key terms
- Planet - AKA Gaia, the planet that FFVII takes place on. basically like a Mary Sue self-insert of Earth.
- Midgar - the City of Mako. Disc 1/3 of the original game takes place here. Midgar is separated into eight sectors, known by their number (e.g. Sector 1, Sector 2, etc.). those who cannot afford to live on the city's surface, known as the Plate, live below each sector in the slums. Shinra's headquarters are in the center, at Sector 0 - a constant reminder for those who live in Midgar that there's always someone watching them...
- Shinra Electric Power Company - AKA Shinra, the megacorporation that has an iron fist clasped around the entire planet and everyone on it. Shinra gained their strength from their ability to power people's homes... but they let it get to their head. the company is extremely repressive and silences its opposition violently through SOLDIER, their paramilitary, and the Turks, a group which i like to refer to as the "PR mafia".
- SOLDIER - Shinra's army, consisting of Third, Second, and First Class (First is the highest and those of that class get top priority within the company). they are genetically enhanced with mako, so all SOLDIERs have a distinctive blue-green eye color. Sephiroth is the most famous SOLDIER... and therefore he is Shinra's poster boy.
- The Turks - when the military can't do damage control, that's where the Turks come in. their official role falls under General Affairs, so they're technically only supposed to be recruiting people off the street to join SOLDIER - but they're more well-known for kidnapping, assassinating, or otherwise silencing Shinra dissidents. they also have really cool suits.
- Promised Land - a purported paradise with boundless amounts of mako, where everyone can hold hands and live in harmony while Shinra hovers over them like a giant leech with a pair of binoculars. they really want to get to this Promised Land, and would stop at nothing to get there.
- Ancients/Cetra - two terms to refer to a race of people who were once able to communicate directly with the Planet and the Lifestream. the Ancients are said to have the secret to accessing the Promised Land. Shinra captured the very few Ancients remaining on the Planet to experiment on them, and now only one remains alive.
- Mako - the planet's lifeblood and the sum of its living things (as ripped directly from my marquee). Shinra has found a way to condense it into electrical energy and distribute it throughout the world.
- Materia - a crystallized, orb-shaped form of mako. kinda looks like a marble. you use this in-game to cast spells.
- Mako reactors - similar to a nuclear reactor. this is where mako gets turned into electricity. most areas in FFVII that utilize electricity have a mako reactor nearby, and Midgar has eight. it's really devastating to these areas when they blow up... which has happened a few times. there's also some, er, slighly less pleasant things housed in a select few.
- Avalanche - an eco-terrorist organization dedicated to stopping Shinra's power trip. they operate out of Tifa's bar, Seventh Heaven, in the slums beneath Sector 7. initially, their main method of attacking Shinra is by bombing mako reactors.
- Lifestream - a current that runs through the Planet. when people die, they are said to "return to the Lifestream". mako comes from this current.
- Weapons - the guardians of the Planet - Sapphire, Diamond, Ruby, and Emerald. they only emerge when it's in danger and set out to destroy whatever they consider a threat.