The Final Fantasy VII that captivated millions in 1997 featured Jenova as an ancient extraterrestrial calamity that crashed into the planet two thousand years before the game’s events. However, revelations from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega expose a dramatically different vision that existed during the game’s early planning stages – one that would have fundamentally altered the narrative’s themes and philosophical underpinnings. In this abandoned concept, Jenova was not an alien threat from beyond the stars, but something far more intimate and unsettling: a dormant element within human biology itself.
The Original Vision: Jenova as Internal Phenomenon
According to the Ultimania Omega, the original conception of Jenova positioned it as either a specific region of the human brain or a genetic component inherent to humanity. This represented a profound shift from the external threat narrative to one exploring the untapped and potentially dangerous aspects of human potential itself.
The name “Jenova” in this early framework was derived from an ancient text authored by the Cetra, the planet’s original stewards. This mysterious tome carried the weight of contradiction in its very reputation, known simultaneously as the “Book of God” and the “Book of the Devil.” This dual nomenclature reflected the ambiguous nature of what it documented: a comprehensive record of the unexplored territories of human consciousness and genetic capability.
The book was said to contain everything pertaining to the uncharted enigma of the human mind – or human genes, depending on the interpretation. It represented forbidden knowledge in the truest sense: not knowledge that was actively suppressed, but understanding of human capabilities that existed beyond the boundary of normal experience and comprehension.
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The Book of Jenova: God and Devil in One Text
Central to the early Jenova concept was an ancient manuscript that served as both the source of the name and the foundation of understanding for this mysterious element of human nature. Written by the Cetra, this text occupied a unique and paradoxical position in the game’s conceptual mythology.
Dual Nomenclature: Sacred and Profane
The book was known by two contradictory titles that reflected humanity’s ambivalent relationship with the knowledge it contained: the “Book of God” and the “Book of the Devil.” This wasn’t merely poetic language – it represented a fundamental truth about the nature of the knowledge itself.
As the Book of God, it represented enlightenment, transcendence, and the fulfillment of human potential. It was a sacred text that revealed divine capabilities hidden within humanity, suggesting that people possessed godlike powers waiting to be unlocked. The book promised elevation beyond ordinary human limitations, access to abilities that would seem miraculous to those who remained unawakened.
Simultaneously, as the Book of the Devil, it represented danger, corruption, and the temptation to exceed natural boundaries. It was forbidden knowledge that could lead to destruction – both of individuals who couldn’t handle what they discovered within themselves, and of societies that might abuse such capabilities. The book threatened to unleash forces that humanity was not meant to control or even comprehend.
The Contents: Charting Unknown Territory
The Book of Jenova was described as a comprehensive record of everything pertaining to the uncharted enigma of the human mind – or alternatively, human genes, depending on whether Jenova was understood as neurological or genetic in nature. This tome represented the Cetra’s complete understanding of those aspects of human biology and consciousness that lay beyond the reach of normal human experience.
It detailed “everything unknown of the human brain,” suggesting a systematic exploration of dormant neural pathways, untapped regions of consciousness, and latent mental capabilities. If the genetic interpretation is emphasized, the book would have contained a complete mapping of unexpressed genetic potential – dormant genes that could produce extraordinary abilities when activated.
The book wasn’t theoretical speculation; it was practical knowledge. It would have provided:
- Identification protocols for recognizing the Jenova element in individuals
- Understanding of manifestations of various Thaumaturge abilities
- Methods of awakening the dormant potential through artificial means
- Warnings or predictions about the consequences of such awakening
- Historical records of naturally awakened individuals throughout history
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The Cetra as Authors: Knowledge Keepers or Warning Writers?
The attribution of the book to the Cetra raises intriguing questions about their relationship to the Jenova element. Were they documenting something they had mastered, or warning against something they had suffered from? Several interpretations emerge:
The Cetra as Masters: Perhaps the Cetra had achieved widespread natural Jenova awakening, and the book represented their civilization’s accumulated wisdom about living with and controlling these abilities. Their “ancient” status might represent a time when humanity routinely accessed capabilities that had since become rare or dormant.
The Cetra as Victims: Alternatively, the Cetra might have experienced the dangers of uncontrolled Jenova awakening firsthand, and wrote the book as a cautionary text. Their decline might be directly connected to the unleashing of forces they documented but couldn’t ultimately control.
The Cetra as Scientists: They might have been researchers and scholars who first discovered and mapped the Jenova element, creating a comprehensive scientific treatise that was later interpreted through religious and mythological frameworks by subsequent generations who found the original text.
Why Both God and Devil?
The dual nature of the book’s reputation reflects a profound truth about knowledge and power: they are neither inherently good nor evil, but rather dependent on application and context. The same capabilities that could elevate humanity could also destroy it.
This duality would have resonated throughout the game’s narrative:
- Aerith’s abilities (natural awakening) might represent the “God” aspect – harmonious, beneficial, connected to the planet
- Sephiroth’s transformation (artificial awakening) might represent the “Devil” aspect – forced, corrupted, destructive
- Shinra’s experiments would represent the corporate attempt to commodify and weaponize knowledge that was never meant to be controlled by institutional power
The book’s very existence posed a philosophical dilemma: Is it better to remain ignorant of human potential to avoid the risks of its misuse, or to embrace complete knowledge despite the dangers? Should such a text be preserved and studied, or destroyed to protect humanity from itself?
Lost Knowledge in the Final Game
While the Book of Jenova didn’t make it into the final version of Final Fantasy VII, echoes of this concept appear in various forms throughout the game and its compilation. References to ancient Cetra knowledge, Shinra’s research documents, Professor Gast’s recordings, and even the Lifestream itself as a repository of collective memory all serve similar narrative functions – they represent potentially dangerous knowledge about the nature of existence that characters must grapple with.
The concept of a single, comprehensive text that explains everything unknown about human capability would have provided a powerful narrative focal point, a physical artifact that characters could seek, protect, or destroy. It would have made the abstract concept of Jenova tangible and given the story a “quest for the book” element that might have driven certain plot threads.
The Mechanics of Awakening
Under normal circumstances, the Jenova element was intended to remain dormant within the human population. It represented potential rather than active capability, a sleeping aspect of human biology that the vast majority would never experience or express.
However, two pathways to awakening existed in this conceptual framework:
Natural Awakening
Rarely, individuals would be born in whom the Jenova element awakened spontaneously. These represented natural expressions of dormant human potential, people whose biology or neurology naturally manifested capabilities that remained locked away in others. This natural awakening suggested that humanity possessed latent abilities that only occasionally surfaced through the random variation of birth and development.
Artificial Awakening
The more controllable – and potentially more dangerous – pathway involved artificial stimulation through exposure to mako energy. In this framework, materia served as conduits or catalysts to manifest this awakening. This created a direct connection between Shinra’s exploitation of the planet’s life energy and the manipulation of human potential itself. The corporation’s mako technology wasn’t just draining the planet; it was fundamentally altering human consciousness and capability.
This concept would have added another layer to the game’s environmental themes, suggesting that Shinra’s exploitation extended beyond planetary resources to the very essence of human identity and potential.
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The Thaumaturge: A New Classification
Those in whom Jenova had awakened – whether through natural or artificial means – were designated by a specific term: Thaumaturge. This classification transcended the method of awakening, applying equally to those with innate abilities and those who had been artificially enhanced.
Defining Characteristics
The abilities manifested by Thaumaturges varied considerably from individual to individual, reflecting the personal nature of this awakening. However, certain baseline capabilities appeared universal among those with active Jenova elements:
Mutual Awareness: All Thaumaturges shared a common ability to sense and be drawn to one another. This suggested a fundamental connection or resonance between activated Jenova elements, creating an invisible network of awareness among those who possessed these abilities.
Thought Sensitivity: Among particularly skilled or powerful Thaumaturges, this awareness extended beyond mere detection to actual sensitivity to the thoughts of others. This represented a form of empathic or telepathic capability, pushing human consciousness beyond the isolation of individual minds.
Examples in Character Design
The concept material specifically identified characters who would have exemplified different aspects of Thaumaturge nature:
Aerith represented the naturally awakened Thaumaturge. Her inherent abilities – her connection to the planet, her capacity to sense the life stream, her unique relationship with materia – would have been recontextualized not as Cetra heritage alone, but as a natural expression of awakened human potential.
Sephiroth embodied the artificially awakened Thaumaturge. His exceptional abilities, rather than being purely the result of Jenova cell injection (in the external alien narrative), would have stemmed from a forced awakening of dormant human capabilities through Hojo’s experiments with mako and biological manipulation.
This framework would have positioned these two pivotal characters not as fundamentally different types of beings, but as two expressions of the same underlying human potential – one natural and harmonious, the other forced and corrupted.
The Turks: Hunters of the Awakened
In this early conceptual framework, the Turks served a more specifically defined role than they ultimately received in the final game. They were envisioned as experts in locating and monitoring Thaumaturges, specialized operatives trained to identify and track those in whom the Jenova element had awakened.
This concept wasn’t entirely abandoned in the final game. Tseng’s assignment to monitor Aerith carried forward this essential idea, though the broader framework of Thaumaturge hunting was largely stripped away. In the released version, Tseng’s surveillance appears as corporate interest in the last remaining Cetra. In the original concept, it would have represented systematic tracking of naturally awakened human potential by those seeking to control or exploit it.
This would have positioned the Turks not merely as corporate enforcers, but as the vanguard of Shinra’s program to identify, catalog, and potentially weaponize or suppress human beings who represented the next stage of human evolution or consciousness.
Thematic Implications
The abandoned Jenova concept would have dramatically shifted Final Fantasy VII’s thematic focus in several significant ways:
From External to Internal Threat
Rather than presenting humanity threatened by an alien force, the narrative would have explored humanity threatened by its own potential. The danger came not from beyond the stars but from within human biology itself. This reframed the central conflict as one of self-knowledge and the ethics of human enhancement.
The Nature of Monstrosity
With Jenova as a human element rather than an alien one, the question of what constitutes monstrosity becomes more philosophically complex. Sephiroth’s transformation wouldn’t represent alien contamination but the consequences of forced awakening and the corruption of human potential. The “monsters” of the game would represent perverted expressions of human capability rather than alien aberrations.
Corporate Control and Human Identity
Shinra’s exploitation would extend beyond environmental destruction to encompass control over human evolution and consciousness itself. The company’s monopoly on mako technology would represent not just control of energy resources but control over access to expanded human capability – and thus, control over who gets to transcend normal human limitations.
The Cetra as Pioneers
In this framework, the Cetra’s “ancient” status takes on new meaning. Rather than being a different species or race, they might have represented an earlier human civilization that had achieved widespread natural Jenova awakening – a society where these expanded capabilities were common or even universal. Their extinction or decline might be reframed as the loss of this awakened state rather than the loss of a separate people.
Why the Change?
While the Ultimania Omega reveals this early concept, it doesn’t extensively detail why the development team ultimately abandoned it in favor of the extraterrestrial Jenova narrative. However, several factors might have influenced this decision:
Narrative Clarity
The internal Jenova concept, while philosophically rich, introduced significant complexity to an already intricate narrative. The alien threat provided a clearer external antagonist and simplified the explanation of Sephiroth’s transformation and motivations.
Cultural Translation
The themes of internal human potential and awakened consciousness might have been more difficult to communicate across cultural boundaries than the more universally understood concept of an alien threat. The development team may have favored the more accessible narrative for a game aimed at international audiences.
Gameplay Integration
The materia system and the mechanics of character abilities might have been more difficult to justify or explain within the internal Jenova framework. The alien cells and mako exposure provided cleaner explanations for the gameplay systems than the more abstract concept of awakened genetic or neurological potential.
Character Differentiation
The extraterrestrial Jenova allowed for clearer differentiation between Aerith (as Cetra) and characters affected by Jenova cells. The internal Jenova concept would have made this distinction more philosophical than biological, potentially muddying character relationships and motivations.
Legacy and Resonance
Though abandoned before the game’s release, elements of this early Jenova concept can still be detected in the final version of Final Fantasy VII. The game’s exploration of identity, the nature of consciousness, and the consequences of corporate exploitation of human potential all carry echoes of this more intimate, internal threat narrative.
The Cloud/Zack identity confusion, for instance, touches on questions of consciousness and selfhood that would have been central to the Thaumaturge concept. The various experiments conducted by Shinra scientists on human subjects throughout the game hint at this darker vision of corporate control over human evolution and capability.
The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII – including Advent Children, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus – has continued to explore themes of enhanced human capability, consciousness transfer, and the boundaries of human identity. While these works operate within the extraterrestrial Jenova framework, they circle around questions that would have been central to the original internal Jenova concept.
Conclusion
The revelation of Jenova’s original conception as an element of human biology rather than an extraterrestrial threat provides fascinating insight into Final Fantasy VII’s development and the evolution of its narrative. While the team ultimately chose a different direction, this early concept represented a philosophically richer but more complex approach to the game’s central themes.
The internal Jenova framework would have positioned Final Fantasy VII as a more direct exploration of transhumanism, human potential, and the ethics of enhancement and control. It would have asked players to consider not what threatens humanity from without, but what possibilities and dangers lie dormant within us, waiting to be awakened – for good or ill.
Though we play the game as it was ultimately released, knowing what might have been enriches our understanding of the creative process and the thematic territory the developers were exploring. The Book of God and the Book of the Devil, knowledge both salvific and damning – this perfectly captures the ambiguous nature of human potential itself, and the eternal question of whether expanding human capability represents our salvation or our doom.
Sources:
Primary Source:
- Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega (Square Enix, 2005)
Referenced From:
- Final Fantasy Wiki – Jenova. Retrieved from: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jenova