Description
sources*
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/SephirothFFVII OGC script.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final ... faqs/18433FFVII CC script
http://www.shatterheart.net/games/crisiscore/script/"…I've always felt since I was small… That I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But…not like this…" - OGC, Cloud's Past (Kalm, Disc 1)
"I knew, ever since I was a child... I was not like the others. I knew mine was a special existance. But this...This was not what I meant. Am I...a human being?" - Crisis Core, Chapter 9
Personality
Pre-Neibelheim Sane!Sephiroth:
Meticulous in detail and brilliant in wit, Sephiroth exemplifies the Type-A perfectionist.
He's /shy/ and uncertain when it comes to ordinary, everyday social interaction that most people take for granted - but it's far too easily hidden under his fame and pechant for silence when he feels like a fish out of the water.
Sephiroth has very little context other than in medical/scientific terms, or military/strategic terms. Thanks to his childhood as a Shinra lab specimen, he vastly prefers the latter to the former in making sense of the world, and often just doesn't 'get' things if you do not put it in aforementioned context. Like fame.
Fame, attention and beauty are but strategic /assets/ to be used to one's advantage, and he just doesn't /get/ that people would kill for such things. (And probably the major bone of contention between Sephiroth and Genesis, but I digress.)
Sephiroth has /very/ few Important People, which probably only emcompasses his friends Genesis and Angeal. Thanks to Angeal (as well as his study of 'enemy' Wutai culture), he has /some/ understanding of honour and fair play, which is a conviction in Angeal that he admires but does not share, having seen too much of Shinra inter-departmental politics and backstabbing thanks to Heidigger and Hojo.
Sephiroth understands and can relate to Genesis' pride in skill and ability, but does not share Genesis' love of being in the spotlight. As Sephiroth sees it, he was merely doing his job.
As a commissioned officer in Shinra, while Sephiroth does not /care/ for his troops personally the way he does Angeal or Genesis, he understands his duty and responsibility to them in bringing them home. Even though he knows intellectually that prolonging the Wutai War is to his benefit in the long run (more leverage against Hojo's machinations), Sephiroth cannot stand giving anything less than his best.
Equipment
Using a mix of FFVII OGC/CC equipment! :D
Currently Equipped:
Weapon: 
Masamune (Restore)=(All) (Earth)=(All) (High Jump)=(Revive)
Armor: 
Shinra Alpha (Libra)=(Enemy Lure) (Fire)=(Elemental) (Lightning)=(All)
Accessory: 
Protect Ring - CC, keeps Barrier + MBarriet active, unaffected by Dispel
Materia List:
BC:
Magic - Aero, Water (I have /functional/ uses for this in the field, and since BC's the only FFVII compilation with these materia ... orz)
OGC:
Magic - Revive (Life/Life2), Restore (Cure/Cure2/Regen/Cure3), Earth (Quake/Quake2/Quake3), Fire (Fire/Fire2/Fire3), Ice (Ice/Ice2/Ice3), Lightning (Bolt/Bolt2/Bolt3)
Support - All (x3, mastered = 5x per battle), Elemental
Independent - Enemy Lure
Summon - Typhoon - Huge Fire/Ice/Lightning/Earth damage, ignores Magic Def CC:
Magic - Silence, Esuna, Wall, Flare, Energy, Graviga
Command - High Jump
Support - Libra
Unequipped Accessory/Armour:
Decided against Ribbon because it /is/ a rather unfair advantage.
Tough Ring - Vitality + 50, Spirit + 50
Cat's Bell - OGC, recovers HP with each step
Ziedrich - CC, ATK/VIT/MAG/SPR+100, halves all elemental attacks received.
Escort Guard: Nullifies Lightning, Water, Poison and Earth damage, male only.
Materia equip limit:
OGC you can have 8 materia slots max on weapon or armour. Making it a total of 16.
CC upper limit is 8 materia, period. (but summons do not count toward materia total, and you can get 4 accessory/armour slots)
I'm trying to be balanced and not load up Sephiroth too much, especially since CC materia > OGC materia in potential stat bonuses. So Seph's getting the OGC set up of one weapon, one piece of armour, and one accessory.
Material Slots Available
Masamune: ( )=( ) ( )=( ) ( )=( ) ( )=( )
Armour: Shinra Alpha/Escort Guard ( )=( ) ( )=( ) ( )=( )
Types of Materia:
I count FFVII OGC materia as 'wild' or natural ones that you can get either at Mako fountains or thorough Mastered Materia spawns. More spells inside a materia, but SLOWER casting time. Shinra manufactured/CC materia cannot spawn through Mastering, even though you can add stat bonuses/status effects to them. Summon Materia do not count toward equpiment, like CC.
OGC: Summon, Magic, Command, Support, Independent - mostly 'wild'/naturally formed, magic materia oft has multiple spells
BC/CC: Summon, Magic, Command, Support, Independent - mostly Shinra manufacture (except Summons), magic materia SINGLE-spell specific, can add stat bonuses through materia fusion. Note that BC does not have command materia.
History
*This is ALL personal headcanon, NOT CANON*
TIMEFRAME: [ μ ] – εуλ 1977 to [ μ ] – εуλ 1994
[ μ ] – εуλ 1977*
· Sephiroth is born via Jenova Project S in Neibelheim.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1980
· Dr. Gast leaves Shinra. This has several consequences:
- Hojo defeats Hollander in the power struggle for the Department of Scientific Research.
- Department of Scientific Research main facilities moved to Midgar, Shinra HQ along with Sephiroth.
- Silver Elite established, headed by "Chairwoman H.".
- Sephiroth begins martial arts training at the age of 3.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1983
· Sephiroth begins weapons training and formal education at the age of 6.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1985
· 2/27, Hojo aquires Ifalna and Aerith. Sephiroth may have had limited contact with them until their escape in [ μ ] – εуλ 1992.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1990
· Complete breakdown of talks between Shinra and Wutai.
· Initial Shinra vs. Wutai skirmishes, Wutai War begins 'unofficially'.
· To 'cow the barbarians', Heidigger implements 'scorched earth' policy against Wutai forces, and gives himself the rank of Marshal, and President Shinra the rank of Grand Marshal**.
· Sephiroth performs beyond the most optimistic projections in Wutai field, uses it as leverage to win himself free of Hojo apart from regular checkups.
· SOLDIER program begins, Sephiroth 'officially' enrolled as 3rd Class cadet, and deployed to Wutai as part of Shinra forces at age 13.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1991
· Against Heidigger's hardline 'scorched earth' policy, Wutai Clans unite to push out Shinra invaders. Massive casualties on Shinra side in retailiation against massacre of Wutai civilians.
· Shinra begins to lose territory to Wutai Army, parts of Western Continent comes under Wutai occupation. Junon Base construction begins as possible last line of defence for Midgar.
· Factors contributing to Shinra losses in Wutai:
- Unfamiliar terrain/Wutai home ground advantage (men + supplies easily ambushed).
- Less seasoned troops/forced conscripts.
- Incompetent leadership - Heidigger's universal solution to 1+2 is "deploy more men". Also tends to fradulently represent his work as well as departmental + army 'expenses'.
· Sephiroth is promoted to 2nd Class due to exemplary service, begins studying Wutai culture to better understand the enemy.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1992
· Turmoil due to Shinra losses against Wutai and Wutai agents infiltrating Midgar enable Ifalna and Aerith's escape.
· Left the highest ranking officer in a skirmish, Sephiroth displays tactical genius in bringing his brigade back to rendez-vous with main army. Is promoted to 1st Class SOLDIER and given an 'acting' General rank to command regular troops in the field.***
· Sephiroth obtains Masamune as a war prize. Finding the blade much more suited to his style of swordwork than regular Shinra-issue broadswords and claymores, begins studying Wutai katana-style and adapts to own use.
· With the tides turned to Shinra's favour, Wutai War 'officially' begins.
· SOLDIER process not yet perfected, but 'successfully enhanced' 3rd Class SOLDIERs in the field can match at least 20 regular Shinra infantry.
· Shinra PR begins open recruitment drive for SOLDIER, packaging Sephiroth as a decorated war hero.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1993
· Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley enlists as SOLDIER 3rd Class cadets.
· Genesis and Angeal promoted to 2nd Class in field service.
[ μ ] – εуλ 1994
· As newly minted 1st Classes, Genesis and Angeal befriends Sephiroth.
* I didn't use [ μ ] – εуλ 1980 as Sephiroth's birth year. Because if I adhered strictly to canon, he'd have been only TWELVE YEARS OLD when Wutai War came around in [ μ ] – εуλ 1992 and he made 1st Class and became a war hero. My dates are slightly more plausible, with Sephiroth deployed in Wutai for field testing at age 13, and making 1st Class/war hero at age 15.
** Godo Kisaragi's rank in Wutai is roughly Japan's equivalent of "Shogun", western equivalent is Marshal - and I can't see Heidigger making himself a General, which is lower than a Marshal. Also, Marshal/Grand Marshal tend to not to go into the field, Taisho/General are the highest level of army commanders that actually still do the dirty fighting and one-on-one challenges.
*** Given Sephiroth's strength, if he was given the ACTUAL rank as General, this would effectively give him authority over MOST of Shinra's troops - and with his strength as an one man army, his wits as a brilliant tactician turning the tide of the Wutai War - President Shinra did not get where he was by being stupid. It's too much power for one man, even one technically Shinra property. So an 'acting' General rank would be best - gives Sephiroth the right to act in the field but OUTSIDE of the Wutai War context, Sephiroth has no authority to command the army.
So begins...
[ μ ] – εуλ 1993, late autumn, Rocket Town
Sephiroth pinched the bridge of his nose, warding off the ghost of a migraine beginning at his temples as he set the weather forecast report aside, amidst a sea of others. It was times like this he appreciated the level of technology advantage Shinra had over Wutai the most - communications was one of the most important factors in running a successful war, after all.
According to the meteorologists in Cosmo Canyon, winter rains start in less than two weeks.
Which he was not looking forward to, at all, given past experience. Winter meant stalemate for both sides, as large-scale troop movement simply wasn't possible, not in mountainous Wutai or in the secure, entrenched locations Wutai remnant forces (and sympathetic locals) had dug themselves into on the Western Continent. Which meant that Heidigger would be too happy to resume command of the army while Sephiroth was recalled back to Midgar.
And Hojo.
As long as he remained vital to the war effort, he was free of that man - Sephiroth held no illusions to his status as Shinra property. While he'd proven his value as a war machine, he was an expensive enough one that Shinra wanted all the blood they could squeeze out of him. After all, the SOLDIER program had not been able to replicate his ... success. Yet.
Out of the first year of SOLDIER candidates, only one in five had walked out of the Science Department post-procedure. And SOLDIER was an expensive, time-consuming process: Shinra's bean counters calculated that for each candidate 'processed', Shinra could have outfitted twenty regular troopers. Which made the first 20 SOLDIERs (out of a hundred 'processed' candidates) very expensive experimental troops indeed.
While the process enhanced the senses, strength and speed - supermen, in effect - it did not make them trained and experienced soldiers. The physical enhancements were not equal for everyone, either. Some SOLDIERs had taken to wearing the standard issued helms all the time because their sight or hearing was too sensitive. It was also the first the Science Department'd learned that adults took poorly to the SOLDIER process, and that SOLDIER worked on pre-teens and teenagers just into puberty best. With youth came the utter conviction of their immortality given this newfound strength, and coupled with the accelerated six-month Military Academy training before Shinra flung the first SOLDIERs into battle - apart from Sephiroth himself, there were no other SOLDIER left of that 'first year'.
And I am not a suitable measure of SOLDIER norms, if there even were such a thing to begin with.
To Sephiroth, at least, it was apparent that his own development was far beyond the mark of those 'successful candidates', probably because his own process had begun in childhood (and thus, correspondingly more expensive). Still, with himself as a goal SOLDIER candidates could aspire to, the SOLDIER program continued after he took out an entire Wutai battalion while covering the Shinra retreat from Wutai.
With a more comprehensive baseline for SOLDIER candidates, the second year would have produced a better success rate if Hojo hadn't decided to 'experiment' further given the extra funding, equipment, and specimen. More candidates were lost to 'experimental variation beyond tested parameters' (since Sephiroth had 'left' his control but for yearly checkups) than lost in the actual approved SOLDIER process. Incensed more at the lack of results and waste of his gil than sentiment over human life ("Only one in ten candidates, professor?"), President Shinra brought in Dr. Gast's other assistant, Hollander, to process SOLDIER candidates only through 'tried and true' methodology.
That's one of my worries gone, at least.
Shinra had enough men, but there weren't enough SOLDIERs. Not enough to make up the difference between the green Shinra conscripts from the seasoned Wutai warriors. It had taken Sephiroth months to regroup the scattered Shinra companies to even begin thinking about reclaiming Western Continent. At the lowest point of the war, Sephiroth had heard through the army grapevine that there was a fortress being constructed at the fishing village Junon, with its natural deep harbour, in anticipation of Wutai using Costa del Sol to bring the war to Shinra's doorstep at Midgar.
The current crop of SOLDIER were necessary, Sephiroth decided as he finished placing the color-coded pins (blue for Shinra, red for Wutai, and green for neutrals) on the map. Unenhanced troops simply didn't have the endurance or speed to keep up with Wutai units, storm Wutai fortresses, and secure a position on Wutai soil. Not only that, they needed to be trained, experienced, and coordinated SOLDIERs - which there were only twenty-six qualified, counting himself. (And of the twenty five remaining from year 2, only fourteen had any command experience as well as combat experience, and only three of those can be counted on to coordinate SOLDIER and unenhanced troops).
Science Department reports - what I'm cleared for - 3rd year, two in five success, and they have been better trained than previous years.
With a proper adjustment period of re-training for the new SOLDIERs to get used to their enhancements as well as well as rank-graduating missions before being sent on the frontlines, this time, now that he'd bought Shinra a breather. And there was even a few that had even made 2nd Class ....
