Van Hohenheim
Van Hohenheim is a male anime and manga character who features in Fullmetal Alchemist.
Contents |
Biography
Van Hohenheim (Japanese: ヴァン・ホーエンハイム|, Hepburn: Van Hōenhaimu) was born as a male human slave in the ancient city of Xerxes with him having no name and simply known as Slave Number 23. As Number 23 mops the floor in his master's laboratory, a creature in a flask addresses him. Hohenheim's blood had been used in the creation of the creature, the first Homunculus. As a sign of gratitude, the Homunculus gave him the name Theophrastus Bombastus Van Hohenheim, but it was shortened to Van Hohenheim for 23's own "convenience". Lastly, the homunculus tells Hohenheim that it can give him knowledge. Homunculus teaches Hohenheim reading, writing and basic alchemy. As a result of this knowledge, Hohenheim becomes his master's assistant and his life greatly improves. The Homunculus presents the King of Xerxes with what it claims is the secret to immortality. After the King creates a massive transmutation circle around Xerxes, the circle is activated, with Hohenheim and the homunculus secretly in its center. As the country and people, including the King, are consumed by the array, Hohenheim is brought before the Doors of Truth. When he is returned to the dead land of Xerxes, he encounters the Homunculus, who has crafted a copy of Hohenheim's body to inhabit for itself. As a "gift" for helping him and being the source of his life, Homunculus also rebuilt Hohenheim's body into an immortal one. The souls used were most likely people he once knew in his youth in Xerxes, who died for his both his new body and that of Homunculus, adapting the name "Father" later on. Some of the names of the souls he addresses in Chapter 97 include the people he called out to after returning from the Doors.
Some time after the Xerxes catastrophe, Hohenheim travels eastward through the desert, where he is found by a caravan of Xing merchants, who bring him to their homeland. While there, he passes along his teachings of Alchemy, which the Xingese use as the basis for their alkahestry and passing into legend as the "Western Sage" or "Golden Sage". A few decades prior to the storyline, Hohenheim arrives to Amestris and meets Trisha Elric, marrying her and having children. Though he eventually reveals the truth of his body to her, Trisha still loved Hohenheim as he decides to leave Resembool for a means to become mortal, so that he could not only age and die with his family, through ironically abandoning Edward, and Alphonse when their mother died, but after realizing Father's plan to repeat history with the country and spending an entire decade planning up a counter to it.
Eventually, Hohenheim came to return to Resembool only to find that his house had been burnt down and was confronted by an angry Edward in front of Trisha's grave. He went over to the Rockbell house to inform Pinako Rockbell after the matter where she was surprised at seeing him return whilst also commenting on how he did not seem to age. Hohenheim though warned Pinako that she should leave the country as it was no longer safe before departing with a picture of his family. The carriage he was on though was held up by bandits who shot Hohenheim multiple times but this had no effect on him as it simply damaged his clothes. Whilst traveling to the mountains, Hohenheim came to sense Father restricting alchemic transmutations in Central Amestris. Afterwards, he encountered Izumi Curtis who was traveling with her husband Sig Curtis where he thanked her for caring for his children. Curtis believed Hohenheim should have spoken to his children but he disagreed as he felt too ashamed. It was then that Izumi coughed blood due to an injury with her husband looking or medication when Hohenheim decided to use his alchemy. This allowed him to re-order Izumi's ravaged internal organs into the most favourable arrangement possible thus easing her pain. It was during this encounter he revealed his nature as a Philosopher Stone in human form to Curtis. Meanwhile, Father liste Hohenheim as one of his potential sacrifices for his planned transmutation circle.
Toward the climax of the story, Hohenheim joins Ed, Al, and their comrades in stopping Father's plan to sacrifice Amestris's citizens to become a "god". When they fail to stopping him before activating his nationwide transmutation circle, he absorbs the souls of Amestris's citizens and absorbs the Truth itself, giving him godlike power. He attacks the band of alchemist sacrifices with what appears to be pure alchemic power, but Hohenheim manages to defend against it with help from Mei before revealing his counter through a few souls from his stone. By placing them into the ground, and having the moon's shadow act as a transmutation circle with his stone's souls at the cardinal points, they managed to reverse the process and return the stolen souls to their proper places, leaving Father's his new form unstable and barely able to hold the Truth. With Scar's own counter of restoring the alchemists' alchemy, Hohenheim continued to counter all of Father's attacks while taking their battle to the Central before the Homunculus distracts Hohenheim by giving the souls of Xeres' dead new bodies so he can finish his assailants with some sort of energy blast. But the scheme failed and Father eventually lost control over the power he had absorbed and was defeated. After the battle Hohenheim, now with only his soul left, offered to give it up to bring Al back, but Ed refused and gave up his own ability to use alchemy in order to restore Al. Hohenheim then returned to Resembool to visit Trisha's grave one last time talking about how his life had no meaning before he met Trisha and had children, his body starts to break down as he said that he didn't want to die at all. Hohenheim dies peacefully after nearly 500 years of life, his oldest friend Pinako discovered his body the next morning. His grave is later seen next to Trisha's.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In his youth Hohenheim bears a strong resemblance to Ed, although with different bangs, taller, thinner and a more defined jaw. He was noted for his muscular physique. Originally, he was given the designation of Slave Number 23 when he lived in Xerxes. Over time, his knowledge and skilled led to some referring to him as the Sage of the West (西の賢者, Nishi no kenja?. In some cases, he was also known by the name of Hohenheim of Light (光のホーエンハイム, Hikari no hōenhaimu?).
As a teenager, Hohenheim was ill-tempered and prideful for a slave where he reacted angrily to insults made by the original Houmunculus. He also was very curious person as he wanted to know what freedom was like and wanted to learn alchemy.
Hohenheim was shown as being a mild and soft-spoken person who vaguely guilt-ridden over his past actions. He was also prone to making an idiot of himself and yet immune to embarrassment. It was shown that he had a tendency to make cryptic statements and occasionally test other people's character.
Such was his sense of responsibility and duty that he felt that he had to prevent Father's plans from coming to fruition.
Later in his life, he came to meet and later marry Trisha Elric who became his wife with her giving him two sons named Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric. It was shown that Trisha had been the love of his life and that she had helped him change his entire world view.
In many ways, he was of similar character to his son Edward, with a hair-trigger temper and considerable pride. However, he always completely lacked the obsessive drive which characterizes Edward Elric. Hohenheim felt ashamed over not being there for his wife and children which was why he did not stay with his sons after the death of their mother.
Powers and abilities
Originally, Hohenheim was a normal human being with no special abilities beyond his nascent knowledge in alchemy that he learnt from the Dwarf in the Flask. The Homunculi came to sacrifice all the citizens of Xerxes to create Philosopher's Stones with one of these being bonded to Hohenheim. Thus, he came to be made into a Philosopher's Stone that had been given the form of a man and he gained miraculous self-regenerative abilities similar to a Homunculi. This allowed him to heal from any injuries with him being incapable of dying or even aging with Hohenheim being preserved in the prime of his life and health for over 400 years.
The long life span allowed Hohenheim to become an extremely powerful alchemist who was second to none with his power being bolstered by the unlimited energy within the Philosopher's Stone. He had gained centuries of knowledge of the alchemic arts where among the only people that rivalled his power were his son and the Homunculi Father.
Notes
- Van Hohenheim was created by Hiromu Arakawa where he featured in the setting of Fullmetal Alchemist.
- The character took his name from real life occultist Phillip Von Hohenheim, otherwise known as Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus.
In other media
Television
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Hohenheim appeared in the 2003 anime television series with a different backstory and origin. Approximately four hundred years ago, Hohenheim embarked on experiments to create the Philosopher's Stone alongside his lover Dante. Ultimately, the two were able to make the first Philosopher's Stone where they used people captured in a witch hunt and those dying of the plague. The resulting reaction nearly caused Hohenheim's death, but out of love and concern for her lover, Dante used the stone to attach his soul to another man's body. It's from here on out that the two jump from body to body, living on, and obtaining a so-called eternal life. It's not known if Dante and Hohenheim were actually ever married, but their relationship produced one son who died of mercury poisoning. Hohenheim performed human transmutation on his son, which, in turn, failed and produced Envy, the first-ever Homunculus. Regretting what he had done to his son, Hohenheim fled, leaving Dante a fragment of the Stone. Later, Hohenheim renounces ever truly loving Dante, stating Trisha Elric as the only woman he ever truly loved. Approximately four centuries old in soul, forty years old in his current body, "Hohenheim of Light" remains behind the scenes throughout most of the series. Most of his past is kept under wraps, save for a few key points, revealed quite late in the series. Hohenheim is a tall, rather well-built man, standing in at least six feet tall at first glance. He's rather gentle and weary, and soft-spoken as well, which is most likely due to the extensive amount of time spent alive, under his assorted burdens. This disposition is clearly demonstrated when Edward actually punches him in the face and kicks him in the stomach, with very little reaction. In the anime and manga he sports blonde hair and gold eyes, causing him to bear a strong resemblance to his sons, more so Edward than Alphonse. He is shown to be an extremely powerful alchemist, possibly the strongest in the series, showcasing his talents in transmuting light. He had explained to Trisha shortly before his departure that he was leaving to do research of some kind. stolen bodies rot more quickly every time he takes a new one. Also knowing that Dante was out there, somewhere, he assumed that staying in hiding would, perhaps, make her vanish for good. But once he found out that Dante had her eyes set on his sons, he emerged to face her, only to be immobilized by the Homunculus Sloth, who bore a striking resemblance to his late wife Trisha, and was consequently sent into the Gate, where his mind, body, and soul were separated. He was able to reassemble himself, however, and emerge on the other side, in London, and eventually becomes an advisor to Winston Churchill. When Edward's soul was sent there by Dante, he learns about Hohenheim's past. When he offers to find a way to bring Hohenheim back to their home world, he declines, revealing that the act is impossible due to his entire being residing on this side. At the end of the series, he is living in Germany, siding himself with the Thule Society, secretly finding a way to send his son back to Amestris, caring for him until Edward left for Romania to find the means of world travel.
Appearances
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:
External Links
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