Squall is both the Headmaster of Galbadia Garden, and the commander of all SeeD forces, carrying the only Four Star General rank in the organization. As such, though Headmaster is technicaly one of his titles, proper military address is Commander, Commander Lionheart, or General Lionheart. He runs a very tight ship, so to speak, Galbadia Garden is the most disciplined of all the gardens. Though he is very blunt and doesn't coddle people, the men and women under his command always come to respect him.

Professionaly, Squall is an acomplished stratagist and tactician, and on a personal level, he is reconized as the foremost master of Gunblade combat in the world, possibly in history. He is also known for junctioning an extreme number of GFs, and keeping them constantly junctioned, so that he is always ready for battle, even when he's just doing paperwork. This makes it especially hard for him to keep his memories intact, and it worries some of the other SeeD brass, as well as his wife. Thus far, Squall has managed to keep it together with extremely intensive diary keeping, so no one is too vocal in their criticisim.

Squall is a very fair man, and attempts to be as unbiased as he can when dealing with his troops. He has two blind spots. The first is loud, overly emotional people. He finds it very hard to treat students who are brash and noisy as equitably as the more disciplined students. This policy makes Galbadia Garden a place full of very disciplined people, save for the most strong willed, so he hasn't really needed to change this policy. The second blind spot he has is so absolute that he doesn't even really consider reducing it. His love for his wife, Rinoa, is intense and passionate, and he does not take threats to her person or insults to her lightly. In the seven years since Squall rescued Rinoa from the Sorceress Memorial in Esthar, enemies of SeeD have tried to get at him through her only once. Some rouge ninja, possibly angered at Squall's deal with the mysterious Ninja clan, kidnapped Rinoa while she was on buisness in Galbadia. Squall used all the technology, personel, and magic at his disposal to locate her, and descended on the Ninja bunker where she was being held like an avenging god. During that 'battle', which was really more of a slaughter, he used increadibly powerful GFs and Ultima spells liberaly, and the bunker is now little more than a smoking ruin. The irony of course, is that Rinoa is a very powerful sorceress in her own right, and she was doing an extremely credible job of escaping when Squall arrived. It is that fact, coupled with the memory of Squall's overwhelming rage that has kept pretty much all trouble off Rinoa's back ever since.

At the current time, Rinoa is the only known sorceress in the world. Certainly, she is the only such woman who practices openly. She is also a member of a respected Galbadian family, though she chose some time ago to use her mother's name, rather than her father's. In any case, she splits her time between diplomatic and contract negotiations, and teaching especially gifted students of Magic at Galbadia Garden. Having absorbed the powers of Sorceresses Adel, Edea, and Ultimecia (via Edia), she is a magical juggernaut. Or at least, she should be. Rinoa is very circumspect with her powers, and rarely uses them except in need, like Edea before her. Some belive that she does this because she belives it will help her retain a more human appearance and outlook. Of course, it is almost possible that she simply doesn't like using magic as much as some sorceresses obviously have.

Rinoa is kind and sweet in person, with abundant energy. She never seems to sleep, or at least, her students have almost never reported finding her sleeping, regardless of the hour that they need help on a mystic project. While she's not as jealous as Squall is, she's very protective of her husband as well. Because of Squall's reputation as a warrior, no one has ever tested exactly what Riona's wrath would be, were he to go missing, but the general belief is that it could easily compare to or exceed Squall's own. As a counterpart to her often silent and grim husband, Rinoa loves to talk, and under her influence Galbadia has become the kind of place that students can actualy enjoy, even while they remain disciplined. Under her insistance, a Garden Festival is held each year at Galbadia Garden, though initialy Squall would have preferred to not have one at all. Squall generaly handles large scale speaches and disciplinary matters, while Rinoa instead works to smooth things out so that disciplinary action isn't nessiary. It's very hard to hide things from a Sorceress, and more than once in the past when personal conflicts got out of hand in the Garden, Rinoa stepped in to solve the problem before someone needed to be sent to the brig. SeeDs tend to be an arrogant lot, and personal rivalries are common. In fact, both Squall and Rinoa encourage a certain amount of rivalry, because it's a great motivator for students to excell.

Rinoa is a descendant of the Sorceress Beruda Hyne, an Angelic line of sorceresses. She finds it most comfortable to use Holy magic, and shies away from Darkness powers. Though no one has actualy seen her execute a limit break in years, everyone imagines that her additional power, plus seven years of training and teaching, would give her something a bit more impressive than her early, "angel wings" effect. It is rumored that she trains in a private area somewhere with Squall, but no one has been able to confirm this. Certainly, she has not actively participated in the deployment and combat end of a contract since the Ultimecia conflict ended.

Zell is the Headmaster of Balamb Garden, and the Commander of that garden as well, holding the coveted rank of Three Star General. Seven years have not dimmed his flamboyant style and expressive nature. If anything, spending seven years away from anyone who could tell him to shut up has made him even more free with his emotions. He runs Balamb to be a good school, both for military skills and academics, but to be fun as well. There are few students at Balamb who do not enjoy their time there. He's very approchable, and does not stand on ceremony, allowing his students to call him 'Headmaster', or sometimes even just 'Zell'. He is married to a pretty but shy woman named Miki Dincht, and it is mostly her influence that makes the academics at Balamb so good. Zell's wife is shy enough that she never appears in public, but her gentle influence can be felt through all of Balamb, making it a haven for other shy students.

It was under Zell's leadership that the town of Balamb decided to give up political autonomy, in favor of getting military protection from the nearby garden. The arrangement has been very satisfactory for all, Balamb recives protection with minimal interferance from the garden, and the Garden gets a very stable supply base and a break on basics like food and fuel. In fact, the Balamb leadership has come to enjoy passing off problems onto Zell, so that they don't have to claim responsibility for unpopular decisions.

Finally, there is a rumor so uncertain that it is only whispered in Balamb, and at no other garden... yet. But for months now a persistant rumor has been growing in force that Zell's wife is pregnant. There's noting concrete yet, most of the student body doesn't even know what she looks like but there have been quite an increase in books in the infimriry on birth, and in the library on raising children.

Selphie is the commander of Trabia Garden, a Three Star general in her own right. As a Trabia allumni, she has retained the unquie and insular flavor of the garden during her tenure there. Trabia is a very fun place, in a different way than Balamb. While Balmamb tends to be more relaxed, most of the students at Trabia end up being go-getters, as Selphie is notorious for getting people involved and encouraging them to work for community goals. Selphie has no particular gift for stratagy, but even Squall asks her advice on tactical matters from time to time. She's also an extremely competant artilery gunner, and an accomplished mage. Selphie is a person of a great many intrests, and as such, Trabia suits her quite well. She's exceedingly proud of her garden, and talks it up at any opportunity.

Selphie started a program to try and develop a foolproof missile defense program at Trabia, and though that never fully took off, that combined with the effort required to repair the garden ended up blessing Trabia with a very competant tech squad. Selphie delights in all the new gadgets and gizmos they create for SeeD, and holds a little science fair every year to judge student projects. Some of those projects have been good enough to make it into regular use among SeeD teams worldwide.

Despite her love for her garden, Selphie also loves to travel, especialy by train, and she regularly visits the other gardens, as well as cities around the globe. She's slowed down on this in the past year, as she was married to Irving Kinneas just nine months ago, and has been trying very hard to make their sometimes stormy marriage work. She has also tried during this time to foster a better relationship with the nearby Shumi Tribe, but the Shumi don't really know what to do with someone as irepressable and quirky as Selphie, so things have been slow at best.

Quistis is the last of the Three Star SeeD Generals, she commands White Garden with Xu as her second in command. Previous to her assignment to White Garden at it's christening just three years ago, Quistis felt somewhat displaced in the SeeD heirarchy, and she has welcomed this chance to try out her leadership skills again. The years and added maturity have definently agreed with her, and she is now quite a competant commander. Her gift for stratagy is impressive, perhaps rivaling even Squalls, though she has not been called upon to excercise it as much as he has. Her abilities as a Blue Mage are a natural fit with the White Garden primary mission to keep the worst of the Lunar Cry from spreading to Centra, and she has reportedly learned fearsome secrets from some of the more powerful Lunar monsters.

As great a beauty as Rinoa, without the restraining effect of a jealous husband, Quistis has a great many admirerers. Unfortunently for her, most of her admirerers are among her students, and she simply doesn't feel that kind of thing is very appropriate. Of the SeeDs that have approached her romaticaly in the past few years, she has has mixed success, but nothing satisfactory. Some people, especialy rebuffed suitors who wish to soothe their wounds, claim that she still pines after Squall. Whatever the case, Quistis is in the unusual and uncomfortable position of having literaly dozens of handosome young men (and a rare woman) infatuated with her, but finding herself interested in none of them.

Quistis has managed, by dint of her intellegence and charisma, as well as her history as an Edea Orphan, to integrate herself with the White SeeDs to the point that they consider her to be one of their own, a privilage that is not extended even to Xu. She realizes what an honor it is to be considered a part of their community, and it comforts her greatly, since even with this new command she is still a little adrift in life.

Irvine Kinneas is the Headmaster of Trabia garden, and holds the rank of Two Star General, under Selphie, his wife. There were less jokes made than one might expect, Irving is a legendary shot with a rifle nowadays. In any case Selphie is one of those larger than life people that people could easily see taking charge over the much more mellow Irvine. He runs the Sniper school for SeeDs, and adds his own unique, rebellious flair to Trabia. It is largly because of him that Squall dreads working with recent Trabia graduates, as Irvine doesn't do a very good job of stressing discipline at all. Still, his students love him, so he doesn't have a lot of problems on that score.

Irvine is very devoted to Selphie, or so he claims, though he definently has a problem with a bit of a wandering eye. Still, it says something for him that he was willing to give up his chance at another garden Command just to be with her. When White Garden was constructed, he didn't even send Squall an application for the spot. Irvine doesn't dislike traveling, but he doesn't love it as much as his newly wedded wife does, so he hasn't traveled in years, chosing to spend the time that Selphie is home with her, rather than jaunting off on his own. This has made him a very stable presence in Trabia, and while Selphie may be the heart of the Garden, Irvine has become it's soul. Seven years have matured Irvine a lot, and he can be quite responsible, even if he looks like he's goofing off.

Irvine is notorious for not junctioning his GFs unless he absolutely has to, and thus can recall amost his entire life without resorting to a diary. He wouldn't have it any other way. Living in Trabia, Irvine has discovered the sport of Snowboarding, and he enjoys playing in the snow with Selphie, or Zell, whenever the latter visits. Other than teaching marksmanship, and holding the day to day operations of the garden together, Irvine has no ambitions to be an extrodinary headmaster, perfering instead to relax and enjoy his twin passions in life, guns and women.

Xu is the headmistress of White Garden, and holds the rank of Two Star General. Surprisingly, she's showed no unhappyness from being passed over for Squall and his friends, she reconizes the talent they have, and she is more comfortable in a supporting role anyway. As before, she's a very private person that keeps to herself and does her duty flawlessly. Not even the students at White Garden know all that much about her. She has supposedly developed a close friendship with Quistis as a result of having her as a CO, but nobody knows for sure what Quistis has learned.

Cid and Edea Kramer retain partial ownership of SeeD, though they have passed on all of the duties of running the gardens to Squall and his friends. They live in the old stone house in the south of Centra, quite happily enjoying a calm, domestic life. Becasue of the turbulent political situation in that area, and because both Cid and Edea have their fair share of enemies, an honor guard of White SeeDs and Regular SeeDs is rotated among SeeD members, to protect the house and it's occupants. One of the hallmarks of successfuly performing that assignment is to be more or less invisible to the Kramers, so it isn't really an opportunity for SeeDs to get to know the people who started it all. The Kramers do come to some of the graduations and other celebrations from time to time, to see their old students and foster children, and those are better times for young SeeDs to meet them. There is definate confirmation that Edea is pregant, and in fact she is supposed to be expecting very soon.

Eria is one of two Gunblade specialists up for the Field exam this year, and there is no question that she is the most noticeable student at Galbadia garden. Just her physical appearance is enough. Eria has a long mass of flaming red hair that falls in thick waves and ringlets down her back to her rear, it frames her head and back like a mane of flowing red silk. She is extremely well developed for her age, having some very femanine curves to her athletic body, and she delights in the reactions this gets her. In fact, she enjoys wearing tight, revealing clothing and getting into people's personal space whenever possible, both to get reactions and because she's simple a very visceral person. Eria even has her own little fan club among the male Galbadia students, 14-16. The older boys escew the fan club in an attempt to date her. So far she's rebuffed all suitors, though there are rumors that perhaps that's not entirely true...

As far as her personality, Eria is a firecracker. She laughs loud, cries hard, rages when she's mad, and dances when she's happy. She's always living life to the fullest, and if she wasn't a Gunblade Specialist, she'd no doubt be at Balamb or Trabia, and great friends with the Headmasters there. Unfortunently, she clashes a lot with Squall, as just about everything about her sets his teeth on edge, and she certainly does not have a good relationship with the commander of Galbadia Garden. Nevertheless, Eria has lots of friends, and everyone in the garden knows who she is. Her closest friends form a posse of sorts, following her around everywhere, and taking orders from her as if she was already an officer.

Eria does have a rather wide competative streak, and she has difficulty remaining kind and friendly with people who can seriously challange her. She likes to have her way, and she likes to win. These are good traits in a SeeD, especialy one earmarked for the officer corps, but she carries it to extremes sometimes. With anyone who hasn't demonstrated that they can beat her at something, she's unstinting in her praise, as she knows they aren't as good as she is, and she genuinely likes most people. Eria is the unofficial 'sunshine girl' of Galbadia garden, making a point to greet all newcomers to the garden and make them feel as welcome as she can, since she deplores the stuffier attitudes in the place.

She has a real gift with the gunblade, and is probably the most purely skilled student with it at the garden, narrowly beating out even Sahn in terms of pure skill. This is all the more impressive considering that Squall favors Sahn when it comes to training and private lessons, meaning that Eria has had less instruction than most gunblade students get. She is junctioned to a fiery nymph GF named Firethorn, and perhaps unsurprisingly, her GF never appears clothed when summoned. Eria is a hardcore partier and an amazing dancer, in fact, there's very little she doesn't do well, though she doesn't worry a whole lot about magic, like most Gunblade Specialists.

Asha Whitemoor, one of Eria's posse, is the biggest student Galbadia Garden has ever had... male or female. She stands just over seven feet tall, and is powerfully muscled beyond what most bodybuilders can boast of. She always carries an ungodly heavy iron tetsubo, a weapon that has come to be feared by her sparring partners. Asha is from a noble family, as are all Samurai. In particular, she hails from the Humphry duchy, the southernmost Duchy in the League of Roses. The young samurai-ko is fairly taciturn, and she dresses simply, usualy wearing just a plain blue kimono, or her Trainee uniform. She keeps her long black hair bound back, and then braided down the rest of the way. Her one concession to fashion is a thick silver wire that she works into the braid.

Asha is a student of the more mystic side of being a Samurai, focusing on personal invulnerability over destroying her foes. After all, between her huge Tetsubo and her muscles, she rarely has trouble with the destroying part. She is junctioned to an Earth GF, which boosts her strength even further, into truely superhuman levels. Asha is perhaps the most focused of Eria's posse, she appears to care about little but Eria's friendship, her progress as a SeeD, and Bushido.

Nika is a Ninja, one of the very few students that come to SeeD out of that mysterious clan. As such, she knows almost nothing about herself, but doesn't seem to mind. As a member of Eria's posse, she has more than enough of an identity at Galbadia Garden. She is truely dangerous with her Ninja-To, and always seems to have some sneaky ninja smoke grenade or similar item on her person. Nika is thin and lithe, with a hard, wiry body from all her years of training from a young age. Her eyes are a clear, amber brown, and her hair is jet black. She has a quirky habit of snapping her head to watch motion, like a bird.

Nika has quite a reputation as a practical joker, something that her ninja skills make pretty easy to build. She never gets mad when jokes get turned back on her though, in fact, she never seems to get mad period. She enjoys her friends, deals with her rivals as appropriate, and generaly goes with the flow. There's little else she can do, cut off from her memories as she is. Nika is junctioned to a GF that takes the form of a Sabertooth tiger. It seems to give her some affinity with animals, and it certainly makes her quick and fierce.

Syleen is a gunslinger, one of the few that did not absorb Irving's disrespect for authority, and was good enough to come to Galbadia Garden to boot. She is a member of Eria's posse, and perhaps the most like the leader of any of the other girls. Like Eria, she likes to show her emotions, and she likes to flirt. Unlike Eria, she likes to do more than flirt, and while she doesn't exactly have a repuatation as a slut, the Galbadia Garden boys know that you can expect a certain minimum of fooling around on a date with her.

Syleen is tall and blonde, with equally as good a body as Eria, though she doesn't flaunt it quite as much as the shorter redhead does. She's chosen to go more the gunfighter than sniper route with her guns, as do most of the students who don't train under Irving. She's pretty good at doing tricks with them, but also has a lot of attachment to her pistols, so she's not waving them around all the time. Syleen is junctioned to a Sea God, from her native town of Fisherman's Horizon.

The first thing people always notice about Teriel is her white eyes. There's almost no color to her irises at all, making her eyes look like bizzare white orbs with black dots in them. People who look closely can see JUST a hint of blue in her eyes, like powdered ice. Teriel is definently a strange one, and nobody can understand why she's a member of Eria's posse. She doesn't talk much, and when she does, it's in soft, subdued tones. She's quite sure of herself, she simply doesn't feel the need to speak up, or to speak at all, in most situations. She's known to be brilliant, having never gotten anything less than a perfect grade on any test at Galbadia Garden, a record never before matched. Once people get over the white eye thing, they find her to be a very attractive, willowy woman with straight dark hair that hangs to her knees. Teriel dresses in monochrome most of the time, occasionaly adding pale blues to her enambles of black and white. Nobody has ever seen her in a Trainee Uniform.

Teriel keeps to herself, so nobody knows much else about her, outside her close friends at least. What little is known is that she's quite gifted in magic, being one of the support SeeDs chosen to take special lessons with Rinoa in the use of spells on the battlefield. She's junctioned to a black snake GF, but has never summoned it, so no one is sure exactly what it does.

After the Field Exam, Teriel was revealed to be a Sorceress, of Zerika Suros's line. The announcement unsettled many people, but it's always good to have another sorceress on your side... right?

Illina is a pretty girl who doesn't do much to emphasise that. She wears a plain, untailored uniform, and usualy just pulls her hair back in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She never wears makeup. Her oval face is framed by glasses and medium length black hair. She's very slight of build, the mage corps in SeeD have a virtualy non-existant PT program.

Magicaly, Illina may not be on Teriel's level, since she's not a sorceress but she's brilliant beyond her years, and understands a lot about magical theory that some experianced SeeD mages never bother learning. She's definently interested more in the theoretical than the practical. Illina is very shy, but has gained a little confidance recently, as a result of her success during the Field exam. She's pretty nerdy, and doesn't care a lot about 'cool' stuff. She has said she's too busy for a boyfriend, but that doesn't keep her from sighing softly when she sees a happy couple together...

Laguna is the President of Esthar, though not for long, because he has promised to not seek re-election at the next election, which is six months from now. He's had a good long reign as President, and wishes to pass the post on. The years have not changed Laguna much, he remains a good hearted man who's a bit feckless and doesn't pay attention to much. Still, his people love him, and are rather dissapointed that he's resigning. He has strong ties to SeeD, through his paternity of Squall, his involvement in the Ultimecia conflict, and his ties to Ellone.

Succeeding his father as Galbadian President for Life, Gerald Deling assumed the dictatorship of Galbadia after Ultimecia was defeated, with the help of General Caraway and the Galbadian military. He presided over the desasterous civil war, but managed to keep his seat in power. He's a small, thin man, with perpetualy frowning eyes. He's reported to speak quickly, be always impatient, and seems to be every bit as egotistical as his father was, if not more. It was actualy due to his good leadership that Galbadia didn't fall apart entirely, and he certainly plans to expand Galbadia to all it's previous boarders, and beyond. He's created a new secret police in Galbadia that have been fantasticaly effective at quashing opposition to his government.

The most promising student of the infamous Dr. Odine, Zykhos shares his mentor's total disintrest in the moral implications of research. Unlike Odine, he appears to have built up some public popularity, and is seriously considering running for President when Laguna retires. He's a somewhat pudgy man in his mid thirties, balding and generaly unattractive. His main research project seems to have something to do with Lunatic Pandora, he's free to play around inside the colossus now that Odine has tired of it.

Seifer has been professionaly hunting monsters in Esthar for almost seven years, and he's certainly become a popular, almost legendary figure in Esthar society, there are countless stories of him saving innocents. As always, he's backed up by Raijin and Fujin. Seifer has formally declared that he will enter the race for Esthar President when Laguna retires. While some see this as a strong alternative to Zykhos, especialy as Seifer could prove to be the same sort of person that Laguna is, with their similar background, some are not so sure. Now that the monster problem has eased off a bit, there are allegations floating around that Seifer occasionaly indulges in a bit of piracy....

The leader of the Centran Confederacy is a dramatic woman named Kinneret. She's been a monster hunter, pirate, fuedal baroness, merchant, and mercenary in her life, and now she's the President of the Confederacy council. She has little actual power that the other council members don't have, at least on paper, but she's a stirring orator and all the other council members seem to trust her. Kinneret is president because no one else can get the council moving in a single direction. She's of average height, with a wirey, muscled build, and she wears her black hair in many braids against her scalp. Her black skin is tattooed with blue markings that are common to some of the more traditional desert tribes. There's great curiosity about her tattoos, but no one has ever asked twice.

White haired and purpled eyed, Alanna, the one time she was seen, was dressed in a traditional Kimono that was obviously the worse for wear. She seemed to have fairly archaic manners too, such as are only found in a few places in the world nowadays. She claimed to be a sorceress, and her actions certainly backed it up, but she feared human contact, and other sorceresses even more. She's certainly a mystery, but after saving Sahn's life, she's unlikely to be all bad, if indeed she's bad at all. Those introspective SeeDs who think about that day may find themselves with the feeling that they shall see this White Haired girl at least one more time....

The mysterious girl who was sister to Squall, niece to Laguna, and adopted daughter to Edea now resides quietly... somewhere in the world. Her power to send people psychicaly into the past is still an oddity, and after Laguna found that Odine was secretly searching for her... yet again, he cut the scientist's funding and hid Ellone somewhere in the world. No one quite knows where, and as both Laguna and Squall are very protective of her, nobody really cares enough to find out. After all, her ability isn't that useful to someone who doesn't have power on the level of Ultimecia, and even Odine learned his lesson after having his funding cut. Even the editor of Timber Maniacs refuses to even consider stories on her, to discourage journalists from seeking her out, as a favor to their most famous former journalist.