
Desert Onions are brown, preventing them from being seen by animals and eaten when growing in the sand.

Frost Onions

Frost Onions are a type of Onion that grow in the icy region of Moroza. They are the opposite of Desert Onions in terms of taste, being sweet like Fraeton's but also rather tasteless. Eating a Frost Onion does not really taste like you've eaten anything.
The exterior of a frost onion is soft, but the interior is hard, making the experience a rather unpleasant and surprising one for many. They are bluish white in color.

Other Onions

It is believed that there is a type of Onion in the Southern Continent of Shafai, but nothing about this is known for sure. All that is known is that they would be, like all onions, quite pungeant in both odor and taste, and that cutting them would cause one to cry involuntarily.

Grief of the Onion

Onions have a prominent role in old myths, specifically a tale from the Orcs that tells of their property to make those that cut them cry. The story itself is considered incredibly ridiculous and outlandish, even for Udai standards, but it is nonetheless taught to young Orcs in their minimal education, where they also learn to create "Onion Homes" in the forest.

Vodron Susk by Jarhed

Onion Men

Onions were made most famous by the wandering Magic College student, Vodron Susk. He is known to love onions more than anything, preferring the crunch of Udai Onions to the soft outer layer of Fraeton's Onions or the soft interior of Desert Onions.
When asked about his ranking of Onions, Vodron answered:

"Easy! Best to worst: Udai Onions, Desert Onions, Fraeton's Onions. No contest!"

Vodron then went back to destroying the Draconian village Ealla, or so the stories say.
It is unclear whether Vodron knows of Frost Onions and just ignored them in his ranking, or if even the Onion expert has not learned of the Onions from North of Elone yet. Either way, when it comes to Onions, he is one of the most trustworthy sources.

Professional Onion Expert

There is, however, another prominent lover of Onions. Chef Forvan Redfury, owner of Forest After Dark and co-founder of F.O.O.D..
Forvan is very critical to most foods, which is why he made an organization that critiques restaurants and their food. However, he often prefers not to personally judge the food in restaurants. That is, unless he notices something on the menu. Multiple prominent dishes on the menu with Onions as a main ingredient. If he notices that, he will always go to check it out.
Forvan's reasoning for this is that it is difficult to make a dish with onions as a focus, so he always likes to try them. At least, that is what he says. In truth, he just likes to steal recipes for them and put them on the menu of his own restaurant, Forest After Dark.

Forvan Redfury by Jarhed

It is said that there was once a race of Onion people that lived in the forest in Udai. They were a peaceful people who did not want to harm anyone, instead just growing amidst the trees and carving their homes in them. These are "Onion Homes."
However, the Orcs came to Udai and began clearing the forest to make room for their homes. Orcs did not like the forest, as it got in their way when they were walking or fighting, and instead wanted clear plains.
This caused Conflict with the Onion people, who tried to fight back against the Orcs. But being small and made of Onion, Orcs were able to beat (and eat) them with ease. When the final few Onions remained, they did not flee, but met the Orcs head-on on the battlefield, facing death. And as the Onion King, the final Onion, perished at the blade of an Orc, he muttered a single phrase.

"I go not in fear of death, but in anticipation. My only fear is what will happen to our forests that we spent our eternity keeping. Keep the forest... keep our memory. Fight for us... the Onions."

It is unknown if his words were simply that strong, or if it was a curse, but every Orc on the battlefield burst into tears at the Onion King's final words. Since then, it has been said this is why people cry when Onions are cut. Either they are mourning the death of the Onion King and his people, or it is the curse he placed on all mortals, to cry at the deaths of Onions.
This is also why Orcs do maintain a small forest in Udai still, even carving small "Onion Homes" into them in memory of where the Onion people were said to once live.