Ishval

Ishval (also spelled 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 Ishvalans were previously spread out over a wider area, but that the smaller region of Ishval was created by the Amestrian government to pen them in after conflicts between the Central Government and Ishvalan people began to arise.

Ishvalans are an ethnoreligious group, identified by their ethnicity but unified by common religious beliefs. Although they are usually characterized by brown skin and white or silver hair, Ishvalan people are most definitively distinguished by their red eyes, which persist as a dominant genetic trait regardless of whether or not Ishvalans marry outside of their ethnicity. (In the 2003 anime series, only Scar and the older Ishvalans have white or silver hair; the children and many others have dark hair instead. In the 2009 anime series, all Ishvalans are portrayed with white hair regardless of age.)

The religion of Ishval is based on the concept that the earth god Ishvala 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 Ishval 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 Ishvalan child by an Amestrian soldier began the seven year Ishval Civil War.

Since the war, Ishval has become a desolate land with blood and nightmarish memories soaking deep into the sand; Ishvalan 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.