Hohenheim

How Hohenheim joined the Tourney
The young man who would later go on to be known as Van Hohenheim grew up during the 15th century in the capital of the ancient and advanced country of Xerxes. As a youth, he was the twenty-third house slave of a renowned alchemist in the King of Xerxes' personal employ and was known simply as "23". Though content in his lowly position, without freedom, any knowledge of the world or even a name, the youth's life would change dramatically in his mid-teen years when his master chose him for a particular Alchemical experiment which involved taking some of the young man's blood. While cleaning his master's laboratory one day soon afterward, 23 encountered the product of this experiment - a nearly shapeless, sentient shadowy creature kept in a flask and calling itself a Homunculus. Grateful to Slave 23 for the blood that had given it life, the Homunculus decided to give the young man a name. Though 23 decided that the name Homunculus had initially planned for him—Theophrastus Bombastus Van Hohenheim—was far too long for him to remember, he accepted "Van Hohenheim" as his name. But when the Homunculus realized that, as a lowly slave, Hohenheim was too ignorant to read or write, it explained that with knowledge, he would be able to escape the bonds of slavery and make something of himself in the big, wide world. As its second gift to the being it called its "father", the Homunculus began tutoring Hohenheim soon afterward, using its own mysterious knowledge to teach him reading, writing, arithmetic, science and basic alchemy.

Elated with the new-found sense of pride that came with his knowledge, Hohenheim began giving lessons to the other slaves and when the master discovered his remarkable skills, Hohenheim declared that, with his knowledge of alchemy, he could be a more valuable asset to the master than a mere slave. Soon afterward, the master released Hohenheim from slavery and instead took him on as his assistant. As he grew into manhood as an up-and-coming alchemist, Hohenheim thanked the Homunculus for giving him the knowledge necessary to overcome his days on the bottom rung of society and voiced his hope that he would be able to start a family, despite the Homunculus' distaste for the human existence's dependence on "breeding". When Hohenheim asked what would make Homunculus happy, it merely replied that it would like some day to escape its flask without dying. Soon afterward, however, Hohenheim and Homunculus would begin spending less time together, as the shadowy creature's mysterious knowledge was requested by the King of Xerxes in order to search for a way to make the monarch immortal. It would take at least a decade for the immortality ritual put forth by the Homunculus to become complete, but when that day came, it became immediately apparent that Homunculus had engineered some sort of base treachery. By feeding the King's court misinformation so that the center of the massive circle would be slightly askew, the Homunculus orchestrated the situation so that Hohenheim (holding the flask) would inadvertently stand at the true center. The over one million people living in Xerxes had their souls immediately pulled from their bodies and condensed at the center when the circle was activated, pulling the two through the Gate and endowing them with the energy of roughly half a million souls each. When Hohenheim awoke the next morning, he was horrified to find the capital a mausoleum and Homunculus inhabiting a humanoid body identical to his own. Explaining the situation, Homunculus revealed that he had sacrificed the people of Xerxes in order to escape his glass prison as well as give his blood kin Hohenheim one last gratuity - eternal life and a body that would never age. This left Hohenheim the last surviving citizen of Xerxes.

Filled with despair, Hohenheim fled east from his empty homeland, wandering aimlessly through the Great Desert and became aware of the movements and anguished cries of the thousands of people milling about inside his soul. Left with no one, he began to talk to them, separating individual souls out from the endless chorus of screams until he collapsed from exhaustion in the sand. Found still alive by travelers from the eastern nation of Xing, Hohenheim was brought there and regained his strength while coming to an understanding with each of the souls inside him and teaching Alchemical principles to the Xingese people. When Hohenheim's alchemic knowledge was combined with the rudimentary form of alchemy being studied in Xing, Alkahestry was born. The Xingese people called him the "Sage of the West." It is unknown to where Hohenheim traveled after arriving in Xing, but after spending several centuries abroad, accumulating knowledge regarding the world's different customs and practices, he appeared in the growing country of Amestris and settled for a time in a small East Area town known as Resembool, presumably some time in the 1860s. There, he became good friends with the townsfolk, particularly a young woman by the name of Pinako Rockbell. Decades later, Pinako would introduce the ageless Hohenheim to a young woman named Trisha Elric with whom he fell immediately in love. Near the turn of the century, the two consummated a union and in 1899 Trisha bore Hohenheim a son named Edward with a second son, Alphonse, to follow a year later. But, in watching time affect the infant boys who shared his blood in ways that were lost to him and his immortal body, Hohenheim became concerned. Though Trisha and Pinako had never judged or antagonized him for his Amaranthine existence, Hohenheim began to fear the prospect of watching his new family growing old and dying without him as he had seen happen to so many others over the past centuries. Thinking himself a monster, he began to fear that touching his sons would give them his curse as well, but Trisha sensed his unease and decided to hire a photographer to take a portrait of the four of them. As she placed the smiling young Edward in his father's arms for the picture, Trisha explained that she only wanted for them to stay a closely-knit and loving family regardless of each person's appearance and urged him not to distance himself from his family and call himself a monster. As the camera flashed, tears of both gratitude and sadness streamed down Hohenheim's face. He resolved to find a way to end his immortality and grow old and die together with his beloved Trisha, but also feared failure and watching his family die.

Unfortunately, while perusing countless Alchemical texts in order to find a way to reverse the effect of what the Homunculus had done to him, Van made a shocking discovery: that the very nation of Amestris was built and designed from scratch as to be a much larger and more devastating repeat of the tragedy that had befallen Xerxes - a gigantic Transmutation Circle for the purpose of turning all of the country's inhabitants into a new Philosopher's Stone. Realizing that only the Homunculus could be responsible for such a plot, Van decided that he would be the one to stop it, for the sake of his beloved family and all his dear friends. After explaining to Trisha that he was leaving and promising that they would die together, Van Hohenheim departed from the house and Resembool in 1904.

After traveling for a decade (presumably researching the Homunculus' methods and setting up a counter of his own), Hohenheim resurfaced in Central City in 1914, where he encountered an alchemist named Izumi Curtis, with whom he discussed the Philosopher's Stone and revealed that his "life-long dream" was about to come true.

Still wandering the world hoping to find Father, Hohenheim stumbles upon what appears to be a dog-girl named Roxanne.

When highlighted
Hohenheim holds his glasses.

After the announcer calls his name
Hohenheim transmutes a spear, takes the spear to the right, then swings it down two times, then spins it around as the camera zooms then holds it beside him saying "I don't dance, I'll just sit here and watch you."

Shining Rain (Neutral)
Hohenheim sparks a blast of lightning and fires it at his opponent.

Stone Dragon (Side)
Hohenheim turns a piece of earth into a serpentine dragon then sends it flying at his opponent.

Godsent Lance (Up)
Hohenheim transmutes a spear then does three slashes while ascending.

Tree Shield (Down)
Hohenheim transmutes pieces of a tree to spin around him like a barrier.

Life-Blood Dragon (Hyper Smash)
Hohenheim turns blood into a large qilin-like dragon and sends it out to his opponent. If it hits, he flies around the opponent, rapidly hitting him/her, then bites him/her and throws him/her away then it roars before dissipating.

Vengeful Earth (Final Smash)
Hohenheim transmutes the ground to crush the opponent's lower body. If it does, he transmutes a spear, then cuts his opponent four times, then transmutes a sword and cuts the opponent's chest, then he makes several rocks smash into the opponent, crushing him/her, then punches the rock, blowing him/her out.

Victory Animations

 * 1) Hohenheim sends serpentine rocks forward and says "Even if I had spoken up, warn them, it wouldn't have changed anything."
 * 2) Hohenheim raises his right hand and makes a transmutation circle saying "I've watched humanity for a long time now and all I've seen them do is endlessly repeat the same mistakes."
 * 3) Hohenheim looks into his right hand and forms a bed from rocks saying "They don't even see the real danger."

On-Screen Appearance
Hohenheim walks through a transmuted doorway and says "Nothing can change the reality of what they've done. They'd still be damned."

Trivia

 * Hohenheim's rival is Max Goof's girlfriend from college, Roxanne.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his English voice actor with Crocodile, K. Lumsy, Monstrous Ogre and Geki.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his Japanese voice actor with Hitmonchan, Kaioh, Heihachi Mishima, Young Heihachi, Captain John Price, Ujiyasu Hojo, Zabuza Momochi, Evil Red, Metagross, Sabretooth, Guyver II, Peter Fargason, Gru, Diego, Brad Wong, Wolf Hawkfield and Hercule Satan.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his French voice actor with Zhao Yun, Phan Phan, Kritter, Mazaal, Mr. Henry Walton Jones, Sr., Ashram and Combustion Man.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his German voice actor with Twelve, Komodo Joe of the Komodo Bros. and Alucard.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his Arabic voice actor with Jecht, Yoshihiro Shimazu, Merlon, Toc-Man, Drunken Chu, Oro, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Dheginsea, the King of Hyrule, Whitebeard, Charlie Vincent, Malladus, Silver Neelson, Lau Chan and Bojack.
 * Van Hohenheim shares his Mandarin Chinese voice actor with Chef Kawasaki, Gemini Saga, Garbodor, Lane Aime, Klaw, Cooler, Doctrine Dark and Appule.
 * Hohenheim's select pose resemble's Ieyasu Tokugawa's introduction pose from Samurai Warriors 1: Xtreme Legends.