Post by DarkAssassinWolf on Jan 13, 2011 18:20:15 GMT -5
Name: Roy Mustang
Nick Name: Mustang
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: 1885
Age: 29-30
Personality: On the surface, Roy seems to be a shallow and self-absorbed man, infamous among many of his colleagues and subordinates alike for the selfish and narcissistic aura he gives off. Easily as arrogant as his young protégé Edward, Colonel Mustang is wont to act in an ostentatious manner and appears to act mostly out of self-interest rather than any sort of philanthropy. He comes off to most as a sort of cocky layabout, shirking most of his duties and delegating his paperwork to subordinates while sitting idly at his desk with an amused smile on his face as he procrastinates, but quick to take action when it appears that there is glory and military notoriety to be gained. Roy is expertly manipulative and prone to think several steps ahead of those around him, giving him a remarkable talent for making subordinates act exactly as he wishes despite appearing not to have had a hand in their decisions - all traits which make the fact that he has managed to attain the lofty rank of colonel at such a young age a matter of public gossip.
Roy also has the reputation of being an incorrigible womanizer, and it's said he spends much of his time cavorting about town with various women and wooing several of the servicewomen with his abundant charm, good looks and charisma. This adds another facet to his unpopularity among the enlisted men, many of whom have had their sweethearts and crushes romanced away from them by his hand.
However, while these traits do have a place in his real personality, much of his outward persona can perhaps be considered an intentional façade perfectly designed to cause those unfamiliar with him to underestimate his remarkable intelligence and ability. Mustang is an exceptional tactician, well-versed in various strains of combat theory and particularly talented in the realms of surreptitious information-gathering, covert operations and enemy ensnarement.
At the core, he is a remarkably devoted commander whose primary focus and personal duty is to his friends and subordinates. Though he hides it well behind a veil of cynicism and self-importance, Roy Mustang is a man who cares deeply about the people who trust and support him and goes to great lengths to ensure their safety and well-being, even at the risk of his own. As a man with considerable power, Mustang considers himself a protector to those without and acts accordingly, earning the staunch loyalty of his most trusted compatriots.
Unfortunately, his self-imposed position as protector has caused him to display a penchant toward stubbornness in regards to his pride on the field and a fiery temper, both of which have been shown to cloud his judgment in certain situations.
History: Orphaned at a young age, Roy was adopted by Chris Mustang, his father's younger sister, who brought him up with the intention of making him into a fine gentleman. Presumably in his teens, young Roy discovered an affinity for alchemy and took basic instruction in the craft from master alchemist Berthold Hawkeye in the hopes of becoming a source of strength and knowledge for the people of Amestris. However, faced with the increasing frequency of border wars, Roy eventually left his teacher's charge and enrolled in the State Military Academy with the intent of becoming a State Alchemist and devoting himself to the protection of citizens caught in the crossfire of international struggles. While at the military academy, he became friends with fellow cadet Maes Hughes, with whom he often discussed his idealistic dreams for the future of the country.
In 1905, at the age of twenty, Roy returned to the decrepit Hawkeye estate hoping to both acquire the higher echelons of Master Hawkeye's unique alchemical expertise as well as persuade his revered teacher to join the State Alchemist program so as to share his brilliance with the world. Berthold, however, refused the offer and further expressed his doubts that someone so eager to become a military lapdog was worthy of attaining the pinnacle of his research. Unfortunately, Master Hawkeye died of an unknown illness in Roy's arms that very day, leaving as his dying wish that Roy inherit his secret research notes from his daughter Riza under the condition that he look after her and vow to never use the power hidden within for ill.
At Hawkeye's funeral, after Roy revealed to Riza his own dreams of strengthening the government and protecting the people with his own strength, she in turn revealed to him that her father's secret research had been encoded in a tattoo on her back. Impressed by Roy's intentions, she entrusted her back to him in the hopes that he would use its secret to create a happy future for the people. Deciphering the code, Roy mastered Hawkeye's innovative flame alchemy and went on to pass the State Alchemist certification exam, earning the symbolic moniker "Flame Alchemist" and the military officer rank of Major.
Three years later, the Ishval Civil War had reached a fevered pitch, prompting the Führer to order combat-oriented State Alchemists into front line combat as human weapons to begin a full-blown extermination campaign against the Ishvalans. The Flame Alchemist was ordered into the Daliha district where the columns of fire ignited by his flashily destructive style of combat alchemy earned him great notoriety and the nickname "The Hero of Ishval". Re-encountering Maes Hughes and Riza Hawkeye, who had enrolled into the military academy and become an infamous sniper in the civil war since he had seen her last, the three lamented the fact that their eyes of youthful idealism had been replaced with the eyes of murderers and pondered over the unknown reasoning behind the incredible military expenses being devoted to the inexplicable wholesale slaughter of the Ishvalans, who were technically fellow Amestrian citizens.
After an exorbitant death toll, Mustang himself brought an end to the struggle in Daliha, effectively bringing the civil war to a close. However, the long and bloody struggle had all but erased the idealism of his youth; after devoting himself to the military in order to support the people, he had built himself up into the "hero" of a massacre, and only managed to save the lives of a few men stationed under him with his flames. Still, the thanks of those men inspired a new dream in the Flame Alchemist's heart. Instead of becoming part of the foundation of the country in order to protect the people, he began planning to rise above people and protect those below him with his acquired power and authority. Even if all he could protect was a few people, he would make sure that those people protected those below them and so on until the entire nation ended up benefiting from his protection. It was at that point that Roy Mustang first set his sights on the position of Führer.
As Mustang prepared to move out from the battlefield, Riza - just as guilt-ridden for her deadly role in the genocide, both direct and indirect - asked Roy to burn the record of her father's research off of her back with his Flame Alchemy so as to prevent the creation of a second "Flame Alchemist".
After the war, Mustang was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and stationed at the East Area Headquarters in East City under Lt. General Grumman. As a new commander, he scoured the new recruits for trustworthy subordinates who would fulfill his ideals of universal protection and amassed a handful of dependable underlings including Riza Hawkeye, whom he positioned as his personal aide and bodyguard, entrusting his back to her under the agreement that she would protect him from harm and shoot him from behind if his march to power caused him to stray off of the correct path and use the knowledge she had given him with ill intentions.
In the aftermath of the war, as several State Alchemists had thrown away their licenses as penance for the atrocities they had been ordered to commit, Lt. Col. Mustang was assigned to investigate and recruit possible candidates for the State Alchemist program. One such lead brought him, along with 2nd Lt. Hawkeye, to the town of Resembool in the east in pursuit of an alchemist named Edward Elric. Upon arriving in town, Mustang discovered not only that this Edward Elric was only eleven years old, but also that the boy's empty home held the horrific telltale signs of a Human Transmutation attempt. Rushing to next door neighbor's house to confront young Edward, he made yet another discovery - that the boy had miraculously survived the Rebound from a failed Human Transmutation and managed to bind the disembodied soul of his younger brother Alphonse to a suit of armor (two unheard-of alchemical feats) at the cost of his right arm and left leg. Faced with this information, Mustang offered Edward the chance to join the program under his command, mentioning that the boy might even find a way to restore his and his brother's bodies with the resources at his disposal as a State Alchemist.
One year later, after Mustang had been promoted to the rank of Colonel, Edward arrived at East Area HQ and requested that Roy escort him to Central City for his license examination. Displaying the unique ability to transmute without a circle as well as uncommon brazenness, Edward was accepted into the program, stationed under Col. Mustang's command and granted the title "Fullmetal Alchemist". In exchange for Edward's loyalty, Roy promised to keep Edward's illegal human Transmutation attempt as well as the secret of his brother's body under wraps and granted him the leeway to venture freely around the country in search of his goal.
Relationships: Riza Hawkeye - Easily the most significant of Roy's personal relationships, his connection with Lt. Hawkeye goes deeper and further back than any other. The daughter of Berthold Hawkeye, the man who taught Roy to use alchemy in his youth, Riza has known Roy throughout his entire military career and has a personal stake in how he chooses to live his life. In turn, Roy has entrusted Hawkeye with his life as his personal assistant and bodyguard and has deemed her as both his conscience and executioner by giving her the express authority to shoot him in the back should he ever step off the righteous path.
Many speculate that Roy and Riza have romantic feelings for each other, but their relationship--while not purely professional--has not shown any explicit signs of crossing into traditional amatory. However, they repeatedly demonstrate a deep, genuine sense of concern and devotion to each other as equals. Roy is often seen complaining about Hawkeye being demanding and too stern with him. But he also has many times stated her to be "truly kind" and "sweeter than she may look". Roy also enjoys teasing her at any given opportunity, especially at the times she shows her affections openly.
Maes Hughes - Mustang's best friend from their shared days at the military academy, Maes Hughes is Roy's closest friend inside and outside of the military. Almost constantly calling Roy on the phone or dropping into his office to say hello, Maes' uplifting persona is an active deterrent to Colonel Mustang's often gloomy disposition. Maes is also the strongest secret supporter of Roy's bid for Führer, often giving him inside information from his position in the investigations office at Central Command as well as slipping him pointers on how to achieve his dream. Though Roy often receives Hughes with disdain and annoyance, when Maes is mysteriously murdered, Roy is overcome with grief and rage to the point that he becomes almost obsessed with finding his friend's killer.
Edward Elric - Officially, Mustang is Edward's superior officer, but their relationship is far from the typical professional connection. There exists between them a sort of amicable animosity, as Roy takes a great deal of personal pleasure in teasing Fullmetal and watching him squirm under his orders and, at the same time, Ed takes pleasure in getting around his orders and showing Mustang up whenever he manages to find an opportunity. Though their meetings are fraught with a great deal of apparent, mutual dislike, Flame and Fullmetal hold a great deal of respect for one another and are compatriots as well as co-conspirators in the secret battle against the Homunculi. Having originally scouted the young boy for the State Alchemist program and formed a bond with him, Roy genuinely wishes to see Edward fulfill his goal and Edward also subtly supports Mustang's secret bid to become the Führer and improve the country.
Lt. General Grumman - Roy's superior officer from his days at East Area Headquarters, General Grumman has played a sort of grandfatherly role in Roy's development as a soldier and officer. Having taught the young Flame Alchemist everything he knows about covert operations, subordinate coordination and womanizing, Grumman feels rather fondly for his protégé and is partly responsible for the young man's speedy rise through the ranks. Roy owes Grumman a great deal and trusts him enough to seek the old man's help and advice when he finds himself in a pinch.
Madame Christmas - Roy's foster mother and paternal aunt, Madame Christmas (real name Chris Mustang) raised Roy after his parents died in his youth. From the gruff, almost casual way Madame Christmas treats Roy in the few conversations depicted in the show, it is clear that Roy developed his reticence to express affection from her. Even after Central officials discover her true identity and she is forced to abandon her bar and leave the country, Madame Christmas does not so much as embrace her foster son, though Roy was about to embark on an extremely dangerous and ambitious mission. Roy watches her leave with a small, sad smile on his face.
Flame Alchemy: Even among the elite State Alchemists, Colonel Mustang is a particularly skilled alchemist adequately versed in standard physical transmutation, experimental theory and biological alchemy. However, the brilliant skill that has earned him his state license, national notoriety and the status of "hero" during the Ishval Civil War is his remarkably powerful fire-based combat style. Mustang's unique style of combat alchemy is made possible by his custom made gloves. Made of "pyrotex/ignition cloth" and embroidered with unique flame alchemy Transmutation Circles, these gloves create a spark when Roy rubs his fingers together and allow him to manipulate the concentration of oxygen in the surrounding air, raising its density to a level at which it becomes combustible and creating pathways of oxygen through which he can direct the ensuing flame birthed by the spark. The 'snap' sound is caused by the instantaneous speed at which the gases and sparks react together and pop (not his fingers actually 'snapping', to common belief.)
While Mustang's Flame Alchemy cannot be used on rainy days because the humidity makes it impossible for his gloves to produce sparks, it becomes clear that water itself does not make the Colonel entirely as "useless" as his subordinates assume. Using the transmutation circles on his gloves, Roy is able to separate oxygen atoms from the hydrogen atoms in water molecules, isolating the two combustible gases. Though this method can only be used when a large quantity of water is present in a relatively closed-off space (and not in the rain where the air is open and separating hydrogen and oxygen for the purpose of combustion would pose far too much danger to anyone in the vicinity), with an outside source of ignition such as a cigarette lighter or a match, Roy can produce extremely powerful, localized explosions.
It has also been revealed recently that Roy is able to delegate each hand to a different flame effect, possibly due to a difference in hand dexterity. The right hand appears to allow for large explosive attacks, while the left allows for smaller, but strong and very accurate pinpoint flame attacks, demonstrated when he used his left hand to evaporate the liquid in Envy's eyes causing excruciating pain, and the right to engulf Envy in a large explosion.
Flame Alchemy is the brainchild of the master alchemist Berthold Hawkeye, who had spent several years perfecting it before his death from illness in 1905. Believing it to be the greatest and most powerful form of alchemy possible, Hawkeye refused to pass on the knowledge to Roy, who was his apprentice at the time, and instead entrusted the secrets of his search for knowledge to his young daughter Riza - tattooing the perfected array onto her back as the only physical record of its existence. The full array appears to consist of a circle corralling an inverted hexagram made up of a large air triangle and a large earth triangle, both splitting into identical pairs as they intersect, with a fire triangle at the center, pointing upward toward a flame. Below the hexagram is an image of a salamander. Outside the circle is a pair of entwined basilisks and the text of the "Libera Me" responsory repeated multiple times. After Roy gains Riza's trust and takes the Flame Alchemy knowledge for himself, he modifies the symbol somewhat for his gloves (removing the text and the basilisks in favor of a simplified circle) and uses his new knowledge to burn parts of the image off of Riza's back, erasing the important aspects of it from existence.
When he is forced to perform human transmutation and see the Truth, Roy gains the ability to transmute without a circle, clapping his hands to compensate for the sigils on his gloves being shredded. While at first he is apprehensive of this mode of alchemy, he quickly realizes that because of the absence of the need for transmutation circles he is no longer limited to flame-based alchemy on the battlefield, as seen when he transmutes a stone wall to protect himself, Riza, and Major Alex Louis Armstrong from the Homunculus Father's attacks.
In the Book in Figure Red omake strip, Roy reveals that he sometimes uses alchemy for the purpose of scoring a date. In his "Oxygen de Gentleman Strategy", he uses his gloves to raise the oxygen density around a specific woman to the point that she becomes dizzy. He then, rushes to her side to prevent her from falling, asks her if she is all right and follows up with other sweet words and an invitation for tea.