Main Characters:
Squall Leonhart -- top SeeD student, fights with a gunblade, very quiet and lone-wolf-ish.

Zell Dincht --  very spunky SeeD student who likes a hip-hop sort of fighting style.

Quistis Trepp -- once a SeeD instructor, now a fighting student again, she's very headstrong and uses a whip ^_- (one girl even yaoi fans will like.)

Selphie Timiltt -- spunky SeeD girl who fights with nunchucks.  She tends to be the optimist. She's from Balamb.

Irvine Kinneas -- playboy-cowboy.  Crack-shot with a rifle and a ladies man, he's a cadet from another academy.

Seifer Almasy -- the villain. A student at Galbadia but unable to rank to SeeD. he joins the darkside and pits himself against Squall; he also uses a gunblade.

Laguna Loire -- a sexy 27-year old from the past, but a little dorky. He has something to do with Squall and he is a solider.

Ward Zabac -- a big man that accompanies Laguna as a solider. He fights with a big harpoon that he throws. Very reserved.

Kiros Seagill -- a tall, quiet, dark-skinned man that travels with Laguna as a solider. He fights with really cool katal, which are like twin knives.

Rinoa Heartilly -- the girl who Squall likes/likes Squall. Once dated Seifer, thinks she's a princess, fights with a Blaster Edge, which is like a sharp frisbee.

Edea -- the evil sorcercess that makes the game fun.  She's very elegant and powerful, but the people love her. She wants Rinoa to become a sorceress.

Fujin -- a very cool girl that uses some cool weapon o.o;  and is one of Seifer's lackeys. She only speaks in kanji [or all caps in the US version].

Rajin -- Fujin's right hand man. A huge dark-skinned guy that seems a little slow.  Another of Seifer's lackey's.

Story background:
This is the eighth game in the Final Fantasy line, this time focusing on the 17 year old student Squall as he passes his SeeD test and becomes the leader of a team that is sent out as "solider protectors."  When he and his teammates Zell and Selphie go to help a girl named Rinoa though, they get wrapped up in a big conflict that spans their world.  They're pitted against several sorceresses, some of their friends and torn by love.  They have to get the right people on their side and race against time.

Slash potential:
SeiferxSquall is the most popular -- there are lots of times when we get to see how obsessed Seifer is with defeating Squall.

SeiferxZell -- I don't see this one much, but it's popular. Zell is the small little innocent and Seifer is the big bad 'friend'. Typically these stories are set pre-game, and before Squall's come along.

IrvinexZell -- my personal favourite, the cowboy romances his way into the little boy's [even if Zell is 17] pants. ^_-

LagunaxKiros/KirosxLaguna: Another popular one becase Laguna needs SOMEone and Kiros is there. They're really cute together and they wander all over the world alone . . . so . . . it fits. ^_^

LagunaxSquall: Not sure how this one works, and I don't like it, but it's done.

IrvinexSquall: Just because Irvine is taller and a womanizer [which makes him gay of course ^_-].

Probably lots of others too, but those would be the most popular.

Why?  Well, Seifer is obsesed with Squall. Several times in the game he practically comes back from death to see Squall. At one point, he has Squall tied up to an eletrical cross and interogates him, and lots of possibly-sexual inuendo passes between them.  Not to mention the fact that Squall hates Seifer and ends up falling in love with Seifer's ex-girlfriend. ^_-

Irvine and Zell are just obvious to me.  It was basically the way I played the game, but they seem to take care of each other.  There is also a very funny scene if you take all three boys to Zell's house and to his room. There's one bed in Zell's room, and you can "rest" in it. All three of you. ^_-

Laguna/Kiros: Well, Laguna and Kiros and Ward all wander the world more or less alone.  Regardless that Laguna likes women, he and Kiros pair up really well [Ward never get's slashed, he's just to ugly].  Kiros is so exotically sexy that it's usually portrayed that he seduces Laguna. Which is fine by me. ^_^

Links:
As for fanfiction URLs for this series, I've never read any, and only partially written one myself, so I can't help out too much. =/ But you can go to my page

http://www.Trowa.com/yaoi/main.html

and read what I have.  I feel like this is some plug, but I really don't read fanfiction. =/

added by tammy:

http://www.aestheticism.net/vcity/213/orpheus/index.htm

http://j-heaven.tripod.com/lemonade2.html