Ishvala

Ishvala is not portrayed with any physical body in the story. The deity is known instead through the devotion of its followers, who gather to pray fervently and shape their entire way of life around its worship. That faith was once widespread throughout Ishval before the near-annihilation of its people left it in decline.

As the god of all creation in Ishvalan belief, Ishvala is understood chiefly through the moral code attributed to it. Foremost among its tenets is a firm rejection of alchemy, which the faith brands as perversion and arrogance, since remaking what the god has made implies that human hands can improve upon divine work. Whether Ishvala hands down these teachings directly or through prophets such as Logue Lowe is left unclear. The creed's guiding phrase, that all is one and one is all, echoes the ideas found in alkahestry and its notion of an earth-based creative force.

With the Ishvalan population driven almost to extinction, the religion built around Ishvala has largely faded from the world. Observers within the setting note that the concept of an earth-rooted creator resembles the Earth Dragon revered in alkahestry, and the deity has been likened to the single all-powerful god of several real monotheistic traditions. A similar creator figure also underpins the Letoist faith preached by Cornello, who may well have modeled his invented religion on Ishvalan belief.