Father

The central antagonist of the manga and 2009 anime series. Father is an extremely powerful Homunculus identical in appearance to Hohenheim, excluding hairstyle, clothing, and lack of glasses. He is the creator of the Homunculi.

Pre-Amestris
The character Father was originally a sentient shadowy substance (Who at times could form eyes and a wide grin), which was created in a flask during the time of the ancient civilization of Xerxes, by the Alchemist to the king of Xerxes who used the blood of his slave, Number 23. Contrary to Pride's statement, Father could actually be considered the first Homunculus (though, Pride could have been referring to himself as the oldest of Father's children).

Being a homunculus with no form, Father was unable to perform any alchemy of his own, so he befriended Slave 23, taught him to read, write and perform alchemy and named him Van Hohenheim. The king called on Father (currently going by the name "Homunculus") to give him the secrets to become immortal. Father used this opportunity and instructed the king to construct a giant transmutation circle out of the kingdom, creating bloodshed at specific nodes of the circle. He then manipulated the event so he and Van Hohenheim were standing at the true center of the circle, so once it was activated, every soul in Xerxes besides Father and Hohenheim were sacrificed to possibly make the first Philosopher's Stone that was created.

Father used this power to open the Doors of Truth and created himself and Van Hohenheim new immortal bodies, living embodiments of the Philosopher's Stone with the millions of souls of Xerxes split between them as their power.

Horrified at what he aided in doing, Van Hohenheim parted ways with Father.

The Sage of the East and the Founding of Amestris
After the destruction of Xerxes, Father made his way west where a small group of people were attempting to thrive. Father took these people under his wing and taught them alchemy, however he did not teach them true alchemy, but an alchemy that took its energy directly from the souls of Xerxes contained in Father himself.

From this point the people formed into a powerful military state called Amestris, a puppet government secretly run by Father. Amestris begins to rise in power and annexes all nearby land, eventually branching out to form yet another giant transmutation circle, with all skirmishes and bloodshed involving the Amestrian military taking place at the important nodes of the circle.

Father plans to use Amestris just as he did Xerxes, to create a huge philosopher's stone; however, he seems to require alchemists that have opened the Gate as human sacrifices. In Chapter 73, he is shown moving five pieces around a transmutation circle; two being the Elric brothers, another being Izumi Curtis, and the fourth being Hohenheim. Roy Mustang would go on to become the fifth and final human sacrifice when Pride and Wrath force him into opening The Gate by force.

Throughout the first half of the story, Father's face is never shown, but he is mostly seen sitting on a stone throne with many pipes leading into it. He is first seen when Wrath captures Greed and brings him to Father's underground lair. Father has Greed lowered into a tub of liquid which decomposes his body into his core Philosopher's Stone. The Stone, now in a liquid state and containing Greed's soul, is then consumed by Father. He is later seen when Gluttony brings Alphonse into the Homunculi's lair. Father, surprised by this, asks who Alphonse is before Gluttony's body begins to tear apart. Father watches on as Envy in his second, monstrous form emerges from Gluttony along with Edward Elric and Ling Yao. Father's full face is then seen for the first time in the series: he is then seen looking exactly like Hohenheim, except without glasses and with very menacing eyes. He is surprised to learn that Edward and Alphonse are Hohenheim's children and then he heals Edwards wounds and restores Alphonse's missing arm. Father, having no use for Ling, orders Gluttony and Envy to kill him. Edward says that Ling is their friend, but Father makes it clear that he does not care and that anyone not part of his plans needs to be destroyed. Edward and Alphonse use their alchemy to try and attack Father but to no avail; Father is completely unharmed by their attacks. Father, annoyed by the attacks, taps his foot on the ground and disables all alchemic processes in Central. Then, Scar and Mei Chan enter Father's lair, and Father is shocked to see that they can still use their unique form of alchemy. However, even Scar's destruction alchemy is unable to defeat Father. Scar and Mei are overwhelmed and Envy captures Ed and Al. Father easily defeats Ling and then takes the liquefied stone in which Greed is contained and merges it with Ling. Ling then becomes the new Greed and Father has Ed and Al taken to the surface. From there, Father is mostly seen sitting on his throne, musing over his plan and conversing with the military high command.

In chapter 90, Edward Elric, Hohenheim, Scar, Lan Fan and the Chimeras are invading his lair with plans to finally kill him. In chapter 91, Only Hohenheim manages to reach him, Father told Hohenheim, that he is about to become a part of him. After a short battle, he manages to stab Hohenheim and claim his Philosopher's Stone but the thousands of restless souls composing it manage to destroy his humanoid body from the inside.

Unfortunately, this isn't enough to kill Father as his original Homunculus form, now fully evolved (looking like a big human shaped version of his former self with a grinning mouth and multiple eyes) emerges from his container, absorbs it with the Philosopher's Stones it still contained and restarts the fight. He defeated Hohenheim, absorbing him into his body and later greeted Izumi Curtis and the Elric brothers, who did not recognized him at first.

In Chapter 102, Pride has joined him, bringing along a blind Roy Mustang, giving Father his fifth and final human sacrifice.

As of Chapter 104, Father has defeated his attackers and proceeds to finally activate the Nationwide Transmutation Circle around Amestris using his human sacrifices. As all the people of Amestris slowly die, he begins to tear open The Gates of Truth with his bare hands; "linking" himself with a higher power he calls "God". Once the transmutation process is completed, Father states that he now has all the energy and knowledge of "God". He is now also shown to posses a new human body for himself, one in the same appearance of a young Van Hohenheim.

Personality
Father is usually seen as a very calm and somewhat serious individual. He rarely shows any signs of suprise and also has a somewhat bored look on his face in many of his appearences. He is dark, foreboding, and has great confidence in all of his plans. During his first meeting with Edward Elric he shows a somewhat comical, lighter side to his personality, but almost immediataly after he switches back to his very serious demeanor. Father is also cold, pitiless and believes that everyone around him is nothing but a tool to be used as part of his plans. the only exeptions to this may be the homunculus themselves as Hohenheim had stated during their battle that one of the reasons he had created them was because he wanted a family of his own, hence his title Father. Father is then seen with a suprised and sad look after hohenheim states this. Father seems to believe that all humans are below him and are nothing but ants.

Despite his normally calm, brooding, calculating personality, he is shown to be extremely excited when his plans finally come together, showing a wicked, gleefully evil side to his personality. When outside of his human container and revealing his true form he is often seen with a wicked grin. (Technically several wicked grins, if you include the mouths on his body)

Appearance and Abilities
Due to his imitation of Hohenheim's body in Xerxes he looks identical in appearance to Hohenheim, excluding hairstyle, clothing, and lack of glasses. He is normally seen in the cavity beneath Central in which he and the Homunculi reside, sitting on a stone or cement chair with numerous pipes leading to it. The chair also has a physical connection to him, which can be unattached from him. The purpose of the pipes is unknown, but it is implied that they are used to supply the country with souls from his Philosopher's Stone so that Amestrian-style alchemy can be performed, especially with Envy's statement to Edward after Father performs his alchemy disabling technique and when May states that the presence of souls beneath the ground are stronger around Father's chamber.

During his battle with Van Hohenheim, father left his body (swallowing the empty moult-like shell left behind afterwards) to expose his new evolved form.

Father's body is composed of a huge number of Philosopher's stones, made from half the souls of the people of Xerxes. Due to this, he is able to perform alchemy without drawing a transmutation circle or clapping his hands together. He can also ignore Equivalent Exchange. This is demonstrated in Chapter 54 when he effortlessly repels the Elric brothers' attacks while literally standing still. It is unknown why Father alone is capable of using alchemy out of the Homunculi.

The Homunculi were created by him through with the Philosopher's Stone; however, Wrath and the second Greed had the Philosopher's Stone injected into their bloodstream. Father is also able to remove these stones without much effort, as in Chapter 56, when he takes the nearly depleted Stone from Gluttony's body, and attempts to steal Hohenheim's Philosopher's Stone during their battle.

Father also has also been shown to be able to prevent alchemists from performing Amestrian alchemy as seen when he nullifies Ed's ability to use the art. It is later stated that no alchemists within a large part of Central could use their alchemy either. It is unknown how he did this, but it is likely he prevented them from drawing energy from the earth as Amestrian alchemy requires. Xing style alchemy is unaffected by this attack, as seen when Scar and Mei continue using their alchemy against Envy (Scar's alchemy is based on Xing style and Mei is a native of the 12 Countries of Xing). This seems to startle Father a bit.

During his battle with Hohenheim, Father and Hohenheim are shown to be equally matched in terms of alchemical prowess and Hohenheim even manages to gain the upper hand in the battle. However, after Father revelas his true form, an unseen battle takes place between him and Hohenheim, and Father easily defeats him. In this form Father is shown to have a strange body structure, able to avoid all attacks by shifting his form into a fluid like shape, making him invulnerable to all attacks. He also seems to be able to absorb things into himself, such as Hohenheims whole body and a dagger thrown by Mei. He can also transform things he has absorbed, as seen when he absorbed Mei's dagger and then reshaped it into a massive version of itself, launching it from his body at Mei. He also has some sort of sheild around his body that protects him from attacks, as seen when Mai attempts to kick him but she is blown back and defeated without Father even moving.

Trivia

 * Father's original flask-bound form was most likely inspired by real life concepts of Homunculi. Supposedly, if an alchemist was successful in creating such a being, he was to keep it inside of a glass flask for a certain period of time, as it would die in its "infancy" stage outside of it.


 * Though it's stated numerous times that Father has expelled all of his sins, it's interesting to note he acts in a very power-hungry, greedy way. Much like his "son", he desires all of the power in the universe.