A Chimera (合成獣(キメラ) Kimera, meaning Synthesised Beast^{[note 1]}), as understood in the Fullmetal Alchemist series, is a creature synthesised by alchemically fusing two or more dissimilar living organisms into a new, combined form which inherits features and attributes from both of its original base organisms.

Description

Though a legitimate branch of bio-alchemy, chimeric research has seen very few significant strides in recorded history—or at least in Amestrian history—and has been described as a science built upon countless dead ends and false starts. Still, the production of such fantastical beings is possible with the proper alchemical expertise and skill (as displayed by both Shou Tucker, who had made chimeric alchemy his focus as a State Alchemist, and Cornello, who was able to perform chimeric alchemy with the aid of an incomplete Philosopher's Stone). Although it is essentially performing Human Transmutation, it is not considered as such, as it is in most cases simple animals.

As mutant beasts granted the traits of multiple species, standard chimera appear best suited for guard duty and are frequently positioned as such; in the manga, Father keeps an innumerable horde of these fantastic beasts guarding the underground passageways to his lair and, in the 2003 anime series, the State Military contains a great number of reptilian-feline chimera in Laboratory 5 tasked with eliminating intruders that manage to elude Guards Number 48 and Number 66. Later in the 2003 anime, Shou Tucker created new chimeras for Frank Archer and some of them were placed under the command of Solf J. Kimblee during the mission to stir up tensions in Reole.

List of Chimeras

• Cornello's chimera (a beastly chimera with the upper body of a lion, lower body of a rooster, and tail of a giant snake; in the 2003 anime, its lower body is instead entirely that of an unspecified lizard)
• Parrot chimera (2003 anime only; enhanced from Cornello's parrot)

Appearing in the video games:

• Croco-Boar (a crocodile-wild boar chimera)
• Gorilla-Goat
• Puffer-Bee (a pufferfish-bee chimera)
• Snake-Macaw
• Tiger-Gorilla

Human Chimera

While the synthesis of the chimera is an accepted, albeit rare and elusive branch of alchemy, the concept of extending its mutative hand to the realm of human characteristics and abilities falls under Human Transmutation and is therefore strictly banned as a practice under the authority of the military. On the other hand though, there are alchemists who flout this decree and step across the threshold into monstrous experimentation, it has been publicly stated that all illicit attempts to create a human-animal hybrid have failed. This is untrue.

State Alchemist Shou Tucker has been accredited with the creation of the first chimera capable of human speech, but it died soon after creation because it refused to eat. The truth of the matter is that his creation was actually a crude human chimera created in secrecy and passed off as an advanced standard Chimera to achieve his state certification. It was only during his second attempt at this that his transgressions were brought to the government's attention. However, the State Military itself has been experimenting with synthesizing human chimera in secret laboratories for some time, with limited success. The worst part of it is that Tucker used his wife and later, his daughter and dog to make the human chimeras.

Human chimeras similar to those created by Shou Tucker are marked as failures by the military, having very little social ability and significantly warped forms while experiencing high levels of physical pain due to having internal systems that are incomplete or otherwise insufficient for maintaining their new hybridized bodies. Still, having been human at one point, their souls and memories remain largely intact, despite a limited ability to convey their feelings and thoughts to other humans. A step above these complete failures are the human chimera that maintain much of their original human forms but with added physical traits that enhance their physical abilities while often making them incapable of blending in with society as normal human beings.

Human chimeras that are deemed "successes" by the State Military belong to two categories as well. There are those with entirely human outward forms whose internal makeups have incorporated increased senses, versatile physical structures, and abilities identical to the animals with which they have been alchemically spliced, granting them superhuman traits while maintaining an inconspicuous shape. However, the form the military seems to have accepted as their ultimate success in regards to the creation of human chimera is that which is capable of transforming from full human form to that of a human-animal hybrid and back at will.

List of Human Chimera by Faction

• Shou Tucker's human chimera
  • Mrs. Tucker (unknown creature)
  • Nina Tucker (dog - synthesized with Alexander)
  • Shou Tucker (unspecified canine; 2003 anime only)

• Greed's human chimera
  • Bido (gecko)
  • Martel (snake)
  • Roa (ox)
  • Dolcetto (dog)
  • Ulchi (crocodile)

• Solf J. Kimblee's human chimera (later allied with Ed and the "new" Greed)
  • Darius (gorilla)
  • Heinkel (lion)
  • Jerso (frogfish)
  • Zampano (razorback and hedgehog)

• Ashleigh Crichton's human chimera (2009 anime only)
  • Three wolf chimera

• Video game human chimera
  • Lyre Amore (mandrake)

Notes

Trivia

• The concept of a chimera is taken from Greek mythology, where the Chimera (or Chimaera) is a monstrous fire-breathing fearsome beast bearing the heads of both a lion and a goat, the hindquarters of a goat, and the tail of a giant snake. In Greek mythology, the Chimera is an individual, however Fullmetal Alchemist—as is the case in much fantasy media—use the term "chimera" to generically refer to any hybrid rather than one, specific beast.
  • In the real world, the term chimera/chimaera or chimerism/chimaerism is used in genetics to refer to a condition where an organism is made up of distinct cells from two or more different zygotes and can occur in both animals and humans. This is very similar to how Fullmetal Alchemist uses the term chimera, where chimeras are two or more creatures literally fused together.
  • Cornello's chimera seems to be a hybrid of the Chimera of Greek myth and a hippalectryon. Cornello's chimera has the upper body of a lion and tail of a giant snake, just like the Chimera of Greek myth, but lacks the Chimera's goat parts and second head. Meanwhile, it also has the hindquarters of a rooster, matching the hippalectryon, which is a beast with the upper half of a horse and lower half of a rooster.
  • Also taking from Greek myth, one of Father's chimera is a three-headed dog, modelled after the three-headed dog Cerberus who guards the gates of Hades (the Ancient Greek underworld).
  • Interestingly, both the Chimera and Cerberus are sometimes purported to be offspring of Echidna, a half-snake half-human woman monster, although accounts differ on who exactly is Echidna's offspring. Hesiod, for example, wrote that Cerberus was the offspring of Echidna but was ambiguous if the Chimera was, while Hyginus wrote that both were definitely born from Echidna. The Bibliotheca, on the other hand, states that the Chimera is the offspring of Echidna while making no connection between her and Cerberus.
• The Chuang Yi English version adds an explicit reference to chimeras being mythological, with Cornello referring to them as such when summoning his chimera for the first time, although he doesn't state which mythology specifically they come from.^[1] Neither the Viz English version nor the original Japanese version make reference to chimeras being mythological.^[2][3]
  • This is almost an error in the Chuang Yi version, as Amestris in the manga is not a part of the real world, however as Cornello only refers to "mythology" rather than specifically "Greek mythology", it makes reference to the beasts' real-world mythological nature without actually naming any real-world place.
• The homunculus Sloth was once passed off as a chimera at work by Lieutenant General Raven as a cover story when they were both at Fort Briggs.^{[citation needed]}

References