Geostigma



Geostigma (星痕症侯群, Seikon Shōkōgun lit. "Planet Scar Syndrome") is a fictional disease in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. In the ending movie of Final Fantasy VII, the player sees the Lifestream sweeping throughout the planet, particularly in Midgar. The word "Geostigma" makes a cameo appearance in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, when one of the Deepground Soldiers scans a woman who had previously been infected.

Story
It is revealed during the course of Advent Children that when Jenova was destroyed during Final Fantasy VII, it scattered cells spread across the Lifestream, contaminating it. When the Lifestream burst out of the Planet to combat Meteor directly, Jenova's presence within the Lifestream was exposed to the people of the Planet, some of them contracting some of cells themselves. Most of these people were children, likely due to their weaker immune systems being unable to fend off the cells. This instantly caused an epidemic across the Planet, though most notably at the crash site of Meteor: Midgar and its offshoot, Edge.

It has been speculated by a great number of fans that Geostigma is most likely the disease that wiped out the Cetra 2000 years ago. The earliest verified cases of the disease, starting during Meteorfall, killed nearly instantly. For several minutes, the victim would suffer as Jenova's will overpowered every bit of their body until they fell dead. As time went on, the symptoms became less severe but much more drawn-out. They developed black rash-like scars on their body and would cause them extreme pain from time to time, oozing a grotesque black puss when at its worst, and leaves black smears on bandages wrapped across it. As time wears on, the disease starts to draw too much energy from the body, and the victims are hardly able to move, being confined to beds or wheelchairs. Eventually, the war within their bodies is lost, and Geostigma takes the victim's life.

No cure was ever found other than Aerith's Great Gospel Limit Break sent from the Lifestream.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
The disease was exposed to a majority of the children throughout the planet. Three of the major characters, Cloud Strife, Denzel, and Rufus Shinra, carry this disease, and suffer tremendous pain throughout the movie. Cloud developed his as a result of Hojo's experiments on him post-Nibelheim involving Jenova cells. Rufus and Denzel contracted the disease normally - Rufus is supposedly in the final stages in the disease, and is confined to a wheelchair until his imminent death. Kadaj mentions that the stigma is an invitation to the Reunion, but in actuality, Vincent Valentine reveals Jenova's ties to Geostigma, that the body attempts to get rid of the foreign cells, but it overcompensates, creating Geostigma.

Kadaj used the water in the Forgotten Capital tainted with his will to force the children to help. Tricking them into thinking the water was a cure for the stigma, the children drink the water, and Kadaj's will shut down their immune system, both effectively stopping the symptoms of Geostigma and bringing them under Jenova's will. Hoping that the cells now controlling their body will inspire a new Reunion, Kadaj leaves his brothers Loz and Yazoo to take the children to Edge and find Jenova's head.

Sephiroth later reveals that he was using Jenova's will to control those with Geostigma through the Lifestream. Eventually, enough infected people would die of the disease that the Lifestream itself would be infected by Jenova, and he could alter the Lifestream itself. He plans to force the tainted Lifestream to come to him; he would absorb it and become a "God", as was his original intent. He would then use the withered planet as a vessel through the cosmos to find a new planet on which he would fulfill Jenova's dream and take control of the Planet's inhabitants as a God. As he tells this to Cloud, he shows his other his current power over the Lifestream, summoning dark clouds over the battlefield with almost no effort.

In the end, Aerith brings forth her healing rain from the Lifestream, which cures everyone in contact with it of their Geostigma. Others with the stigma are able to go to Aerith's church where a spring of the blessed water rests.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
However, it had a lasting effect for the formerly afflicted in the years that followed, more so than any mental trauma that sprung from the epidemic. A year later, as chronicled in Dirge of Cerberus, the mysterious SOLDIER group known as Deepground attacked Edge and Kalm, abducted all those who were never afflicted and either ignoring or more likely slaughtering those who were, being considered "tainted" for their plans. It is revealed that they are trying to trick the Planet into thinking its in danger by filling the Lifestream with untainted spirits to summon the Omega. Those who had Geostigma, or were otherwise infected with outside matter, were "impure" and could not be used to trick the Planet.