Geostigma
From Final Fantasy Wiki
- "The Stigma. It's a symptom of alien matter infesting the body. The body tries to eliminate it, and overcompensates. Inside our bodies is a current like the Lifestream. That current is what fights off any malevolent intruders."
- —Vincent Valentine
Geostigma (星痕症侯群, Seikon Shōkōgun lit. "Planet Scar Syndrome") is a fictional disease in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. In the ending cutscene of Final Fantasy VII, the player sees the Lifestream sweeping throughout the planet, particularly in Midgar. This emergence of the Lifestream, however, has the unexpected side-effect of infecting the world with this deadly plague.
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[edit] Cause and Symptoms
When Meteor began to fall on Midgar at the end of Final Fantasy VII, the Lifestream emerges to push Meteor back. However, some parts of the Lifestream had been infected with Jenova cells. The people who came in contact with this tainted Lifestream contracted Geostigma. The disease is not contagious, but is believed to be so. In Advent Children, Vincent Valentine says Geostigma is caused by the host being infected with Jenova cells, and in On the Way to a Smile, the novella "Case of the Lifestream" states that Sephiroth's will acting through those cells is the cause, and the cells are the medium through which they act. In Advent Children Complete, Rufus Shinra states that the public believes Mako to be the cause of the disease.
When someone is infected with Geostigma, they contract Jenova's cells, and the immune system works to try and eliminate those cells. However, this fails to remove the cells, and the immune system ultimately overcompensates fighting an incurable contamination. Thus, those infected with Geostigma experience debilitating weakness as their bodies devote energy to fighting off Jenova's cells. They also develop open sores on their body that secrete a black ooze. Although its severity seems to vary from person to person, it is invariably fatal. Cloud Strife also experienced hallucinations and seizures, but it is unknown if this was caused by his Geostigma or not, as none of the other victims are shown to have these symptoms. The disease has no known cure, though Cloud was searching for one, and as noted by Barret Wallace in On the Way to a Smile, even if a cure were to be found it would be next to impossible to deliver and administer it to all those infected around the world.
[edit] Story
[edit] Advent Children/Advent Children Complete
Because their immune systems are weaker, a great number of children around the world have been infected. The infection is most concentrated in Edge, which is populated by the survivors of Midgar and rests on its outskirts. Three of the major characters, Cloud Strife, Denzel, and Rufus Shinra, carry the disease as well. As a result of so many dying from the disease, the people of the city are largely used to others dying from it: in Advent Children Complete, one man with Geostigma drops dead in the street and the people around him continue walking, while another vomitted black ooze and collasped dead in an alley as Moogle Girl and her little brother watched.
The film's antagonist Kadaj lures the children to the Forgotten Capital with the promises of curing their Geostigma. He has them drink from a pool of water tainted with Sephiroth's will, placing them under his control. The Jenova cells within the children have their "reunion instinct" awakened, and lead Kadaj and his brothers to Edge to find Jenova.
At the film's climax, Sephiroth reveals that he was using Jenova's will to control those with Geostigma through the Lifestream. Eventually, enough infected people would die of the disease that he could control the Lifestream itself and take control of the planet. Then, he would use the planet as a vessel to travel the universe and eventually attack another planet, as Jenova herself had done for eons.
In the film's final moments, the spirit of Aerith Gainsborough brings down healing rain from the Lifestream, which cures everyone in contact with it of their Geostigma. Others with the stigma are able to go to Aerith's church where a spring of water infused with pure energy from the Lifestream are cured.
[edit] Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
However, it had a lasting effect for the formerly afflicted in the years that followed, more so than any mental trauma that sprung from the epidemic. A year later, as chronicled in Dirge of Cerberus, the mysterious SOLDIER group known as Deepground attacked Edge and Kalm, abducted all those who were never afflicted and either ignoring or more likely slaughtering those who were, being considered "tainted" for their plans. It is revealed that they are trying to trick the Planet into thinking its in danger by filling the Lifestream with untainted spirits to summon Omega. Those who had Geostigma, or were otherwise infected with outside matter, were "impure" and could not be used to trick the Planet.
| v · e · d | ||
|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete | ||
| Characters | ||
| Main Characters | ||
| Cloud Strife - Tifa Lockhart - Marlene Wallace - Denzel | ||
| Villains | ||
| Kadaj - Yazoo - Loz - Sephiroth - Jenova | ||
| Other Characters | ||
| Aerith Gainsborough - Barret Wallace - Cait Sith - Cid Highwind - Elena - Moogle Girl - Red XIII - Reno - Rude - Rufus Shinra - Tseng - Vincent Valentine - Yuffie Kisaragi - Zack Fair | ||
| Locations | ||
| Edge - 7th Heaven - Healin Lodge - Forgotten Capital - Midgar - Northern Crater - Sector 5 Church - Shinra Headquarters | ||
| Terms | ||
| Cellphone - Fenrir - Fusion Swords - Geostigma - Lifestream - Meteor - Motorcycle - Remnants of Sephiroth - Shadow Creeper - The Shera - Strife Delivery Service - World Regenesis Organization | ||
| Novellas | ||
| On the Way to a Smile - Hoshi wo Meguru Otome | ||
| Music | ||
| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children OST - "One-Winged Angel" - "Calling" - "Safe and Sound" |
