saiichii's side charas

ed and al's father was a witch once upon a time, but he was unwittingly involved in an attempt to attain immortality and had a seal permanently marked on his skin that constantly rewinds the physical state of his body to moments before, which prevents him from aging and heals all wounds, while keeping his mind intact. he has been living like this for thousands of years, and was a large contributor to the field of healing magic before it was outlawed. only recently did he fall in love with an outsider, trisha, to whom he eventually divulged his secret. when ed and al were very young, he suddenly left without an explanation. trisha had permitted the boys to look at some of hohenheim's notes on magic, which fascinated them endlessly. when trisha died, they sought to find a way to use magic to bring her back and looked at ALL the notes in their father's study to pursue that goal, including the ones that detailed spells that were now considered forbidden. knowing what they wanted to attempt was forbidden, they kept their motives secret when seeking out a master, eventually finding one in izumi curtis. when they felt confident in their knowledge and passed the second test to be permitted to cast in public, they left to continue their studies on their own.

through their own research, ed and al came up with a seal that they believed would bring trisha back to life. they mixed some of their own blood into the conjuring ink. the spell went horribly wrong. not only did they fail to bring their mother back, but the spell quickly spiraled out of control, creating something grotesque that sent dark tendrils chasing after them. ed fought back fiercely but sustained injuries to his right arm and left leg. when he dragged himself across the floor to check on his brother, he was quickly slipping away. frantic and desperate, ed recalled a healing seal he'd seen in his father's notes, and pushed through the pain in his arm to draw it on the closest patch of skin available to him — the base of al's neck — his own blood dripping from his fingertips down his pen to mix in with the conjuring ink. it worked, al's injuries faded and he gasped back to consciousness, but ultimately ed must have done something wrong because al was healed too well. he no longer felt sensations like pain or hunger or even exhaustion (he can still feel general touch, though), and his skin became difficult to penetrate, cut, or break because any injuries he sustained healed extremely quickly. visually, al has no markings or scars, aside from the seal at the base of his neck, which he covers with a multiple layers of clothing at all times. al also often wears his cape with the hood up and over his hat for good measure (similar to olruggio ↓)

after their disastrous spell, al took a passed-out ed to their family friends, the rockbells, who are doctors and helped to treat ed's injuries. not long after, witches roy mustang and riza hawkeye arrived claiming to have been sent to investigate a situation involving forbidden magic, only to find the ones who had caused the alleged incident were children. roy inspired ed to get back up and study to pass the third test, which would give him access to the tower of tomes, where he might find answers to fix his mistakes. ed agrees to become his apprentice and begins a long recovery process during which he is fitted with an articulated metal/leather leg brace (somewhat similar to those worn by polio patients, but much less restrictive because he isn't paralyzed. made up of metal rods along the sides of the leg with a hinge at the knee, held on by leather straps at the lower calf, above and below the knee, and thigh) by the rockbells and he relearns how to cast with his left hand. with honestly minimal involvement or instruction from roy, ed takes and passes the third test. however, even when he gains access to the tower of tomes, there are no answers there for him. the addition of an unknown quantity of his own blood to the ink when he drew al's seal altered the spell's strength and behavior to an unknown degree that even the literature couldn't account for. he quickly passed the fourth test to gain independence and became a fully fledged witch at the age of 12. since then, he has been wandering the world and researching on his own to find a way to return al to normal, only checking back in at the great hall when necessary.

ed still has scars on his arm and leg that he generally keeps covered with his clothes (including gloves on both hands) and bandages, though if they're ever seen, he handwaves them away as the result of an accident he was involved in as a child. he still experiences intermittent pangs of pain, though he tries to suppress his reactions to the best of his ability. to better keep those episodes a secret, he relearned how to write and draw with his left hand so that he would never risk seizing up or flinching, even if only minutely, in the middle of casting as any small movements could affect the seals he draws. when he expects to be doing a lot of walking/running or staying on his feet a lot, he may wear his brace under his pants as a precaution for extra stability/support in case of the aforementioned pain episodes, though he is still technically capable of walking and moving around without it.

other lore notes (things that didn't fit in anywhere else but are still relevant):

roy is sympathetic to the boys and does not turn them in for casting forbidden magic, at least in part due to his connection with riza, who also has a spell permanently marked on her back.

the boys are unaware of this currently, but part of the way the addition of ed's blood to the spell altered it is by somewhat intertwining their life forces. ed's growth is stunted as a result, and he requires more food and sleep than he would otherwise. he isn't exactly eating/sleeping for al, but al's state of highly expedited healing (which prevents him from starving even if he doesn't eat and from experiencing negative effects of exhaustion/lack of sleep) is in part fueled by ed's life force, so ed becomes hungry and tired more quickly than he would on his own, and his own body has less energy leftover to support normal growth because much of his energy goes to supporting al. al is still capable of eating and sleeping, and he generally does so in routine with ed, which has (unbeknownst to the boys) helped keep the scales more balanced; however, if al went without eating or sleeping for a prolonged period of time, it would begin to impact ed more and more. also, if ed were to ever lose consciousness or have a near-death experience, it would affect al as well because the life force he should be receiving from ed is diminished.