FF7 World Summary

Past

• 2000 years ago, a race called the Cetra inhabits Gaia
  
• Meteor hits, creates the North Crater, mysterious alien life form (Jenova) appears from it, having arrived as a cell. Jenova reads their minds and takes on the appearance of their loved and lost ones to get close, then infects them with a virus that mutates them into horrific monsters
  
• They manage to seal it in a cavern in the North Crater, but Cetra are almost wiped out. Humans, who had evolved from them, survived because they hid the fuck away the entire time.
  

Near Present

• 30 years ago, Shinra Electric Power Company starts investigating the nearly extinct Cetra (down to about three people at this point) in search of their fabled "promised land" which is said to hold infinite amounts of mako energy, the energy of the lifestream that they're currently harvesting for power. While researching, Professor Gast finds the "dead" Jenova, mistaking it for one of the Cetra.
  
• Shinra decides to try to make a human-cetra hybrid using Jenova's cells. This fails, but they discover the cells can make super soldiers instead...
  
• Three kids are born from the attempt to make the hybrid, including Sephiroth, whose mother Lucrecia was experimented on by her husband, Professor Hojo, aka the worst person ever.
  
• SOLDIER, Shinra's private military force, becomes an unwitting testing ground for these super soldier experiments
  
• Six years ago, the other two kids born from the experiment are presumed killed after giving hints to Sephiroth that shit ain't right.
  
• One year later, Sephiroth, Zack Fair and Cloud Strife are sent to Nibelheim to investigate a problem with the reactor there. Sephiroth is given cause to suspect something is up with his origins and heads into the Shinra Mansion there, where he discovers information about Jenova in the library and goes crazy from the revelation that he's been born from horrific genetic experimentation. He mistakenly believes the misinformation that Jenova is a Cetra.
  
• Sephiroth then burns down Nibelheim and tries to rescue Jenova's corpse from the reactor (yes, it's in the reactor for NO GOOD REASON along with a bunch of mutated humans from mako overexposure), but gets stabbed by a very angry Cloud and winds up jumping/falling into the reactor with Jenova's severed head (which it is depends on the version, VII liked to reshow that event looking differently every other spinoff). This dumps him into the freaking LIFESTREAM ITSELF (which remember, Shinra is harvesting for power) so now Jenova's cells and Sephiroth himself are in the very lifestream.
  
• Jenova cells being alien and all, the lifestream can't absorb them, causing them to infect it horribly, something that'll later see effect in Advent Children. Because of the Jenova cells in his body, the lifestream also can't absorb Sephiroth fully. As part of the lifestream he starts to learn. A lot. A whole, whole lot.
  
• Sephiroth then consumes Jenova's will, goes even more nutso, and decides he wants to become a god. He develops the ability to control people infected with Jenova cells and turn them into clones of him.

Present

• Cloud has now abandoned SOLDIER and is now a moody freelancer. He joins a resistance group named Avalanche that's trying to blow up Shinra facilities. Their base is in the slums of Midgar, a city where the upper levels are a highly technologically advanced police state living on a giant plate suspended in the air and the slums are down below (very City). It's held up by eight reactors and a central pillar, so of course blowing up the reactors is considered the smart thing to do. They successfully kaboom their first Reactor (Mako Reactor 1) and barely make it out.
  
• They decide to go "skip a few" and go after Mako Reactor 5, but Cloud falls off into the slums as a result of the explosion, somehow doesn't die (flowers broke his fall), and gets dragged home by Aerith. He has to stealth mission his way out of her house which is a real pain in the ass but if he makes a single sound she's like NO YOU GO BACK TO BED and he meekly returns to his borrowed room. I'm only including this information because it's funny as fuck.
  
• Shinra decides to drop the plate on the slums and blame it on Avalanche.
  
• Aerith gets kidnapped by Shinra, and her mom tells them she and Aerith are the last of the Cetra race. Avalanche decide to go play rescuer because fuck Shinra.
  
• Avalanche break in to rescue Aerith, find Hojo is trying to crossbreed her with another endangered species (Red XIII, a talking lion thing), and promptly get their asses captured because they can do nothing right.
  
• Avalanche find themselves mysteriously freed and also a giant blood trail and a massacred populace of the building. They decide to follow the blood trail to a piece of Jenova that has mutated into a monster and tries to kill them. Greatest survival skills in history, folks. Real smart guys here.
  
• After beating up Jenova, the group decide to get the fuck out of town because what even was that.
  
• Avalanche stops off in Kalm, where Cloud, (whose memories have been merged with Zack Fair's due to reasons), tells them about Nibelheim from Zack's perspective. They then head on to Junon, passing by a conveniently murderous Jenova en route to the same place.
  
• They get to Junon and decide to get the fuck away even further, so they stow away on a Shinra ship headed for Costa del Sol. Not before anotherJenova bit tries to murder Cloud though!
  
• While exploring the world and learning about each other and having a fun road trip, they stop off at Cosmo Canyon and coincidentally run into an archeologist named Bugenhagen who tells them about the Lifestream and some useful shit about the planet.
  
• They then boogie off towards Nibelheim and find it perfectly intact and unharmed, a factor which alarms them sincerely given it was BURNED TO THE GROUND. Oh, and also it's full of Sephiroth clones. Which is also not fun for them. Especially Tifa and Cloud, for whom this is the hometown.
  
• Jenova pretends to be Sephiroth to try to convince Cloud to join their cult of the apocalypse, which they refer to as "Reunion". They're creepy and they're kooky, they're altogether spooky, and they tell him to go through Mount Nibel and head north before leaving.
  
• Cloud decides to randomly follow the advice of the creepy man who went nuts and burned down his town because we have seen his judgement is not the best. Surprisingly this is not a murder trap but it leads to a new terrible person joining them, Shinra showing up to try to steal that person's airship, and the obtaining of an airship. It also gives them hints of a Cetra temple called the Temple of the Ancients whose key is conveniently held within the Gold Saucer.
  
• The key is then stolen from them and taken by Shinra because of course it is.
  
• Shinra goes to the Temple to obtain the Black Materia. Quickest summary, Materia are solid orbs of mako energy that grant magical or physically enhancing abilities when equipped into armor, but are also plot relevant in this case! The Black Materia is a unique one.
  
• Jenova knocks the Shinra operative out, but Cait Sith steals the Black Materia himself. Jenova then goes "nuh uh" and makes Cloud give them it so Sephiroth can use it to summon a meteor and wipe out the world because that was the sole reason they wanted Cloud there. Since they can control him via his cells... good job, Cloud. Way to follow the instructions of the person you trust the least and fuck over the world.
  
• Aerith runs off to the City of the Ancients to obtain the White Materia that'll grant the unique Holy spell that can cleanse the entire world of threats. Sephiroth promptly shanks her right when Cloud arrives, having been worried about her safety being off on her own. Rightly fucking so, because now she is dead, and they think she failed. Actually she did not... but Sephiroth was able to repress Holy anyway and is now a living barrier maiden against it.
  
• Not knowing what else to do, they just kinda wander the City until Bugenhagen tells them about Sephiroth's barrier maiden status.
  
• The planet goes "fuck this noise" and activates its' WEAPONs to defend itself against Meteor. By killing everyone it can to strengthen the lifestream and thus bolster its' power.
  
• Hojo uses a weapon called the Sister Ray to blow up one of the WEAPONs and then tries to use it to empower Sephiroth, but is murdered by Avalanche.
  
• Cloud and his group decide "okay, I have HAD it with these motherfucking Sephiroths on this motherfucking PLANET" and go fight Sephiroth. With him dead, Holy activates and saves the planet from Meteorfall, HUZZAH.
  
  Except...
  

Pre-Advent Children

• Sephiroth is once again in the fucking lifestream... as are Jenova's cells still. And the lifestream is not handling it well. After the lifestream covered the ENTIRE PLANET to protect it from the meteor, it also touched every single living person and left corrupted Jenova cells in those who came into contact with the corrupted parts.
  
• Those people begin to develop a fatal sickness that's eventually named Geostigma. Essentially, the body detects "Sephiroth/Jenova" and tries to fight it with the immune system, but can't. It then pushes itself further and further, causing some gross-ass symptoms that involve black ooze seeping from sores. Lovely! They also begin to hallucinate, have seizuers, and eventually fucking die.
  
• Children are much more prone to developing this because of their weaker immune systems so... yeah, the world is very unhappy right now.
  
• Cloud proceeds to abandon everything, become a delivery person and then abuse his freedom to travel to try to find some clue how to fix it... not least of all because HE'S ALSO INFECTED WITH IT (as is a small boy he found orphaned and adopted along with Tifa. They live with Marlene, Avalahcne leader Barret's adoptive kid, since Barret's run off somewhere unknown.)

Advent Children

• Two years after 7 happened, Cloud's symptoms get impossible to hide so he abandons his family and goes to live in the same fucking church where the flowers broke his fall because why not, they're apparently miraculous. Also he can mope about Aerith there. He occasionally visits Zack's sword, having figured out Zack was his FRIEND and not his past life, to mope. He's also now severely depressed and guilt-ridden.
  
• Shinra investigate the place where Sephiroth died and find three newborn adults there, Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, who beat the SHIT out of their agents, create motorcycles and clothing out of mysterious black ooze (that then turn into actual proper stuff), and leave.
  
• During said moping, Yazoo and Loz chase after Cloud on motorcycles and manifest monsters to attack him, but Cloud beats them and runs away.
  
• Tifa phones Cloud to tell him Shinra Electric Company's President Rufus Shinra (promoted to president after his dad died early in 7, was a thorn in everyone's side for a while then was presumed dead after a building exploded on him during the whole WEAPON debacle) has called her to try to get in touch with him and wants to meet him. He decides to go, because again poor judgement. Also curiosity.
  
• The wheelchair-bound and mysteriously cloaked Rufus begs him to help him make amends by helping him stop the three Sephiroth kids. Cloud almost agrees to work with him, but one of the Shinra agents pisses him off and he promptly storms off on his own while Rufus essentially facepalms.
  
• Kadaj immediately breaks in and kidnaps Rufus the minute his bodyguards leave the room.
  
• Loz and Yazoo go off and kidnap children by claiming they can cure them.
  
• Loz then goes to the church just when Tifa and Marlene have come by to try to drag Cloud home. Cloud not being there, the two adults must then KUNG FU FIGHT, which goes poorly for both up until Loz discovers Cloud has a chest full of materia, beats Tifa into unconsciousness and leaves with the chest and the very unhappy Marlene.
  
• Cloud comes home, finds he's been robbed AND his possible girlfriend is unconscious and passes out. Shinra's bodyguards (Reno and Rude, of the Turks, his private unit) find him and drag them both back to Tifa's place, where they wake up, argue over Cloud's moping and then get told the Remnants have kidnapped most of the kids in Midgar.
  
• Having dragged the kids to the City of the Ancients, Kadaj casually uses his magic to turn the water there black and makes the kids drink it, flooding them with more Jenova cells and allowing them to essentially mindcontrol the kids.
  
• Cloud drives there to try to stop them, a big fight happens, Marlene (who did NOT drink the water, having half a brain) is rescued with the help of the suddenly appearing Vincent. As it turns out, Vincent had been hiding in the City and noticed the three Sephiroth kids appearing and was spying on them the entire time. Not having a cellphone, he'd had no contact with anyone else and had no idea who these fuckers were or what they were doing alone in an abandoned city with a fuckload of kids. He was not messing with that shit.
  
• A multi-level motorcycle chase scene occurs! Kadaj is in the lead, with Cloud in hot pursuit! But who's this behind him, trying to shoot his ass? It's Yazoo and Loz! And after Yazoo's motorcycle gets blown up, they go after him on ONE motorcycle! No big deal! No balance issues! LET'S! KILL! BIG! BRO!
  
• ...except Reno and Rude have somehow gotten AHEAD of them, set up explosives and once Cloud is passed, they blow up the tunnel the two are in.
  
• Kadaj picks the absolute most random place to stop - the church where Cloud was living. Unfortunately the church (or rather the spirit of Aerith) is not okay with this and drives him off. Cloud finds him instead at the ruins of the Shinra building. Kadaj, having seen what Jenova wants now, is now severely depressed. Cloud beats him up until Kadaj goes "FINE, FUCK YOU AND FUCK ME I GUESS" and flings himself off the building, absorbing Jenova into himself and turning into Sephiroth fully.
  
• Sephiroth then goes "heyyyy there guess you don't have a party of level 99 companions with you THIS time" and returns the beating, sadistically torturing Cloud with all the pleasure in life.
  
• Cloud nearly dies, butZack's spirit is like "you're fucking kidding right, go kill this guy!" and Cloud uses his ultimate limit break, Omnislash L5, to skewer Sephiroth with all of the six different swords that make up his Buster Sword, because his Buster Sword is actually made up of six smaller swords which is why it's so fucking huge. He tells Sephiroth to fuck off, and Sephiroth does, leaving Kadaj to die in Cloud's arms.
  
• Aerith's spirit tricks Kadaj into thinking she's Jenova and she wants him and loves him and it's time to come home to mama, so he dies happily. Cloud is then shot in the back by...
  
• ...Yazoo. Who has somehow managed to survive an explosion and follow a man who was on a motorcycle while he was on foot and badly injured to a location he didn't know they were going to, along with Loz. The two then die.
  
• Aerith proves she's both the ultimate white mage and possibly Jesus by making Cloud return from LITERAL DEATH and producing a spring in the slums that cures Geostigma, as well as making healing rain happen that has the same effect. She mainly does this by telling him "no, you're not dying", and sending him back, making it an even funnier version of the "go back to your room" of earlier.
  
• Every game after this point is basically irrelevant to the main plot, so the end.