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FMA OC Guidebook: OC Design
The FMA OC Guidebook: Character Design

Ok FMA art and style is really frustrating in the fact that theirs always a freaking exception! Any rule you make, any! Its always like "but oh! So and so has..." yea-no. Is is to much to ask for a little conformity here? Realy!?

Ok that rant put aside...
THERE ARE SOME EXEPTIONS TO ALMOST EVERY "RULE" I PUT DOWN HERE
So technically yes, you could give your OC bright purple hair with a pink fringe, but bear in mind that that will look very out of place in the FMA world. So there's just one thing for you to bear in mind when breaking these rules: Subtlety. The broken rule should fit in with the rest
FMA OC Guidebook: Alchemy
FMA OC Guidebook: Alchemy

So… exactly how does alchemy work in fma?
Well.. After analyzing the hell out of almost every instance of its use I could possibly remember and then doing hours more research. (Is it normal for me to have this much of an obsession? Yeah... I don't think soo ANYHOO…) I finally am ready to put together my guidebook result of what I have learned. This is still a work in progress so bear with me (g-d help me make this good)

How Alchemy Works

Ok, the first thing to understand is that alchemy is a science; this is what differentiates it from magic. This is why it's so much of a skill to learn.

What is actual
Official Timeline
OVERALL TIMELINE

IMPORTANT: The following is FAN MADE TIMELINE! It is very trust worthy. However, most of the dates are EDUCATED GUESSES! Nothing is exact! Feel free to use for reference in your story! If you think we are missing anything or anything is wrong PLEASE TELL US! All material belongs to Hiromu Arakawa! Thank you! Enjoy!

SPOILER WARNING

August 30th, 1464: Slave 23 is born.

1482:

• 23 donates blood for his master's research.
• Slave 23 meets the Dwarf in the Flask and changes his name to "Van Hohenheim".
• Hohenheim gains knowledge from the Dwarf in the Flask.
• Hohenheim begins to educate the other slav
The FMA OC Guidebook: Chimera
The FMA OC Guidebook: Chimera

Ok first thing I'm going to say to you if your making a chimera is Please Please PLEASE do not add animal ears and a tail and call it done, PLEASE look at the chimera you see in FMA? How many of them have just animal ears and a tail?

Also, something to bear in mind if you insist on adding animal ears at all, No chordate animal has two pairs of ears. In FMA you want to be realistic as you can. Alchemy is a science after all, and its based on real science. (more about this in my guide to alchemy) Anyway the point is; do not add animal ears as well as keeping human ones!

If you absolutely MUST add a tail, despite
FMA OC Guidebook: Names
Names are one of the most key things to think about when it comes to an FMA character or indeed any character, besides appearance this will be one of the things that your OC will be recognized as. So it's highly important

Things to avoid

Before I cover choosing what to name your OCs I'll cover the type of names its usually  best to try to avoid. Coming up with a name using this guide only to reach the end of it and discover that the name is considered sueish would suck so I'll be covering this first.
  If you already have a name for your OC and its fits in one of this "best to avoid" categories there will be some techni
OC Guidebook: OCXCannonThe OC Guidebook: OC X Cannon

Ok first of all some advice nobody is going to listen to but I'll add anyway. Then I'll get to the rest

OCXCannon Is EXTREMLY difficult to pull off especially with any of the major characters. So as a general rule of thumb unless you are an amazing and experienced writer DON'T DO IT!

If you are going to do it DO NOT PAIR YOUR OC WITH A CANNON CHARACTER YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON! Trust me people can tell. This tends to skew up your prospective and make you make the cannon character act in very out of character ways.

That said I know people aren't going to listen so lets begin:

If you are going to do ocXcannon ther
FMA-Deseufication Profile
********** REFERENCE PICS ARE OPTIONAL FOR PREVIEW PICS *********  

CHARACTER PROFILE: (Oc's name here)

Basic Info

Name:
Nicknames/Aliases:

Gender:
Species:
Ethnicity:

Age:  
Base World:  
FMA Version:  
Works they appear in:  (Is this oc mostly from any particular fanfic or doujinshi?)

Background Basics:

Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:

Residence(s):
Occupation (Job):
Education

Sexual Orientation:
Relationship status:

Appearance:

Hair:
Eyes:
Skin:
Height:
Weight:
Body(shape):
Scars/Tattoo/Markings(s):
Style

Personality:

Overall:

Goals/Dreams/Drive:
Belief
FMA Mary-Sue Test: Version 2
The FMA Mary-Sue Test

Instructions:
Add +1 for every Question and subquestion, to which the awner is "yes" or "technically yes" or "sorta" unless instructed otherwise.
Please remember that it is GOOD to get some points if at the end your score is under five points I can almost guarantee you are doing the test wrong
Please be honest.

The Name

·  Is the character named after you?  
·  Does the name sounds like yours?  
·   Is it your nickname?  
·   Is it a name you wish you had  
·   Is the character's name Japanese while they are not?? (If they are from Xing this still counts as Xing names are Chinese not
Fullmetal Alchemist Mary-Sue Test
GENERAL INFO

Name

-Does their name not fit their culture/country?  (Note: Amestrian names would be English or German, Cretan names would be French, Xingese names would be Chinese, Drachman names would be Russian and Aerugian names would be Italian.)  (+1)

• Is their name Japanese and they are not from a Japanese based country? (+3)
• Is their name typically not used as a name? (An example would be if it was a word such as Ocean.) (+5)
-Is their name the same as your name? (+2)
• If so, do you also share the same nickname that is NOT a shortened version of the name? (+4)
-Is their first or last name similar to that of can
Browse More Like This
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More from =tansyuduri

The FMA OC Guidebook: Chimera
The FMA OC Guidebook: Chimera

Ok first thing I'm going to say to you if your making a chimera is Please Please PLEASE do not add animal ears and a tail and call it done, PLEASE look at the chimera you see in FMA? How many of them have just animal ears and a tail?

Also, something to bear in mind if you insist on adding animal ears at all, No chordate animal has two pairs of ears. In FMA you want to be realistic as you can. Alchemy is a science after all, and its based on real science. (more about this in my guide to alchemy) Anyway the point is; do not add animal ears as well as keeping human ones!

If you absolutely MUST add a tail, despite
FMA Mary-Sue Test: Version 2
The FMA Mary-Sue Test

Instructions:
Add +1 for every Question and subquestion, to which the awner is "yes" or "technically yes" or "sorta" unless instructed otherwise.
Please remember that it is GOOD to get some points if at the end your score is under five points I can almost guarantee you are doing the test wrong
Please be honest.

The Name

·  Is the character named after you?  
·  Does the name sounds like yours?  
·   Is it your nickname?  
·   Is it a name you wish you had  
·   Is the character's name Japanese while they are not?? (If they are from Xing this still counts as Xing names are Chinese not
Alice Bio
Name: Alice Temlin

Age: 12

Basics

Base world: Alchemy World

Species/Nationality:  Human/Amestrisian

Gender: Female

Build:  Small, Petite, Pixie Like

Birth year: 1998, (If it ends up taking place in 2010) 1988, (If it takes place in 2000)

Intelligence (scale of  1-10):  8

Strength (scale of 1-10): 5

Agility (scale of 1-10): 7

Place of Residence:  Central City

Place of birth: Risembool? Central? East City?

  
Birthday: Spring?

Family: (Of most important note)

  
Mother: Trisha Elric, (No not that Trisha!) Deceased

  
Father: Bruno

Featured in Groups:

:iconfma-desueification: #FMA-Desueification
Helping OCs since 2010! :iconfma-oc-cafe-fc: #FMA-OC-Cafe-FC
-Stay for a drink. <3

Details

August 7, 2012
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:icontansyuduri:
If you wish to make your own tutorial and use info from this I would like the credit due to me for the effort and time I put into making and researching this. Please! include a link back to this as a source. Like you would do for an official paper written for school or work

Here is the first of three guides dealing with the subject of nations and races. "Fanmade Nations and Races", and "Mixing Ethnicities and Nationalities" Will come next.

This is not a very long guide, since a lot of info on cannon nations and races can be found on the fma wiki, (I'll include the links here.) Mostly this guide just lists things that are not found on the wiki or things the wiki seems to be wrong on. (Also I'l like to mention that I knew what nations these where based off with the exception of xerxes BEFORE reading the wiki. I pride myself on my FMA knowlage so my vanity insists I mention that ^^; )

Amestris: [link]
Ishval/Ishbal: [link]
Xerxes: [link]
Creta: [link]
Aerugo: [link]
Drachma: [link]
Xing: [link]

If you really enjoy my guides you can "pay me back" and make me very happy by reading my fanfic here [link] and commenting
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:iconmangacide:
~Mangacide 6 days ago  Hobbyist General Artist
The way Xerxes was presented to me always made me associate it more with Atlantis more than any existing nation. And the name Paninya sounds kind of Hispanic to me though I could be wrong. This is all really interesting ^-^
Reply
:icontansyuduri:
=tansyuduri 5 days ago  Student Writer
With the disaster and all? Huh, I bet that is another thing it's based off.

I always thought it sounded somewhat indian/other east asian, But it does have a hispanic ring to it you're right.
Reply
:iconmangacide:
~Mangacide 5 days ago  Hobbyist General Artist
*nodnod* There's so much thought that went into this it's no wonder it's fantastic. I know I don't put half that much speculation into the names I use in my settings. It's kind of like "does this word sound like a place to me?...yes." and then I'm done.
Reply
:icontansyuduri:
=tansyuduri 4 days ago  Student Writer
Yeah, I tend to do that with people names.
Reply
:iconmangacide:
~Mangacide 4 days ago  Hobbyist General Artist
Naming people can be the most frustrating sort of fun! ^___^
Reply
:icontansyuduri:
=tansyuduri 3 days ago  Student Writer
It depends on if the name just pops into your head or not.
Reply
:iconmangacide:
~Mangacide 3 days ago  Hobbyist General Artist
Indeed indeed. Still I keep a notebook filled with all the weird and interesting names I see just in case I need an idea. ^-^
Reply
:icontansyuduri:
=tansyuduri 2 days ago  Student Writer
Brilliant! I should do that!
Reply
(1 Reply)
:icondocwinter:
=docwinter Nov 16, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
This is actually very helpful thanks
Reply
:iconaltheotaku616:
~AltheOtaku616 Oct 29, 2012
btw u should do cannon on the Nations of FMA's military technology that would be awesome! XD
Reply
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