Final Fantasy VII timeline

This is a timeline for the events of Final Fantasy VII.

About the timeline
This timeline works from the idea that the game is set in 1997, which is correct on two counts- the game was released in this year, and due to the inscription on the helmet of Jenova. October 10, 1959 for Jenova's discovery and July 2, 1967 for her being sealed in the Nibelheim reactor. This lines up with the events of the game then happening in 1997. Much of the information presented about the history of the Planet is mentioned in-game, so an accurate dating system in available.

Timeline Of Final Fantasy VII

 * Over 2000 years ago-An interstellar race known as the Cetra arrives on the Planet. They are on a quest for the Promised Land. The Planet is an ideal location as it contains the Lifestream, pure magical energy drawn from every living thing on the Planet. There is already humanoid life on the Planet and the Cetra settle in tribes amongst them.


 * Approx 2000 years ago- Jenova arrives. S/He is known as the "Calamity from the Skies". It lands at the north of the Planet and Cetra who have settled in a place called "Knowlespole" go and investigate. Jenova appears disguised as a Cetra, promising peace, but infects the Knowlespole Cetra with a terrible virus that mutates and destroys them. Jenova then moves across the Plant infecting and destroying the Cetra tribes. Jenova's landing caused a huge wound in the Planet and the Lifestream gathers there at what becomes known as the Great North Cave to repair the Planet. Five Huge Weapons of increasing power are created by the Planet to kill Jenova (Sapphire WEAPON, Diamond WEAPON, Ultimate WEAPON, Ruby WEAPON and Emerald WEAPON), but before they can be used, a few surviving Cetra manage to defeat Jenova (now in permanent female form) and seal her in rock. The Weapons go into hibernation and the few surviving Cetra disperse amongst the Human population.


 * Over the next 2000 years- The people of the Planet grow more sophisticated. The centre of commerce, government and power is centralised mainly in a large city called Midgar. This city becomes more populated over the years.


 * 1867- Bugenhagen is born.


 * Some point between 1920 and 1940- President Shinra is born.


 * Between 1930 and 1947- Professors Hojo, Gast and Lucrecia are born.


 * October 13th 1946- Vincent Valentine is born. At some point in the next twenty years he joins the Turks.


 * 1949-Nanaki (Red XIII) born in Cosmo Canyon. He is one of the few remaining members of his species. At some point during Nanaki's growing up, the Canyon was attacked by a vicious tribe know as the Gi. Nanaki's mother was killed. Seto, Nanaki's father fought off the Gi, but was turned to stone in the process. Nanaki is never told the truth as to where his father went and grows up believing the idea that Seto abandoned the Canyon to the Gi like a coward. Nanaki's species enjoys increased longevity and has some connections to the Ancients, which may explain why Hojo took an interest in Nanaki many years later.


 * Early 1950s- Shinra Inc, a weapons manufacturer, is founded. Ifalna is born.


 * October 10th 1959- Jenova is found by Professor Gast.


 * December 15th 1962- Barret Wallace is born in Corel. Corel at that time is a prosperous town built on the coal mining industry. Coal is still the principal source of fuel for places outside of Midgar at this time.


 * Early to Mid 1960-s - First mako reactor is built in Nibelhiem marking the start of the Shinra Electric Company, the start of the Jenova Project, and the start of the Turks as well.


 * February 22nd 1965- Cid Highwind is born.


 * Around 1965- Tseng is born.


 * July 2nd 1967- Professor Gast, while excavating in Mount Nibel, finds Jenova inert in a 2000-year-old geological stratum. He takes Jenova to Nibelheim, where he begins to research her origins and powers. At this point he believes her to be an Ancient/Cetra. Shinra become very interested in his work and offer him money and assistance to carry on.


 * Around 1968- Rude is born.


 * 1967-1973- The Jenova Project begins. The goal Shinra are aiming for is the creation of humans with the powers of the Ancients. It is not clear if Gast was aware of this, but Hojo, the scientist sent to assist by Shinra, most certainly did. Gast and Hojo start experimenting on Jenova. These are conducted in the basement laboratory of Nibelheim Mansion. A young female scientist called Lucrecia and a young Turk called Vincent (sent to keep an eye on things) are also present. As the experiments progress, Vincent falls in love with Lucrecia. However she is in love with Hojo and declines Vincent's proposal of marriage. Lucrecia becomes pregnant by Hojo. Hojo, having no luck using full-grown humans and creatures in his Jenova experiments, decides to use his unborn child instead. He injects Lucrecia and the baby with Jenova cells. Lucrecia becomes very sick and upon delivering the baby, finally becomes altered beyond recovery.

In a fit of rage, Vincent confronts Hojo. But he is incapacitated when shot by the scientist and subjected to more Jenova treatments. He becomes another twisted monster, like the rejects being stored in pods at the Nibelheim Mako Plant. Hojo then stores Jenova in the Mako reactor and takes his ‘perfect’ newborn baby son away to Midgar and Shinra headquarters where he can be raised and observed as he grows. The boy is named Sephiroth and he is never told who his parents are.

At some point Professor Gast left the project, most likely after Hojo began his warped experiments on live people. Realising he had no way of stopping the Shinra scientist he decided to get away before Shinra decided he is no longer useful.

Vincent awakes to find Lucrecia and Hojo gone and the experiments at Nibelheim Mansion over. In despair he seals himself up in a coffin in the basement and sleeps for the next 30 years. He stops aging at this time, biologically 27 years old. Lucrecia, having new powers courtesy of the Jenova cells also goes into seclusion in a cave near the Nibel mountain range.


 * Around 1972- Reno is born.


 * 1973- Professor Gast travels the planet. He is possibly looking for more information on the Ancients/Cetra. He visits Bugenhagen at Cosmo Canyon during his travels and gives him scientific equipment. At some point along the way he meets Ifalna, one of the last Ancients on the Planet. They fall in love and retire to Icicle Inn, on the Northern Continent. Gast does not officially leave Shinra, and he does not tell them of his whereabouts.


 * 1974- Zack Fair is born.


 * Around 1975- Rufus Shinra is born.


 * February 7th 1975- Aeris Gainsborough is born to Professor Gast and Ifalna.


 * February 27th 1975- Hojo finally tracks Gast down. He tries to take Aeris and Ifalna away for his experiments. Gast and Ifalna resist capture, but Gast is killed and Ifalna and Aeris are removed from their home.


 * August 19th 1976- Cloud Strife is born in Nibelheim. He grows up a lonely and isolated child; constantly frustrated by his inability to allow himself to be the person he wants to really be.


 * May 3rd 1977- Tifa Lockhart is born in Nibelheim. She is out-going, lively and has a lot of friends. Although she and Cloud are close in age and distance they don't spend much time together as children.


 * Early 1980’s- Midgar begins construction of the Plate- Eight sectors built above the smaller settlements on the ground, which in turn gradually become nameless slum areas.


 * November 20th 1981- Yuffie Kisaragi is born in Wutai.


 * 1982- Ifalna and Aeris finally escape their captors in Midgar. Ifalna dies of exhaustion after arriving at Sector 7 Slums, and Aeris is taken in by Elmyra. Shinra go to war abroad with the town of Wutai. The fierce pride of the leader Godo has kept Shinra's influence out of the town, but they are quickly crushed and Wutai has to become a tourist town to carry on and survive.  During their first meeting, Elmyra's husband is killed far away and this is sensed by Aeris.

Elmyra adopts Aeris and raises her. Aeris grows up showing strange intuitive powers and an affinity with nature. She keeps about her person a small white pearl of materia that her dead mother left for her. This is actually the materia for summoning Holy. But Aeris is not aware of its power. As she grows up, Tseng the leader of the Turks pesters her. He wants to take her back to Shinra Headquarters, but Aeris manages to avoid Shinra every time.

Sephiroth is also proving to be a hugely capable and talented young soldier with abilities and powers that far outstrip his peers. His conduct during this time of war earns him a hero's reputation even though he is still in his teens and he continues to rise though the ranks of SOLDIER. During the War, Shinra keep investing in new military research and formulated a space program. An experienced young pilot called Cid Highwind was destined to fly Shinra’s rocket into space. Cid has already proved himself worthy with the Tiny Bronco (a sea plane) and the Highwind airship. But his dream was crushed when the launch was aborted due to technical problems. After the War with Wutai finished, Shinra decided its Mako business was more profitable than either war or Space exploration and the Space program was dropped.


 * 1985- Tifa's Mother dies. An upset and confused Tifa believes her Mother has gone to Mount Nibel and sets off to find her. Cloud follows to make sure she stays safe but Tifa is injured in a fall, remaining in a coma for 7 days. Tifa's father arrives and blames Cloud for leading her astray. Cloud, distressed at being wrongly blamed and angry at his inability to save Tifa, decides that one day he will become as strong and capable as the Legendary Sephiroth and resolves to join SOLDIER when he is old enough. After Tifa recovers, her and Cloud become a little closer. She hears of his plans to join SOLDIER, at the same time she starts training under martial arts master Zangan perfecting her hand-to-hand combat skills.


 * 1987-1988- Zack leaves his home in Gongaga and joins SOLDIER; he easily makes the grade and gets to serve under the command of Sephiroth.


 * 1989- Cloud and Tifa make the promise by the well. While stationed in Midgar, Zack meets and dates Aeris. He writes to his parents about her during this time.


 * 1990- Cloud leaves Nibelheim, but fails to get into SOLDIER. He becomes an ordinary Shinra soldier and cuts off all contact with his hometown and old friends; so ashamed is he that he failed again.


 * Late 1990-Early 1991- End of the Wutai War.


 * February 30, 1991 - AVALANCHE (under Elfe) makes their first attack on Shinra. Sephiroth stops them at Junon.


 * June 17, 1992 - AVALANCHE attempts to kidnap (a willing) Hojo and Sephiroth is called in to stop it.


 * September 1992- The Nibelheim Incident. Reports of monsters disrupting life for the workers at the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor. This results in Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud being sent to Nibelheim to investigate. On reaching Nibelheim Cloud keeps his identity hidden from Tifa and the other townspeople. He cannot bear to be seen as just an "ordinary" soldier.

Tifa takes the party to the Mako reactor. Tifa and Cloud stay outside. Inside, Sephiroth discovers Jenova's body and sees all the mutated "failed" experiments of Hojo's. He begins to realise his origins may be similar and becomes upset. Zack is disbelieving at first, but when one of the mutated humans falls out of a pod he also begins to be concerned. The party returns to Nibelheim Mansion.


 * September 22nd-29th 1992-Sephiroth finds all the notes of Jenova Project in the basement of the Mansion. He is aware of Professor Gast’s initialisation of the project but has not been told how Gast died or Hojo's full involvement in his creation. Later in the night Zack goes to speak to Sephiroth and finds Sephiroth a changed man. Sephiroth has discovered Gast's notes he made at Icicle Lodge about the Ancients. He now believes he is descended from the Ancients and regards normal humans as traitors who abandoned the Cetra to a terrible disaster. However he does not seem to accept Jenova is the cause of that disaster. He rants and raves at Zack before leaving quickly to see Jenova whom he refers to as "Mother".

Zack follows him outside and sees the whole village in flames. Many people are dead or dying, a Shinra Soldier (Cloud) tends to his dying mother. Sephiroth heads for the reactor with several townsfolk in hot pursuit. Tifa and Zack chase after him, Cloud following behind.

At the reactor Tifa discovers her father's body. Sephiroth has killed him. As Sephiroth moves towards the Pod with Jenova in it, Zack tries to attack him but is batted away. Tifa picks up Sephiroth's discarded sword and attacks him, but he takes the sword back and cuts her down. Cloud arrives to witness this and he tenderly moves Tifa into a more comfortable position before confronting Sephiroth.

Sephiroth opens the pod and tries to free Jenova. As Cloud approaches Sephiroth tells Jenova he has come to reclaim the Planet for her. Cloud stabs Sephiroth then returns to tend to Tifa. Injured, Sephiroth can only take Jenova's head with him. He leaves the pod room, walking past Cloud. Cloud follows him onto the bridge above the Life stream running far below at the bottom of the reactor. Sephiroth stabs Cloud though the chest, but Cloud keeps a hold of the sword and uses it to flip Sephiroth and Jenova's head into the bottom of the Mako reactor, into the Lifestream. Cloud then passes out due to his wounds.


 * October 1, 1992-In the immediate aftermath, Zangan (Tifa's tutor) arrives at the reactor and takes the wounded Tifa to Midgar. Here she sets up a bar called "Seventh Heaven" in the sector 7 slums when she has recovered. Cloud, Zack and the surviving residents of Nibelheim are gathered up and used by Hojo to create clones of Sephiroth, as he believed the original was dead. Jenova is moved to Shinra Headquarters (now minus her head), for safekeeping. After the cloning project proves to be a failure, Hojo moves back to Midgar permanently and carries on research there.


 * 1993-Marlene is born to Dyne and Elenor.

Barret, swearing revenge on Shinra decides to start targeting their reactors in Midgar. He hooks up with Tifa (who is also harbouring anger towards Shinra) and uses the basement of her bar as a centre of operations for the environmental terrorist group AVALANCHE.
 * April 11, 1993 - The failed launch of Rocket Shinra 26.
 * May 8, 1993 - Corel Incident-Shinra persuade the people of Corel to accept the building of a Mako reactor. Barret, seeing that coal has no future, pleads Shinra’s case. His best friend Dyne opposes it, but Barret talks him round. One day Barret and Dyne come back from a trip out of town and find Shinra burning down Corel. They discover that Shinra have blamed several explosions at the new reactor on sabotage by Corel Townsfolk. Barret and Dyne are both severely injured in the fighting. Dyne falls over a cliff and Barret believes him dead. Barret goes back to Corel to be with his now dead wife Myrna. He sees Dynes wife Eleanor is also dead, but Dynes daughter Marlene isn't. He decides to take Marlene and flee to Midgar.


 * 1994- Gongaga Reactor explosion kills many of the townsfolk.


 * October 30, 1996- Nanaki's capture by Shinra.


 * December 19th 1996-After years of experimentation, Zack and Cloud escape the Shinra Mansion. Cloud is nearly catatonic from the Mako and Jenova treatments. Zack dresses him in a spare SOLDIER uniform and they manage to get to the mountains near Midgar before Shinra catches up with them. On their journeys Zack tells Cloud all about his life in SOLDIER and what happened when he was alone with Sephiroth. Cloud is still too confused and messed up to respond, but Zack takes care of him.


 * December 22nd 1996-When Shinra find them just outside of Midgar, Zack is shot dead. Cloud is left alive, as he is considered no threat. However Cloud manages to pick up Zacks' sword and make it to Sector 7 railway station in Midgar where Tifa finds him still confused. As he gets better, Cloud’s mind takes Zacks’ experiences and mixes them with his own, setting up the split personality that would allow Sephiroth such control over him. Tifa talks him into helping AVALANCHE destroy the Sector 1 reactor.


 * December 23rd 1996- October 1997- The events of Final Fantasy VII


 * October 1997- Meteor destroys Midgar.


 * Early 1998- Edge is constructed by the inhabitants of Midgar, and the WRO are founded by Reeve (and funded by Rufus).


 * 1999- Geostigma begins to infect the Planet’s population.The Events of Advent Children.


 * 2000- Deepground begin attacks on Kalm and Edge. The Events of Dirge Of Cerberus.


 * 2497- Final scene of the game, wherein Red XIII (and his children) view the ruins of Midgar.