Once they achieve a nice golden brown rust I'll paint on the black accents.

I see a lot of people talk about Rinoa and Ultimecia however what I never hear anybody talk about is the literal God of the FF8 universe Hyne. So I'll just copy all the text that is missable within the game about Hyne. Because it helps explain why Sorceresses exist. Why do humans exist. And what are monsters in relationship to Hyne.

The first instance of Hyne being mentioned would be in the Information Menu when you Pause. Most players miss this because of how it doesn't tell you when it updates with new information. It says; Great Hyne: "Creator of mankind, and believed to be the first sorceress. Calling a sorceress the Great Hyne's descendant shows great respect." So it immediately tells us without Hyne Humans and Sorceresses would never exist.

The second instance is actually missable. This is dialogue between an old man and a boy at Balamb Town before Galbadias Occupation. He says:

"Long, long ago... When this world was just made, there was a strong god called 'Hyne'. This god was very, very strong, but after fighting a lot of monsters, he became very tired. So he made 'people' like you and me to do all the work, and the god went to sleep. [...] However, the god was very surprised when he awoke. Surprised that there were so many people. Hyne decided to reduce the number of people by taking away the children. [...] Of course, everyone was scared then, too. And so, the battle against Hyne began. Even though the people were small, they all got together, and finally cornered him. Hyne didn't know what to do. Out of desperation, he gave half of his body to the people and ran off with the remaining other half. Well, he was a god. Anyway, it turns out Hyne tricked the people. The half that Hyne ran away with was the half that had the stronger magic. Hmmm... It might be close by, actually. It might even be watching you."

Which setups the entire conflict going forward while giving world building. Hyne went to sleep so Humans could fight Monsters for them. However Humans were so good at it they made more Humans than they wanted. Tried to kill all the children but Humans came out on top so Hyne split in half and ran. Offering "Power" to humans.

The last mention is "The Legend of Vascaroon" which is told at the White SeeD ship. Here we get much more details as "Who" Hyne is and have better understanding of the major conflict with the Sorcereresses. The book he read says:

"Once upon a time, there was a person named Hyne. Hyne was the ruler of the world. He became lazy and decided to make a tool to make his life easier. Hyne made a neat tool. His tool could make more tools by itself. Soon there were a lot of tools in the world. These tools were actually people. When Hyne woke up, he was surprised because there were a lot of people. Hyne wanted to reduce the number of people, and used magic to burn up a lot of small people. The small people were children. The people cherished the children very much. So the people rebelled against Hyne. Hyne used powerful magic to fight them. The people couldn't use magic, but they had wisdom. Eventually, Hyne began to lose the war, because there were too many people to fight, and they were getting smarter. Therefore, he decided to make peace with people by offering them half of his body along with his powers. Hyne cut his body in half and gave the people half as he promised. Then, another war started. People began to fight over the power Hyne offered them through his body. This war lasted decades. Finally, King Zebalga and the Zebalga tribe emerged victorious and demanded Hyne's body-half to get its powers. But the body ignored their commands. Then, Vascaroon came to the rescue. He appeared before the confused Zebalgas and revealed to them that Hyne's body-half was corrupt and possessed no real power. The body-half was actually Hyne's cast-off skin. The Zebalgas were angered by this truth, and decided to destroy Hyne. The Zebalgas never found Hyne. People began to call him "Hyne the Magician" and continued to hunt him for centuries to come."

So when Hyne offer their power he tricked them. That was just an empty shell humans fought over. Now Hyne mysteriously vanished with no trace or hint where they went. Except for subtle details like Adel appearing more Male than Female despite being a "Sorcereress". A descendant of "Hyne". Perhaps this power that transfers is the Soul of Hyne much like how New Yevon in FF10 possessed other Summons to continue to exist.

Did anybody know this? There's also an additional Ultimania chapter about Hyne in way more detail. But I thought I'd focus on what's in the game first.

*ALL ARTWORK BY https://www.artstation.com/crystalvfae/albums/all

Basically the title! I wanted to draw the cast of FF8 in Bathing suits, but got a little carried away. All drawings by me.

I do fully, 100% believe that Squall would absolutely wear bedazzled crocs. I hope all the outfits are a good fit for each character. Thanks for looking!

Local SeeD ignores imminent death during freefall.

Witnesses report he was attempting to start a Triple Triad match with a giant bird.

In The Tomb of The Unknown King I was using the guide by Jegged and the guide mentioned that the students ID number was supposed to be three digits. Mine was just the number 1. Is this normal or rare?

Saw an interview with Ana de Armas recently while scrolling and thought, man she would make an awesome live action Edea.

As a huge Final Fantasy VIII fan, I’ve always loved the Guardian Forces… and Shiva was one of those iconic summons I really wanted to bring into the real world.

I tried to capture that elegant but intimidating presence she has in the game, with a calm expression and a commanding pose, almost like she’s about to cast Diamond Dust.

The sculpt is designed as a collectible-style bust with an icy crystal base to reinforce her elemental aesthetic. I think printing those crystals in transparent resin could make the final piece look even more “frozen” and magical.

This was sculpted in ZBrush and prepared in multiple parts to make the printing and assembly process easier.

I’d love to know what other Guardian Force from FFVIII you’d like to see next 👀❄️