Jude/Overview

Jude is a skilled alchemist in the service of the wealthy Hamburgang family. When the young daughter of the Hamburgangs, Rosalie, died, Jude took on the task of engineering an alchemical method of bringing her back to life and settled on a method of Human Transmutation similar or identical to that used by the Elric brothers and Izumi Curtis.

His Part on the Story
When Jude encountered The Gate in the midst of the transmutation, the Truth took both his eyes as his toll, leaving him blind and facially scarred as a result. When Jude's consciousness returned to his laboratory on the Hamburgang estate, he asked Rosalie's parents if he had at least succeeded in resurrecting her. Though the result of the failed transmutation was a strange mummy-like doll of a body, Rosalie's parents held back their disappointment for their dear servant's sake and informed him that their dear Rosalie was indeed returned to them as beautiful as she had been in life.

Secretly, the Hamburgangs visited an orphanage immediately afterward and adopted a young girl named Amy who resembled Rosalie and had her act as their daughter so as to spare Jude's feelings. With the Hamburgangs, Amy and all the other house servants keeping up the ruse, Jude would never learn the truth - that the true Rosalie is lost forever and the strange being he had brought back in her place sits nearly inert in a secret room at the estate, an unknown soul housed within.

In the extra chapter "The Blind Alchemist", Edward and Alphonse Elric, having heard rumors of Jude's success with Human Transmutation, pay the alchemist a visit in order to ask him how he managed to bring Rosalie back. However, Madame Hamburgang refuses to allow Jude to reveal his method to them, citing at first the desire to keep the family secrets out of the hands of outsiders. However, after Jude kindly declines any further discussion and take his leave, Madame Hamburgang and Amy reveal the truth to the Elric brothers and advise them not to attempt Human Transmutation by any means.

Trivia

 * Jude was not chosen as a Human Sacrifice by the Homunculi, possibly because unlike the other candidates he lacked the passion for saving everyone and merely wanted to serve his family.
 * Though some might find it cruel to lie to Jude that his attempt suceeded, his masters only wished to reward him for making such a sacrifice for them.
 * From Father's description in Chapter 102 as to why alchemists lose what they do for attempting human transmutation, it is possible that Jude lost his eyes due to his desire to see Rosalie again.
 * In the official English dub of Bonus Episode: The Blind Alchemist, the character is called "Judeau" instead of "Jude" likely due to the fact that the Japanese pronunciation of Jude necessarily ends with an "o" sound (Jyudo).