Father (Fullmetal Alchemist)

"When you notice an insect on the ground, do you stop to consider it a fool? The life of an insect is so beneath you, that it would be a waste of your time to even consider judging it. That would be a accurate summation on my feelings towards these humans."

- Father

The primary antagonist in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime series, he known by many names but is referred by the Homunculi as "Father ".

Appearance

 * At the very beginning when he was only named "Homunculus," Father looked like an orb of dark matter, (which is apparently pure, physical knowledge) who could form an eye, a grinning mouth and some small tendrils. He had to remain in the flask in which he had been created, otherwise he would have died.


 * When he became a living Philosopher's Stone, he used the DNA he recieved from Van Hohenheim to create a body with which he could interact with the world, a body which looked exactly like Hohenheim, like a clone or a "twin brother" of some sort. This body however physically aged much more than Hohenheim over the centuries. By the time the story takes place, Father looks like a tall, elderly man with long, white blond hair (contrary to Hohenheim's golden blond hair colour) and a beard, golden eyes that are rarely seen fully open, and a wrinkled face with a third eye that opens from time to time on his forehead. Father is dressed in white royal garnments which he picked up on the King of Xerxes' corpse.


 * Near the end of the story, it is revealed that the Hohenheim-like body is in fact an organic shell, inside which Father's original body evolved during four hundred years. Though at first he appeared to be a tall shadowy humanoid version of himself with multiple eyes, "Father" is actually a small aspect of a giant cyclops surrounding his lair that reveals himself once the Gate opens.


 * Father_(apparence_divine).jpg successfully absorbing the being from within the Gate, Father undergoes a final transformation. Since he was created from Van Hohenheim's blood, he once again obtains a humanoid body exactly similar to that of Hoheneim, but this time ressembling his teenage self. Under this form, he has long, blond hair, golden eyes and a muscular body. He wears casual Xerxes-like clothing and goes shirtless. (In spite of his youthful aspect, he retains his old man's voice in the second anime.)

Personality
"I only wanted to obtain perfection. I wanted this world's knowledge for my own! Why should I be punished for that? What's wrong with craving knowledge? What's wrong with seeking perfection?"

- Homunculus (to Truth)

Back when he was the Homunculus in the flask, Father was observant, witty and sharp-tongued. Even under his friendly facade, he never hesitated to voice his opinion out-loud, rarely showing respect that wasn't sarcastic and frequently poking fun at both Hohenheim and at the general human way of life, demonstrating that even in this hapless form, he considered himself superior.

This superiority complex increased into a god complex when Father became a living Philosopher's Stone. His immortality, his immense powers and his control over Amestris conforted him in his belief that he was superior to any lifeform. As such he regards mankind and every other specy as unsignificant and treats them with extreme indifference. He even states that their level of conscience are too different from his own and that mere mortals cannot grasp it, demonstrating huge levels of megalomania. As a result of separating himself from seven major emotions (the seven Deadly Sins) to create the homunculi, he became cold and nearly emotionless.

Father is serious, merciless, deeply selfish and extremely overconfident, looking bored nearly all the time. Given his immense knowledge about almost everything in existence, he is rarely taken aback. As such he often acts as if he knew everything and gives lectures to people, even when they disagree with him or can prove him wrong. Yet, he knows that he is unfamiliar with the way people think and act and relies on his subordonate's advice to deal with it. (Though said advice never really surprise him.) When close to accomplish his goals or especially pleased, Father loses his calm and demonstrates a gleeful, wicked excitation.

The only beings for whom Father seem to really care are his seven "children." Hohenheim even states that he has his homunculi call him "Father" because he desires a family like everyone else, something that irks him but which he doesn't argue. Father also cares for Hohenheim to a certain extent, as he was very pleased to learn that he was still alive and that the Elric brothers were his children. Upon meeting the Elrics for the first time, he demonstrated a light-hearted enthusiasm and an almost comical side for a brief instant. Yet, he mostly cares about Hohenheim and the Elrics because they are useful for his goals. Even his "children" mean less to his eyes than his thirst for power, as evidenced when he didn't paid the slightest bit of attention to Pride's highly weakened state, which he could have fixed in a matter of seconds, at the time of the final battle.

Powers and Abilities
Father's primary power is his seemingly limitless knowledge. He came to the world knowing already every existing concept. When he was first confronted to something, he demonstrated said knowledge by giving a dictionary-like definition of it. Since he comes from the Truth itself and was created through Alchemy, he knows everything about it and can put in practice alchemic rituals of which mankind has never heard of. However, despite knowing almost everything, he needs to experience something in order to recognise it, or at least he needed it when he was discovering the world from within his flask.

Father also knows how to gain the trust of people he needs, mostly by promises and inspiring declarations. He knows how to adapt his speech to the ones he is adressing and to tell them what they want to hear. The very high regards in which the corrupt leaders of Amestris hold him are sufficient proof of it, (though their devotion may stem from his "promise" to make them immortals).

As a living Philosopher's Stone
Father is an extremely powerful being, whose mastery of Alchemy dwarves that of the best practicioners to a huge extent (with the exception of the equally powerful Van Hohenheim). He does not need to bother with alchemic rules and limitations and he can transmute matter without even having to move. He can perform virtually any brand of Alchemy and his transmutation power toys with the laws of physics. Indeed, he is able to transform anything to anything else, to transmute back projectiles, to increase the size of any object thousandfold, to create matter from nothing and objects out of nowhere. He is also able to change the atomic structure of matter to the point of turning solid into liquid, among other things.

Father can create Philosopher's Stones by gathering several of the souls contained within him, producing them from the third eye that sporadically opens on his forehead. He created the Seven Homunculi by concentrating a defined emotion into a Philosopher's Stone, which he used as the homunculus' core. He can also absorb Philosopher's Stones and alchemic energy into himself. He uses it to absorb back a homunculus, which he can then restore or recreate after a certain period of time. (During which said homunculus is seen developping within him.)

Father is also able to control Alchemic energy, as seen when he attacks with electric-like discharges﻿ or energy blasts of variable size. More importantly, Father can infuse his alchemic energy into the ground by connecting himself to pipes, which he does to provide Amestris with the energy that the local alchemists need to transmute. Father can disrupt this energy flow, which renders Alchemy useless all around Amestris for a determined amount of time.


 * Father's evolved form has no defined shape, enabling him to manipulate his size and his figure at will. He can absorb objects and even people into himself, (which renders him fatter when he absorbs big objects or well-built people.) He can also shift his body like a fluid, phase through physical attacks; reshape his body to form tendrils, additional arms or even objects and mechanisms (like a gun and its bullets) and to elongate his limbs. Moreover, his body expands outside his humanoid shape, as the whole throne room gets plunged into a black void with a gigantic eye, which he describes as "inside his belly" and which appears as a huge dark cloud from the outside. He was also seen growing to gigantic proportions, but it is fair to assume that this was due to the transmutation during which he absorbed the Truth instead of his regular abilities.

As the new God
After succesfully becoming a God, Father gains the entire power of the Truth and becomes nothing short of all-powerful. His already incredible power over Alchemy skyrockets to absolute levels, rendering him able to perform several high-scale transmutations at once and to do whatever he pleases with any type of matter. His control over alchemic energy skyrockets as well, and he becomes able to fire tremendous energy blasts from every direction, to make them last as long as he wants and even to increase their, alredy huge, magnitude tenfold, and to absorb human souls without rituals. Under his divine form, he is constantly surrounded by a barrier of electricity-like energy that cancels every type of attack.

Father's newfound powers doesn't stop to Alchemy and grant him total control over creation. He demonstrates mastery of the elements, when he conjures a tornado and a tidal wave, and high-level telekynesis. He is even able to control nuclear fusion and solar energy, as seen when he creates a miniature sun in the palm of his hand. Should he obliterate a place, he would be able to fully recreate everything he destroyed from nothing. Furthermore, he was seen giving "life" when he extracted the souls of many of his Xerxesian victims from within himself, into newly created, fully human bodies.

Having absorbed the souls of the entire poulation of Amestris, Father gains limitless energy supplies that enable him to fully control his divine power without restriction, rendering him invincible. Fortunately this doesn't last long, as Hohenheim performs an alchemic ritual that sends all the Amestrian souls back into their bodies. After that, Father's unlimited power becomes too much for him to handle, preventing him from using it to its full extent, and puts a considerable strain on his body, making him vulnerable again.

Origins
Father was created around four centuries before the start of the story line in the city of Xeres. The king requesting the means to obtain eternal life, his royal alchemist created Homunculus from matter brought from the Gate, the metaphysical source of all the alchemic power and knowledge of the universe, and the blood of his creator's slave "Number 23." Meeting Number 23, naming him Van Hohenheim, Homunculus felt obligated to the youth whose blood gave him life and aided him by giving the human an education to raise out of slavery and into Xeres society as his former master's assistant. However, Homunculus is confined within his flask and would die without.

When the elderly king of Xerxes eventually had him brought before, Homunculus instructed the king to commit atrocities and genocide while dig a gigantic alchemic transmutation circle all around the country. However, when the transmutation process begins, Homunculus reveals that he used the king as his soul is among the hundred thousand that were absorbed into himself and Honenhiem. Using Honenhiem's blood, Homunculus created a shell in the human's likeness to exist in.

While the horrified Hohenheim fled in the desert before ending up in Xing, creating Alkahestry, Homunculus ventured to the west to find the center of the world to repeat his scheme of absorbing souls at a greater scale. During that time, Homunculus learned to purge some of his less savory aspects and created Pride, becoming known as "Father" soon after. Father eventually finds the ideal spot to begin his plan under the small settlement that he made into Amestris, teaching its people Alchemy and is revered while directing its leaders from from behind the scenes in his subterranean lair constructed under the Military Headquarters of Central City, the capital of Amestris. From that position, Father can block the tectonic energy that he told alchemists to obtain their power from.

Over the next centuries, Father orchestrated every military conquest of neighboring countries to expand Ametris until the nation-wide transmutation circle if completed. Using that time to further develop as a pure being, Father detached more of his vices to create Lust, Greed, Envy, Sloth, and Gluttony. While Sloth was directed to dig the transmutation tunnel while Greed goes rouge, the others serve Father in overseeing matters on the surface by killing anyone who learns the truth or direct their pawns. Sixty years before the start of the series, Father gathered many nameless orphans and had them raised to create a Homunculus by infusing his rage into a human body. Out of the many, only one survived the process and became Wrath with the alias of "King Bradley" to serve as Ametris's current leader.

Contrary to the sacrifice of Xerxes, Father arranged it to occur on the day of a solar eclipse as part of his master plan to summon the Gate and absorb the god that dwells within it. To that end, he needed five alchemists who had performed human transmutation and stood before the gate and the being known as Truth. In that retrospect, Bradley created the position of State Alchemists and intensified the conflicts with other countries to spur situations where one would attempt a human transmutation.

First Meeting
Father remains unseen for most of the first part of the events, interacting with only his "children" as he attempted to reason with Greed to return to the fold. But when Greed refused, Father had him melted down into a Philosopher's Stone and drank it. After Lust's death by Roy Mustang's hand, after hearing Bradley's reasons for not killing the colonel, Father allows Mustang to live so he could serve as a potential sacrifice. Eventually, Father is meet by Alphonse Elric when brought before him by Gluttony, who accidentally swallowed Edward, the Xinese prince Ling Yao and Envy. But once he and the others manages to they escape from the dimensional void, Edward mistook Father for Honenhiem. Realizing his two sacrifices are Honenhiem's son, Father laughs enthusiastically of the irony and heals their wounds. Despite his hospitality, Father shows his true colours when he order for Ling's death as he was of no use to him. Realizing Father's identity, Edward engages a fight against Father, backed up by Alphonse and Ling.

Unfortunately, they are absolutely no match for him and they end up subdued by Envy and Gluttony after he cancels Alchemy. Noticing Ling's vitality, Father decides to use him as a vessel for a resurrected Greed prior to Scar and the Xinese princess Mei Chang appearing. When Edward tells Scar that Father and the homunculi are responsible for the Ishval Massacre, Father finds that he cannot cancel Mei's Alkahestry and Scar's blended form of Amestrian and Xinese Alchemy though he manages to overwhelm the latter. However, the ordeal ended with Gluttony's Philosopher's Stone nearly spent as Father absorbs his child to restore him overtime. As events unfold up in Briggs, dreaming of his past, Father needs a final sacrifice to five that include The Elric Brothers, their teacher Izumi Curtis, and Honenheim.

The Promised Day
After Bradley's supposed death, Father appears before the corrupt officials under him to assure them that Amestris is under his protection. Once the Promised Day begins, Father learns that Mustang and his most trusted subordinates have made their move yet deems taking Bradley's wife hostage as a waste of time. Receiving Pride's morse code after he is trapped in a earthen dome, Father sends Solf J. Kimblee to free his first child while ordering Sloth to kill Brigadier General Olivier Armstrong when she makes her move to eliminate the corrupt officials.

As the protagonists invade Father's lair to stop him, Hohenheim is the first to reach his "little friend from the flask" and cripples his shell with the aid of the soul within him. However, revealing that he has evolved beyond his limitations, Father emerges from his human skin and consumes it before restraining Honenhiem. Once the Alchemist Doctor in his services sends the Elric Brothers and Izumi to him, Father explains that there is no escape prior to Mustang being forced to use Human Transmutation by Pride and brought before him to complete his plan while berating them with his definition Truth as "something that puts the boastful in their place".

Despite interference from Mei Chang and Greed, Father invokes the nation-wide circle and absorbs the 50 million souls outside the lair. From there, Father forces the Gate open and absorbs God. Creating a new younger body, Father nullifies alchemy while intending to kill off his now obsolute pawns out of whim with new godly powers before Honenhiem reveals his trump card: a transmuation circle powered by some of his souls that activates at the end of the eclipse. With the souls he just absorbed returned to their unscathed bodies, Father lacks the means to hold "god" at bay for long as Scar's Alkahestry ritual enables the alchemists to directly access the tectonic energy.

Fighting in spite of the strain of contending "god", Father heads towards the surface to absorb the souls to replenish himself while being tailed by the protagonists. Told he could not understand humans as he can only destory, Father toys with Hohenheim and the other's emotions by spawning several of the Xerxesian souls within him into new bodies to catch them off guard with an energy blast that wipes out Central Military Headquarters and the reborn Xerxesians. Luckily, heavily damaged as a result, Hohenheim and Alphonse protected the others as the military arrive to provide back up. The opposition gravely diminish his stone further as Father destroys Ed's Automail Arm, losing against the human when Al sacrificed himself to restore his brother's arm.

Refusing to accept defeat, Father attempts to absorb Greed to replenish himself. However, having counted on it, Greed uses his ability to Father's body into the weakest form of carbon before being ripped out. Taking advantage, Edward delivered a powerful punch into Father's chest that released the remaining souls in him. With nothing left to keep it at bay, "God's" tendrils grab Father and begin pulling him inward. Stating that all he wanted was to be free, Father implodes and ends up before his personal Gate in his original form.

Asking why "god" did not accept him, Homunculus is confronted by Truth as it belittles his ideals and lack of faith while calling him nothing before than a thief. Homunculus tries to justify his actions of chasing his desire for knowledge before Truth formally introduces itself to the shocked villain. Reminding Homunculus of how he defined it, Truth gives him his fitting punishment: Being absorbed back into the void from which he came. Despite his desperate pleas, Homunculus is dragged screaming into Gate as it closes behind him with Truth telling him that he should have expected that this would be how it ended for him.