This is a timeline of the entire Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, the details of which are provided by the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, the Crisis Core Ultimania and the FFVII Ultimania Omega.

[ Approximately 2000 years before FFVII ]

· An extraterrestrial life form that will later be named Jenova crash lands on the planet while traveling through space on a meteorite. The indigenous Cetra race gather at the impact site in an effort to heal the massive wound to the planet, but are soon confronted by Jenova. The creature nearly wipes out the entire Cetra race before it is defeated and sealed in a geological stratum. Enormous creatures later called Weapons were created by the planet to combat Jenova, but with the creature defeated by the few surviving Cetra, the Weapons are placed in stasis within the crater formed by Jenova’s meteor. The impact crater will eventually become known as the Great Northern Crater.

[ Approximately 50 years before FFVII ]

· Vincent Valentine is born.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1959

· Red XIII is born in Cosmo Canyon.

· Cosmo Canyon is attacked by the Gi Tribe. Red XIII grows up with the impression that his father, Seto, betrayed the village people after learning that Seto left the frontline during the midst of battle.

9/23

· Shin-Ra Manufacturing Works (later, the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company) discovers mako energy.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1970

· Professor Gast becomes head of Shin-Ra’s Science Department.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1972

· Reeve Tuesti is born.

12/15

· Barret Wallace is born in Corel Village.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1975

2/22

· Cid Highwind is born.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1976

6/24

· Construction begins on the city of Midgar. The Shin-Ra Company headquarters is relocated to the new city.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1977

· Azul the Cerulean is born.

[ Approx. 30 years before FFVII ]

· Professor Gast discovers and names Jenova. It is misidentified as an Ancient (the common name for the Cetra race during the modern age) and the Jenova Project begins with the goal of using Jenova’s genetic material to produce a Cetra in the present day.

[ Approx. 25~30 years before FFVII ]

· Rufus Shinra is born.

· Employed as an operative of the Investigation Sector of Shin-Ra’s General Affairs Department (a division better known by its “Turks” alias), Vincent Valentine is sent to Nibelheim to act as bodyguard for the Jenova Project’s researchers at Shinra Manor. There, he meets Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, an assistant to Professor Gast. After they become close, Vincent proposes marriage to her, but is rejected. Instead, she marries Professor Hojo, another of Gast’s assistants, and becomes pregnant with his child. Despite Vincent’s objections, the two researchers then offer their unborn child to Gast for use in the Jenova Project.

[ Approx. 20 years before CC ]

· Genesis is born via Jenova Project G.

· Angeal is born via Jenova Project G.

· Sephiroth is born via Jenova Project S.

· Following the birth of Genesis, unique, inhumane experiments begin in Deepground, a secret department beneath the Shin-Ra building.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1980

· Professor Gast vanishes. Hojo defeats Professor Hollander in the power struggle for Gast’s former position as the head of Shin-Ra’s Science Department.

[ Approx. 23 years before FFVII ]

· Angry with Hojo over the Jenova Project, an enraged Vincent confronts him. During the confrontation, Hojo shoots and fatally injures Vincent. Afterward, Hojo experiments on the Turk, eventually granting him a nearly indestructible body, but still in a catatonic state. Lucrecia disappears soon after, but not before reviving Vincent by embedding the Weapon known as Chaos inside him. Believing that the transformation of his flesh was his deserved punishment for being unable to prevent the use of Lucrecia and Sephiroth’s bodies for the Jenova Project, Vincent goes to sleep inside a coffin in the Shinra Manor’s basement.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1985

· Zack Fair is born in Gongaga.

· Rosso the Crimson is born in Deepground.

2/7

· Aerith Gainsborough is born at Icicle Lodge to Professor Gast and Ifalna, the last full-blooded Cetra. Twenty days after her birth, Professor Gast is shot to death by troops led by Hojo, and Aerith is transported into captivity at the Shin-Ra building in Midgar along with her mother.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1986

· Shalua Rui is born.

8/11

· Cloud Strife is born in Nibelheim.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1987

· Nero the Sable is born in Deepground.

5/3

· Tifa Lockhart is born in Nibelheim.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1991

· Shelke Rui is born.

11/20

· Yuffie Kisaragi is born in Wutai.

[ Approx. 8 years before CC ]

· The Wutai War begins. As a SOLDIER 1st Class, Sephiroth will become famous as a decorated hero.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1992

· Aerith and Ifalna escape from the Shin-Ra building, but Ifalna dies at the Sector 7 train station. A widow named Elmyra Gainsborough discovers them there, then takes in Aerith to raise as her adopted daughter.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1995

· Grieving over her mother’s death, Tifa climbs Mt. Nibel. Along the way, she falls from a suspension bridge along with Cloud, who had gone after her out of concern for her safety. Suffering severe trauma, she spends seven days in a coma while Cloud miraculously receives only minor injuries.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1997

· Determined to be a SOLDIER, Zack leaves Gongaga and heads for Midgar.

· Tseng, a young member of the Turks, makes a name for himself while working on the case of a kidnapped soldier by uncovering a group of smugglers selling Shin-Ra weapons on the black market.

[ μ ] – εуλ 1999

11/10

· The Legendary Turk is put under house arrest in Costa del Sol for abandoning his mission to rescue a kidnapped weapons trader.

[ μ ] – εуλ 2000

· Shelke Rui is kidnapped by the Turks and taken to Deepdround to become a DG SOLDIER. Her older sister, Shalua Rui, dedicates her entire life to finding Shelke and joins AVALANCHE to acquire information on kidnapped SOLDIER candidates.

Late Summer

· Genesis is injured in the VR training room of the Shin-Ra building. While being treated by Hollander, Genesis learns from him the truth about his birth, as well as the resultant deterioration of his body. Seeking to remedy this degradation and escape an early death, Genesis allies himself with Hollander, who resents Hojo and Shin-Ra for the loss of his position as head of the Science Department.

· SOLDIER director Lazard is contacted by Hollander and agrees to plan a rebellion against Shin-Ra, having his own vendetta against the company as President Shinra’s secret, abandoned son. Lazard begins funding Hollander and Genesis’s operations.

October

· Genesis, who had been dispatched to Wutai, deserts the military, taking with him a host of 2nd and 3rd Class SOLDIERs. This becomes known as the Mass SOLDIER Desertion Incident.

· Hollander steals classified documents from Shin-Ra’s Science Department and disappears.

November

· Zack trains and performs various missions as a SOLDIER 2nd Class.

· Zack and his mentor, Angeal, are sent to Wutai to take part in an operation to bring an end to the Wutai War. Zack Fair encounters Yuffie Kisaragi for the first time here, and soon thereafter meets Sephiroth as well. Angeal goes missing.

December

· Rufus Shinra assumes the position of Shin-Ra Vice President. At this time, he leaves on what is ostensibly a long-term business trip.

· Zack and Tseng go to Banora Village, which they learn has been converted into a stronghold for his army, with the residents slaughtered. All the evidence is destroyed by a Shin-Ra airstrike.

· Tifa meets with Cloud at Nibelheim’s water tower, at his request. Cloud tells her that he wishes to become a SOLDIER, and promises her he will “save her when she is in a pinch.”

[ ν ] – εуλ 0001

1/10

· Veld, director of the Turks, contacts the Legendary Turk regarding a new threat that may arise in the aftermath of the war.

February

· The Wutai War ends.

2/20

· AVALANCHE, an anti-Shin-Ra organization based in Wutai, intensifies its terrorist activities. Receiving a request to mobilize from President Shinra, Sephiroth eliminates members of AVALANCHE who seize the control of the Mako Cannon in Junon. He also crosses swords with Elfe, the enemy leader.

March

· Angeal and Genesis are officially announced as being killed in action.

3/16

· Azul is recruited by the Turks for SOLDIER. He is taken to Deepground and becomes a DG SOLDIER.

April

· Zack is promoted to SOLDIER 1st Class. On the same day, Genesis invades Midgar with his army of Genesis Copies.

· Cissnei of the Turks undertakes a top secret assignment from Lazard to keep Zack under surveillance.

· Zack and Aerith meet by chance in a church in the slums of Midgar’s Sector 5. They become intimate with one other.

6/28

· Cloud Strife, an ordinary Shin-Ra soldier, is assigned to protect Professor Rayleigh and works with a Turk to rescue her from AVALANCHE. In a raid by AVALANCHE, secret data on SOLDIER is stolen.

Autumn

· Zack goes on an investigative mission to the abandoned mako mining facility in Modeoheim. During the mission, he meets Cloud and the two become friends.

· After fighting Genesis and Angeal, Zack inherits the Buster Sword from his dying mentor.

· Hollander is detained in the offices of Shin-Ra’s Junon branch.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0002

1/16

· A SOLDIER force including Zack is dispatched to destroy an AVALANCHE base near Icicle Lodge. Zack attends to his fellow SOLDIER comrades, Essai and Sebastian, as their deaths approach. With the exception of Zack and the assigned Turk, every member of the operation is annihilated.

2/1

· Veld and the Legendary Turk halt another of AVALANCHE’s attempts to attack Junon.

Early Summer

· Lazard disappears, believing that it’s only a matter of time before his secret communications with Hollander are exposed.

· Zack is ordered to take a vacation to Costa del Sol.

· Junon and several other places are repeatedly troubled by an outbreak of synchronized attacks from the Genesis Copy Army. Zack takes part in the battle to protect the city, and is reunited with Cloud, who had been tasked with rescuing civilians.

6/18

· Hojo is kidnapped from the Shin-Ra building by AVALANCHE. In a single stroke, Sephiroth cuts down the helicopter stolen for escape from the building and recovers Hojo.

July

· Lazard and Hollander are officially announced as being killed in action.

· Genesis and his army begin raiding mako reactors in various locations in search of Jenova cells to cure his body’s deterioration.

9/22

· Zack, Sephiroth and Cloud visit the Mt. Nibel mako reactor as part of an investigation of a malfunction. Tifa Lockhart undertakes the role of “guide” for the investigation group. Seeing the monsters that were created inside the mako reactor causes Sephiroth to doubt his own birth and humanity.

· Sephiroth confines himself in the Shinra Manor and reads over documents left by Professors Gast and Hojo, discovering that his birth was a result of the Jenova Project.

10/1

· The Nibelheim Incident begins. Zack Fair tries to stop Sephiroth, who has reduced the village of Nibelheim to ashes, but is instead defeated by him at the mako reactor. Sephiroth then takes the head of his “mother,” Jenova, which had been stored in the building, but after being fatally wounded by Cloud, he falls into the heart of the mako reactor and — for a time — is dead.

· Zack, Cloud and most other survivors of the Nibelheim Incident are rounded up as experimental samples for Hojo’s Sephiroth Copy Project. Only Zangan and Tifa escape, the latter with the help of the former.

October

· Sephiroth, Zack and the other Nibelheim investigation team members are officially announced as being killed in action.

· The remains of Sephiroth’s body drift to the Northern Crater. There, he absorbs knowledge from the Lifestream, and with the power of the head of Jenova and his own will, Sephiroth begins to create a new body.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0003

4/12

· At what will become Rocket Town, Cid Highwind performs an emergency launch abort of the Shin-Ra No. 26 rocket in order to save the life of his assistant, Shera. The incident marks the end of Shin-Ra’s funding of attempts at space exploration, and a town builds up around the abandoned rocket.

5/18

· Barret Wallace guides a Turk through Mt. Corel, as the operative had come to expel AVALANCHE from a nearby reactor that was under construction. Attempts to stop AVALANCHE from destroying the reactor fail, and Corel is then razed by Shin-Ra, who blamed the villagers for the explosion at the reactor. Barret manages to rescue Marlene, the daughter of his good friend, Dyne, from the ruins of the town. Barret then begins raising the girl as his own daughter.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0006

10/30

· After being allowed to perform a ritual to appease the planet, Red XIII is captured by the Turks due to being a member of an endangered species Hojo had taken an interest in.

12/19

· Zack escapes from his confinement in the Shinra Manor’s basement, and takes with him the mako poisoned Cloud.

· Vincent Valentine is briefly reunited with his former colleague, Veld, in Shinra Manor. A Support Materia for the Zirconaide summon was hidden inside the mansion, and Vincent knew of its whereabouts. He gives it to Veld before returning to his slumber.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0007

Early Autumn

· Zack settles things with Genesis in the Banora Village underground.

· Genesis is taken to Deepground by Nero and Weiss. He begins his “sleep” beneath Midgar.

End of September

· Zack is killed in the wastelands on the outskirts of Midgar. Cloud inherits the Buster Sword and head toward Midgar.

10/5

· The Turks defeat renegade AVALANCHE leader Fuhito and the summon Zirconaide. Elfe, the former leader of AVALANCHE is ostensibly executed along with her father, Veld, but their deaths are actually faked.

· Due to the destruction of Zirconaide, an imbalance in the planet’s ecology is created and the Jade Weapon awakens. It pursues the now exiled Turks who defeated the summon, judging them as threats to the planet.

[Translation note: the following event occurs on an as-yet unidentified date between Zack’s death and 12/9]

· Tifa is reunited with Cloud at the train station in the slums of Sector 7. Feeling that his speech and conduct are strange, she invites him into AVALANCHE so that she can keep an eye on his condition for a while.

12/9

· The renegade Turks destroy the Jade Weapon.

· FFVII Begins

Cloud and the new AVALANCHE led by Barret Wallace bomb mako reactor no. 1. During his return to AVALANCHE’s hideout in the slums of Sector 7, Cloud meets Aerith for the first time while traveling through Sector 8. Afterward, he makes his way back to Tifa’s bar, Seventh Heaven, where the group soon after drafts plans for an attack on another mako reactor.

· Aerith meets Cloud again when he falls through the roof of her church in the slums of Sector 5.

· The upper plate of Midgar’s Sector 7 plate is dropped by Shin-Ra in an effort to crush the new AVALANCHE by destroying the entirety of Sector 7’s. Many civilian lives are lost. Aerith is kidnapped by Shin-Ra and taken to their headquarters.

· Cloud, Tifa and Barret learn of Aerith’s Cetra heritage before attempting to rescue her from the Shin-Ra building. Inside, they meet Red XIII, who joins them. All are captured during the rescue attempt.

· From within the Northern Crater, Sephiroth sends out the call of the Jenova Reunion to the remains of the creature, which had been relocated to the Shin-Ra building following the Nibelheim Incident. The Sephiroth Copies from Nibelheim (now around the world) begin to move as well.

· Upon heeding the call of the Reunion, the headless form of Jenova contained in the Shin-Ra building reawakens. It takes on the form of Sephiroth, murders President Shinra and leaves the city. Cloud and the others escape Midgar during the confusion and pursue Sephiroth. Rufus Shinra becomes the new president of the Shin-Ra Company.

· Having escaped from Hojo’s laboratory with Cloud’s group, Red XIII planned to travel with them until they reached his hometown of Cosmo Canyon. Once there, he learns the truth concerning his father, then resolves to continue traveling with Cloud and the others at the behest of his adopted grandfather, Bugenhagen, a scholar of planet life. Bugenhagen educates Cloud’s group about the spirit of the planet, called the Lifestream, which slowly weakens due to the operation of Shin-Ra’s mako reactors.

· Yuffie joins Cloud’s party, with her eye on the group’s materia.

· The body of Jenova infiltrates a Shin-Ra cargo ship at Junon and kills numerous personnel onboard. Confronted by Cloud’s team in the ship’s hold, it transforms its arm into Jenova BIRTH and attacks.

· A fortune teller calling himself Cait Sith strongarms his way into Cloud’s group as they visit the Gold Saucer amusement park which had been constructed over the remains of what was once Barret’s hometown.

· Barret is reunited with Dyne, his former best friend, now a murderous sociopath driven insane with grief and hatred. Defeating him at the end of an unwanted duel, Barret is entrusted with Marlene’s care once more during a brief moment of clarity before Dyne commits suicide.

· While passing through Nibelheim, Cloud and company explore Shinra Manor. There, they find Vincent and get him to date on current affairs. He then chooses to join the group in the hopes of meeting up with Hojo and Sephiroth.

· With his hopes for Shin-Ra’s space program being restarted dashed, Cid Highwind joins Cloud’s group as they pass through Rocket Town.

· Snatching the materia off Cloud’s party and fleeing with it during a visit to her homeland of Wutai, Yuffie is caught by Midgar gangster Don Corneo. She reconciles with Cloud’s group after they save her. She then takes part in the trial at the Pagoda of the 5 Mighty Saints, defeating her father on the topmost floor. After getting him to listen to her true intentions for traveling the world to collect materia, Yuffie sets off with Cloud’s party once more, now with renewed determination.

· Jenova infiltrates the Temple of the Ancients after Tseng opens the door. It then grievously injures Tseng and manipulates Cloud to obtain the Black Materia, the key to Sephiroth’s plan, which he reveals to involve casting a spell known as Meteor to fatally injure the planet, thus allowing him to absorb the Lifestream.

· At the Forgotten Capital of the Ancients, Aerith sends her prayer for a spell known as Holy to the planet in the hopes of preventing Sephiroth from casting Meteor. Immediately afterward, she loses her life at the hands of Jenova, still in the form of Sephiroth.

· Cloud attempts to settle things with Sephiroth at the Northern Crater, but upon listening to his speech, Cloud’s self-image collapses. Entrusted with the Black Materia from Cloud, Red XIII is tricked by Jenova, who had mimicked the appearance of Tifa. Red XIII hands over the Black Materia to Cloud, who in turn hands it over to Sephiroth, who then summons Meteor. The Weapons are awakened and begin to attack human settlements. Cloud falls into the Lifestream and goes missing. The Meteor crisis begins.

· Barret and Tifa were to undergo execution by Shin-Ra as criminals who had summoned Meteor, but they manage to escape thanks to the interference of Cait Sith, Yuffie and the others.

· With the assistance of the ship’s crew, Cid reclaims the airship Highwind from Shin-Ra, the vessel being one which he had designed .

· Tifa is reunited with Cloud in Mideel, where he now suffers from mako poisoning in a semi-catatonic state. She separates from her companions in order to nurse him. Following Cloud and Tifa leaving the team, Cid takes over as the acting leader in the fight against Shin-Ra for the Huge Materia both plan to use to save the world.

· Tifa falls into the Lifestream with Cloud. She finds out the truth of what happened to Cloud five years ago and helps him regain his true self.

· Red XIII visits Cosmo Canyon prior to the final decisive battle, and attends to Bugenhagen as he dies.

· Vincent confronts his fated opponent, Hojo, on the Mako Cannon in Midgar. Hojo dies in battle, as do other Shin-Ra executives. Rufus Shinra seemingly dies in an attack by one of the Weapons.

· AVALANCHE works together to evacuate civilians from damaged parts of the city. Meanwhile, Vincent catches what appears to be a momentary flicker of life in Hojo before losing sight of him.

· Deep below Midgar, Weiss the Immaculate and Deepground’s other elite warriors successfully orchestrate a rebellion against the Restrictors, the four wardens of Deepground. All DG SOLDIERs swear their loyalty to Weiss, but are soon trapped along with him beneath the ruins of Midgar.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0008

Last Third of January

· FFVII Ends

With his body now completely restored, Sephiroth prepares to finalize his plan. However, Cloud and the others prevent it and defeat him in the Northern Crater, allowing Holy and the Lifestream (briefly guided by Aerith’s spirit) to stop Meteor. Sephiroth is absorbed into the Lifestream, but his consciousness does not diffuse, and he continues to harbor hostility toward the planet. Midgar is destroyed in the conflict between Meteor, Holy and the Lifestream. A fatal malady soon named Geostigma begins to spread.

· After traveling to several places with Cloud and Barret, and at their suggestion, Tifa reopens the bar Seventh Heaven in Edge, a new city being constructed on the outskirts of Midgar’s ruins. She is given custody of Marlene from Barret, who leaves on a journey to find a new energy source. Together with Cloud, the three of them began living together as a family.

· While searching for provisions for the bar, more and more people begin to ask Cloud to make deliveries for them, so Cloud sets up the Strife Delivery Service at Tifa’s suggestion.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0009

· Cloud brings Denzel home from Aerith’s church, and the young boy joins Cloud’s family.

· Having contracted Geostigma himself while searching for a cure for Denzel’s, Cloud leaves Tifa and the children and begins living in Aerith’s old church while he awaits death.

· Cloud is attacked by Kadaj’s gang on his way to meet with Rufus, who reveals his survival to Cloud and asks for his assistance in thwarting Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, who want Jenova’s remains. Cloud refuses.

· Vincent protects Cloud from Kadaj and his brothers when they fight at the Forgotten Capital, which Kadaj and the others were using as a base. Vincent passes on information about the connection between the trio and Geostigma to Cloud.

· With the new Shera airship under Cid’s command, Barret, Yuffie, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Vincent and Cid himself rush to Cloud and Tifa’s aid in Edge.

· With the help of his friends, Cloud defeats Bahamut SIN, a summon Kadaj called forth after kidnapping Rufus.

· Kadaj bonds with the remains of Jenova, allowing for the advent of Sephiroth. Cloud defeats Sephiroth once again, however.

· Aerith lends her power to the people suffering from Geostigma in Edge, and also personally provides for Cloud’s recovery. Geostigma is cured. Cloud returns to Tifa and the children.

[ ν ] – εуλ 0010

· At the behest of Reeve Tuesti, Cid joins the World Regenesis Organization’s (WRO) airship fleet.

· The Deepground SOLDIERs, having managed to escape from beneath the ruins of Midgar, begin their assault on the surface world by kidnapping 1200 civilians from Junon and sacrificing them to awaken Omega, a Weapon that would carry the planet’s Lifestream to the cosmos.

· On his way to rendezvous with Reeve, Vincent helps to stop a DG SOLDIER attack on the Revival Festival in Kalm. Vincent then cooperates with the WRO in order to halt the objectives of Deepground and save the planet.

· Vincent learns about his connection to Chaos and Omega during his investigation of the Shinra Manor. Rosso extracts the protomateria keeping Chaos in check from his body, and he is wounded. Yuffie rescues him.

· Shelke Rui defects from Deepground and joins the WRO. Shalua Rui is killed by Azul the Cerulean while safeguarding Shelke’s escape during the destruction of WRO headquarters.

· Along with his other friends and the entire WRO army, Cloud rushes to Vincent’s aid and battles the DG forces in the remains of Midgar.

· When the final Weapon, Omega, fully materializes, Vincent uses the power of Chaos to defeat it, sending both Weapons back into the planet.

· Following the resolution of the Deepground threat, members of AVALANCHE — along with Shelke — return to Seventh Heaven in Edge to rest. Shelke locates him saying goodbye to Lucrecia Crescent in the cavern near Nibelheim where she allowed herself to go into suspended animation.

· Genesis reawakens in an underground cavern beneath Midgar.

[ 500 Years after FFVII ]

· Climbing the bluffs above Midgar, accompanied by his children, Red XIII looks out over the city, now covered by greenery and reclaimed by the planet. He puts forth a mighty roar.