The Darkness of Shinra – Deepground’s History Revealed

The Beginning

The facility’s primary purpose to house and care for injured soldiers shifted, however with the birth of one particular experimental subject, known as Genesis. Born as a test subject from Jenova Project “G”, Genesis possessed a unique factor in his genes that intrigued Shinra scientists, regarding its potential. As a consequence, further experimentation using his genes began to take place in the Deepground facility beneath Midgar. What had been created as a medical facility to aid the wounded had slowly become home to increasingly immoral biological testing inspired by the results of the Jenova Project. Deepground began to expand as a complex around the Mako Reactor, giving rise to numerous buildings within which many employees’ working lives were tied. With the encouragement of President Shinra, the dark and ambitious experiments continued, and the scientists of Deepground knew no bounds. In 1985, the first genetically-engineered child, infused with Genesis’ genes, was born in the facility with the sole purpose of having her body pushed to limit of human capabilities and towards immortality. The child was named Rosso.

Over the next two years, more varied and extreme experiments occurred in secret. The scientists of Deepground began to ignore morality completely, opting instead to satisfy their own insatiable curiosity in the name of research. Archived documents such as those regarding Project Gillian and Professor Grimoire Valentine’s studies on stagnant Mako were used as the foundation of further experiments. One subsequent experimented used Grimoire’s data on stagnant lifestream to evaluate test subjects exposed to stagnant Mako while in fetal form. Out of numerous sacrifices only one survived to term; a child bearing the power of darkness, destined for a life of misery. At birth, the darkness that emanated from the baby was enough to absorb his mother – a brilliant and highly regarded scientist of Shinra – into the vacuum of an unknown dimension, and he was contained within a special suit. The child was named Nero.

With the success of SOLDIER as a force for combating anti-Shinra activity, President Shinra ordered that further experiments be carried out on new and existing SOLDIER members in order to obtain even greater potential; the perfect soldier. A large number of SOLDIERs and recruits were sent to Deepground for testing. As part of the research, a training complex equipped with ultramodern virtual reality technology was built so that the effects of the SOLDIER’s treatment could be observed by the scientists while they did battle against one another under set conditions. Due to the rigorous experiments, the bodies of the SOLDIERs became dependant on Mako, and needed Mako baths to preserve them. Special suits were developed so that a weak current of Mako could run through their bodies at all times, maintaining the balance between their physical bodies and the Mako within, keeping them at their physical peak. These superhuman warriors were cut off from the outside world, forming a force of their own. They became known as Deepground SOLDIER.

As well as the continual testing of the Deepground SOLDIERs, the scientists closely studied three unique children that had been born and raised in the facility. As orphans, Rosso and Nero were continually under extreme experimentation based on their genetic traits, as was Nero’s biological older brother, Weiss, who had become an interest to the scientists following his remarkable growth in ability without exposure to the cells of Jenova. Over time, through ruthless testing based on his body’s incredible reaction to nothing but untainted Mako, Weiss was hailed as a pure soldier, and was given the title ‘The Immaculate’ by the researchers. Similarly, Rosso became known as ‘The Worst Crimson’, as the fierce experiments that pushed her body to breaking point in an effort to unleash the hidden potential in humans had caused her psyche to lose any lingering notion of humanity, and satisfaction came only when she was bathed in the blood of her opponents, taking great pleasure in slaughtering friend and foe alike. With Nero, whose darkness had become a force to be feared by all those who witnessed it, this trio were given the status of SSS – the most dangerous individuals in Deepground. Over time, they became known as the Colored Tsviets; ‘Weiss the Immaculate’, ‘Nero the Sable’ and ‘Rosso the Crimson’.