Ishval

Ishbal is a region of Southeastern Amestris on the border of the Eastern Desert. The area has been described as a rather harsh land made of little more than rocks and sand, which accounts for the strict moral code promoted by its inhabitants. It is suggested that Ishbalans were previously spread out over a wider area, but that the smaller region of Ishbal was created by the government to pen them in after conflicts between the Central Government and Ishbalan people began to arise.

Ishbalans are both an ethnicity and religion. Though they are usually characterized by brown skin and white or silver hair, Ishbalan people are most definitively distinguished by their red eyes, which persist as a dominant genetic trait regardless of whether or not Ishbalans marry outside of their ethnicity.

The religion of Ishbal is based on the concept that the earth god Ishbala is the one, true creator of all things. As such, part of their creed is an aversion to Alchemy, which distorts in hubris the natural form given to matter by god. The religion of Ishbal is stated to have been recognized by the Amestrian government, but the practices of these two differing cultures clashed for several years until they reached a head in 1901, when the shooting of an Ishbalan child by an Amestrian soldier began the six year Ishval Civil War.

After the war, Ishbal has become a desolate land with blood and nightmarish memories soaking deep into the sand; Ishbalan people have spread out over the nation of Amestris, hiding from persecution in the ghettos. Some have taken refuge in the Eastern Desert within the ruins of Xerxes.