This is the full story of the Jenova project, in timeline format. To view information about many of the FF7-specific phrases in this timeline (e.g. Northern Crater, Shinra Inc, etc.), check the glossary. Note that this timeline has been written using the most commonly accepted views of how each event took place - the different views on certain events are not included here.
~ ~ ~
Over 2000 years ago
A group of Cetra (Ancients) find the journey to the Promised Land to be too difficult and tiring, and decide to leave the other Cetra in order to settle down and form their own civilization. They become what is now the human race. The other Cetra, who move from planet to planet regenerating the land and healing the Planet's nature, continue to cultivate the land so that they will be able to move on and eventually find the Promised Land.
2000 years ago
Jenova falls to the Planet and forms the Northern Crater
when she lands, wounding the Planet greatly. The Cetra come to the Crater
to see what happened, and Jenova befriends them and makes them trust her.
The humans, rather than investigate, hide away and stay safe for the
time being. Jenova, meanwhile, creates a virus which sends all the Cetra
insane and turns them into monsters, except for a small number who manage
to escape. The Planet realises that it is in danger and, still feeling pain
from its vast wound, creates WEAPONs - huge living creatures with awesome
destructive power - to protect itself. While this is happening, the few
remaining Cetra manage to seal Jenova within the planet in a geological
stratum (see the glossary for an exact definition
of the phrase). This means the WEAPONs are not needed, and they remain dormant
in various places around the world; waiting in case anything or anyone else should
ever threaten the safety of the Planet.
[ Note: there are several different opinions about the forming of the Northern Crater. Some say that it was formed by Jenova crashing to the Planet, others say she summoned Meteor beforehand and that was what caused the damage. (More info on the Northern Crater Formation page.) Either way, the Planet was left with a massive wound, which the Cetra had to try and heal. ]
31 years ago
Professors Gast and Hojo of Shinra, Inc make one of the greatest discoveries
in scientific history: a 2000-year-old geological stratum containing the
body of Jenova. After extensive testing on the body, Gast and Hojo
come to the incorrect conclusion that Jenova is a Cetra.
30 years ago
Professors Gast Hojo begin to conduct experiments with Jenova by extracting cells from the body and implanting them into test humans. The pair think that this technique, when combined with exposing the subjects to large amounts of Mako energy, will enable them to produce a race of superhumans with incredible strength and fighting abilities - these people would be then trained and eventually become part of a new elite Shinra army named SOLDIER.
A problem arises, however: the experiments fail repeatedly because a subject cannot be found who is strong enough to survive the implantation of Jenova cells and the continuous exposure to Mako energy. Gast and Hojo try to think of a way to produce a worthy subject and thus solve the problem, and come up with an idea - Hojo will impregnate Lucrecia, another scientist working on the project. Then, while the baby was still in Lucrecia's womb, it would be injected with Jenova cells and exposed to Mako energy.
[ Some time around this point (I'm not exactly sure when), Professor Gast draws
the line at the manipulation of human life and leaves the Project; severing all his
links with Shinra. He moves to Icicle Town (in the North of the world) and settles
down with Ifalna, the last remaining member of the Cetra race. The pair have a child
- Aeris - and Ifalna tells Gast about what Jenova truly is. Gast realises that the
experiments he and Hojo were conducting were wrong as Jenova was not really a Cetra.
However, Hojo finds him before anything can be done to stop the Project, and Gast is
killed by Hojo's two escort guards. Ifalna escapes (albeit with terrible injuries),
finds her way to Midgar, and hands Aeris over to a woman who she meets at a train
station. Ifalna dies shortly afterwards, and the woman (Elmyra) adopts Aeris as her
own child. I'm not sure how Ifalna manages to get all the way from the Icicle Town
in the North of the Planet to Midgar in the South, especially with such terrible
injuries, but she does. ]
The baby - a boy named Sephiroth - is born to Lucrecia and, as Gast and Hojo had hoped, is able to survive the Jenova infusion and Mako exposure. Lucrecia dies shortly after her son is born, and Shinra, Inc tell the baby (when he's old enough to understand, of course) that his mother is Jenova, and that she died after giving birth to him. Sephiroth is raised by Shinra, Inc and trained to become an elite fighter.
5 years ago
Shinra, Inc is worried by reports of monsters emanating from the Mako Reactor in
Nibelheim, and send a team of soldiers to eliminate them. The team comprises now-General
Sephiroth and SOLDIER First-Class Zack, along with two supporting officers (one of whom
is Cloud Strife). The party takes along a local girl named Tifa Lockheart, who will act
as their guide through the Nibelheim mountains.
The party eventually reach the Mako Reactor, after losing the other
supporting officer in the mountains along the way. Upon entering the Reactor,
the party enter a room full of pods, each pod containing a mutated human. These
are the lesser subjects in the Jenova project, who are not as resilient as
Sephiroth and were not able to stand up to the Jenova infusion. Sephiroth realises
that Hojo had created these monsters, and begins to suspect that he too may be
a similiar being.
Sephiroth then confines himself in the Library in the basement of the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim. The Library contains Professor Gast's complete documentation of the Jenova project, from start to the point when he left, which Sephiroth spends days reading. Eventually he learns the reason for his birth, and goes mad.
Sephiroth enters the Mount Nibel Reactor again to visit Jenova, who he still believes
is his Mother. He also believes that Jenova is a Cetra, and assumes this makes him a Cetra
too. He tells Jenova that he will take her to the Promised Land (the conquering of which
was arguably her original reason for coming to the Planet), and removes her head to take
with him. No, I don't know why. Maybe it's some kind of weird good luck charm? =o
Anyway. Cloud confronts Sephiroth and manages to take him by surprise and stab him, before leaving to help Tifa (who Sephiroth stabbed earlier). Sephiroth survives the attack, however, and tries to leave the reactor. Cloud then appears again and stabs Sephiroth again, this time using the blade's leverage to push Sephiroth over the edge of the walkway and into the Mako pit below. He dies instantly, and Jenova's body - sans tête - is moved to the Shinra headquarters in Midgar and stored in a pod in Hojo's laboratory.
Present Time
A clone of Sephiroth, being controlled (puppetted) by the original Sephiroth
(who was killed by Cloud but is still alive in the Northern Crater and the
Lifestream) steals Jenova's body from the Shinra building in Midgar, brutally
killing President Shinra in the process.
The game has pretty much begun by now - the first you hear of this last part of the story is when you visit the Shinra building in disc one to find the President dead. The main enemies of the game are obviously Sephiroth and Jenova, and the rest of the game centres around defeating them and returning order to the planet. Of course, it's much more than that - we haven't even heard about Sephiroth's quest for the Black Materia yet, that all comes along later - but that's where the game starts. The rest of the story unfolds as you progress through the three discs.