Philosopher's stone (Fullmetal Alchemist)
In the
anime/
manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the
Philosopher's Stone is the central element that drives the plot, and the object of the the Elric Brothers' (the story's protagonists) search.
It is based on the legend of the
Philosopher's stone, able to transmute inexpensive materials into
gold and grant
immortality to its user. In
Fullmetal Alchemist, it is a likewise legendary item said to allow the holder to completely bypass the law of
Equivalent Exchange. It's rumored that the Stone could give its owner the ability to perform a flawless "human
transmutation", thus the Elric Brothers search for the Stone, in order to gain back what they lost during the failed transmutation to bring back their mother from the dead.
In the adapted
anime version, there are incomplete Philosopher's Stones called "Red Stones" or even simply "Philosopher's Stones" which can be transmuted from a toxic liquid known as
Red Water. Because it is incomplete, this stone will usually use up its power after just a few uses, sometimes backfiring on its holder. Much less expensive, and much easier to obtain than the real Stone, it can amplify the power of its holder to various extents, bypassing the law of Equivalent Exchange to a minor degree, acceptable for many practical uses.
In the Manga
The raw material of Philosopher's Stone is a very large amount of
human lives, ranging from ten to millions. The first stone in history was transmuted by
"Father", using the souls of the people of Xerxes. This event inspired the legend of a country which was destroyed in single night. The later Philosopher's Stones were transmuted by
Doctor Tim Marcoh and his fellow alchemists who were instructed to make the Stones by Lust and the other Homunculi, using the lives of Ishbal prisoners, and later the makers themselves to cover it up. This series of Philosopher's Stones wasn't complete - they were made from only about 13 prisoners (based on the count shown in chapter 59). The stone that
Father Cornello used was also one of this series.
In the Anime
*A "Red Stone" can be obtained by crystallizing the highly toxic "Red Water." As the water emits highly toxic vapor that can kill over a wide area, the easiest method to
crystallize it is to insert the substance into the
womb of a pregnant woman, and leave it to became solid, killing the woman and the unborn child. Then it can be surgically removed. A slow and expensive
chemical process is also possible, but the Stones created are usually very small, and not very useful.
*The real Stone takes a high toll. Only an expert alchemist could transmute it, using as raw material a very large amount of
human lives, ranging from thousands to millions. In the series it appears that Hohenheim used Red Water to begin the process and provide the power to generate a Stone.
|
The array used in Lior to transmute a true Philosopher's Stone |
The lives of plague victims and those sentenced to death for witchcraft were transmuted by Hohenheim, and later the sacrificed lives from the
Ishbal and
Lior Massacres were harvested by Scar and his brother to create a Philosopher's Stone. In the
Fullmetal Alchemist anime history, only
Hohenheim and
Scar were able to perform such a terrible feat. Though
Dante possessed the knowledge, she feared to do it herself as the transmuation can be fatal to the one who creates the stone. Hence the saying "those who seek the Philosopher's Stone are destined to die".
The obtained Stone is not bound to a fixed form. The first Philosopher's Stone stone transmuted by Hohenheim was shown as a glowing diamond-like stone not much larger than a tennis ball; a sort of "perfect red stone". However, Scar's arm (and before, his brother's entire body) was an Imperfect Philosopher's Stone, able to perfect itself in the armored body of
Alphonse Elric, who retained his metallic appareance, only with a red glow in his inside, and glowing red marks, reminiscent of the
tattoos on Scar's arm, that appeared whenever he was touched by an Alchemist or a Transmutation Circle. Even this form, due to the metal impurity that was Alphonse's body, was not a truly perfect Stone - only after Gluttony consumed Alphonse would it be perfected.
|
The backfiring of a Red Stone |
The Philosopher's Stone has many potential uses for an alchemist. The State Alchemist
Tim Marcoh researched it for the military, and was forced to turn over his research, including several vials of liquified Red Stones, to Basque Grand in order to improve the already incredible military efficiency of the State Alchemists involved in the Ishbal Massacre. The stones rendered the alchemists nearly invincible, and contributed in large part to the Ishbal genocide. After deserting from the military, Marcoh became a medical doctor, using the imperfect Philosopher's Stones only as a way to help the sick. It was hinted that even for those relatively unskilled in alchemy, like
Father Cornello, could perform amazing feats like the transmutation of
chimeras and temporary reanimation of dead animals. Scar's arm, an imperfect Stone, gave him the ability to decompose matter by alchemy and an instinctive understanding of a material's makeup.
A genuine Philosopher's Stone is capable of amazing feats, among them complete human transmutation and allowing a soul to be transferred into a new body. Such transferrence comes at the cost of a fraction of the alchemist's soul, and runs the risk of the new host body decomposing into a living corpse. In the manga, the Philosopher's Stone is the main ingredient in the creation of a
homunculus, while in the anime the homunculi seek it to obtain humanity. Even a true Philosopher's Stone is not immune to Equivalent Exchange: every time it is used, a bit of it vanishes, and its power is likewise reduced.
The two types of Stone operate in the same manner.When a transmutation is performed, the matter is usually supplied by the alchemist himself. A broken radio can be reshaped into a fully functional radio, some scrap iron can build a sword, a spear, a gun, etc., but the source of the energy necessary to the process is only revealed in the final episodes. This energy is supplied by the mysterious
Gate, a passage present in every human soul, linked to the "real" world (in the
movie, the
Fullmetal Alchemist world was thought to be the mystical
Shamballa by the Thule Society). Every death in "our" world generates energy, meaning the souls of our dead became the energy harnessed by alchemists to perform their transmutations. The Philosopher's Stone supplies an additional energy source, utilizing not the souls from the other side of the Gate, but souls collected in the alchemy world which are transmuted into the Stone.
