Jenova's History
Approximately two thousand years ago an alien creature landed on Gaia, having traveled through space on a meteorite. The impact created the North Crater, which froze over and a glacier formed around it over time. The creature approached the Cetra and those who were taken victim were infected with a virus (hinted to be genetic material from the creature itself) that mutated them into monsters.[2]
In this way, the creature destroyed most of the Cetra civilization. Their daughter race, the humans, hid away while the Cetra were almost eliminated. The few Cetra survivors banded together for the sake of defeating the invader and quarantined it within the North Crater. Despite their victory over the "calamity from the skies" the Cetra civilization was lost with their numbers dwindled to almost nothing while humans spread over the planet. The alien would lie in wait for millennia as it was forgotten by humanity and the Cetra fell into legend.
Two-thousand years later almost all memory of the creature has faded. The Shinra Electric Power Company rules the planet with mako energy, but is ever seeking a more efficient way to harvest it and consolidate their power. The Cetra legend of the promised land piqued their interest, and the company began to research the Cetra, a race thought long extinct.
Approximately 30 years before the main events of Final Fantasy VII, Professor Gast Faremis exhumed the alien creature's remains and mistakenly identified it as a Cetra, naming it Jenova. The Jenova Project became an effort by a number of Shinra scientists to use Jenova's cells to create a human-Cetra hybrid who would lead them to the promised land.
Shinra was, of course, unsuccessful at creating a Cetra with Jenova's cells, but those treated with the cells proved to be super-soldiers, which led to the members of SOLDIER, Shinra's elite military force, being injected with the cells, as well. Sephiroth, Genesis Rhapsodos, and Angeal Hewley were born from the project during its first stages when Shinra was still trying to create a Cetra. Most of the early research took place in Nibelheim's Shinra Mansion, and Jenova was contained within the mako reactor at Mt. Nibel.
Sephiroth, the ultimate SOLDIER, was infused with Jenova cells when still in the fetal stage. He was never told of his role in the Jenova Project, his biological father, Professor Hojo, only telling the young Sephiroth his mother's name was "Jenova" and that she died giving birth to him. Sephiroth's real mother being Lucrecia Crescent, it is unknown why Hojo chose to fabricate Sephiroth's parentage.
Many years later, Sephiroth was sent to the Nibel Reactor along with a fellow SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair and an infantry soldier named Cloud Strife, only to find it filled with makonoids, ordinary humans infused with such high levels of mako they had mutated. Suspecting his origins may be similar, Sephiroth's anxieties were confirmed when Genesis (who had deserted and rebelled against Shinra at that time) revealed him the nature of the Jenova Project and how Sephiroth was the "perfect monster" to come out of it. Wanting to learn more, Sephiroth, for several sleepless days, ventured into the Shinra Mansion's basement to read about the Jenova Project. The strain of these discoveries pushed him into insanity.
Believing himself a descendant of the Cetra whom the humans had "betrayed" Sephiroth went on a killing spree. He burned Nibelheim to the ground and returned to the reactor to collect his "mother", destroying the Jenova doll in the process. Due to being severely wounded by Cloud, Sephiroth could only take Jenova's head before being hurled into the lifestream below the reactor.
Shinra forces took over the reactor and gathered the survivors of the massacre (except the local guide girl Tifa, who had been saved by her martial arts instructor Zangan) for Professor Hojo. Hojo injected the survivors with Jenova's cellular matter to test his Jenova Reunion Theory, thus creating the Sephiroth-clones, people whose psyches would be overridden by Sephiroth's will due to the Jenova cells in their bodies. Sephiroth was declared dead, and Jenova's headless remains were taken to Midgar and placed in Hojo's lab in the Shinra Building.
Due to the Jenova cells present in his body the lifestream could not absorb Sephiroth completely. His will remained sentient and learned everything about Jenova, the Cetra, and the circle of life, formulating a plan to be reborn as a god and rule the planet. Sephiroth's will overpowered Jenova's, and he gained the ability to exert his influence on those infected with the creature's biomass and even turn them into vessels imitating his semblance, thus facilitating a plan to have them deliver the Black Materia to him that would allow him to use the ultimate black magic spell.
Five years after the Nibelheim Incident, Sephiroth puts his scheme into action by acquiring Jenova's main body and slaughtering Shinra employees and President Shinra. In the original, it looks as if the body itself breaks out of containment, but in Final Fantasy VII Remake, Jenova's body is taken by two Sephiroth-clones, one of whom transforms into Jenova Dreamweaver and dies while the other clone escapes with Jenova's body. When Cloud interacts with the clones, he sees them as Sephiroth himself.
Cloud and his party chase "Sephiroth" across the planet while unaware it is Jenova under Sephiroth's control, who is leaving behind pieces of her body that transform into monsters to hinder them. Unbeknown to him, Cloud is being influenced on a subconscious level by the Jenova cells inside him as the result of being one the subjects in Hojo's Jenova Reunion experiment. Several times throughout the party's journey, the cells make him mentally unstable, and Sephiroth ultimately exerts his control over Cloud to make him hand over the Black Materia. The first piece encountered, described as Jenova's arm, transforms into Jenova∙BIRTH and is fought on the cargo ship. Jenova∙LIFE manifests as Sephiroth when he murders the last Cetra, Aerith Gainsborough, at the altar in the Forgotten City. A third battle with Jenova occurs in the Whirlwind Maze with Jenova∙DEATH, Cloud afterward realizing that what they had been pursuing was not the real Sephiroth.[3] The party finds the real Sephiroth crystallized in hibernation. Cloud, whom Sephiroth has manipulated into doubting his own personhood, relinquishes the Black Materia, allowing Sephiroth to summon Meteor. Sephiroth's ultimate goal is to wound the planet so greatly the lifestream would be summoned to heal the area, allowing him to absorb it and become a god-like being.
Cloud recovers and throws off Sephiroth's influence, and together with his party descends into the Northern Cave to defeat him. Before the final battle they fight Jenova∙SYNTHESIS, a form of Jenova composed of its remaining cells. Once it is defeated, the party reaches an evolved Sephiroth and defeats him.
At least one biological remnant of Jenova remained in a crevasse close to Icicle Inn, discovered by Kyrie and Evan while fleeing from Kadaj. Evan eventually kicks what remained of Jenova into a lifestream pool, prompting Kadaj to dive in after it, causing him to dissolve.
Even with its main body destroyed, Jenova's cells remained within the lifestream and infected thousands who came in contact with them during the time lifestream washed over the planet to help destroy the Meteor Sephiroth had summoned. The infection with Jenova cells manifests as the plague Geostigma, caused by the body overcompensating to try to eliminate the cells, leading to the development of sores and scars. Not fully diluted in the lifestream, Sephiroth manifests his remnants into being: Loz and Yazoo, and also recreates Kadaj.
The trio is compelled to find physical remains of Jenova to evoke a second Reunion to restore Sephiroth. Unbeknownst to them, Rufus Shinra withheld Jenova's remains all along, having had his Turks retrieve them from the North Crater. When Rufus reveals his ruse, he attempts to discard the remains, but Kadaj salvages them. After being defeated by Cloud, Kadaj absorbs the Jenova cells and Sephiroth is reborn in his body.
During his fight with Cloud, Sephiroth unveils his intentions to assimilate the planet and journey to another world to repeat Jenova's work prior to arriving on the planet. Sephiroth is defeated and Kadaj is left on the verge of death. Aerith's Great Gospel brings a healing rain upon Midgar and Edge, curing those suffering from Geostigma while Sephiroth's remnants cease to be. Due to Jenova's high adaptability and previous ability to survive, whether this is its true end is unknown.
