Edward Elric

Edward Elric (AKA "The Fullmetal Alchemist", or, like Roy Mustang calls him, "FullMetal") is the protagonist of Fullmetal Alchemist. His first name is often shortened to "Ed".

Background
He was the son of Trisha Elric and Van Hohenheim. His father left when Ed was a young boy and when his brother Alphonse was only a baby. Edward bears a deep resentment for his father for abandoning his mother. Despite this, both Ed and Al become fascinated by their father's work, the alchemy.

The boys displayed a proficiency for the art of alchemy from an early age, which pleases Trisha, their alchemy reminding to her her husband.

During the Ishbal Massacre, Ed and Al's childhood friend Winry's parents are both killed (by Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang in the anime, by Scar in the manga). Winry is now solely in the care of her grandmother, Pinako Rockbell, a renowned automail engineer.

But, since Van Hohenheim left home, Trisha Elric had been dealing with a terminal illness, one day collapsing to be found by Ed and Al. The doctor is called, but can do nothing and Trisha Elric passes away in her home, leaving Edward and Alphonse orphans.

After the death of their mother Edward and Alphonse made a vow to learn all they could of alchemy, then they would use Human Transmutation to bring Trisha Elric back from the dead.

An apt alchemist, Izumi Curtis, was travelling through Resembool with her husband at the same time as a terrible flood. The boys attempted to help, but their efforts were in vain and unnecessary as Izumi transmuted an massive rock wall to block the raging waters.

Seeing Izumi's skill, the boys begged her to take them in as her alchemy apprentices. Reluctantly she did so, and the boys returned with her to the town of Dublith to begin their training.

After learning what they could from Izumi, Edward and Alphonse returned to Risembool, prepared to attempt what no alchemist has ever been successful, resurrecting the dead.

Using the components that make up an average human body, and a drop of the brothers' blood for the soul, they activated their transmutation circle. Then everything went terribly wrong. Shadowy black arms took Alphonse and when Edward tried to rescue him the same arms snatched his left leg. Edward uses his right arm as a component to seal Al's soul to the armor.

In the Manga
In the manga, the brothers went to Mustang after Ed got his automail. Mustang took them to Central, and only Ed took the test. He passed, and they returned to Resembool and burned their home down. In the anime, they stayed with Tucker while studying for the exam, and had burned their house down before they left. That explains why the date on the inside of Ed's watch is different between the two canons: in the anime, it's "3 Oct 10" and in the manga is "3 Oct 11."

However, because the brothers feared that their secret, the performance of human transmutation, would be exposed during the physical phase of the exam if Al were to take it, they decided that only Ed would take it. Ed easily passed, and, at the age of 12, became the youngest State Alchemist that the State has ever certified. His ability to transmute without an array surprised those who witnessed it, but he took it a step further by seemingly threatening President Bradley. The President, however, admires this act as one of guts and courage and passes Ed, making him an official State Alchemist.

After passing the alchemy exam, Edward and Alphonse set out to look for the Philosopher's Stone. Since the Stone allows the owner to bypass the laws of equivalent exchange, Ed and Al believe that locating the stone will enable them to regain what they have lost in their failed attempt to resurrect their mother. In an effort to help the Elric Brothers in this quest, Mustang (Ed's superior officer) issued orders to Edward to conduct an alchemical investigation into the Philosopher's Stone. This allowed Ed to use his military position to legitimately search for the stone without raising suspicion among other officers in the military.

Edward, Envy, and Ling are swallowed by Gluttony in chapter 50. Ed learns from Envy that Gluttony is a fake Gate of Truth created by Father and concludes that going through the real gate can get them out. Using Envy's stone as the passage fee, Edward transmutes himself while Envy and Ling jump in. At the Gate, Edward sees two Gates and Al's body waiting at one of them, proving his theory that his and Al's souls are somehow connected. As Edward is pulled back into the real world, he vows to someday get Al's body back from the gate.

Later on in the series Ed and Al head north in search of "Rentanjutsu girl" (May Chan). They ally with Major General Armstrong and attempt to get information out of General Raven (who is later killed by Armstrong). Because of Raven's disappearance Kimblee is called in (along with Winry, who replaces his automail with one more suited for the northern climate) and tells Edward he has to do his job as a state alchemist. Ed is assigned three tasks - 1) search for scar, 2) search for Marcoh, and 3) "carve a bloody crest into Briggs". Edward chooses to look for Scar first.

In chapter 76 Edward is impaled by a metal rod after losing a fight with Kimblee and collapses (Al also blanks out in unison with Ed's wound.) Chapter 77 show him saving Kimbly's subordante Chimeras so that they can remove the rod, He then heals the wound by using his life energy, At the expence of cutting short part of his life span.Edward gets separated from Alphonse to prevent Winry to be held as a hostage. In a fight against the state alchemist Kimblee, Edward gets gravely injured. Edward uses alchemy to stop the bleeding. When the revealed homunculus Greed runs off he runs into Edward, He offers him to come join him and agrees

In chapter 84 Ed is seen at the Rockbell house in Resemmbol hiding with Greed and the rest of his followers. Unknown to Ed (who is in Winry's room keeping watch) When she comes into her house she is shocked to find Ed in her room while she is undressing. The two scream (obviously shocked by one another) which causes everyone to believe Ed and Winry are in danger and she soon kicks everone out of her room. Shortly after she fills Ed in on where Al is and what's been happening in Lior. She finds out Ling has become Greed, and why they were hiding out in her house. Ed tells her to leave the country, but she refuses, wanting to help Ed in anyway she can. Ed soon departs and Winry stays in Resembool for the time being.

Edward Elric was born in the winter, as stated by Hiromu Arakawa, at the end of manga volume 12. She also says that it is normal for winter to last up to six months in Japan, though this could be construed as a joke by the writer since in all of the flashback scenes a true winter has been shown in succession with the other seasons. Many people think that he was born in the year 1899; it is never stated if that is true or not. Ed's parents are Hohenheim of Light, known in the manga as Van Hohenheim, and Trisha Elric. His birthday has never been specifically stated in either the manga or the anime. Hohenheim left the family while Ed was young, for reasons later revealed in the series.

In the anime
At the end of the series, when Edward is killed by Envy, who was a homunculus who was created by Hohenheim of Light, Al uses the power of the Philosopher's Stone (contained within himself) to heal Ed's body and to reattach his soul. The revival, however, uses up the all of the Stone's (Al's own body) power. Al appears briefly at the gate and then disappears. After being revived, Ed discovers that he had regained his arm and leg, but decides to risk everything to bring back his brother. He then pulled Alphonse's soul and original body out of the Gate and reassembled them in exchange for his own life if necessary. As a result, Ed ends up on the other side of the gate, which is our world. He is living in Pre World War II Munich with Hohenheim. Hohenheim appeared to have been in London for some time, despite a relatively short passage of time between his being sent there by Dante in the anime, and Edward's arrival there.

Hohenheim later offers the theory that the bonds formed in the four years the brothers spent on their quest for the stone served as the equivalent exchange in the transmutation (rather than Ed's life, as he intended). Hohenheim also said, in an earlier episode, that one way for the Elrics to reclaim what they lost is to give up what they had gained. The death of Sloth, the Homunculus born when they attempted to transmute their mother, had given back a portion of what they had gained. In Al's case, he loses all the memories he had of the time he spent in his armored form and reverted to exactly how he was, body and all, before the failed transmutation of their mother. Ed, on the other hand, could not keep his arm and leg because he gave them up in exchange for the soul of Alphonse.

Edward leaves to do research on rocket science, believing that outer space could lead him back to the Gate, since our world nullified his alchemic powers.

In the Conqueror of Shamballa film, Edward travels to Romania with a young man named Alfons Heiderich, who resembles his brother Al, for research in rocket fuel. Befriending a young woman named Noa, Ed found himself embroiled in a conspiracy by the Thule Society, bent on invading his own home world. Reunited with Alphonse once again, the brothers went to our world, to search and dismantle the atom bomb that went there.