» The Ranks in Full Metal Alchemist Often times, people will ask who is above who, in the whole military aspect of the show. I have put together a list of ranks and example personnel for you. For example: All State Alchemists start out with the rank of Major. Nice way to get bumped up the chain of command pretty quickly :) We havnt come across a lot of the ranks, but this should give you a good idea of how things are broken down. Furthermore, this ranking is a status fairly early on within the series, and people do get promoted but we havnt listed them so that you wont soil the series. Commissioned Officers Example General of the Army (Fuhrer) King Bradley General Hakuro (Ep 5) Lieutenant General Major General Brigadier General Basque Gran Colonel Roy Mustang Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes Major Edward Elric, Alex Louis Armstrong, All other Alchemists. Captain First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye Second Lieutenant Maria Ross, Yoki Enlisted Officers Example Sergeant Denny Bloch Warrant Officer Farman ---------------------------------------- » The Full Metal Alchemist World The Anime and Manga takes place primarily in the country of Amestris. However this is not the only country in the world within the series. Here is some detailed information about it. >Amestris Amestris is the country where almost everything happens. The government is a military dictatorship, with King Bradley at the top. A parliament does exist although it has absolutly no power what so ever. The military has divided the country into four administrative regions with a region headquarter. The captial is called Central city and Central HQ is the hub of all military actions. Almost all alchemist research done in Amestris, unlike other countries, is entirely devouted to war and destruction. Currently Amestris is having border skirmishes with Creata and Areugo but large scale war might be a future possibility. >Creata, Drachma and Areugo Creata lies to the west and Areugo to the south. Not much is known about these countries other than the fact that they have border skirmishes quite frequently with the Amestrian Military. Drachma lies to the north and is seperated from Amestris by the Briggs mountain range. Drachma has signed a non-agression pact with Amestris but who knows how long that will last? >Ishbal Ishbal is the FMA world\'s equivilant to the middle east. The people who live there, called Ishvalans, worhip their god Ishuvaru and had a strict code forbidding alchemy. A war broke out between Ishval and Amestris and ended up having all of the Ishvalan people displaced and refugees and the country of Ishval becoming annexed my Amestris. >The Great Desert and Xing The great desert is an enormous desert that seperated Ishval from Xing. In the middle of the desert lies the ruins of the city of Xerxes ,which, as legend has it vanished in a single night when the people of the city tried to gain the philsopher\'s stone. There used to be a rail line from Ishval across the desert to Xing but the sands covered it up and rendederd it unusable. Xing is the FMA equivilant of Asia, and their form of government is a monarchy with an emperor(king) on the throne. Despite this form of governemtn the country is still divided into many different clans. Each clan is help together only by the emperor and without him the entire country would crumble into chaos. Xing\'s major use of alchemy is medecinal and some even call is Pharmacy in lieu of this trait -------------------------- » The Origin of Character's Names Many of the names in Fullmetal Alchemist have a historical root. Members in the military are tied to WWII and Aircraft names, the Alchemists have ties to famous alchemists in the past. Here you can find detailed descriptions and connections of these ties. Thanks to Scimitar Smile, and those below for this information. Hohenheim Elric Edward and Alphone's father, gets his name from a town in Germany. It's also the surname of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, more often referred to as Theophrastus von Hohenheim, an alchemist with the penname of Paracelsus. Von Hohenheim, on its own, is the equivalent of calling oneself something like Jack of London. However, it indicates Arakawa spent at least some time digging through introductory alchemical histories or texts, that he would chose such a name for the boys' father. Bradley Bradley Fighting Vehicle M-2/M-3 is a light-armored, midrange tank designed for mechanized infantry and armored cavalry combat. Main armament is a 25mm cannon, with supplementary armament of a TOW missile and a 7.62mm machine gun. The Bradley is a modern tank. [6] Bradley may have a WWII connection as well. Omar Bradley was originally teacher at U. S. Military Academy and the Infantry School, but he rose quickly through the ranks due to his brilliant tactician skills and his reputation as a commander with whom his soldiers could readily identify. By 1945, Bradley was in charge of the 12 U.S. Army Group in the European arena, commanding roughly 1,300,000 men. "His troops broke out of the Normandy beachhead, liberated Paris, defeated a German counteroffensive during the winter of 1944-1945, seized the first bridgehead over the Rhine River, and drove through central Germany to establish the first Allied contact with troops of the Soviet Union." [7] After WWII, Bradley took administrative positions, becoming the US Army's Chief of Staff in 1948. He was the fourth officer ever to reach the rank of 5-star general in the Army, a promotion only possible during wartime. Fury The FJ-1 Fury was first commissioned in 1945, but the final version was not delivered until 1948, and never saw action in WWII. A twin-engine jet designed for carrier landings, the Fury was armed with six .50-caliber machine guns with 1,500 rounds total. By 1949, the FJ-1 was already being phased out in favor of the F9F-3 Panthers. [5] Fury, the youngest officer of Mustang's staff, is often mistranslated in fansubs as Huey. Curiously enough, Huey also has connections to military aircraft. The Huey (HU-1) was a support and carrier helicopter that first saw action in the Vietnam Conflict. [3] Havoc The Mi-28 Havoc was a fighter helicopter, fitted with one 30mm NPPU-28 cannon, SA-16 Gimlet AAMs, AT-6 Spiral AT missiles, and 130mm or 80mm rockets. First deployed in the late 60's. [1] Hawkeye The E-2 Hawkeye was designed for airborne early warning, command and control. Carrying no armaments, it is classes as reconnaissance. "The Hawkeye provides all-weather airborne early warning and command and control functions for the carrier battle group. Additional missions include surface surveillance coordination, strike and interceptor control, search and rescue guidance and communications relay." [1] Hayate The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate was possibly the best Japanese fighter aircraft during the last year of the Pacific theater. The Hayate was fully the equal of even the most advanced Allied fighters, and superior in many aspects; it was well armed and armored, fast, and maneuverable. [4] Hughes The P-73 Hughes was an experimental aircraft, whose designation number was skipped in favor of a more 'commercially attractive' number, and the P-75 was released instead. There was a P-73, but "it was so secret that even today there are few details available about it. The P-73 was almost as mysterious in its time as the shadowy 'Aurora' is today. However, the reason for all this secrecy was [predominantly as] a result of the neurotic personality of the owner of the company which produced the aircraft. This was none other than the brilliant but eccentric movie tycoon, inventor, and industrialist Howard Hughes." [4] Mustang The P-51 Mustang was a one-man long range fighter in the patrol/pursuit category, carrying six .50-caliber machine guns and ten five-inch rockets, or 2,000 pounds of bombs. "The P-51 was the first U.S. fighter aircraft to fly over Europe after the fall of France. The Mustang destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft in the air during World War II, more than any other fighter in Europe." [1]