Story
Edward and Alphonse Elric are
brothers living in the village of Resembool in the country of Amestris (アメストリス Amesutorisu?). Their father, Hohenheim, left home when
Edward and Alphonse were still very young. Years later, their mother, Trisha
Elric, dies of a terminal illness. After their mother's death, Edward becomes
determined to bring her back through the use of alchemy, an advanced science in
which an object can be reformed into something completely different. They learn
of the Human Transmutation, a forbidden art in which one attempts to create a human
who had died. However, this attempt failed, ultimately resulting in the loss of
Edward's left leg and Alphonse's entire body. In a desperate effort to save his
brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm to affix his brother's soul to a suit
of armor. After that, Edward's left leg and right arm are fitted with two sets
of automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb, created for him by his close
family friends Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako.
Edward sets out to become a State
Alchemist (国家錬金術師
Kokka Renkinjutsushi?), which is an alchemist employed by the State Military of
Amestris. State Alchemists are identified by their silver pocket watches and
the unique titles assigned to them upon becoming a State Alchemist. Becoming a
State Alchemist would enable Edward to use the extensive resources available to
them to discover a way to restore what he and Alphonse had lost, but it also
turns him into a "weapon" of the military, who are famous for
destroying almost all Ishval's population in a past Civil War. The brothers
eventually learn of the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary stone that is said to
allow the holder to completely bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange, and set
off in search of it as a means to restore their bodies. Along the way they
discover that the Philosopher's Stone requires human lives to create it, and
find others who seek it as well, doing almost whatever they can to get their
hands on it. They are attacked by the homunculi, a group of human-like
creatures that carry pieces of the Philosopher's Stone inside themselves. They
are named after the seven deadly sins and act as primary villains in the
series.
A man known simply as
"Father" is the creator of all the homunculi and commands them from
behind the curtains of the High Command of the country Amestris. He was
originally a small ball of shadows inside a round flask with the nickname of
"homunculus" created with the blood of Hohenheim. He goads a king
into performing Human Transmutation, resulting in the destruction of the country
Xerxes. As a gift for helping him, Father made Hohenheim immortal by rebuilding
his body with half the souls of the population of Xerxes; he used the other
half to create a body for himself in the likeness of Hohenheim. It is suspected
that Father plans to use Amestris as a gigantic transmutation circle to create
a Philosopher's Stone, but the homunculus Envy hints that, although close, this
is not the whole truth.
Differences in adaptations
The stories of the manga and anime
separate soon after the encounter with the homuculus Greed during the episodes
32–35, and weave vastly different tales. Father does not exist in the anime.
His counterpart is a woman called Dante, a former lover of Hohenheim. Centuries
ago, the two were masterful alchemists and perfected methods for making the
Philosopher's Stone and a form of immortality in which they use others' bodies
until they age. Hohenheim eventually fell in love with another and left Dante,
taking with him the perfected Philosopher's Stone formula. Although Dante is still
able to jump from body to body to cheat death over the centuries, she is able
to spend less and less time in each body as it decays faster with each jump,
and each jump causes the stone she possesses to lose its power over time. She
uses the Homunculi to spur Edward and Alphonse, along with other Alchemists as
desperate as they are, into creating another complete Philosopher's Stone for
her.
Having heard of Scar's creation of
the Philosopher's Stone, Edward saves the people from Lior from being
sacrificed during the the creation of the stone, which is infused into
Alphonse's metal body, making him the main focus of Dante's efforts ultimately
leading to him being kidnapped. During the fights against the homunculi, when
Edward is killed by Envy, Alphonse uses the power of the Philosopher's Stone to
heal Edward's body and to reattach his soul. After being revived, Edward risks
his own life to bring back his brother in exchange. As a result, Edward ends up
on the other side of the gate of alchemy, which turns out to be the Earth,
while Alphonse recovers his original body. Determined to return with Alphonse,
Edward becomes involved in rocketry research in Transylvania, with the
intention to use that technology to try and get back to his home world.
