Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse live in the remote village of Resembool with their mother Trisha in the land of Amestris, self-learning alchemy from a young age. When the brothers conduct the banned act of Human Transmutation to resuscitate Trisha after she dies of sickness, it backfires and they pay the price through the Law of Equivalent Exchange: Edward loses his left leg, while Alphonse is taken into the Gate of Truth. Edward then sacrifices his right arm to rescue his brother's soul and uses a blood seal to connect it to a suit of armor, eventually replacing his missing limbs with "automail" prostheses. Colonel Roy Mustang subsequently invites Edward to join the military so that he may do research.