Midgar

Midgar is a city and the de-facto capital of Gaia in Final Fantasy VII. It is controlled by the Shinra Company. The name derives from Norse mythology, in which is one of the Nine Worlds. In the mythology, it was the home of mankind, as set aside at the time of Creation.

History
Midgar was once a collection of several smaller, independent towns. Eventually, the settlements consolidated to form the larger city of Midgar; each town formed one sector and gradually lost its original name. Midgar is essentially made of two distinct cities both spanning roughly seven miles across; The upper plate city is constructed in a massive circular design made mostly of metal, while the polluted ground level (known as the slums) lies directly beneath. The plate possesses eight towering Mako Reactors along its circumference, which feed power to the upper and lower towns. The slums are an unsanitary place to live, and are inhabited by the poorer residents of Midgar, many of whom are malnourished and unhealthy. Shinra does little to aid the citizens who live in these conditions, instead favoring those rich enough to live on the upper level (called "the upper plate").

At some point in its history, the Shinra Company went to war with the nation of Wutai. Shinra manufactured weaponry at this time, and developed a means of mass-producing materia, small spheres that allow one to use magical abilities, as well as an army of elite military units called SOLDIER. With the development of these two assets, Shinra quickly brought the war — which had lasted several years — to an end. In the wake of the war, the public became extremely dependent on the Shinra Company for its materia and the Mako Energy they provided for electricity. At one point, Shinra had also developed a space exploration program, but after the war and the realization of just how profitable Mako Energy could be, Shinra shifted its focus towards manufacturing it and conducting research upon mako technologies, cancelling their space program and consolidating their operations.

Midgar eventually became embroiled in what was effectively a civil war against the terrorist AVALANCHE organization. During this time, AVALANCHE succeeded in causing great unrest within the company, and the Turks and Shinra army worked to combat the threat. One such danger that was faced was when Midgar came under threat of being destroyed in its entirety by their own Mako Cannon stationed at Junon, which the organization had temporarily seized.

Eventually, this original incarnation of AVALANCHE was crushed and its name taken up by a new group that only consisted of a handful of operatives, who, nevertheless, engineered successful bombing missions that temporarily put two mako reactors out of commission. Later, Reno destroyed the pillar holding up the section of the upper plate above Sector 7's slums, where AVALANCHE was based. This caused the plate to collapse and crush the slums below. Shinra executives — hoping that all members of AVALANCHE would be killed in the calamity — blamed the incident on AVALANCHE in order to sway public opinion against the insurgents.

President Shinra soon announced to his executives his desire to discover the Promised Land (a legendary place said to offer supreme happiness) where they would be a "Neo-Midgar." The president believed this land to be abundant in mako to such an extent that it would flow out of the ground of its own accord without the need for mako reactors to siphon it, which would, in turn, increase Shinra's profits exponentially. This desire resulted in a decision by the company not to rebuild Sector 7 after it was destroyed.

Some time later, the Shinra Company moved the Mako Cannon from Junon to Midgar and modified it into a new weapon called "the Sister Ray," integrated with the city's mako reactor network. Their intent was to use the reactors to power the cannon and fire a beam of pure mako in the hopes of removing an energy barrier the Planet's nemesis, Sephiroth, had conjured to protect himself. The cannon was able to destroy the rampaging Diamond Weapon and destroy Sephiroth's barrier around the Northern Crater, but a simultaneous attack by the fallen WEAPON damaged some areas of Midgar, destroying the upper floors of the Shinra headquarters and nearly killing Rufus Shinra. At the same time, AVALANCHE infiltrated the city, killing several of the remaining Shinra executives and disabling the Sister Ray, which threatened to destroy the entire city due to overload incited by Professor Hojo, the head of Shinra's Science Department.

When Sephiroth’s Planet-destroying spell known as "Meteor" descended, it was revealed to be directed at Midgar. Although Reeve Tuesti, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine and the Turks evacuated the populace of the upper plate to the slums, storms spawned by the intense gravity generated between Meteor and the Planet tore apart much of the city itself.

After the destruction of Meteor, the survivors of Midgar used debris from the city to build a new town called "Edge" on the outskirts of Midgar. During the events of Advent Children, the populace suffered greatly from Geostigma, and the city itself suffered a large amount of structural damage when the movie's central villain, Kadaj, summoned Bahamut SIN.

A year later, it was revealed that the Deep Ground — an experimental military project involving SOLDIERs, developed by President Shinra before his death — were housed deep underground in Midgar, and were briefly trapped there by the effects of the Meteor crisis. Midgar once more became a battlefield as the World Restoration Organization (WRO) led by Reeve Tuesti engaged the Deep Ground's army, allowing Vincent Valentine to slip into the city and play a large role in bringing the conflict to an end.

Little is known of Midgar’s history after this game. It is known, however, that five hundred years after the crisis brought by Sephiroth, Midgar is overgrown as nature reclaimed the once-drained land.

Characteristics
The city of Midgar was comprised of two principal components: an elevated, circular plate supported by both a central pillar and a system of smaller columns, as well as a network of slums beneath the plate. The upper plate was essentially the "true" Midgar, containing office buildings and similar complexes, as well as theatres, bars and various residences. The plate itself was divided into eight sectors, with each sector punctuated by two walls and a mako reactor. The city's prosperity was due to the abundance of Mako Energy in the vicinity, and the reactor complex meant that there were — with few exceptions — no vegetation within the city or in close proximity to it. A commuter railway system carried workers to and from the slums, and security measures were implemented throughout the city. The Shinra Company's massive headquarters was located in the middle of the upper plate, and served as the tallest structure in the city. The upper plate remained incomplete for the entirety of its history; neither Sector 6 nor any outer sectors were ever completed, nor were they intended to be after the destruction of Sector 7. A network of maintenance platforms were suspended beneath the plate.

In the sections below the plate lived the destitute citizens in their slum dwellings. The majority of the buildings there were made of collected scrap shaped into dwellings; few of the buildings displayed any thorough architectural planning. There were, however, scattered buildings that were presumably left behind from before the plate's construction. The slums beneath Sector 6, however, were comparatively wealthy, possessing bars, clubs and the mansion of famous slum dilettante, Don Corneo. The slums as a whole were strewn with strange wreckage, including pillars of Greco-roman design, and components of a dismembered mecha.

News in the city of Midgar was covered by the official Shinra news service, the SIN. The actual dimensions of the city are unknown. However a 1/10000 scale wireframe model of the city would fit on a medium-to-large monitor.

Locations
There are several locations seen in Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs. The Sector 5 slums are home of Aerith Gainsborough and her adopted mother, Elmyra. The nearby church tended by Aerith was the only place in Midgar — aside from Aerith's home — to feature flowers. The church was damaged after Cloud Strife fell from the Number 5 Reactor and crashed through its roof. Fortunately the flowers broke his fall.

The Sector 6 Slums are a broken-down passageway between Sectors 5 and 7. It housed an old playground — severely damaged when Sector 7 collapsed — that Aerith once liked to visit, as well as the Wall Market area. Wall Market is the largest and most populated area of Sector 6, and also a de facto red light district. Several shops, inns, and restaurants were located here, along with the famous Honeybee Inn and Don Corneo's Mansion. This is the area where Cloud's well known cross-dressing incident took place.

In the Sector 7 Slums, AVALANCHE resided in a bar run by Tifa Lockhart that she called "7th Heaven." Sector 7 is eventually destroyed by the Shinra when they destroy the pillar that supported its section of the upper plate. Inside Sector 7 slums is the Train Graveyard, a dark and dangerous area of scrapped trains resembling a maze.

The Shinra Company's headquarters, Sector 0, is the main base of operations for Shinra. All Shinra executives work here and much of Shinra's technology is developed here. It is located in the center of the city, and has 70 floors. Floors 60 and above require key cards to gain access. The 70th floor is where the president's office is located.