Final Fantasy 8 Events World Timeline

[CJ]

History Prior to the Events of Final Fantasy 8

Unknown Centuries Ago

The Great Hyne, became the absolute ruler of the world and creates humans as tools to do his bidding. He later attempts to quell the number of humans that existed but was defeated. He offers half of his body in truce which can be translated to half of his power given to an individual. Creating the first sorceress.

A war between the humans start over control of the body-half. Eventually the Zebalga tribe emerge victorious but the body ignores their commands. It is later discovered that the body had no real power and the humans continued to hunt Hyne for centuries to come although they never find him.

Around 4000 Years Ago

The time of the Centra civilization. Centra created two major empires: Dollet and Esthar. While Dollet began to excel in military force, Esthar grew scientifically advanced.

80 Years Ago

The first recorded Lunar Cry strikes the center of the Centra civilization. It is utterly destroyed.

The Esthar people began rebuilding its scientific society, while Dollet splintered into diverse countries: Dollet, Galbadia and Timber.

19 Years Ago

Ellone is born in Winhill. She has the potential to be a sorceress and had the power to send her consciousness backwards in time.

18 Years Ago

Sorceress Adel begins her plans for world domination by starting the Sorceress War and meets heavy resistance from Galbadia.

Quistis Trepe and Seifer Almasy were born.

Sorceress Adel discovered the existence of the Crystal Pillar, a stone from the Moon capable of reacting from a certain position on the Earth to cause a Lunar Cry. She ordered a special enclosure called Lunatic Pandora to be built around it.

Dr. Odine began experiments on magical beings known as Guardian Forces. He discovered that they can be Junctioned to human minds, which allowed people to use magic without having to resort to Limit Breaks. He dubbed this Para-Magic. He also studied the sorceresses' powers, and created Odine-brand jewelry which is capable of inhibiting those powers.

Laguna Loire meets a pianist named Julia Heartilly.

Laguna, Kiros and Ward were sent to the Centra Excavation Site to patrol. They lost their way and came up against a battalion of Esthar soldiers. They were trapped and only managed to escape by jumping off a huge cliff. Laguna, Kiros and Ward were badly injured. Ward lost his voice permanently.

Galbadia begins its own bid for conquest and takes over Timber. The fathers of Zone and Watts are killed after Timber's capture. Zone and Watts take over leadership of the Forest Owls from their fathers. Soon, many rebel factions are created.

A number of scientists and researchers who were not happy with Galbadia's actions, left to start their own town called Fisherman's Horizon, dedicated to pacifism.

17 Years Ago

Believing him dead Julia Heartilly wrote the song Eyes on Me in Laguna's memory. She later marries Fury Caraway of Galbadia and has a daughter who they named, Rinoa.

Sorceress Adel ordered the Esthar troops to search for any possible successors to her, whom she wishes to keep in her custody. Many girls were taken. They attempted to take a girl named Ellone from Winhill as well. Ellone's parents were killed and she was adopted and raised by a woman named Raine.

After recuperating from their encounter with the Esthar, Ward took up a job as janitor in the D-District Prison. Kiros roamed around as a vagabond, and Laguna found meaning in protecting the residents of Winhill, who were responsible for his return to health. He took up a job defeating the monsters that roamed around the village, and eventually formed a relationship with Raine. Kiros later finds Laguna in Winhill and joins him for a while in his job.

Ellone is captured by the Esthar soldiers. Laguna chased after Ellone but the journey was long. To make ends meet he begins working for Timber Maniacs and many of his articles are published, he and Kiros also found side work as extras in a movie company's filming in Trabia Canyon, where they were unfortunately assailed by a real dragon.

On his way to Esthar, Laguna fell off a cliff and was taken in by the Shumi tribe, who nurses him back to health after about six months. In the meantime he has a profound effect on the tribe, and attempted to teach the Moombas to speak (they manage to say his name).

Laguna reached the Lunatic Pandora Laboratory in Esthar, where he was captured and forced to provide hard labour for the experiments of Dr. Odine. He meets up with more Moombas there. Kiros and Ward later rescue him and together they finally rescue Ellone. Before they got her, though, Odine managed to imprint Ellone's brain wave patterns onto his computer, leading him to create a machine that simulates her powers. He called the machine the Ellone Junction Machine.

Laguna joined up with a rebellion against Sorceress Adel, and hatches an ingenious plan to get rid of her. Though they cannot harm her physically, they trick her into a special sealing container, which they then launch into space, to be continually monitored by Esthar's space station. The container's anti-transmission waves cause constant worldwide radio static from this point forward. As part of the plan, they dump the Crystal Pillar from Lunatic Pandora into the ocean to prevent the Lunar Cry from occurring.

Laguna Loire was elected President of Esthar, and decided to shut Esthar from the rest of the world; partly in penance for their war, partly because he believed the rest of the world was not ready for Esthar's scientific knowledge yet. Kiros and Ward stayed on as his assistants while Ellone was sent home to Winhill. The Sorceress War ends.

While waiting for Laguna to return Raine gave birth to a son named Squall. She dies soon after and a grave stone is erected in her memory. Squall and Ellone are sent to Edea's Orphanage as orphans of the Sorceress War. For unknown reasons Squall receives the surname "Leonhart".

Selphie Tilmitt, Zell Dincht, and Irvine Kinneas were born.

13 Years Ago

Ultimecia arrives in Edea's Orphanage with Squall from the Time Compression and perished; she was succeeded by Edea Kramer. Cid and Edea realized the evil she could cause. They created Garden with the propose of stopping the eminent evil she could anytime unleash. The students/fighters raised there were called SeeDs. Cid received funding for the venture from NORG, a Shumi Villager. Three Gardens were set up: Balamb Garden, Trabia Garden, and Galbadia Garden. Balamb and Galbadia were built over old Centra Shelters. NORG setted himself up as the "Garden Master" and dwelled at the lowest level of Balamb Garden. His minions were stationed throughout the Garden, making sure Cid did what he was supposed to do.

All the children from the orphanage are later recruited into Garden. Squall, Zell, Seifer, and Quistis end up at Balamb Garden (where Cid Kramer became headmaster), Selphie went to Trabia Garden, and Irvine to Galbadia Garden.

Edea trained her own small section of SeeDs, called White SeeDs. She realized Ellone's potential as a sorceress and her special power, and gave them their mission: to protect Ellone at all costs. They were given their own ship and separated from the other SeeDs.

12 Years Ago

Julia Heartilly is killed in a car accident. Rinoa moves to live with her father.

1 Year Ago

Ultimecia reaches her mind across time and begins controlling Sorceress Edea. By this time Garden has become more or less a center for training mercenaries (the need arose due to financial concerns) and their true purpose has been forgotten. Regretfully Cid begins to prepare to fight against his wife, but delays, hoping she will prove stronger than the sorceress' will which pervades her.

Rinoa runs away from her father and travels to Timber, where she becomes embroiled in the Forest Owls. During this time she meets and forms a relationship with a Garden student named Seifer.

Possessed by Ultimecia Edea schemes to take over Galbadia. She does so by ingratiating herself with Vinzer Deling, Galbadia's dictator. He resolves to announce his new friendship with Edea via satellite dish, a technology not in use since the radio silence began 18 years back. However, the only remaining radio receiver/transmitter is in the city of Dollet. He orders his army to take it by force and repair the transmitter.

[CJ]

The Events of Final Fantasy 8

The game opens with a duel between the two arch-rivals Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy. Squall and Seifer are both students at Balamb Garden, a military academy training SeeDs, an elite mercenary force that helps people all around the world. Squall loses the duel, although both men end up with scars across their faces. Squall wakes up a few hours later, on the day of his SeeD field exam. He goes with his instructor Quistis Trepe to retrieve a Guardian Force (GF), that enables people to use magic more easily. The final test Squall must pass to become a SeeD, is to go the the occupied city of Dollet, together with his squad members Zell Dincht and Seifer. They quickly uncover the reason for the Galbadian Army's occupation; to reactivate an old radio tower. Seifer leaves his teammates behind, and disobeys Garden's orders. A spunky young girl, Selphie Tilmitt, joins the party at this time, and after defeating a monster at the top of the tower, the tower is reactivated, and they are chased back to the beach by a spider-like war machine.

Back at Garden, Squall finally has passed the final test to become a SeeD, as have Zell and Selphie. Seifer, however, having disobeyed a direct order, failed. That night, during the SeeD Graduation Ceremony, Squall is asked for a dance by a girl. The introverted Squall is forced out onto the dance floor, and a cutscene ensues. The day after, they receive their first mission as SeeDs: to aid a resistance faction known as the Forest Owls, in their quest to retain the independence of a small nation called Timber. On the train trip to Timber, the SeeDs strangely pass out, and have a dream about a man called Laguna Loire, and his two friends Kiros Seagill and Ward Zabac. Upon waking up, they meet up with the Forest Owls, only to find out that the leader is the girl who danced with Squall, Rinoa Heartilly. The Forest Owls' plan is to abduct Vinzer Deling, the tyrannic president of Galbadia, and force him to withdraw his soldiers from Timber. However, once they manage to hijack the president's train, they find out it is an impostor.

After defeating the impostor, they learn that the real President Deling is going to the Timber TV Station to broadcast something. He announces that the new diplomat for Galbadia is the Sorceress, Edea. However, an enraged Seifer somehow goes there and holds the President hostage. He is, however, led to following the Sorceress, and is officially announced executed.

The SeeDs are then hired by Galbadia Garden, to kill the Sorceress, with the help of the master sharpshooter Irvine Kinneas, under her inauguration parade in Deling City. Rinoa, however, comes up with a plan of her own; to suppress the Sorceress' power with an Odine Brand item. She is struck down by the Sorceress, who then kills President Deling. Running through the parade, Squall is surprised to see Seifer, standing at the Sorceress' side. Squall and Irvine eventually reach Rinoa, Zell, Selphie and Quistis, and trap the Sorceress inside a gate. However, Irvine seems to lose it just before he is supposed to shoot her, but with a little help from Squall, he fires at the Sorceress. Edea blocks the shot with a magical barrier. Squall must then fight the Sorceress, but has to go through Seifer, who has now become Edea's protective Knight. Edea uses her ice Limit Break, which pierces Squall's chest and renders him unconscious.

Squall wakes up in the D-District Prison, where he is tortured by Seifer, who demands to know the true purpose of SeeD. Squall is knocked unconscious by the pain, but is rescued by a Moomba. His friends manage to escape as well, but upon escaping, they see that the Galbadians have launched missiles against Trabia Garden, and are planning to launch some at Balamb Garden as well. They split into two teams, one with Selphie as the leader, who try to stop the missile launch, and one with Squall, who go to warn Balamb Garden. Selphie's party fails to stop the missile launch in time, and barely escapes the self-destructing missile launch base inside a machine. Squall arrives to find Balamb Garden in an uproar; students are fighting each other, one side siding with the Headmaster Cid, and one with the Garden Master NORG. They eventually stop NORG, and find out that the Garden is mobile, and moves the Garden just in time before the missiles hit.

However, Balamb Garden isn't controllable, and they crash into Fisherman's Horizon. The crafty technicians there help restore the Garden into full functionality. When they go back to Balamb, they find that the Galbadians, under the supervision of Seifer's friends Fujin and Raijin, are searching for a woman named Ellone. They decide to go to Trabia Garden, Selphie's original Garden, where they suddenly remember that as children, they all, except Rinoa, lived in an orphanage together, cared for by a woman named Edea. They had forgotten all about their past because of the memory loss that using the GFs bring. They decide to go back to the orphanage, only to find out that Galbadia Garden had gotten there first. They prepare for an assault on the Garden, which is now under the control of Edea and Seifer. The many brave SeeDs show their skill, and they finally reach Edea, but are stopped by Seifer. Seifer is defeated once again, but appears again in the subsequent battle. When they finally defeat Edea, she returns to her normal state of mind; she has been possessed by a Sorceress called Ultimecia, who is said to be from the future. However, Rinoa becomes possessed by Ultimecia now, and manipulates Seifer, who is now merely Ultimecia's puppet. Rinoa then falls into a coma. The SeeDs return to the orphanage to speak with Edea, and learn of Ultimecia's plans for world domination.

Squall is overcome by emotions, and understands that he is in love with Rinoa. He will do anything to bring her back, and they go to the hidden nation of Esthar, to speak with Dr. Odine, the inventor of Guardian Forces, and specialist on Sorceresses. Edea joins the party to Esthar, and Squall carries Rinoa with him. In Esthar, Dr. Odine tells him where he can find Ellone, who might be able to help Squall find out what happened to Rinoa. They are launched into outer space, to Esthar's Lunar Base, where they are keeping the Sorceress Adel, who once ruled Esthar, confined. However, Rinoa wakes up and forces her way through those who might stop her. Back on the ground, Zell's party is shocked to see the Lunatic Pandora, a mighty pillar, that was used long ago to destroy the Centra continent by summoning monsters from the Moon, rise again from the ocean, due to Seifer. Rinoa goes out into outer space and destroys the seal upon Adel, who returns to the Lunatic Pandora. Squall goes after her, and rescues her from a death in outer space. They escape on the lost spaceship Ragnarok. However, Rinoa is now deemed a Sorceress, and Esthar demands that she be handed over to them, as she poses a threat to the world. Rinoa agrees to go with them, but Squall can't bear it, and rescues her. They then go to the Lunatic Pandora, where Seifer fights them one last time. After his defeat, he takes Rinoa, and offers her to Adel, who junctions Rinoa to herself. Squall fights Adel, and after her defeat, they travel forward in time with the help of Ultimecia's Time Compression, and reach Ultimecia's lair. After many grueling fights, in which they must reclaim their sealed abilities, they reach Ultimecia, and finally defeat her. Squall goes back into his past, and the land is now free from the tyranny of Sorceresses.