The talismans

When we are in Thavnir helping the alchemists create the talismans, Fandaniel mentioned someone trying a similar experiment before. But he can’t recall the name. He says Oween. Then later once the talismans is complete, he mentions how the similarities are very striking. What’s he talking about here??

That'd be Owen, the Allagan researcher who was looking into tempering that we got records of in 5.4. If you recall, his research was shuttered by Amon, which explains why exactly Fancy Dan knows.