Cloud Strife
Tifa Lockheart
Aeris/Aerith Gainsborough
Barret Wallace
Red XIII
Cid Highwind
Yuffie Kisaragi
Vincent Valentine
Cait Sith
Sephiroth
The Turks
Shinra

Cloud Strife

Job: Mercenary
Age in first game: 21
Height: 5'7"
Birthdate: August 19
Birth place: Nibelheim
Blood type: AB
Backstory: Cloud was born in Nibelheim, a small village in the mountains. As a child, he always wanted to be allowed to play with Tifa and her friends, but never really got close to any of them. Once, shortly after Tifa's mother died, he followed the group into the mountains, and (after Tifa's friends abandoned her) was blamed for some severe injuries Tifa suffered after falling from an unstable bridge. That particular instance left Cloud feeling inadequate and angry at himself for being weak; from then on, he vowed to be stronger.

Some time afterward, Cloud called Tifa to meet him, and told her he was leaving for Midgar to become a top-ranking SOLDIER, "like the great Sephiroth." However, he never quite managed to become a member of SOLDIER, but rather became a low-ranking soldier (note the lack of caps lock) working for Shinra. He did, however, become friends with a first-rank SOLDIER named Zack.

Eventually, he was assigned to a mission in Nibelheim, during which he worked under Sephiroth and Zack. The mission was to investigate the malfunctioning mako reactor, but in the process, Sephiroth discovered that monsters were being created by Shinra. Furthermore, he realized that he had been created in much the same way.

After spending the next several days locked away in the Shinra Mansion on the edge of town, Sephiroth lost his mind, burned the town to the ground, and killed several people on the way to the reactor. He was attacked by three main characters there - Tifa, Zack, and Cloud - but Cloud was the one who managed to get rid of him (at least temporarily). After being stabbed by Sephiroth, Cloud knocked Sephiroth off of a bridge in the reactor, and Sephiroth disappeared for a number of years.

Fatally wounded, Cloud and Zack had the misfortune to be found by the greasy, generally icky scientist Hojo. They spent an unspecified length of time being experimented on by said greaseball until they escaped and hitched a ride to Midgar. Zack turned out alright, but Cloud had apparently reverted to a very sleepy caveman after his time in a tube, and couldn't say anything more than "Oog. Ah."

The pair arrived in Midgar to a less-than-welcome reception. They were attacked by soldiers (not SOLDIERs, mind you), and Zack was killed just outside the city. Cloud survived and somehow got inside Midgar (don't ask me how. I tried getting inside Midgar after leaving, but I never found the damn key, so I suppose some person or other must have taken pity on the spikey-headed caveman and let him in).

Once there, he spent his time oog-ing next to the train until he was found by Tifa. When he saw her, the power of LOVE (or something similar that was never really specified) caused him to evolve to his former state of being in a manner of seconds, albeit with slightly altered memories. Cloud took the stories that Zack had told him and subconsciously reformed his memories around them, and then completely forgot about poor Zack. Tifa talked Cloud into working for AVALANCHE, and that brings us up to the beginning of the game.

Job: Bar hostess/AVALANCHE member
Age: 20
Height: 5'4"
Birthdate: May 3
Birthplace: Nibelheim
Blood type:B
Backstory: Tifa was born in Nibelheim, and was Cloud's neighbor. Her mother died when Tifa was young, and you can read more details about her childhood in Cloud's bio because I'll be damned if I'm going to type that thing over again.

Some time after Cloud left Nibelheim, Tifa started learning to fight from a guy that hung out in the inn. Although it's never explicitly stated, it's my personal theory that she started learning in order to be strong, like Cloud was becoming.

When Cloud came to Nibelheim, Tifa was acting as the guide for the group of SOLDIERs and soldiers. However, she didn't see him for quite a while, because Cloud was too embarassed to let her see him.

After Sephiroth went insane, Tifa's father attacked Sephiroth, and was killed. Tifa then attacked Sephiroth, and was very nearly killed. When the metaphorical (and possibly literal) smoke cleared, Tifa's fighting teacher found her, badly wounded. He repeatedly cast Cure on her, and she eventually recovered.

With her hometown burned to the ground and her family dead, Tifa set off to Midgar. There, she became involved in AVALANCHE and opened her bar, Seventh Heaven. Sometime later, she discovered Cloud oog-ing beside the train platform and brought him home.

But something was strange. Cloud's addled memories didn't quite fit in with Tifa's, and though she realized this, she was too scared to say anything.

Job: Flower girl
Age in first game: 22
Height: 5'3"
Birthdate: February 7
Birth place: unknown
Blood type: O

Backstory: Aeris is the last of the Ancients, or Cetra. Originally, all people on the Planet were Cetra; they traveled the world in search of the Promised Land, creating life in the places they found. They were also able to communicate with the Planet, and had a unique knowledge of the flow of the Planet's energy. However, when people stopped their migratory lifestyle, they gradually lost these special abilities.

Shinra holds a special interest in the Cetra, their abilities, and especially the Promised Land. Aeris's father (Professor Gast) was actually a scientist; and her mother (Ifalna) was helping him to record the knowledge of the Cetra. Gast was killed when a group from Shinra, led by Hojo, attacked the two of them in their home, while Ifalna attempted to escape with her newborn daughter. However, they were captured by Hojo and used for experimentation.

After seven years in captivity, the two of them escaped. They made it as far as the train platform in Sector 7; that's where they were found by Elmyra Gainsborough. Elmyra's husband was fighting in the war, and she was lonely living alone. Upon discovering Ifalna dying, with Aeris sobbing at her side, she decided to adopt Aeris.

It didn't take long for Elmyra to notice that Aeris wasn't quite a normal girl. One day, Aeris came to Elmyra and told her not to cry, and that her husband had died. He was coming to see her, Aeris said, but had already returned to the Planet. At first, Elmyra didn't know what to think, but a few days later, she received a letter saying that her husband had died in the war.

In addition, Aeris was frequently visited by the Turks, who had orders to kidnap her so that Hojo could continue his experiments. Elmyra refused to let them take her, and Aeris quickly learned to evade them.

As a teenager, Aeris began dating a first-rank SOLDIER, Zack. She says that the two of them weren't "serious," but she liked him for a while. It came to an end when Zack mysteriously disappeared.

Job: Leader of AVALANCHE
Age: 35
Height: 6'4"
Birthdate: December 15
Birthplace: Corel Village
Blood type: O

Backstory: Barret was born in and grew up in a coal mining village called Corel. The technology of using coal for power was quickly becoming outdated, and so when Shinra approached the town about building a mako reactor, Barret was one of the leading advocates. His good friend Dyne, however, was strongly against it.

Not long after the reactor was built, however, there was a serious malfunction. Believing it to be the work of the townspeople, Shinra attacked and burned the town. Barret and Dyne were out of town when they attacked, and returned just in time to see the town burning.

Hoping to find survivors, they hurried towards Corel, but encountered a group of Shinra soldiers along the way. Led by Scarlet, the soldiers opened fire. Dyne began to fall off of the cliff that he and Barret were standing on, and Barret caught ahold of his arm in time. Then, the Shinra soldiers took aim at their arms, causing Dyne to fall and Barret to lose use of his arm.

Barret assumed that Dyne had died, so when he discovered that Dyne's daughter, Marlene, had survived, he decided to adopt her. Most other people in the town - including Barret's wife, Myrna - had died.

For a while, Barret used a prosthetic arm, but eventually had a gun grafted to his arm to seek revenge against Shinra. He and Marlene moved to Midgar, where he became the leader of the anti-Shinra organization, AVALANCHE.

At that same time, what remained of Corel became a run-down dump on the edge of the Golden Saucer. The other survivors of the incident with Shinra placed all the blame on Barret. I'm still not entirely sure how they twisted that around to be his fault.

Job: None
Age: 48
Height: 3'9"
Birthdate: Unknown
Birthplace: Cosmo Canyon
Blood type: Unknown

Backstory: Red XIII (a.k.a. Nanaki) has slightly less of a backstory than the rest of the group. His home is Cosmo Canyon; he was raised there by his grandfather, Bugenhagen (who, being human - or at least humanoid - is probably his adoptive family rather than biological; I don't want to think about the possibilities of...never mind. You get the idea). This is because, when Red XIII was young, his mother was killed defending the village from an attack of somethings or other called the Gi tribe.

For a good long while, Red XIII believed that his father had run off during that battle because he was scared of the whatchamacallums. Presumably this was because Bugenhagen never bothered to straighten him out. During the game, however, Bugenhagen takes the group through a cave to see Red's daddy, who is in fact a statue at this point. Certain people have suggested that his statue-ness could've been fixed with a Soft, but nobody in the Final Fantasy games are that bright anyway.

(But I could do without the "Aeris could've been cured by a Phoenix Down" joke, which is as old as "All your base" and makes less sense, so give it up already.)

Job: Pilot
Age: 32
Height: 5'8"
Birthdate: February 22
Birthplace: Rocket Town (assumedly)
Blood type: B

Backstory: First and foremost, it needs to be said that Cid is an asshole. Now, I'm not bashing him or anything, but he is an Asshole and a Grumpy Old Bastard. That's just a fact.

Er, I was supposed to be writing about backstory, wasn't I? Yes indeed.

Anyway, the character booklet for the game has his birthplace listed as "Unknown," but I think it's fairly safe to assume that he was born in Rocket Town. That's the only place he seems to have any ties with at all, anyway.

That's not the point, though; I'm dawdling. Cid was supposed to be the First Man in Space [insert fanfare]; he had the Shinra backing and the rocket and everything, but that kind of got fucked over. Shera was trying to check the oxygen tanks, which had been tested before, but had "unsatisfactory" results.

However, when it came time to take off, she was still checking the tanks. Had she stayed there, she would've been burnt to hell. Shera told Cid to go ahead, that she'd gladly give her life for the sake of the mission or something stupid like that (just like any properly submissive woman would, yes?). But at (quite literally) the last second, Cid called off the launch in order to save her life.

Even though she was just trying to do her job, and Cid really could've made sure she was out of the rocket before getting ready to take off, Shera decided to devote her life to Cid in exchange for his "noble sacrifice" or some shit.

Job: Ninja/Materia hunter
Age: 16
Height: 5'2"
Birthdate: November 20
Birthplace: Wutai
Blood type: A

Backstory: Yuffie hails from Wutai, which has a culture that's distinctly Japanese. Before the game takes place, Wutai was involved in a war about which little is really known; what we do know is that both Midgar and Wutai were involved, and it sounds rather suspiciously like World War II.

Wutai lost the war, and as a result, it became little more than a tourist attraction - a "resort town," as Yuffie put it. Yuffie grew up bitter regarding the loss of Wutai's honor, and eventually decided that this could be solved with materia. (I dont' know why; I would assume that they lost the war due to having less materia than their enemy, but unless she wants to start another war, I don't see what she plans to do with all the materia she steals. Possibly it's just a fetish.)

Anyway, Yuffie eventually wound up in the woods outside Junon (or Gongaga, or wherever you found her), and when she had her ass handed to her by Cloud and co., decided to steal materia from them.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Yuffie and her father, Godo, don't get along in any way, shape, or form. I think they care about each other, really, but neither of them would admit it. They show their affection (or whatever the hell they have) by screaming at one another.

Job: None (formerly a Turk)
Age: 27
Height: 6'
Birthdate: October 13
Birthplace: unknown
Blood type: A

Backstory: Ah, Vincent, King of Angst. Angst angst angst angst.

Very, very little is known about his childhood; we know (thanks to Dirge of Cerberus) that his father was named Grimoire, and he was a scientist. We do not, however, know a damn thing about Vincent's relationship with Grimoire, or about his mother.

For some funky reason or another, he decided to become a member of the Turks, and was assigned to be the bodyguard of the scientist Lucrecia Crescent (that's loo-creh-see-uh, according to DoC. And to think I'd gone years pronouncing her name loo-cree-shuh). Vince had a great big ginormous crush on Lucrecia, but she had recently worked with Grimoire, who she had a great big ginormous crush on. However, Grimoire had died some time before Vincent was assigned as Lucrecia's bodyguard, so there wasn't really much of a chance of anything happening on that front.

All the same, Lucrecia wasn't too wild about the idea of dating her former boyfriend's son, and so she chose creepy, greasy, generally icky Hojo over Vincent.

Stupid, stupid girl.

Lucrecia and Hojo had a child together (*shudder times infinity*), and they decided to conduct experiments on him. (In other words, no "Best Mom/Dad in the World" mugs for them.) This child would later grow up to be Sephiroth.

Vincent disagreed with the experiment, and got into a bid of a fight with Hojo. As a result, Hojo decided to shoot Vincent. We know that after this point, Hojo did some kind of experiments on him, but we don't know exactly how much of what happened to Vincent was done by Hojo. Originally, we thought that all of the experiments done on Vincent were performed by Hojo, but Dirge of Cerberus turned that around completely. In DoC, it was revealed that Lucrecia did quite a bit of work on Vincent in a desperate attempt to keep him alive after whatever Hojo did.

We do know that the "turning into Chaos" bit was Lucrecia's doing, and that Lucrecia had been researching Chaos before she even met Vincent. I would guess that Hojo did the claw, though.

Anyway, all this somehow led to Lucrecia becoming a rock (I never really got that bit) and Vincent holing himself up in a coffin for thirty years.

Job: Toysaurus (according to the game manual)
Age: Unknown
Height 3'2"
Birthdate: Unknown
Birthplace: Unknown
Blood type: Unknown

Backstory: Cait Sith has next to no backstory, because he's a robot. There have actually been several Cait Siths throughout the games and movie, because Reeve Tuesti (the person who controls Cait Sith) keeps churning 'em out.

In the first game, Reeve was a relatively high-ranking Shinra employee, but he had his doubts about the morality regarding working for Shinra. Particularly, he was opposed to crushing Sector 7, but was told to just take a vacation and get over it.

Towards the end of the game, Reeve (and Cait Sith) helped AVALANCHE escape from the Shinra building, where they were supposed to be executed. After that, in Dirge of Cerberus, Reeve founded the World Regeneration Organization (WRO), which aims to fix the world after it got fucked up by Sephiroth and Shinra.

Job: SOLDIER
Age: Unknown
Height: 6'1"
Birthdate: unknown
Birthplace: unknown
Blood type: unknown

Backstory: I really don't know why I'm writing this section, since I already wrote just about everything there is to say about Sephiroth in both Cloud's and Vincent's sections. And I really don't want to type up all that shit again.

All that I haven't mentioned, really, is his in-game insanity. It looked like he was dead after Cloud threw him off of the thing in the reactor, so some people have suggested that he might just be a puppet controlled by Jenova. If he isn't, I don't know where the hell he was spending all his time before he tore up the Shinra building. Either way, the "who's pulling the strings" question is always a fun one.

Anyway, during the game, he aimed to bring Meteor crashing down on the Planet (which I think should actually be Meteorite; aren't meteorites the ones that hit Earth, while meteors are the ones that burn up in the atmosphere? I guess it doesn't really matter, though, since the game definitely had bigger translation problems than that. Plus, Meteor does roll off the tongue a bit better). When Meteor hit, Sephiroth said that the Planet's life energy or Mako or whatever the hell you want to call it would gather in that place to heal itself. Then, he claimed that the gathering of energy would make him a god.

I really don't know how that would work, logically. It seems like he'd be crushed by Meteor along with everything else, especially since it seemed big enough to destroy the entire Planet. And even if he lived, I don't see how he planned on using that energy. Possibly somebody else could explain it better than I can; if you think you can, feel free to send me an email (as long as it's not so long I get bored).

The Turks are a group of people who, basically, did Shinra's dirty work, like kidnapping and whatnot. Actually, aside from kidnapping, the game never really described what they do, so we're left to assume they do whatever Shinra tells them to.

Elena is the newbie of the group. In fact, she was promoted to the Turks after Reno was put out of commission by Cloud and co. Elena's a bit of a dumb blond, and has a (helpful) tendency to spill the Turks's plans to the group.

Tseng didn't really show up in the game that much, and he (and Elena) weren't in Advent Children at all except for a split-second scene that I missed the first time I watched it. In other words, I don't have much to say about him. I know that Elena had a crush on him, and I know that he asked her out shortly before being stabbed (which I thought killed him off, but apparently not). That's...about it.

Rufus is not actually a member of the Turks (he lacks The Suit), but is the president of Shinra, so I'll deal with him in the next section.

Rude doesn't talk much; he has a tendency to talk in ellipsis. When he and Reno were discussing their crushes in a style vaguely reminiscent of grade schoolers, Rude did mention that he liked Tifa. Still, I (and many others, I'm sure) remain convinced that Reno and Rude are having hawt yaoi sex.

Oh, also, he apparently keeps a couple spare sunglasses on hand, as evidenced by Advent Children.

Reno is most often seen hand in hand (only not literally) with Rude. Attached at the hip, they are, possibly in a kinky BDSM way, because I can totally see the Turks being into that. Anyway, he's amusing in a stupid and mildly irritating way, and he has no sense of tact whatsoever.

President Shinra is fat, ugly, and dead, so he's not terribly important.

Rufus is the son of President Shinra, and inherited the company on his father's death. He claims that Pres. Shinra tried to control the world with money, but he planned to do the same thing with fear (and presumably keep his money to himself). We thought he was killed by Diamond WEAPON, but the little cockroach popped up in Advent Children.

Palmer is the stupid and incompetent head of the Space Exploration Program. His program was abandoned, so God only knows why Shinra keeps him on their payroll. I guess they just like to laugh at him behind is back. (Or possibly to his face. Who knows?) Palmer's also a fat bastard who puts lard in his tea.

Scarlet is the head of the Weapon Development Department. She's a huge pain in the ass, and she and Tifa had a (disappointingly boring) bitch fight on the end of a great big cannon. She did make the Sister Ray, which was helpful in dealing with fighting one of the WEAPONs, but really, Scarlet's just a bitch.

Heidegger, head of the Public Safety Maintenance Department (which is basically the military), is another stupid pain in the ass. He has a great big "horse laugh" that annoys Rufus (and me), and is not terribly noteworthy otherwise.

Hojo is creepy, greasy, and generally icky, as I've said several times before. He's one bitch of a scientist, and has a tendency to use humans for his experiments (most notably his own son, Sephiroth). Also, he tried to "breed" Aeris and Red XIII, which was just bloody stupid because I think certain anatomical aspects would get in the way.

Reeve Tuesti is head of the Urban Development Department, and is generally an okay guy. But I'm not going to write all about him yet again, so if you want to know about him, check out Cait Sith's section.