The World of Shinra Inc.

It started harmlessly enough. A young man in a suit, a small office building and a dream. The man called himself Shinra and he was the founder of a new weapons company called surprisingly "Shinra Incorporated". He was a slender man, with curley blond hair and blue eyes. His parents were farmers in the nearby town of Kalm; but he wanted nothing to do with that. Only a few months out of college he sold the bank on the idea of his company, and now it was finally underway.

With the help of some of his rich college friends he had managed to hire a good sized staff and begin development of new weapons. The economic climate was just right for his company and soon it was one of the premire businesses of Midgar.

Very business savy Shinra slowly began to buy out the other companies. Being able to give the people what they wanted was a gift that Shinra had; the other companies could not compete with that and soon Shinra Inc. was the only weapons dealer left. After buying out a construction company Shinra began expanding into other markets. Being able to do quality building for less money made the orders swamp in. Soon Shinra and a development team unveil the plate project.

At a press conference Shinra smiled as he said, "The idea is simple. We plan on building a city above all cities! This project is about bringing people together...It will be built by people working with eachother and afterward it will be maintained by people working together. Midgar is the greatest city in the world! It is only fitting that the city looks the part!"

The people ate it up and soon the industrial and rich sections of the city were fifty meters above the ground. Critics of the plate program questioned the time it would take to build. But they had failed to take into account that Shinra had control of the supplies and builders. The project itself only took twelve years of non stop work to complete. Connected by railroad the people in the old city, now called the slums, could commute to the surface. Most of these people had signed on to work for Shinra as smaller companies were unable to buy real estate on top. The larger industries had to pay a heafty sum, annaully, to get up there. These smaller companies, who were now in a poor locataion and unable to market simply went out of business.

By this time Shinra was into all the markets: TV, radio, appliences, cars. With all the revenue they had the ability to employ an army with which to protect the citizens of the city. Soon the company decided to take a shot at space travel. Meeting with failure President Shinra, as he called himself now, was faced with a new problem. The city of Midgar was growing and the need for power had increased beyond the capacity of the power plants.

Looking to his large Research and Development team they proposed the use of "mako" energy. It was very efficient and it was extracted right from nature. Shinra was very pleased with this. He put most of his company's budget toward the creation of a stable mako reactor. The first attempts were failures, causing the deaths of a more than a few workers.

Considering putting an end to the project he was extremely happy when a young scientist named Gast came up with a reactor that was stable. Putting him at the head of the science department Shinra had Professor Gast work with the urban planning team to build enough for the city. Considering the size of the city it was decided that 6 reactors would be needed; Shinra decided to increase it to eight so as to provide for future growth. Soon all eight were ready to go.

When the reactors were first activated the city rejoiced with the knowledge that they would never run out of power. For awhile no one noticed the effect that these reactors were having on the environment, at least not the people on the plate itself. Down below the slums had become very polluted as the residual materials from factories and reactors alike, settled down below. Within five miles of the city, all plant life disappeared, and soon the animals went with it. Some Shinra scientists theorized that extracting mako energy was harming the planet in some way.

Deciding not to "cause a panic" Shinra buried the reports. The science department was always looking for new ways to use their miracle energy source. By condensing mako they found they had made a crystal that could harness a certain power of the planet. Calling this item "Materia" they put it to use with the military.

Another miracle use they had found was with human beings. By exposing an individual to low amounts of mako they found physical strenght increased as well as durability. Shinra immediatly went ahead with the SOLDIER program and had the most elite of his army become mako infused. One other physical side effect to the process was that the mako infused individual now had eyes that glowed. The SOLDIER program was started just in time for a war with the great nation of Wutai.

For the past few years Shinra and Wutai had been at in conflict over business territory. Open war broke out and by the looks of things, the war would go on for a long time. Deciding to put his untested SOLDIERs to use; the tide of the war turned slowly at first. Then under the command of a SOLDIER named Sephiroth, things went completely in Shinra Inc.'s favor. Only three years into the war Wutai surrendured unconditionally.

Happy with the results President Shinra turned his attention to the now free global market. Sending people to all towns in the world, he convinced many of the local leaders to build mako reactors. Soon the entire world seemed to be at the finger tip of one man.

As a few years went by some reactor accidents occured. Shinra fearing that someone or something was trying to put him out of business he began using his military and SOLDIERs to oppress the masses. Small groups began to protest; but no one felt they had the power to do anything. This is the world that Shinra made.