Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only, truth. But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange doesn't encompass everything that goes on here, but I still choose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price, that there's an ebb and a flow, a cycle, that the pain we went through did have a reward, and that anyone who's determined and perseveres will get something of value in return, even if it's not what they expected. I don't think of Equivalent Exchange as a law of the world anymore.
In a the world of Amestris there is a land called Central, this land has taken the areas around it and pulled them together. The land is controled by the military Government. The strongest of these people are the State Alchemists those born with the ability to manipulate the scientific art of Alchemy.
After the Death of Führer King Bradley and the attack on Shamballa by some unknown people the world has found itself in a standstill. Roy Mustang had seized control of the government with his group of followers and is now the new Führer. He is using his power to bring in more skilled alchemists to reinstate the power in the state, and to bring more respect to the state.
The Philosophers' Stone: those who possess it, no longer bound by the laws of Equivalent Exchange in Alchemy, may gain without sacrifice, create without equal exchange
