Games - Philosopher's stone

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	Games - Philosopher's stone

The Philosopher's Stone from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, is the anime's central plot element; almost all the actions are taken by characters who are driven by prospects of the Stone (like the protagonists), or are reacting to those who seek it.

It is based on the legend of the Philosopher's stone, able to transmute inexpensive materials into gold. In Full Metal 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 reverse their respective conditions.

In the series, an incomplete Philosopher's Stone called a "Red Stone" or "the Sorcerer's Stone" can be transmuted from toxic watery substance known as Red Water. Because it is incomplete, this stone will usually manifest its power after 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.

Obtaining a Stone

Obtaining a stone is often a risky, painful process. There are generally two ways to obtain it:

A "Red Stone" can be obtained by crystallizing the highly toxic "Red Water." As the water can intoxicate and kill over a wide area when it contaminates the soil, 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. 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 deal 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, sacrificed lives from The Ishbal Massacre, and later the war against Lior
were harvested to create a Philosopher's Stone. In the Full Metal Alchemist Anime history, only Dante, Hohenheim and Scar were able to perform such a terrible feat.

The obtained Stone is not bound to a fixed form... the first Philosopher's Stone stone transmuted by Hohenheim (Created from the souls of the people of Xerxes) was shown as a glowing diamond-like stone, a sort of "perfect red stone", but also 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, whenever touched by an Alchemist or a Transmutation Circle.

Using a Stone

The Philosopher's Stone could have infinite potential uses for an Alchemist. The State Alchemist Tim Marcoh had researched it for the Military, and was terrified to discover how the military had started using the Red Stones to improve the military efficiency of the Alchemists involved in the conflict, rendering them almost invincible. He then used the imperfect Philosopher's Stone only as a way to help the sick. It was hinted that even those unskilled in Alchemy, like Father Cornello could perform amazing feats like the transmutation of chimeras and temporary reanimation of dead animal corpses. Scar's arm gave to 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, conferring immortality or soul transferrence into new bodies. 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 a Homunculus sought it to obtain humanity. A true Philosopher's Stone is not eternal... every time it's used, a bit of it vanishes, and its power is likewise reduced.

The Mechanism of the Stone

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 how the energy necessary to the process was supplied was 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 revealed to be the mystical Shamballa). 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 our "alternate world", but souls collected in Shamballa.

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