Van Hohenheim

Van Hohenheim (ヴァン・ホーエンハイム, Van Hōenhaimu), also known as "Hohenheim of Light" (光のホーエンハイム, Hikari no Hōenhaimu), is the fictional character and one of the ally characters of the Dante's Alchemist series. He is a deceptively ancient and extremely powerful Alchemist as well as the estranged father of Edward and Alphonse Elric. Despite disappearing suddenly during their infancy, Hohenheim returns during the course of the series in order to right the wrongs of his mysterious past.

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 * —Van Hohenheim.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Scott McNeil (English), Masashi Ebara (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese)
 * Voice Actor (Young): Aaron Dismuke (English), Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese)

Appearance
Hohenheim is a fairly tall, slightly doughier build gentleman with the appearance of a man of relatively healthy middle-age. He wears his long, darker blond hair in a loose, shoulder-length ponytail with two or three loose strands of hair falling over his brow and sports a full Donegal-style beard on his softer jawline. He also wears spectacles over his golden eyes, though whether or not he needs them is unknown. He has been described as "very handsome" by several women over the course of the series. In the manga, Hohenheim frequently wears a white dress shirt and tie under a black vest with matching slacks and a brown overcoat. In his youth, Hohenheim looked much like his son Edward, save for slightly increased height and a slightly more pronounced jaw.


 * Hair Color: Dark Blonde
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Golden
 * Age: 451 (Deceased)
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Through Hohenheim's devotion to Alchemy and the mysterious circumstances under which he was witnessed abandoning his young family gave the impression that he was cold, he is an unexpectedly softhearted, kindly individual who is quick to give compliments but loath to accept them. Hohenheim appears to care very little for his own well-being, much less his dignity, and is therefore often put in situations that give him the impression of being goofy or eccentric, adding greatly to the series' comic relief. Slow to anger and apparently a bit of a pacifist, Van Hohenheim would much rather talk out disputes than fight, frequently doing so even while he himself is under vicious attack. Chief among his personality traits appears to be his hopeless romanticism, given his propensity for spouting sappy lines about his love for Trisha Elric, his readiness to weep openly over her, and his charming treatment of women in general. Van Hohenheim lacks the ambition of others, clearly content to take his time dealing with things that do not demand urgency, but in his youth had a hair-trigger temper much like that of his son, Edward, and became irrationally angry when taunted for his ignorance.

He's rather gentle and weary, and soft-spoken as well, which is most likely due to the extensive amount of time spent alive, under his assorted burdens. This disposition is clearly demonstrated when Edward actually punches him in the face and kicks him in the stomach, with very little reaction.

Family

 * Rhonny Elric (brother)
 * Trisha Elric (wife, deceased)
 * Edward Elric (son)
 * Alphonse Elric (son)
 * Father (blood kin, manga)
 * Winry Rockbell (daughter-in-law)
 * Unnamed granddaughter and grandson
 * Envy (son; deceased)
 * Dante (former lover; deceased)

Abilities
As an alchemist who has a Philosopher's Stone infused or merged into his Human body to circumvent Equivalent Exchange, He is capable of the same level of miraculous regeneration as those of the Homunculi and as such, he has been rendered incapable of dying or even aging - having been preserved in the prime of life and health for roughly four hundred years. His stone, however, is far greater than that of any of the Homunculi, as their Stones came from Father's stone, which is the same size as Hohenheim's. With nearly four centuries of life experience and alchemical study accumulated, Hohenheim's level of alchemical knowledge easily dwarfs that of any other human alchemist in the history of the world. Of his skills, his most significant is the ability to transmute light, shaping it into a physical form of his choosing and manipulating it remotely, earning him the nickname "Hohenheim of Light". Soon after his first appearance, he is seen shaping light into Golems (resembling his brother's armor), which he causes to attack his enemies. With over half a million souls powering his stone, Hohenheim is not only capable of performing transmutations without the use of a Transmutation Circle, but can also transmute without moving his body at all and can even perform biological transmutations and circumvent the law of Equivalent Exchange with ease. Additionally, since he has become capable of conversing directly with each of the 536,329 human souls that make up his Philosopher's Stone, Hohenheim's alchemy is extremely versatile and can be implemented in multiple locations at once even without his own will to actively guide it, so long as he has deposited some of his souls there. Additionally, it appears to be more powerful than that of any other alchemist with a Stone due to having the support of the Stone's souls. During his confrontation with Father, he deflected several sustained energy blasts and called upon the souls of his Stone to aid him. After receiving their aid, his power was augmented to the point that Father could not overcome his shielding with anything less than a nuclear explosion. He also defeated Father during the first round of their battle, and was only overcome when Father revealed his amorphous, undamageable shadow form and enveloped him. It is likely that the alchemy he learned during his youth in Xerxes serves as the basis for the Xingese art of Alkahestry. It is not a false statement to say that Hohenheim is the second-most alchemically powerful character in the series, only surpassed by Father after absorbing the power of God.

Notes & Trivia

 * The character of Hohenheim is seemingly inspired by Phillip von Hohenheim, a Renaissance Swiss alchemist and early scientist who later adopted the name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim and the sobriquet Paracelsus. Paracelsus credited himself with creating a Homunculus out of various human bodily fluids. This is further proven by the fact that the original Homunculus was going to give him the same name as mentioned, but, being in that time an illiterate slave, Hohenheim thought it was too long and was shortened to just Van Hohenheim.
 * The Alchemical word, Alkahest, is the name of a hypothetical universal solvent that can dissolve any substance, including gold, and it was much sought after by alchemists for its medicinal uses. It is also believed that this name was invented by Paracelsus when travelled from China to Constantinople. This yet another relation between the two, since Hohenheim went to Xing after Xerxes and taught the people of Xing "Alkahestry", which is used primarily for medicinal purposes, then it can be seen that there is a huge link between Paracelsus and Alkahest and Hohenheim and Alkahestry. This link was probably what prompted Hohenheim's history in Xing, and the name of Xingese Alchemy and its uses.