Nibelheim

Nibelheim is a small mountain village at the foot of Mt. Nibel, and near Cosmo Canyon in Final Fantasy VII. It is the hometown of both Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart. Years ago, something terrible happened there, although it was covered up and never revealed to the public. Afterwards, Shin-Ra claimed their hero, Sephiroth, to be dead. Most of the Sephiroth Clones, waiting for the Reunion, can be found all around the town. There is a Mako Reactor located on nearby Mt. Nibel. The Shin-Ra Mansion is the most prominent structure in the town.

Shin-Ra Mansion
The Shin-Ra Mansion on the outskirts of Nibelheim holds many secrets of Professor Hojo's experiments. The mansion, having been in Shin-Ra Electric Power Company's possession for ages, was the setting for the horrible experiments that would become the Jenova Project. It is seen as a somewhat derelict house of grandeur with a long walk leading from the outskirts to the entrance.

Many years before the events of the main storyline of Final Fantasy VII, the basement was used for experiments by the head of Shin-Ra's Science Division, Hojo. In competition with his scientific rival Hollander, he tried to create the perfect soldier. He decided to use Jenova cells on his colleague and lover Lucrecia Crescent while she was in early stages of pregnancy, which ultimately led to the birth of Sephiroth, a child born with Jenova cells. This special child would be sent to Shin-Ra, and specially raised to the be the ultimate SOLDIER before Lucrecia could even hold him.



The Turk Vincent Valentine, whose mission was to protect the scientists during their experiments, fell in love with Lucrecia. When he heard of the ghastly things being done to her and her child, Vincent confronted Hojo. The argument grew heated, and Hojo shot Vincent. Lucrecia, realizing that Vincent had been shot trying to protect her, instantly went into action to try to save his life. Many experiments were performed on him in order to save him from death. Finally, she discovered a way to use Chaos, the servant of the Omega Weapon, to save Vincent's life, also giving him the ability to transfigure himself. Hojo, then seeing the use of this ability, began implanting more and more monsters within him, resulting in Vincent's limit breaks seen in Final Fantasy VII. Vincent then saw himself as a monster, and a failure for not saving Lucrecia. He decided to repent for his sins by resigning himself to a coffin in the mansion's basement, where he slept almost undisturbed for 30 years.

Cloud and Tifa's Childhood
Despite the nightmare which occurred within the mansion, Nibelheim remained a peaceful town for its residents. Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart both grew up here in relative normality. While Tifa played with her three friends, Cloud was alone and isolated. All Cloud had was his mother, and no father was ever mentioned. Being alone, he began to consider the other children to be childish and himself better than the others.

One day, Tifa's peaceful life was shattered when her mother died. Emotionally distraught, she believed that she could find her mother again by climbing Mt. Nibel. Though her friends followed, each one slowly broke away as Tifa continued to climb further up the mountain, leaving only Cloud to follow. She ended up injuring herself on the mountain, and Cloud, being the only one there to blame, was faulted for the incident, adding even more to his outcast behavior.

During this time, Cloud began to idolize Sephiroth, the hero SOLDIER of the war with Wutai. He felt that if he could become great like Sephiroth, the people of Nibelheim would have no choice but to accept him. The night before he left for Midgar, he met up with Tifa and promised to become a SOLDIER First Class. Cloud also promised under the moonlight, that he would come to her aid when she needed protection.

Cloud left his hometown for the metropolis of Midgar the next morning. Tifa began training with Zangan, the martial arts expert of the town, and worked as a guide on Mt. Nibel for tourists and visitors.

The Nibelheim Incident


Years later, Cloud met his idol Sephiroth, however he had not attained his goal of becoming SOLDIER First Class. Rather he was a lowly Shin-Ra guard, following Zack Fair on many missions. The two SOLDIERS and their guards headed to Nibelheim to investigate a broken section of the Mt. Nibel Reactor. Cloud was too ashamed to show his failure to his hometown, and so kept his mask on when they met with Tifa, who would be their guide. When a picture was taken of the party before heading out, Cloud stayed out of it. He talked to his new-found friend Zack about being embarrassed about going back to his home and his family, but did not say much about a reason.

The group made its way to the Reactor, and Sephiroth managed to fix it easily. However, while inside, he found the hideous by-products of Hojo's experiments: Freakish monsters inside pods that once were human. To further draw the attention of Sephiroth, behind these abominations was a large sealed door inscribed with the name of his mother: JENOVA. Sephiroth began to wonder if he was no different than these monsters, and his one-time friend Genesis Rhapsodos, who had earlier deserted Shin-Ra, arrived promptly to confirm his suspicions. Sephiroth then locked himself away in the basement of the Mansion and read everything he can about the Jenova Project. The answers drive him to the very brink of insanity.



Believing himself to be the heir to the Cetra legacy, due to a misconception upon the discovery of Jenova, Sephiroth slaughtered most of the population of Nibelheim and burned the town to the ground. Zack, Tifa, Zangan, and Cloud all try to help, but the disaster is too far gone. Cloud's mother and Tifa's father both are murdered. His anger spent, Sephiroth climbed Mt. Nibel to find his mother, Jenova inside the Reactor. Almost completely insane, he broke into the sealed room and talked with the "Jenova Doll" that masked JENOVA from view before removing it to look for the first time at his mother.



Both Tifa and Zack confront Sephiroth in the reactor. Tifa is defeated quickly, while Zack, almost an equal of Sephiroth, is able to fight him for some time, before he too is thrown out onto the stairs leading to Jenova's chamber. Cloud enters last, and is all the more distraught over seeing his only friend and childhood crush both barely alive. He manages to drive the Buster Sword into Sephiroth while he is distracted by getting Jenova out. While Cloud comes back out, thinking Sephiroth dead, the latter removes Jenova's head from what's left of her body and takes it out to deal with Cloud. While Cloud grabs the Buster Sword and tries to attack, Sephiroth retaliates and launches him into Jenova's chamber. He then impales Cloud with his Masamune, but Cloud uses the sword in his stomach to throw Sephiroth and Jenova's head into the Lifestream itself, where he supposedly dies.

Tifa is rescued by Zangan, but Cloud and Zack are both captured by the player Turks of Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-. In Episodes 12 and 13, the player along with the Turk leader, Verdot helps Hojo start his new experiment and hide the events of the incident. They will both be used as test subjects in Hojo's Jenova Reunion Theory. They are injected with pure Jenova cells and kept in tanks of Mako. Zack escapes from the tube he was being held in, possibly with the help of his old mentor Angeal Hewley from the Lifestream. He then frees Cloud, who is struck by a bad case of Mako Poisoning, and the two slowly make their way out of the city and back to Midgar. Zack is unaffected by the Mako, possibly due to his already being exposed to it by way of becoming a SOLDIER. The town is rebuilt and repopulated with Shin-Ra employees here to make sure word of the incident never gets out. As for Tifa, once she recovers, she heads to Midgar to get revenge on Shin-Ra, joining the resistance group AVALANCHE and running its headquarters, the 7th Heaven bar in the slums of Sector 7.

Hunting for Sephiroth
Five years later, Cloud and Tifa have reunited and together search for Sephiroth across the Planet. Their search leads them to their hometown of Nibelheim, which is now infested with Sephiroth Clones. Nobody in the town recognizes either one of them, since they are all fakes put in place by Shin-Ra. Since there is nothing here for them now, Cloud and Tifa leave to Mt. Nibel to continue their search. They do go through the basement of Shin-Ra Mansion and find Vincent Valentine locked in a coffin. He can be coaxed out of it and added to the party, though little is said of his story.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
During the events Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, Vincent Valentine returns to the manor via the underground tunnels and sewers, to search for information about Deepground and Dr. Crescent's research on OMEGA and Chaos. Revisiting the experimentation room where he was turned to his current state and the coffin in which he had slept. In the mansion, he finds a holographic recording of Lucrecia who gives him a little information. He meets Deepground troops who had arrived in the mansion earlier, and is fought by a large spider mech in the entrance hall. It is here that Rosso the Crimson extracts the Protomateria from Vincent and he is only saved from the hands of Rosso by Yuffie. By this time, the mansion is in ruins.

Dirge of Cerberus also explains the full story of what happened with Vincent and Lucrecia in Nibelheim, and the horrid things that happened in the basement, and the truth behind Sephiroth's birth is fully revealed.

Items Found
In town:


 * Luck Source
 * Elixir
 * Turbo Ether
 * Platinum Fist
 * Luck Source

Shin-Ra Mansion:


 * Twin Viper
 * Silver M-Phone
 * Magic Source
 * Enemy Launcher
 * Odin Materia
 * Key to Basement
 * Destruct Materia

Disc 3 Only:

,, , L1 and , L1 and , , , , L1 and , , , , (R1 can be used instead of L1. It makes no difference)
 * Final Heaven - Tifa's ultimate Limit Break can only be found by playing this melody on the piano in her house, the song is the Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII:

Shops
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Item Shop

 * }

1st Floor

 * 3x Dorky Face
 * 4x Dorky Face
 * 1x Ghirofelgo

2nd Floor

 * 1x Ghirofelgo
 * 4x Dorky Face
 * 2x Mirage, 1x Dorky Face
 * 3x Jersey
 * 1x Jersey, 2x Mirage (Back attack)
 * 1x Lost Number (Optional Boss)

Spiral Staircase

 * 1x Ghirofelgo
 * 2x Dorky Face, 1x Black Bat
 * 2x Dorky Face, 1x Mirage
 * 3x Black Bat (Back attack)
 * 1x Jersey, 2x Mirage (Back attack)

Caves

 * 2x Black Bat
 * 3x Black Bat
 * 4x Black Bat
 * 1x Ying, 1x Yang

Grassland

 * Nibel Wolf x2
 * Nibel Wolf x2 (Back attack)
 * Valron
 * Valron, Nibel Wolf x2

Forest

 * Bahba Velamyu x2
 * Bahba Velamyu x2 (Ambush)
 * Battery Cap x4, Valron
 * Battery Cap x6
 * Mystery Ninja

Beach

 * Crown Lance
 * Crown Lance x2
 * Crown Lance x2 (Ambush)
 * Crown Lance x3

Skies

 * Ultimate Weapon (Boss)

Trivia

 * The name Nibelheim is based on Niflheim, also called Niflheimr, a location in Norse Mythology meaning "Mist World." In the story of Gylfaginning, Odin explains that creation began when the ice of Niflheimr met the flames of Muspelheim.
 * Nibelheim is literally translated as "Fog-home" in German.

Nibelheim