Lucrecia Crescent



Lucrecia Crescent (ルクレツィア・クレシェント) is a non-playable character from Final Fantasy VII, and is Sephiroth's birth mother.

Appearance and Personality
Lucrecia has long brown hair pulled up into a high ponytail with her bangs partly covering her left eye. The top of the ponytail is wrapped up in an old yellow cloth that has begun to visibly deteriorate. Her eyes are chocolate brown. She wears a white lab coat, light blue blouse, asymmetrical dark blue skirt and red kitten heels with a silver anklet on her left ankle. When encased in the mako crystal she is dressed instead into a white dress.

Lucrecia suffers from a guilt complex blaming herself for everything that has gone wrong over the course of her life. She is a kind and caring soul, though she has a tendency to believe only what she wants to believe.

Story
Lucrecia, once a Shinra scientist, worked as an assistant to Vincent's father, Grimoire Valentine. During the time spent with Grimoire, they discovered two Weapons developed by the Planet, both used as part as the Lifestream's emergency function. Together, Grimoire and Lucrecia discovered the Crystal Cave, where it was thought Chaos would awaken at the appointed time. Grimoire was killed in an attack by the newly discovered Chaos, and Lucrecia's research was discarded as pure nonsense.

Later on, Lucrecia was appointed to work on the Jenova Project along with Gast Faremis and Professor Hojo. During this time, Vincent Valentine, a member of the Department of Administrative Research (which would later be known as the Turks), was assigned to supervise the project. Lucrecia immediately recognized Vincent as Grimoire's son, and was shocked that Shinra would assign the son of her deceased mentor to supervise her. In spite of this, she still warmly welcomed him, and even began spending time with him when the two were off work, although she kept the fact she even knew his father a secret. Over time, Vincent and Lucrecia seemed to have either become romantically involved, or close enough that they were near that point.

This all fell apart when Vincent found a document pulled up on Lucrecia's computer telling of her time working with Grimoire. When Vincent confronted Lucrecia and asked her why she never told him about this, she revealed to him she was the one responsible for his death. Vincent — not seeming to think Lucrecia was responsible as much as she does — attempted to counsel her. This attempt was in vain, as Lucrecia felt even more guilty for Grimoire's death than she did before. This put a strain on Vincent and Lucrecia's relationship, causing her to seek Hojo for comfort.

Lucrecia became romantically involved with Hojo and eventually married him. During this time, she became pregnant and agreed to use their unborn child as a test subject. Hojo injected both the pregnant Lucrecia and her fetus with Jenova cells, but the cells had an unexpected side effect; Lucrecia would have visions of her son, Sephiroth, and of the future atrocities he would commit. The visions were painful and Lucrecia often collapsed in pain, much to Vincent's despair.

When Vincent tried to confront Hojo about Lucrecia's condition, Hojo mortally shot him and used his corpse as an experiment, only to label him as a failure and discard him. Lucrecia, devastated with Vincent's death, used her knowledge about Chaos to resuscitate him by infusing pure Mako into his body. The procedure worked, as Vincent's body, due to Hojo's previous experiments, was strong enough to become a Chaos vessel. However, Chaos was completely out of control and only stopped when the Protomateria had a reaction to it. The Protomateria, which Grimoire had discovered and which Lucrecia theorized to have been created by the Planet "out of necessity as a means to control Chaos and prolong its own inevitable fate", had been in Lucrecia's laboratory. She put it inside Vincent's chest, and thus Vincent was able to control Chaos to a degree. Unfortunately, while it halted Vincent's decay, it did not resuscitate him.

At some point around this time she gave birth to Sephiroth, but the child was taken away without Lucrecia even being allowed to hold him. Hojo either left her, or she left him shortly afterward. Overcome with sadness and sorrow, Lucrecia tried to kill herself, but not before she left her thesis about Chaos and Omega for Vincent, who was still unconscious. Thereafter, due to the Jenova cells in her body, Lucrecia was unable to truly die. She left her old life behind, seemingly vanishing without a trace. It is unknown where she went immediately following her desertion of Shinra, but she eventually ended up in the Crystal Cave, back where it all began.

Years later, when the Planet is faced with destruction at the hands of her own son, Lucrecia is once again found by Vincent when he is traveling with Cloud's party. Attempting to approach her, Lucrecia warns Vincent to stay away from her. The events of what had happened with Vincent and Lucrecia are recounted for the rest of the party (and for the player) and Lucrecia goes on to say she felt so much guilt for all that she had done she wanted to disappear; she did not want to be with anyone and she wanted to die. Lucrecia tells Vincent she has been dreaming about Sephiroth a lot lately, and asks him if her son was still alive. Vincent, who does not have the heart to tell her of all the horrible things Sephiroth has done — and is planning to do — tells Lucrecia that Sephiroth is dead.

She lingers on in the Crystal Cave until the events of Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. In a major event in Dirge of Cerberus, the unification of Lucrecia's data, it is speculated she had feelings for Vincent. This is made abundantly clear throughout the game, but even more so during the seemingly random words flashing across the screen, during which she says "Vincent" and "I loved..."

Following Omega's destruction, Vincent speaks to Lucrecia, thanking her and telling her she was the reason he survived. A tear can be seen rolling down Lucrecia's cheek as Vincent leaves the cave.

Etymology
Lucrecia is a Spanish name and is a reference to the mythical Roman figure Lucretia, who was infamously raped by Sextus Tarquinius. It is possible this allusion is a hint that Lucrecia's relationship with Hojo was less consensual than it appeared, or it could simply be meant to emphasize the perverse nature of Sephiroth's conception.

The name Lucretia comes from lucrum, meaning "wealth."

In Final Fantasy VII, Lucrecia was not given a last name. Her last name in Dirge of Cerberus, "Crescent", is a surname that was reused from Final Fantasy IX 's character Freya Crescent. The word "crescent" is also derived from the Latin word that means "to grow," and one of her key plot points was Sephiroth's growth in her womb.

Trivia

 * Lucretia can be the name of a viera character in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Names for most characters are chosen at random from a pool of names.
 * In Dirge of Cerberus, Lucrecia's birthday was revealed to be July 22, and her bloodtype to be B.
 * Dirge of Cerberus contains some concept artwork for the picnic basket she carries to Vincent in a particular flashback, and the concept artwork quite clearly shows the basket containing red wine. The opening FMV sequence shows a wine glass in Vincent's room containing a red liquid some decades later.
 * In the Early Material Files included with the Ultimania Omega guide (scenes and ideas that were ultimately cut or changed in the final product of Final Fantasy VII), Vincent's section mentions that Lucrecia was originally "on Vincent's side," drugged by Hojo, and forced into experimentation against her will. However, in the game's final version (and Compilation canon), she was clearly a willing participant, though she also shows signs of turmoil over choosing such.
 * The Early Material Files also mention that she was considered an "idol" in the lab, and was the only female on Hojo's team.
 * If one looks closely in some of the Dirge of Cerberus cutscenes, one can see Lucrecia has a pair of silver dagger earrings, similar to those of musician Gackt, who not only contributed "Longing" and "Redemption" to the game's soundtrack, but also served as a model for Genesis Rhapsodos.
 * Lucrecia's English voice actress, April Stewart, also voices Mjrn from Final Fantasy XII.

Lucretia Crescent