who is the father in fullmetal alchemist brotherhood
List of Fullmetal Alchemist characters "Father" (お父様, Otō-sama) is the creator of all homunculi using flawed aspects of his personality, and is the series' central antagonist.[ch. 31] He was originally known as "The Dwarf in the Flask" (フラスコの中の小人, Furasuko no Naka no Kobito) or "Homunculus" (ホムンクルス, Homunkurusu), a shadowy, charismatic creature created eight centuries ago in Cselkcess (クセルクセス, Kuserukusesu, "Xerxes" in the English anime) under the commission of its king to obtain infinite knowledge.[ch. 74] Confined within a flask where it can thrive, Homunculus formed an attachment to the young slave boy whose blood had been used in his creation, naming the lad Van Hohenheim, educating him and enabling him to rise up the social hierarchy. However, Homunculus grew envious of the human race, jealous of their mutual emotional support for each other whilst he grew lonely, being the only one of his kind. This envy caused Homunculus to lose sight of his own gifts and talents, eventually losing much of his self-confidence, and as he disliked this low self-esteem of his, he filled himself up with hubris. Playing on the vain King's desire to become immortal, Homunculus tricked the king into creating a country-wide transmutation circle for the creation of a Philosopher's Stone, whose necessary ingredient is the souls of several living human beings. Once activated, Homunculus ensured that he and the unaware Hohenheim were in the center, absorbing the souls of the population from Cselkcess between them. During the process, Homunculus used Hohenheim's blood within him to create a humanoid husk body to serve as his mobile vessel before parting ways.[ch. 75]