Garden Information and Overview
Balamb Garden: Most of the characters will begin here. It's situated on beautiful Balamb island, which has got it all, beaches, fields, forests, and mountains. In the aftermath of the Ultimecia conflict, and the resultant increase in the power of the SeeD's, Balamb has been entirely cleaned of monsters with two exceptions. The Garden still maintains a monster filled training center, and the Fire Cave still contains monsters and fire-based GFs.
Balamb isn't very independant anymore, it now exists more or less under the control of SeeD. The citizens aren't unhappy about this at all though. Nobody is stupid enough to try to directly attack a Garden, and there isn't much of value besides beautiful scenery on Balamb. Nobody has any reason to cause trouble here, there are no more monsters, and the SeeDs have absolutely no intrest in telling the islanders what to do.
The town of Balamb is connected to the Timber capital city of Timber by an undersea railroad tunnel. Trains run regularly. Balamb is where the majority of younger students are stationed, due to the pleasant climate and the lack of monsters on the island.
Balamb is run by Zell Dincht. Anyone wanting to specialize in bare-handed brawling has got to be stationed here for at least a while, as that is this school's specialty. Zell is married to a girl who is very shy and prefers to remain anonymous, but under her influence the academic programs of Balamb have become the best of any Garden, and better than many non-military private schools.
Galbadia Garden: Squall Lionheart is the commander / headmaster of Galbadia garden. Galbadia has always been a very strict, high discipline garden, and that has not changed under Squall's leadership. He enjoys the quiet, and the discipline, and those students who don't screw around are the ones that prosper at his school.
Galbadia garden is situated in the country of Galbadia. While it remains entirely independant from the Galbadian government, there is sometimes a great deal of tension between Galbadia and the Garden. Galbadia is the most agressive nation in the world, with the strongest military and largest land area. It has a history of imperialisim and it has not changed signifigantly since the days when Ultimecia lead it to war.
The area around the garden is definently inhabited by monsters, and Squall does not see any reason to eradicate them entirely. Galbadia Garden does not train younger students, and the monsters are seen as a good way to keep students on their toes.
Squall is the foremost Gunblade expert in the world, anyone wishing to become a Gunblade expert will need to go to Galbadia Garden at some point for advanced training. The most exceptional student each year is awarded the honor of private lessons from Squall himself. While Squall is known to be somewhat cold, he is an extremely fair man, and he leads by example. None of his students would particularly like to be friends with him, but they all respect him and the SeeDs stationed at Galbadia, all of them vets of the Ultimecia conflict, would follow him into a fire.
Squall is married to Rinoa Heartilliy-Lionheart, the world's most powerful Sorceress (at least as far as is currently known). Students wishing to learn more about how to effectively cast the magic they can draw out of enemies often come here for tips on magic. Rinoa is a great beauty, and many of her students have crushes on her. Of course, one look at Squall's face assures them that she is forever out of their reach.
Though Galbadia is large, Squall makes sure that everyone stationed there for training or deployment is at the top of the SeeD ladder. It's not known as a fun place, rather it's an honor to be invited to come to Galbadia Garden, and a permenant assignment there is recognition of excellence.
Trabia Garden: Jointly run by Irving and Selphie Kinneas, Trabia garden is an anomaly in every way it can be. It's situated far to the north, and far from any cities of mentionable size. Selphie and Irving are both somewhat odd people, and the garden reflects their temperment. They take in the 'problem' students that are too wild for Balamb and not likely to respond well to the climate at Galbadia. The result is a bunch of misfits, but Selphie and Irving are extremely easygoing, and they turn those misfits into respectable SeeDs more often than not.
Trabia is known for it's Sniper school, taught by Irving, and for it's Snow Survival courses. Otherwise it has no official specialities, but it is a place to learn anything on the fringes of SeeD training. If it's weird, or experimental, or on the cutting edge of SeeD equipment or tactics, it's probably here.
Trabia is a very small, close-nit Garden. Students who leave Trabia to graduate from either Balamb or Galbadia never forget their time there, and always identify as Trabia SeeDs within the larger organization.
Trabia rivals even Balamb for festivals, Selphie is quite fond of them, and civilian musical groups have begun to vie for the honor of playing at a Trabia party.
There are monsters in the Trabia area, but none dare come close enough to so much as put the school on the horizen. Between Selphie's insistance that the students should be safe, and Irving's sniper school, it's a bad idea to be a monster within sight of the Trabia walls. Sniper students are encouraged to patrol the walls and shoot at any monster they see. Even worse, from the monster's perspective, is the fact that Trabia's remote location makes it a perfect place to train artilery teams. Of all the SeeDs that fought Ultimecia, Selfie is the most fond of blowing things up. The last time a monster too big for the snipers to take out showed up, Selphie manned the guns herself, and rained twelve inch shells down on it with great gusto. So much gusto, in fact, that that particular mountain face looks slightly different now.
In sharp contrast to the fun, innocent atmosphere of most of the Garden, Trabia is also home to the official SeeD graveyard. As Trabia was hardest hit in the Ultimecia conflict, they had many, many students and soldiers to bury. After the conflict was over, Squall ordered that the graveyard at Trabia be well kept up, and made it the official burial ground for SeeDs lost in action.
White Garden: Quistis Trepe runs the only Garden that is not currently training students. This garden differs from the other three in that it is permenantly shifted into it's Mobile form, and does not have any specific location it calls home. Instead, this garden sails the southern seas, eradicating larger monster infestations that spill out of Esther, in an effort to make it possible for the southern continent to be colonized.
Quistis, like Rinoa, is a great beauty, both women having gotten even more beautiful with age. Unlike Rinoa, Quistis has neither the frightening status of a Sorceress nor a jealous and intimidating husband, so she has a fair number of students every year that crush on her. This actualy motivated her take over of the White Garden. While she's always flattered by the attention, the Trepes Fan Club at Balamb got a little out of control in the years after Ultimecia's defeat, and Quistis knew it was time to make a change the day she walked into class and the entire class made a dreamy sigh.
This is a strange and insular Garden, even regular SeeD mercenaries feel out of place here. Almost the entire garden is staffed by White SeeD forces, soldiers originaly loyal to the Sorceress Edea.
The only training that ever occurs at White Garden is specilzed training for those that have shown an aptitude for Blue Magic, as Quistis is the reconized master of that technique.
Not a lot is known about White Garden other than the above, and it's often pictured as everything from a very grim silent place to a threat to the SeeD organization by speculative SeeDs. Squall seems to have no trouble trusting Quistis or the White Seed forces, however, and he refuses to listen to complaints that arise from rumors.
All images, thoughts, stories, backgrounds, etc copyright Tim Diaz 2001 unless otherwise noted.