Hojo, Seiji

Born 1939

Head of the Shinra Science Department.

Holder of multiple PhDs.

Certified Grumpy Pants.

Early Life
Hojo is half-Wutaian with a Midgarian father and Wutaian mother. The youngest of four, and the only son, he had a lot of pressure put on him from an early age. Although raised in Midgar, Hojo speaks fluent Wutaian and is familiar with their customs, beliefs, holidays, and so forth. As the only son, his family had high hopes for him. Initially it was assumed he would become a medial doctor. Although Hojo has enough of the correct education and experience to be a licensed MD, when mako power became the new hot field of research, Hojo expanded his expertise. He became part of the Biologics department which, at the time, was headed by a man named Faremis Gast.

Shinra
Quiet and somewhat aloof, Hojo proffered the company of books rather than people. There was a fair bit of racism toward those from the Old Continent, but it was twice as bad from those from farther flung regions such as Wutai. He also chose a somewhat unusual field of study within the Biologics departmen; only Professor Gast and a handful of others taking his interests seriously. These few "crackpots" as the rest of the department saw them, consisted of veteran scientist Grimoire Valentine, and two female students; Ifalna Eidel and Lucrecia Crescent.

Professor Gast had made a discovery buried in the ice of the Northern Continent. He had found a remarkably intact fossil of what he deemed was the body of a Cetra; an ancient race of humans known for their art, literature, and surprisingly advanced civilization. There were also said to be able to speak to the planet. Furthermore, this Cetra had a name, for she was mentioned repeatedly in the ancient texts. He had not just found a Cetra, he had found their queen: the body of the Empress Jenova.

Dr. Valentine and Lucrecia initially were not part of the core team that would become the members of the Jenova Project. Dr. Valentine had his own theories concerning mako and science, and recruited Lucrecia to assist him in his research. However, when Dr. Valentine was killed during an expedition, Lucrecia was added to the team that would be studying the Jenova fossil.

Jenova Project
Poor Life Choices all round.

Hojo/Lu was actually A Thing, tho not as early as some might think.

"Miscalculations" aplenty, yes.

Hojo would have been a halfway decent dad if not for Jenova nomming his brains.

He still loves Seph, even if he has no freaking clue how to let him know.

Chairman
As head of the Science Department, Hojo has complete control over an entire arm of the Shinra empire. He is responsible for the SOLDIER program in ways the army is not, and also oversees many other research projects ranging from DNA augmentation to the study of the Ancients.