Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric live in a world where alchemy is possible, although governed by the law of Equivalent Exchange ("to obtain, something of equal value must be lost"). As young boys, the Elrics -- who showed promise in alchemy at an early age -- lost their mother, and in their grief, they attempted to bring her back to life via the forbidden practice of human transmutation. Ed and Al paid a steep price for their hubris: the former lost an arm and a leg (which were replaced with mechanical limbs), while the latter became a soul attached to an empty suit of armor. The Elrics seek to return their bodies to normal by pursuing the Philosopher's Stone, an artifact believed to allow alchemists to perform any form of alchemy (including human transmutation) without the necessary Equ