Welcome to Balamb Garden Online
Balamb Garden Online is an alternate universe roleplaying forum for the world of FINAL FANTASY VIII. It is a place for fans, creative writers and artists who wish to participate in a world of rich characters, artwork and stories. At BGO, you can create a story of your own with other users in third-person roleplay, side stories and artwork.
While our world is based on the world of the game, our actual continuity is different. Some aspects of our canon have been changed, and our world’s canon starts after Squall and Seifer’s duel at the beginning of the game. Some lore has been expanded upon, and there are more places, people and things to explore. For instance, our version of the world is physically larger than it’s in-game counterpart – there are more towns and cities, and those places have larger populations.
Familiarity with the source material is helpful for those wishing to join, but playing the game is not required. On this site, you will find all the information and resources you need to create your character or learn about the planet Gaia.
All written events and stories are purely fictional and not based on real persons, places or events in history.
To Our Members
If details in your posts or artwork don’t 100% line up with the canonical lore, it’s not a big deal! This site is meant to be a fun, optional resource to browse and enjoy, not a rulebook where you have to make sure every little reference is air-tight.
An Introduction to the Setting
Welcome to Planet Gaia, calendar year After-War 17.
It has been seventeen years since the horrors of the Sorceress War which saw the nations and city-states of Gaia unite against the technocracy of Esthar, led by the fearsome Sorceress Adel. Since Adel’s defeat and presumed demise, Esthar has been silent and its borders closed to all travel.
For seventeen years, the world has been unable to broadcast long-range radio waves due to debilitating atmospheric interference, and the peoples of Gaia had to rely on short-range radio technology, physical mail. There was no long-range radio contact or wireless computer technology of any kind. Miraculously, in 17AW, the atmospheric interference cleared up, allowing people to connect to one another again over vast distances with pre-war mobile phones, and the sharing of information via wireless computer networks.
Balamb Garden: a mobile paramilitary academy, trains cadets who hope to join the ranks of SeeD, an elite mercenary force recognized the world over. Cadets at Balamb Garden apply from all over Gaia to receive the best training, education and resources – but in return they are assigned a variety of missions that will test their bodies and minds and push them to their absolute limits. For some it is a temporary education, a place to live and work. For some it is a test of strength and character, and for some it is a home to fight and die for. After all: only the best live to make SeeD.
You are one such cadet, living and studying aboard Balamb Garden academy. You have an assigned dormitory and roommate, and classes to attend. Every cadet is loaned an Odine Bracelet via the Garden Quartermaster: a small trinket that allows the drawing and casting of basic spells which is used as a training device for Guardian Forces: the secret power of SeeD. This is the beginning of your story…
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