Final Fantasy VIII timeline

Template:Sideicon The following is a chronological list of events that take place in the Final Fantasy VIII universe.

Timeline

Unknown centuries ago

• The Great Hyne becomes the ruler of the world and creates humans as tools to do his bidding. He later attempts to quell the number of humans but is 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 emerges victorious, but the body ignores their commands. It is later discovered the body had no real power and the humans continued to hunt Hyne for centuries to come although they never find him.

Unknown time period

• An unnamed sorceress, accompanied by her knight, Zefer, stands up for the sake of the people in a country at the time of its collapse.

Around 4000 years ago

• Centra, the prominent civilization of the world, creates two major empires: Dollet and Esthar. While Dollet excels in military force, Esthar grows scientifically advanced.

80 years ago

• Lunar Cry strikes the center of the Centra civilization, destroying it.
• The Esthar people build their scientific society, while Dollet splinters into diverse countries: Dollet, Galbadia, and Timber.

44 years ago

• Laguna Loire is born.

42 years ago

• Ward Zabac is born.

40 years ago

• Kiros Seagill is born.

Around 22 years ago

• Ellone is born in Winhill. She has the power to connect her mind to another's telepathically and send one's consciousness to inhabit another's in another time.
• Sorceress Adel orders the Esthar troops to search for a possible successor to her, whom she wishes to keep in her custody. Esthar soldiers attempt to take a girl named Ellone from Winhill and her parents are killed. She is adopted by a woman named Raine.

Around 20 years ago

• Galbadia starts the Timber War. 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.
• Laguna meets a pianist named Julia Heartilly and visits her hotel room.
• Laguna, Kiros and Ward are sent to the Centra Excavation Site to patrol. They lose their way and come up against a battalion of Esthar soldiers. They are trapped and escape by jumping off a cliff. Laguna, Kiros, and Ward are injured. Ward loses his voice permanently and Laguna spends six months bedridden in Winhill.

Around 19 years ago

• Believing Laguna dead, Julia Heartilly wrote the song "Eyes on Me" in his memory. She married Fury Caraway of Galbadia.
• After recuperating from their encounter with the Esthar troops, Ward takes up a job as janitor in the D-District Prison. Kiros roams as a vagabond, and Laguna protects the residents of Winhill.
• Laguna takes up a job defeating the monsters that roam around Winhill. Kiros finds Laguna in Winhill and joins him for a while in his job. Soon after Laguna enters a relationship with Raine.

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 are born.
• Sorceress Adel has discovered the Crystal Pillar at the Centra Excavation Site, a colossal piece of crystal from the Moon capable of reacting from a certain position on the Earth to incite a Lunar Cry. She orders an enclosure called Lunatic Pandora to be built around it and the pillar is moved to Esthar.
• Dr. Odine experiments on magical beings known as Guardian Forces. He discovers they can be junctioned to human minds allowing people to use magic similar to a sorceress. He dubs this Para-Magic. He also studies the sorceresses' powers, and created Odine-brand jewelry capable of inhibiting those powers.
• A number of scientists and researchers unhappy with Esthar's actions leave to start their own town called Fishermans Horizon, dedicated to pacifism.
• Ellone is captured by the Esthar soldiers. Laguna chases after her, but the journey is long. To make ends meet he works for Timber Maniacs and many of his articles are published.
• A movie based on the story of Zefer and his sorceress is made. Laguna, Ward and Kiros find work as extras in the movie, filming in the Vienne Mountains where they are assailed by a real dragon. A young Seifer Almasy would later watch the movie and becomes enthralled with the dream of becoming a Sorceress' Knight.
• On his way to Esthar, Laguna falls off a cliff and is taken in by the Shumi tribe, who nurses him back to health. In the meantime he has a profound effect on the tribe, and attempts to teach the local Moombas to speak (they manage to say his name).

17 years ago

• Laguna enters Esthar by crossing the Horizon Bridge and is captured and forced to provide hard labor for the experiments of Dr. Odine in the Lunatic Pandora Laboratory. He meets up with more Moombas there. Kiros and Ward rescue him and together they rescue Ellone. Odine has imprinted Ellone's brain wave patterns onto his computer, leading him to create a machine that simulates her powers, which he calls Junction Machine Ellone.
• Laguna joins up with a rebellion against Sorceress Adel, and hatches a plan to get rid of her by tricking her into a special sealing container, which they launch into space to be continually monitored by Esthar's space station. The container's anti-transmission waves cause constant worldwide radio static leading to the radio interference and wireless technology being abandoned. Esthar dumps the Crystal Pillar from Lunatic Pandora into the ocean.
• Laguna Loire becomes President of Esthar, and Esthar is closed from the rest of the world. Kiros and Ward stay on as his assistants while Ellone is 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. Squall receives the surname "Leonhart".
• Selphie Tilmitt, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas and Rinoa Heartilly are born.

13 years ago

• Ultimecia arrives in Edea's Orphanage with a teenage Squall from the time compression and perishes; she is succeeded by Edea Kramer, the sorceress who runs the orphanage. Edea and her husband Cid Kramer create Garden to train Squall and others to become SeeD to one day take on the mysterious sorceress from the future. Cid receives funding for the venture from NORG, a Shumi villager. Three Gardens are set up: Balamb Garden, Trabia Garden, and Galbadia Garden over old Centra shelters. NORG sets himself up as the "Garden Master" and dwells at the lowest level of Balamb Garden. His minions are stationed throughout the Garden, making sure Cid does what he is supposed to.
• Many of the children from the orphanage are recruited into Garden. Squall, Zell, Seifer, and Quistis end up at Balamb Garden (where Cid becomes headmaster), Selphie goes to Trabia Garden, and Irvine to Galbadia Garden.
• Edea trains her own section of SeeD, called White SeeD, and stays aboard the White SeeD Ship with a group of orphans and Ellone.

12 years ago

• Julia Heartilly is killed in a car accident.

2 years ago

• Angelo is born on December 13. She is put on sale in the Timber Pet Shop where Rinoa buys her on impulse.

1 year ago

• Rinoa becomes embroiled in the Forest Owls and meets and forms a relationship with a Garden student named Seifer.

Shortly before the game's start

• Ultimecia reaches her mind across time and begins controlling Edea, who leaves the White SeeD Ship to pursue a political career in Galbadia. Ellone leaves the White SeeD Ship and travels to Balamb Garden to tell Cid.
• Garden has become a center for training mercenaries and their true purpose has been forgotten.
• Possessed by Ultimecia, Edea schemes to take over Galbadia. She ingratiates 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. The only remaining radio receiver/transmitter is in the city of Dollet and he orders his army to take it by force and repair the transmitter.

Unknown time in the future

• Ultimecia, a sorceress of the era, defeats SeeD and uses the Junction Machine Ellone, created by Dr. Odine when he served under Sorceress Adel, to transfer her mind into the past. Through it she possesses sorceresses of other times and forces them to do her bidding. She plots to incite time compression, a state in which time is fused and only she can exist.

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