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After rewatching most of FMA: Brotherhood, I'm a bit confused.

In Episode 40, Van Hohenheim explained that he's a humanoid form of the
Philosopher's Stone. What difference does it make from the main Homunculi
(Pride, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, and the others) who use it only as an
energy source?

For example, Wrath was a regular human being before he got the Stone, compared
to Hohenheim who is the Stone itself. What are they different in?

Also, is Father the same? Since he was a Homunculus too (or whatever, I'm not
even sure...), but he got the same "reward" in Xerxes as Hohenheim.

So, what's the difference between Father, Van Hohenheim, and the Homunculi?


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fullmetal-alchemist-series fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood
What's the difference between Father, Van Hohenheim, and the main Homunculi?


Hohenheim was a human once; he was originally a slave in Xerxes and as per
slaves was never taught how to read or write. However, he met the "Dwarf in
the Flask" who taught him Alchemy and tricked the rulers of Xerxes to create a
Philosopher's Stone. Since Dwarf couldn't leave his flask he had Hohenheim act
in his stead and the two were the center point of the nation-wide array.

Hohenheim was turned into a living stone while Dwarf was able to get a body
similar to Hohenheim's (Hohenheim however describes it as a "Leather Bag" that
Dwarf can't live outside of just like his flask).

The Homunculi Dwarf AKA Father created are born from his Stone and one of the
7 deadly sins to not only carry out his will but to make him different from
humans (In the end Hohenheim confirms this by asking if Dwarf though by
extracting the 7 sins would that make him any less human), the personalities
of the Homunculi themes from these sins however most were just experiments
like Gluttony being an attempt to create a Gate, Wrath being the first human
to be infused with the Stone (later we see it happen with Greed) and I think
Pride was an attempt to create a new body and I think Envy was an entirely
different form of life.

The Homunculi are different as they were creates of the stone inside Dwarf's
body, the different between Wrath and Hohenheim who were both human is that
Wrath (and to an extent Greed 2) is still in a way human. Hohenheim however no
longer was human when he became the stone, Dwarf and Hohenheim are different
as Hohenheim is a Stone, Drawf just as a Stone inside his "Leather Bag".

All of this is just what I've picked up on watching the series so it may be
speculation in some places.


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_**Warning:** Unmarked spoilers follow._

It seems there are four different components you're addressing here, so I'll
make the differences for each one clear.

# Van Hohenheim

[![Van
Hohenheim](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uuR3Bm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uuR3B.jpg)  
**Van Hohenheim** , also known as **slave #23** , was a citizen of Xerxes and
a regular human being who was employed by King Xerxes' alchemist. This
alchemist was an experimenter, and managed to create a being, the Dwarf in the
Flask, as a result of alchemy.

The Dwarf gave the slave a name, Van Hohenheim, before allying with him in
order to turn the citizens of Xerxes into a philosopher's stone. Once this was
successful, Hohenheim, as a human, had over 500,000 souls within his blood,
giving him great power. So, while he is a real human being, he is also a
philosopher's stone.

# Homunculus (in the Flask)

[![The Dwarf in the
Flask](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sUyGgm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sUyGg.jpg)  
**Homunculus** , better known as **Dwarf in the Flask** , was created by the
King's alchemist (as briefly mentioned above). This alchemist (who is not
named) was experimenting with [the
Gate](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/4942/274), and [brought forth some of
the essence of "God"](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/5186/274) to create
the _Dwarf in the Flask_ , the first true homunculus. He has no physical form,
and [can only reside within the glass
flask](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/812/274) he was created in.

# Father

[![Father with
Edward](https://i.stack.imgur.com/I3OMrm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/I3OMr.jpg)  
**Father** is the result of mixing the Dwarf with the Xerxes transmutation
circle: The Dwarf in the Flask used some of the power from the resulting
Xerxes transmutation to give himself a false human body (based on
Hohenheim's). As Hohenheim states, Father started out as nothing more than the
same Dwarf, contained inside a human "flask" (rather than a glass one).

As you see in the series, he later evolves quite substantially; he is the one
who swallows God, and becomes the ultimate being. However, he _is not a real
human_ ; he remains a homunculus (a _manufactured_ human).

# The Homunculi

[![All seven
homunculi](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SDD5em.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SDD5e.jpg)  
**The homunculi** are beings (false humans) created from Father's blood, which
is essentially a philosopher's stone in liquid form. Gluttony, Envy, Lust,
Sloth, and Pride are all created by manufacturing the human bodies in which
they reside, and fueling their bodies with souls from Father's philosopher's
stone.

Greed (at least, the second one) and Wrath are both already human, and have
souls put into them. In fact, Hohenheim and Greed-Ling do not differ in their
abilities, essentially. They both have life extended by their philosopher's
stones, and both have true, human bodies. Wrath is no different, except that
he [only has one soul within his
stone](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/4397/274), and so cannot regenerate,
and also gets older with time.

# Summary

Van Hohenheim, a human, unknowingly assisted Homunculus (the Dwarf in the
Flask), in using the population of Xerxes to fill his own body with thousands
of souls, while giving The Dwarf the false human body we see as Father. Father
later uses his stone's powers to create the homunculi, the seven sins that we
see. Greed-Ling and Wrath are just like Hohenheim, just having their own
weaknesses.


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answer


Hohenheim, formally known as Slave 23, was the assistant to an alchemist
living in Xerxses. His blood was used to create the Dwarf in the Flask and
thus they already had a natural bond. The Dwarf in the Flask was in fact so
thankful for being given life that he actually gave Van Hohenheim his name.
The Dwarf told Hohenheim alchemical secrets and eventually Xerxses alchemist
taught Hohenheim the art of alchemy. Over time the two became friends but this
was not to last. The Dwarf in the Flask convinced the king of Xerxses that by
creating the Nationwide Transmutation Circle (NWT) he would become immortal.
However the Dwarf in the Flask ensured that he and Hohenheim would be the ones
to become immortal.

Before I continue you need to understand something: As most of us know, in the
FMABH universe a Philosopher's Stone is created using human souls. Though it
isn't exactly specified it is hinted that it takes hundreds of human souls to
create even a single 'false stone' such as the one used by the Ice Alchemist
(in the first episode of FMABH) or the first one used by Kimbly in Isval.
These stones are no larger then the size of a pebble and contain immense power
to the point that they are capable of giving power to the Homunculi.  
Now the purpose of the NWT is to sacrifice everyone over an extended area,
such as Amestris or Xerxses, in order to make a Philosopher Stone. Now we do
some math. As I said it is hinted that it takes hundreds to create a stone.
Now lets just say that it takes three hundred for the sake of this equation.  
p-people  
s-stone  
300p=1s  
Now Amestris has a hefty population of fifty million at the time of FMABH. So
lets do that math.  
50,000,000/300=166,667 (rounded up)  
Now since this was used on both Hohenheim and the Dwarf in the Flask that
means it needs to be divided by two.  
166,667/2=83,334 (rounded up)  
That means that if it really was split equally, Hohenheim and the Dwarf in the
Flask (now referred to as Father) both have eighty three thousand three
hundred and thirty four Philosopher Stone's inside of them.

Father spared Hohenheim due to the fact that he saw Hohenheim as a good
friend. The two parted ways for obvious reasons and went on there ways. Let it
be noted that neither are human at this point. Even Hohenheim is now a living
breath Philosopher Stone meaning he is not a human. Now in regards to Wrath
(King Bradley) he was a human. However when given the Philosopher Stone he
became kind of a Homunculi.

Think of it this way. True Homunculi=Robot while Wrath=Cyborg. Both are
similar but obviously are different such as Wrath's aging.

That should answer all of your questions except the last one which cannot be
answered. It actually says in the anime that Hohenheim and Father each have
half of the souls Xerxses and this is where it gets confusing. While Father
spent the next hundreds of years making Homunculi, using his powers, and
ruling a nation Hohenheim made a family. This honestly even confuses me since
it seems that in the battle between Hohenheim and Father that Father would've
won easily. Also how is it that when in the tunnels below Risenbol that Pride
is capable of nearly defeating Father? These things make little sense to me
but I have a small theory.

Father create Hohenheim's body as a 'gift' since the two were 'friends'.
However I don't see somebody as evil as Father giving Hohenheim a fair trade.
I believe that Father kept more souls and the anime simply doesn't explain
that for some reason. This would also explain how Hohenheim is capable of
talking to and coordinating with the souls within his body since he would have
less souls. So basically I don't believe they are the same since I believe
that Father has like eighty percent of the souls instead of splitting them
fifty/fifty with Hohenheim.

I hope this helped!


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I think it should be noted that Van Hohenheim was at the center of the
transmutation circle, so in my theory he became a philosopher stone that's
based on a human body with one dominant soul, whereas Greed-Ling and Wrath had
their stones injected into them, which is similar but kinda a cheap knock off
of Van Hohenheim.

I think it's also worth noting that maybe not all homunculi have equal souls
since each one has different powers. Take Envy for example. He can absorb more
and more humans and add to his soul count. It could be said that he might need
to constantly add souls over and over again because his transformations use up
a lot of souls.

I also have another little, unrelated theory: what if Ed and Al have larger
souls than normal human beings? Like what if when Van Hohenheim reproduces
it's like filtering a portion of the souls into a single being? Then Ed would
have an abnormally large soul for a human being, and when Al was born he would
have a larger soul than a human but not as big a soul as Ed's. Because of
their larger souls, they age at different rates than other people. Since Ed
ages slower than Al, he would be shorter than his younger brother because he's
aging slower,

> so when he gets impaled and uses his own soul as a philosophers stone, he
> shortens his life span so he ages quicker and grows taller by the end of the
> anime.


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Father most likely got more powerful because he kept making more Philosopher's
Stones over the years with his experiments while Hohenheim had obviously no
interest in that.


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