Sephiroth, having been raised inside of the Shinra Power Electric Company and trained his entire life, was viewed as unstoppable in combat even as a young boy. Thanks to his unrivalled levels of skill, he was instrumental in ending Shinra's war with Wutai, and was promptly hailed as a hero. Several young boys from around the world, including Cloud Strife, were inspired by Sephiroth as a result.
During his glory days as a SOLDIER 1st Class, Sephiroth was best friends with Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos, fellow SOLDIERs who constantly served as sparring partners for him. With Genesis and Angeal's departure from Shinra, however, Sephiroth was sent down a long spiral of figuring out his true identity. On a mission to Nibelheim alongside Zack Fair, Sephiroth discovered the ancient alien, JENOVA, who shared the same name as his mother.
After countless days of obsessive research inside the Shinra Mansion, Sephiroth learned the truth; he was a lab experiment created by Shinra, using JENOVA's DNA. Because of this, Sephiroth viewed himself as a monster who was wronged by the planet, and fell into insanity. Growing enraged with the planet, Sephiroth murdered the people of Nibelheim and reunited with JENOVA. However, he was opposed by Zack and Cloud Strife, who managed to fatally wound Sephiroth and send him tumbling into the Lifestream.
From then on, Sephiroth's anger grew to extreme levels, and he developed an obsessive hatred towards Cloud Strife. Having been partially diffused into the Lifestream, Sephiroth acted from a distance and would use the JENOVA DNA within Cloud to control him and do his bidding; eventually leading to Cloud delivering the Black Materia to him. Using the Black Materia, Sephiroth would call upon Meteor to destroy the planet. He was once again opposed by Cloud, however, and seemingly killed for good.
Two years passed, and a horrible plague known as Geostigma infested the planet. This was the doing of Sephiroth and JENOVA, who still existed within the Lifestream as they could not be completely diffused into it. Sephiroth used his will to develop three remnants of himself, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. These remnants scoured the planet for JENOVA's head, eventually finding it and bringing Sephiroth back to the living world. After a long and arduous final battle against Cloud, however, he was once again killed. With his final words, he claimed that he would never only be a memory.
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