Laguna's story begins about two decades before the beginning of the game, during the Sorceress War. The Galbadian military, as well as the rest of the world, was fighting off the nation of Esthar, which was governed by the powerful and ruthless Sorceress Adel. Laguna and his two friends, Ward and Kiros, were fairly low-ranking officers in the military - not in it for the fighting, but for the chance to see the world, it seems. Thus, they didn't exactly accomplish a lot on their missions, and in fact, Laguna's nature to be forgetful and distracted often got them lost when they were out scouting! One of the biggest distractions for Laguna was a woman by the name of Julia who played the piano at the Deling City hotel bar. Ward and Kiros encouraged him to go after her, to introduce himself, but thanks to his bashfulness around women, Laguna fouled it up. But Julia had seen Laguna at many of her shows, watching her admiringly, and finally one night she came over to his table and said hello after she'd finished playing. They couldn't exactly talk openly in the bar, so she invited Laguna up to her room. Laguna was rather jumpy, and (as Ward and Kiros had predicted) ended up talking way too much about himself and his dream to become a journalist, but Julia didn't mind, simply sat there and listened with interest. Finally, Laguna asked Julia about herself, what she would like to do in the future? Julia wanted to be a singer as well as a pianist, but she could never write lyrics. Until she met Laguna, anyway... now, she said, she thought she could come up with a song about him. Laguna couldn't believe it, and then a knock came on the door. Kiros had come to tell him they had new orders, and had to leave immediately. So Laguna left Julia's room, and sadly, they never met again. The new mission that Kiros had was apparently another scouting mission. Laguna once again got them lost, having brought the wrong map, and they ended up at a strange excavation site. Almost immediately, they were overrun by Esthar soldiers, and went down into the excavation site, trying to find a way out. It became even more apparent, once they were inside, that Esthar was digging up something highly unusual. When they finally made it out of the site, they found themselves cornered on the edge of a cliff. Esthar soldiers attacked them and left Ward and Kiros on the verge of death. Laguna told them not to give up, they would all survive, and pushed them off the cliff to the water below, where there were a few boats tied up. And then he began to climb down himself... and fell. The currents separated the three friends, and Laguna washed up in a quiet village called Winhill, where a young woman named Raine nursed him back to health. Raine had an adopted daughter named Ellone, whose parents had been killed in the war, and Laguna lived with the two of them, patrolling the town as a "Monster Hunter" for his room and board. He'd given up the military lifestyle, and didn't plan to go back to the army. Laguna and Ellone got along wonderfully, and Raine may have been a bit exasperated with his somewhat immature attitude at times, but they had a fairly happy life together. Then one day, Kiros showed up in Winhill looking for Laguna. He told him that Ward had survived, though his injury had left him mute, and he'd been trying to find Laguna for the last year. Kiros also brought news of Julia, and Laguna was shocked to hear that she'd had a big hit with her song "Eyes On Me." At least as shocking was the news that she'd waited for her true love to come back from the war, but he never did, and that she'd been comforted by General Caraway of the Galbadian military, who had later married her. Laguna seemed a bit disappointed with this, but not overly so, because he'd become accustomed to the quiet life in Winhill with Raine and Ellone, and it seemed that Raine had some interest in him, though she tried to hide it. At some point after Kiros' arrival, Raine and Laguna were married. However, the war was not over yet, and Esthar was looking for girls who had the power to be Adel's heir. In a raid on Winhill, Ellone was taken away. Laguna left Winhill to go look for her, along with Kiros. It took months of searching, many mishaps (one of which wound up with him being taken in by the Shumi Tribe), and several odd jobs to pay their expenses, before he, Kiros, and Ward finally found her inside Dr. Odine's Lunatic Pandora laboratory. Along the way, Laguna had been helped by an Esthar resistance faction that wanted to remove Adel from power, and he'd said that if they helped him find Ellone, he would help them with their goal. Well, a deal was a deal, so he sent Ellone back to Winhill, and stayed to help the resistance faction. It was his plan that eventually triumphed over her, sealing her away from all forms of communication, and the nation hailed him as a hero. Meanwhile, back in Winhill, tragedy had struck. Raine gave birth to a baby boy, and died shortly thereafter, still wishing to show Laguna his son. The infant and Ellone were both sent off to an orphanage before Laguna could return. And as luck would have it, he couldn't anytime soon anyway. The Sorceress War was over, but Esthar was without a ruler. Word got out that it was Laguna's plan that had sealed Adel, and while he wasn't paying attention, they appointed him as the new president. Kiros and Ward stayed to advise him, and Laguna never learned what had become of Ellone and his son until years later... The two children had been sent to the orphanage run by Cid and Edea Kramer on the old Centra continent, and it became apparent that Ellone was not like the other children. She had certain, strange powers. Edea, who was a sorceress, could sense them, and so she commissioned a white ship built to keep Ellone away from those who would try to use her powers for themselves. Over time, that ship became a haven for war orphans as well, and Ellone helped to take care of them as she got older. Years later, after having met her brother again, the world was on the brink of another Sorceress War, this time with Sorceress Edea commanding the Galbadian forces. Ellone returned to the ship, and was abruptly caught up in a battle with Galbadian warships. They demanded that the white ship turn her over, but then an Esthar ship appeared out of nowhere and began fighting with the Galbadians. A few troops boarded and asked them to board the Esthar vessel, which was better equipped, but the crew of the white ship refused. As Esthar gave up, and began to pull away, Ellone looked over at their vessel, shouted something, and jumped on board. No one knows exactly what it is she saw there, but it's quite likely she might have seen her old "Uncle Laguna." Laguna and his adopted daughter were now reunited, and it is assumed that this is the point at which he found out about his son. Squall Leonhart was now in charge of Balamb Garden, the main force fighting against Galbadia. Things were too busy at the moment to have a reunion - Shortly after Ellone had joined Laguna up on the Lunar Base that kept watch over Adel's seal, the Lunar Cry had begun, thanks to Galbadia having retrieved Lunatic Pandora, and the base had to be abandoned. At the landing site, they'd abducted Ellone, and now they were in the process of freeing Adel from her seal. Still, who better to go into Lunatic Pandora and put a stop to their plans than Squall? Laguna summoned his son to Esthar and met with him, explaining the situation, but did not reveal their relationship. And that's about it for Laguna's story... we never learn exactly how or if he reveals himself to Squall, but the family has found each other again. And after the final battle is complete, Laguna goes out to visit Raine's grave, thinking of the night he gave her his ring. All that is gone now, but Ellone, Ward, and Kiros are at his side, and his son is travelling the world in Balamb Garden, and by a strange twist of fate, is in love with the daughter of his own lost love, Julia. |