Great Hyne

The Great Hyne is a character mentioned in Final Fantasy VIII. Although oral tradition sometimes switch his being either a deity or a person, he is credited for creating mankind, and the first sorceress.
A sorceress can be called "Hyne's descendant" as a symbol of respect. The tradition of sorceresses and the passing down of their sorceress power began through the legends circulating around Hyne. There are two legends made known in-game.
==Legends of Hyne==
===The Strong God===
This story is told by an old man and his grandchild in Balamb Town, who lives next door to Ma Dincht's house. He will tell the story before the town's occupation by Galbadia. If he is not in the house next to Ma Dincht's, the player can leave town and return to try to make him appear.
===The Legend of Vascaroon===
A book titled "The Legend of Vascaroon" contains another legend of Hyne. The story is about a wise man called Vascaroon, and is read by a White SeeD named Lina to children on the White SeeD Ship.
: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.
==Aru Hi no Garden no Jugyō Fūkei==
Aru Hi no Garden no Jugyō Fūkei is a story written by the game's scenario writer, Kazushige Nojima, included in the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania. It is of a Balamb Garden teacher telling his class about sorceresses and Hyne. The official version only exists in Japanese, the following is a translation by The Lifestream.net.
:At this time, daylight had not yet come, and everything was covered in night.
:There was a being called "Hyne". "Hyne" created the world, and battled many beasts all the while. Because of the magic "Hyne" used, he was eventually able to win the battles. Thus, "Hyne" was the governor of this world.
:"Hyne" seated himself upon his throne, from where he thought he could see all around. However, from the location of his throne, "Hyne" was unable to view the eastern sea because of a mountain. Because of his long battles, "Hyne" had become too tired to destroy the mountain and needed a tool to carve it up; he had an idea of what to apply to this task. This tool would be able to function of its own accord, and be able to increase its own numbers. "Hyne" named these tools human beings. Their males and females are the origin of human beings, and we descended from them.
:The human beings increased their numbers while carving up the mountain. When their work was finished, they decided to ask "Hyne" what they should do next. However, "Hyne" was sound asleep due to his fatigue. There being nothing they could do about it, the human beings made changes to the land at their own discretion.
:When "Hyne" awoke, the appearance of the area had completely changed. He was most startled, though, by the number of human beings there were now. "Hyne" decided to reduce the number of human beings, and used his magic to burn up smaller humans. The small human beings were called "children" and were very important to the humans. They wept intensely and protested to "Hyne". However, he told them they were his tools, and his words angered them. They cursed his words when they heard them.
:The humans began a rebellion against "Hyne". He retaliated with his magic, but the humans were able to increase their numbers in abundance.
:Besieged, "Hyne" bargained with the humans. He offered them half of his own body and power. At the idea of having half of this power, the humans decided they should agree to the deal.
:"Hyne" split his body in half and gave half to the humans. With this, a peace was drawn between "Hyne" and the humans. However, humans began to quarrel with one another for the first time, coming together in groups that wanted the power of "half of Hyne's body".
:A long, long battle began. Many countries were established at this time.
:The battle was eventually won by the clan of the dark king, Zebalga. Within a forest, they convened to command the power of "half of Hyne's body". However, the "half of Hyne's body" was unresponsive to their commands.
:Sage Vascaroon came to consult with Zebalga. He was wise, and knew the answer to the problem with "half of Hyne's body". "Hyne" had given them a corrupted part of his body. What the humans had thought was "half of Hyne's body" was really just the "cast off skin of Hyne". When they heard this explanation, the Zebalga clan was furious. They vowed to destroy "Hyne".
:However, the other half of Hyne's body was nowhere to be found. The humans began referring to the missing "Hyne" as "Hyne the Magician", and sought him for generations.
:It's to be expected that the "magic of Hyne" could not be found. Because of people's feelings at that time, it concealed itself in bodies, in the form of women, people who it was thought should be protected.
==Etymology==
The story of Hyne casting off his skin is likely a nod to Hein from Final Fantasy III. Hein is also a magician and his body is that of a skeleton. In Japanese, Hein and Hyne are spelled the same way.
==Citations==
de:Hyne
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy VIII
Category:Sorceresses
Category:Unseen characters
Category:Deities