Ishvala

Ishvala (spelled "Ishvara" in Japanese) is the Earth God, and creator deity of the Ishvalan religion.

Not much is known about him or his religion, except that his teachings have been interpreted as forbidding alchemy. In the Ishvalan religion, alchemy is regarded as a practice of "perversion and arrogance," because it implies that the objects created by God can be improved upon by human hands. It is unknown whether Ishvala is credited with passing on the teachings of the Ishvalan church directly, or whether the sacred teachings are passed through prophets like Logue Lowe. With the near-extinction of the Ishvalan people, his religion has largely died out. It has also been noted that the concept of the Earth-based creator god is similar to that of the Earth Dragon in alkahestry.

Trivia

 * Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning "controller" or "god" in a theistic school of thought. In Sanskrit and in the languages of some Indianized countries that have borrowed vocabulary from Sanskrit, "Ishvara" is also used to denote a "lord" in a temporal sense, as any master or king (a dual usage also found in English). In this sense, "Ishvara" is often used in compounds, to designate the lord of some place or group.
 * Apparently, there is an appropriate and official song for Ishval that mentions their god: "The Land of Ishvala" from the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Original Soundtrack 2.
 * Ishvala appears to also be based on the Judeo-Christian, or Hebrew, god worshipped by Muslims, Christians and Jews, as well as other monotheistic faiths. Said god is considered an all-powerful creator deity, and many who follow them follow rules forbidding certain practices, similar to the Ishvalan ban on alchemy.
 * The God of the Ishvalan religion has similarities to the God of the Letoist religion taught by Cornello, and it is possible that Cornello was inspired by the Ishvalan religion when inventing his own.