Alphonse Elric, also known as Al, is the deuteragonist of the Fullmetal Alchemist series. He is the younger brother of the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric. Al is also a victim of the failed Human Transmutation experiment in which Ed lost his right arm and left leg. Having had his entire physical being taken away from him in the aftermath of the tragedy, Alphonse exists solely as a soul alchemically bound to a large suit of steel armor. Now, Al travels with his brother in search of a legendary Philosopher's Stone, an item with the power to restore their bodies to normal.
Born the second son of Trisha Elric and Van Hohenheim of Resembool in the year 1900, Alphonse's first few years were relatively peaceful and happy despite the short-lived abuse of his older brother Edward; but after the sudden disappearance of his father during the toddler's formative years, Al was left with his mother and brother as his only family. The three Elrics lived in peace in the rural village and the boys began displaying a remarkable talent for alchemy at a young age, much to the joyful astonishment of their mother. However, early in the year 1904, Trisha contracted an illness that had been spreading in the area and died, leaving her two sons orphaned. Alphonse, devastated by the loss of his mother, began to fear that he and his brother would not be able to survive without her, but twisted hope returned to the boy's heart when Edward vowed that the two of them would find a way to bring their dear mother back to life with the power of alchemy.
Alphonse and Edward spent the next few years living on their own in the Elric family home, supported by their close childhood friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako, while pursuing the alchemical knowledge necessary for their planned resurrection. Although they had gained a great deal of information and comprehension regarding the extended basics of the craft, before long it became apparent to the young prodigies that there was only so far they could go while being self-taught. In a stroke of good fortune, Resembool was visited by an exceptionally skilled alchemist named Izumi Curtis who, after some persuasion, agreed to take the Elric brothers on as her apprentices provided they pass a preliminary test. She brought the boys to Yock Island near the town of Dublith in the southern region, where she informed them that they were to survive for one full month without alchemy. If, at the end of their ordeal, they could correctly explain the concept "One is All and All is One", they would begin their training under her wing.
While there, the brothers discovered self-reliance and gained new abilities and insights relevant to living in the world under their own power from having to forage and hunt for food as well as fend off periodic attacks from Mason, an employee at the Curtises' butcher shop who had disguised himself as a masked wild man at Izumi's behest. Coming to understand together that, as humans, they are but a small part of the world and universe as a whole, but that the world and universe cannot exist without a collective of small parts, the boys were able to fully comprehend Izumi's riddle by the time she returned and, as such, the Elric brothers were subjected to Izumi's intensive alchemy and martial arts training for the next five months, growing significantly in both mind and body and gaining a great deal of alchemical knowledge before returning to Resembool. Though instructed specifically by Izumi to understand that death is an irreversible part of the flow of the world and that acceptance of such is important to the "One is All, All is One" concept, the boys dove headlong into their plan to resurrect their mother upon their homecoming, having advanced their knowledge while abroad and discovered the basics to a forbidden practice called Human Transmutation.
Devising a Human Transmutation Circle, amassing the elemental ingredients for an adult human body and offering their own blood as soul and biological data, the boys secretly initiated the Human Transmutation secretly in their home. Unfortunately, the Human Transmutation resulted in a Rebound; Alphonse and Edward were pulled into The Gate. Encountering the mysterious being called Truth, Alphonse was forced into the stream of the Gate's vast alchemical knowledge and forced to witness as the Truth stripped him of his physical body as toll for crossing into God's domain. Returned to the human dimension, Alphonse's errant soul attached itself to the soulless, inhuman creature that had resulted from the failed transmutation as it struggled futilely to survive. Incapable of sustaining life, the grotesque body died, allowing Alphonse's soul to once again wander toward the other side.
When Alphonse next regained consciousness, he discovered that his soul had been bound alchemically to an antique suit of armor with a Blood Rune, and that his brother was sitting in a pool of blood - his right arm and left leg "taken". With the trauma of the tragedy, Alphonse's memories of the Gate, the Truth and his existence in the failed body became repressed. In a panic, Alphonse carried his brother to the Rockbells' house, begging Pinako to save Edward's life. During the night, after Edward's emergency surgery was completed successfully, Alphonse discovered the true tragedy of his new body. Incapable of physical sensation and sleep, he began to feel detached from others and lamented the long solitude of restless night.
The two boys remained in a lamentable state of shame and grief over their tragedy for some time, until the visiting officer Roy Mustang confronted Edward and persuaded him to join the State Alchemist program. Promising to use the system to find a way to restore their bodies, Edward underwent an operation to attach custom-built automail and, a year later, he applied for a received his state certification. On October 3rd of 1911, the boys burnt down their family home and left Resembool on a journey to return to normal.
Three years later, at the start of the story, Edward and Alphonse visit the birthplace of Reole following a lead on what they consider their best chance at restoration - the legendary Philosopher's Stone. They infiltrate the town's newfound Church of Leto with the help of a young Letoist girl named Rosé in order to investigate the mysterious priest Cornello who claims to use divine powers to bring about miracles. With Edward suspecting that Cornello is in possession of the Philosopher's Stone, Alphonse helps expose the priest as a fraud and reveal his plan to fool the people of Reole for his own militaristic goals. Unfortunately, as the faux clergyman is defeated, the stone Cornello holds shatters and disintegrates. Coming to the conclusion that his stone, too, was a fake, Ed and Al set off on their next assignment, but not before informing the distraught and now spiritually perplexed Rosé that she is able to move forward even without her faith so long as she has her two strong legs and the truth.
After liberating the town of Youswell from the clutches of the corrupt Lt. Yoki and thwarting a train hijacking, the boys arrive in East City, where Colonel Mustang introduces them to state-certified bio-alchemist Shou Tucker, whom they hope can use his expertise on chimeric alchemy to give them some insight on a different means of restoring their bodies. Unfortunately, they discover that Tucker's famous past success in creating a chimera capable of human speech was the result of a human experimentation in which he sacrificed the life of his "estranged" ex-wife and that his fresh triumph was willingly gained at the cost of his young daughter Nina, to whom the boys had grown quite close.
While Alphonse and Edward suffer the grief of Nina's tragedy, they learn that Tucker and his mutilated daughter have been murdered by a mysterious assailant - the State Alchemist-targeting serial killer known only as "Scar", who then comes after Edward. Baffled by Scar's curious ability to alchemically destroy anything he touches with his right hand, the boys are soundly defeated, with large hole stretching from the hip to the shoulder being torn in the right side of Alphonse's armor body and Edward's automail arm being completely destroyed.Alphonse is forced to watch in helpless horror as his broken older brother loses the will to fight and has Scar promise to leave his younger brother alone in exchange for his own life. Fortunately, Al's cries of protest are heard by Mustang's forces, who arrive on the scene before Scar can enact his lethal brand of justice. With the help of Major Alex Louis Armstrong, the Strong Arm Alchemist, Scar is driven away with his strange ability revealed to be a form of alchemy and his identity revealed to be an Ishvalan survivor of the Ishval Civil War. With the danger passed, Al berates his brother over his willingness to die and stresses the importance of staying alive no matter what.
With Major Armstrong as an escort, the two head back toward Resembool for repairs at the Rockbell house, but get sidetracked when they encounter Dr. Marcoh, an Ishval War deserter who had been researching the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. After some coaxing, Marcoh reveals to them the secret location of his research notes - the National Central Library - and expresses his hope that the brothers will be able to find the "truth behind the truth" of the hellish pursuit. Arriving in their hometown, Edward has his arm rebuilt in three days an then goes to work repairing Al's armor in a manner that does not harm the blood rune inside. They then begin the trek for Central City and the Marcoh's hidden notes.
And he is reprised by Maxey Whitehead in the English dub and Rie Kugimiya in the Japanese dub.