Gaia (Final Fantasy VII)

The Planet, also known as Gaia, is the name of the world in which Final Fantasy VII takes place. The Planet is given a name at various points in gameplay.

Geography
The Planet is made up of three main unnamed continents: one in the east, one in the west, and one in the north. Other large islands include the Mideel island south of the Eastern Continent which is part of a long chain of islands, a large forested island that holds the Temple of the Ancients in the southwest of the Eastern Continent, and a long island to the west of the Western Continent that is home to Wutai. Most of the world has a temperate climate with large grassy plains broken up by tall mountains. The Northern Continent is made up of a massive plain of ice called the Great Glacier. At the northern tip of the landmass is a gigantic crater called the Northern Crater that leads deep into the bowels of the Planet. The most prominent desert is in the Western Continent below Gold Saucer. Swamplands are in the Eastern Continent in front of the Mythril Mines.

Nature
The Planet is not simply a planet in space, it is a living organism from which all living creatures are born and to where they all return when they die. Its life blood is the Lifestream, a flow of energy that contains all the knowledge of all the creatures that ever lived on its surface. Since the Planet is a living creature, it has a mind of its own. Some special humans, called Cetra, have the power to speak directly with the Planet. Being alive, the Planet creates protectors called WEAPONs. These monsters are summoned whenever the Planet feels threatened. The most powerful of these, the Omega, can actually transport the Planet's Lifestream to the cosmos when the Planet inevitably dies like all organisms.

Minerva seems to have some kind of connection to the will of the Planet, and she may be its Goddess.

History
Approximately 2000 years before the start of Final Fantasy VII, the Planet was home to an ancient nomadic group of people called the Cetra. The Cetra were close to their homeworld, and could communicate with it. One day, an alien being crashed into the Northern Continent, causing a massive wound in the Planet's surface that would one day form into the Northern Crater. This creature was Jenova. Jenova used her power to take the form of Cetra and trick their loved ones into letting their guard down. Slowly, Jenova destroyed most of the Cetra, until what remained of their number sealed Jenova away inside the Crater. Humans, a branch of the Cetra who abandoned their nomadic ways and built permanent settlements, largely survived the calamity, and became the dominant race on the Planet. The Cetra were reduced to almost nothing, the only signs of their existence being the ruins called the Forgotten Capital in the Northern Crater.

2000 years later, humans have completely taken over the Planet. A former weapons manufacturer called the Shinra Electric Power Company run by President Shinra finds a way to harness the Planet's Lifestream to create Mako energy. With this power, humans build titanic mechanical wonders, such as the great city of Midgar on the Eastern Continent. However, this power slowly sucks the lifeblood out of the Planet, and the world slowly dies. The area around Midgar becomes a dead-zone of perpetual night. Hoping to find the fabled Promised Land, Shinra hunts for remnants of the Cetra. Instead, all they find is the sealed Jenova in the Northern Crater. Thinking Jenova to be an "Ancient", Shinra starts the Jenova Project to breed a human with Cetra powers. Shinra slowly grows from a mere corporation to the de facto ruler of the world. The only state that continues to oppose Shinra is Wutai. After the long Wutai War, Shinra takes that territory as well, and holds complete control over the entire Planet.

Following Shinra's conquest of Wutai, two separate threats appear to oppose its rule. AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist army, appears to destroy Shinra and save the Planet from the threat posed by Mako power. One AVALANCHE commander called Fuhito betrays the organization and summons a monster called Zirconiade. A group of Shinra defectors from the Turks, a Shinra secret agent force, defeat Zirconiade in the slums of Midgar. At the same time, Genesis Rhapsodos, a member of Shinra's special forces called SOLDIER and a child of the Jenova Project, also defects from Shinra. He leads an army of his copies to fight Shinra and his former SOLDIER friends. During the fighting, Sephiroth, Jenova's "son" and the strongest of all SOLDIERs, goes insane and destroys the town of Nibelheim. A Shinra guard named Cloud Strife watches his hometown burn and defeats Sephiroth. Sephiroth falls into the Lifestream, believed dead. Genesis is later defeated by a SOLDIER named Zack Fair. Genesis is captured by Shinra and used in new experiments.

Four years after he was defeated in Nibelheim, Sephiroth returns from the dead. Taking over the body of Jenova and forcing her into his form, Sephiroth kills President Shinra. Rufus Shinra takes over his father's position, and goes after Sephiroth. Cloud Strife and a party of his friends go off to follow Sephiroth around the Planet. With Cloud is the last surviving Cetra, Aerith Gainsborough. During the search, Sephiroth kills Aerith, and thus ends the race of the Cetra forever. Sephiroth's goals are to summon Meteor, the ultimate destructive magic. With Meteor, Sephiroth wishes to inflict a massive wound unto the Planet, and then take control of it. Meteor is summoned, and it hovers over the Planet for three days. Facing destruction, the Planet summons its protectors, the monsters called WEAPONs. The WEAPONs fail to stop Sephiroth, and instead destroy Shinra Headquarters with Rufus still inside, ending Shinra's rule. Cloud and his party defeat Sephiroth, and end his plans. Meteor still falls directly onto the city of Midgar, leading to the massive obliteration of the great city. It is finally stopped by the Lifestream and Holy forcing Meteor back into outer space. This event is known as "Meteorfall" by the survivors.

After Meteor falls, Midgar is finished as the world capital. Shinra is replaced as the governing body by the World Regenesis Organization (WRO), with funding by a living Rufus Shinra. Two years following the defeat of Sephiroth and Jenova, the remnants of their evil power come upon the world as Geostigma, a plague upon mankind. Three "pieces" of Sephiroth also appear, hunting for Jenova's head to revive their "older brother". Kadaj, the leader, manages to fuse with Jenova in the ruins of Midgar, recreating Sephiroth to once again rain destruction upon the Planet. Cloud Strife battles the resurrected Sephiroth, and defeats his old foe once more.

A year later, Deepground, the last secret of Shinra, appears to attack mankind. Deepground was a secret organization based below Midgar, and so were trapped after Meteorfall. Their return marked a conflict between the WRO and Deepground, culminating in the Battle of Midgar. Vincent Valentine, a member of Cloud's party and target of Deepground, goes deep into Midgar and defeat the Deepground leaders. However, Deepground succeeds in their plan to summon the Omega WEAPON, which threatens all of humanity. Vincent transforms into Chaos and defeats Omega, thus saving the Planet.

Culture
There are only two known sentient races on the Planet, humanoids such as the Cetra and humans, and the wolf-lion creatures like Red XIII. Red XIII's race has a far longer lifespan then humans, but these creatures have never been known to build civilizations and only exist in very small numbers. Moogles are not real creatures, but seem to exist as legendary creatures in human imagination. Outside of worship of the Planet itself, no religions exist. An ancient epic, LOVELESS mentions a Goddess, though no organized religion around has been shown.

The calendar is the same as the real world Gregorian calendar, with twelve months of the same name and 365 days. Final Fantasy VII takes place in late 0007, early 0008, about ten years after the date of its real-world release. At the end of December there is day of celebration similar to Christmas. The world seems to be divided into Time Zones as well, the trains of Midgar running on Midgar Standard Time.

Final Fantasy VII's world is heavily modern and similar to our own, with television, Cellphones, cars, planes, and all kinds of modern amenities existing. All of this required massive power sources, such as Mako energy. Before Mako, the town of Corel was a coal exporter, and after Mako the people of the Planet return to fossil fuels. However, only the major cities seem to really enjoy all of the high technology, while the smaller towns around the world are stuck in a far more backward existence. Thanks to easy transportation, several towns are tourist areas, such as the beach town of Costa del Sol, the resort of Wutai, and the ski-slopes of Icicle Inn. During the Meteor crisis, mankind successfully sent a manned-rocket into space. Modern armies and fleets of Airships have also been shown.

Location List
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Eastern Continent

 * Midgar - Controlled by the Shinra corporation. A large city which is split up into sectors. These sectors are below a giant 'Plate' which supports the Shinra HQ. Inside the massive city are many small sub-locations:
 * Sector 0
 * Sector 5
 * Sector 7
 * Sector 8
 * Wall Market
 * Sector 1 Reactor
 * Sector 5 Reactor
 * Shinra Headquarters
 * Kalm - The first town visited by the group after leaving Midgar. A flashback sequence of the descent into madness by Sephiroth takes place here.
 * Chocobo Farm
 * Mythril Mine
 * Fort Condor - An Anti-Shinra outpost, south of the Mythril Mines
 * Junon - Shinra's military base.
 * Junon Underwater Reactor
 * Healen Lodge (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children only)
 * Edge - A new city built north of the remains of Midgar. (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- only)

Western Continent

 * Costa del Sol - Touristic hotspot.
 * Mt. Corel
 * North Corel
 * Gold Saucer - A gigantic amusement park built over the hometown of Barret Wallace (Corel).
 * Corel Prison
 * Gongaga - Zack Fair's hometown.
 * Cosmo Canyon - Red XIII's hometown.
 * Nibelheim - Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart's hometown.
 * Mt. Nibel
 * Rocket Town - Cid Highwind's hometown and the site of Shinra's now defunct Space Program.
 * Ancient Forest
 * Crystal Cave - Lucrecia Crescent's resting place.


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Northern Continent

 * City of the Ancients - The only known intact Cetra settlement, and last resting place of Aerith.
 * Bone Village
 * Sleeping Forest - Forest surrounding the City of the Ancients.
 * Icicle Inn - Aerith's birthplace.
 * Great Glacier
 * Gaea's Cliff
 * Northern Crater - Crater that houses the WEAPONs.
 * Great Cavern of Wonders (Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- only)
 * Chocobo Sage's House
 * Modeoheim (Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- only)

Other Locations

 * Temple of the Ancients - Resting place of the Black Materia.
 * Mideel
 * Banora Village - Angeal and Genesis's hometown. (Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- only)
 * Wutai - Yuffie Kisaragi's hometown.
 * Goblin Island
 * Round Island
 * Materia Caves
 * Sunken Gelnika
 * Shinra Cargo Ship
 * WRO Headquarters (Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- only)
 * Cloud's Subconscious
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Trivia

 * Much of the Planet's nature, such as it's relation to living things, were reused in the CGI movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. These ideas are called the Gaia Theory.
 * In the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV, the scene between Anna's ghost and Edward makes an allusion to something similar to the Planet. Anna mentions a "Spirit" which calls her onward to "become part of it again", similar to how all life returns to the Planet once it dies.
 * Some sources credit the official name "Gaia" to the Final Fantasy VII world, including an informative pamphlet for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. However, within the Compilation, the world is simply known as "The Planet", and has not been referred to as Gaia in any game to date.
 * Although not explicitly stated, it is implied that The Planet might actually be Earth, as Safer-Sephiroth's Supernova FMV sequence lists the names of the planets that the Comet destroys or the Supernova itself destroys, most of which have the same names as the planets in our solar system (ie, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus.).