Thousands of years before the Meteor event, their was a great race known as the Cetra. They roamed the earth, basking within the energy of the lifestream. They soon found the Promised Land. This land was the greatest point of lifestream energy on the planet. However, then Jenova hit. Jenova was an alien creature that hit the promised land from space. The Cetra sacrificed their entire race to prevent Jenova from destroying the world by putting it in stasis. However, Jenova still made a massive crater where the Promised Land was. The energy of the Promised Land is still trying to repair the great crater.

Once Jenova crashed, the planet retaliated by creating the WEAPONS. These massive lifeforms were extreme concentrations of lifestream energy. Once the ancients put Jenova into stasis, they went into stasis by themselves. They reanimated once Jenova was taken out of stasis by Sephiroth in the Meteor event. It is thought that that the WEAPONS would have destroyed Sephiroth if we didn't. However, they probably would have destroyed us in the process.

We know of five WEAPONS, although there are rumors of more. The first was a sea WEAPON, the Onyx, although it is also sometimes known as the Sapphire WEAPON that was destroyed by the Sister Ray when it attacked Junon. The second was a flying WEAPON known as Ultima WEAPON that was almost exactly the same as the first. The third was the Diamond WEAPON, that also was destroyed by the Sister Ray. However, it also managed to wipe out Rufus and most of the other workers at Shinra. The fourth and fifth were the strongest known WEAPONS. Emerald WEAPON lived beneath the sea, to protect the entire ocean. It was immense, and could shoot off beams of blinding light. Ruby WEAPON protected the land of the world, although it mostly stayed in the desert near Gold Saucer. It had many super-strong spells that are found in only the most concentrated forms of materia.