In bothFullmetal Alchemist,the 2003 release, and the 2009 reboot,Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhoodthe main characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric, are in constant battle with creatures called homunculi - artificially created humans brought into being by the power of alchemy. The concept of a homunculus goes as far back as Medieval times and delves into the factual elements of actual historical alchemy. The functionality of these homunculichanges between reboots, but first, we’re going to highlight the constants.
There are seven homunculi, and they all bear the names of one of the seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Wrath, and Sloth. They are immortals with some limitations; if they are not killed, they do not seem to age at all. They each have a specific ability that is referred to an ultimate skill. Lust has the ability to extend her fingers intorazor sharp spears, so this attack is called Ultimate Spear, and so on and so forth for all of them.
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Homunculus, Gluttony
All of them are cruel on some level, and a majority of them hate humans either out of a sense of superiorityorinferiority. They work in the shadows of the country of Amestris, doing dirty deeds on the military’s or Father’s behalf. They are the tools that the puppet masters have been using to bring this country to its knees, and they were able to get away with it for so long because no one knows or even believes they exist. A homunculus is right up their withunicornsin the minds of the average Amestrian alchemists. One of the only ways to even recognize a homunculus as an artificial human instead of a real one is by the presence of an oroborus tattoo, the image of a snake eating its own tail.
How a homunculus is made differs from the original anime and the reboot. In the 2003 anime, homunculi are the beings created after someone tries human transmutation. You can’t bring back the soul of a loved one, but you did bringsomethingback that’s moving, and talking, and wearing the face of your dead mother. So they function as fun little Frankenstein references that are out to destroy a country.
InFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhoodthe homunculi have a radically different backstory. The main antagonist is the first homunculus, made purely from alchemy in the fallen city of Xerxes, where he dubbed himself the Dwarf in the Flask because he was kept in a little glass flask sense the outside air would kill him. Through some violent machinations, the homunculus turned the entire country into a Philosopher’s Stone and used that power to assume a human form. His metaphorical flask was just extended, so he wasn’t free, but not he lived under the country of Amestris that he personally built to be another Xerxes.Raising a lamb for slaughter, the homunculus now calling himself Father, decides that he needs to separate the emotions within to have some underlings to help him out. This is where the seven deadly sins homunculi come in.
Homunculus, Pride
They are parts of Father that he extracted and gave a human form, and it is implied that they are powerful in accordance to the strongest sin that Father indulges in. Pride is the first, and the most powerful for example. All seven of these homunculi have a Philosopher Stone at their core, serving as their heart and/or battery. If you can burn through all the souls powering that stone, you can actually kill a homunculus.Roy Mustangwas able to kill Lust in the remake because of this. Other than that, they are immortal and proud of it and hate humans.
Only Wrath, Fruher King Bradley inFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, has a different origin. Humans can be possessed by homunculi if they are infected with that Philosopher Stone. Bradley was designed to be possessed by Wrath, and he was the first to survive the possession. The strength of all the souls in the Philosopher Stone have the ability to rewrite or front in the body, wiping away the personality of the person who originally owned that body. Ling is later possessed by Greed in the same manner, but Ling’s personality was strong enough to sit side by side with Greed when it came to using his body.
The homunculi are not mind controlled by Father, and so some chose to betray him. Greed regularly runs away from Father and does his own thing until he is found andassimilated back into Father. In the original anime, while Father doesn’t exist, Lust regains from memories of the person she was supposed to be brought back as.
Some homunculi act as antiheroes and some are villains only, but they are the ones that move the plot ofFullmetal Alchemist.They work behind the scenes, and if there were more conspiracy theorists in Amestris, they would being going crazy for the seven immortal, artificial humans that are responsible for all wars and bloodshed sense the conception of this country.
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