Ling Yao

A long black ponytail tied off with a white ribbon and heavy, spiky bangs that tend to hide one side of his face give Ling an immediately recognizable silhouette. Though he is in fact a few months Edward's junior, his height and lean, martial-artist's build make him read as older. His eyes, often described as narrow or shifty, usually look shut and widen only when anger, dread, or greed takes hold. His trademark outfit pairs loose white trousers with an open goldenrod shirt trimmed in a white flame motif, small wing shapes at the collar and a large bird crest across the back suggesting a phoenix, while a tape-wrapped Dao rides on his back and sarashi binds his forearms and midsection.

Once Greed moves into his body, the wardrobe shifts entirely to black, a sleeveless collarless jacket beneath a long coat, black slacks, and black shoes. His normally dark eyes take on the crimson of the other Homunculi and stay open far more often, and in this state Greed can call up the Ultimate Shield or grow claws from his hands. In the manga, whichever soul holds control is signaled by the direction the bangs fall, parted toward the right for Greed and the left for Ling.

On first impression Ling comes across as goofy and carefree, supplying comic relief even when circumstances turn dire. He greets danger with childlike curiosity, has a habit of drifting away from his companions only to collapse in the street, and is notorious among the Elrics for an enormous appetite paired with an empty wallet. That easy charm and a steady stream of compliments win people over quickly. Underneath it sits a sharp strategist who reads rooms and rivals with ease and will happily resort to underhanded tactics to stay alive.

His ambition comes with a stubborn resolve that lets him shoulder inhuman burdens, and while he carries real pride, he can set it aside whenever it threatens his goal. Anchoring all of this is a deep sense of obligation. As liege of the Yao clan he holds that a ruler exists to serve the people who grant him authority, not the reverse, so he guards his kin and allies fiercely and reserves particular contempt for anyone who casts aside their own comrades. His combat instincts run just as deep, from expert swordsmanship to the Xing art of reading the Dragon's Pulse, which lets him sense the presence of living beings and Homunculi alike.

Ling is born the twelfth son of Xing's emperor and heir presumptive of the wealthy Yao clan, raised amid luxury and constant danger as rival houses jockey for the throne through assassination. That upbringing sharpens his cunning and fighting ability while leaving him hopeless at basic self-care. As his father's health fails and the succession struggle intensifies, he begins hunting for an edge, which leads him to study both Xing's alkahestry and western alchemy and, ultimately, to the legend of the Philosopher's Stone. Hoping the immortality-granting relic will secure his claim, he crosses the Great Desert with his vassals Lan Fan and Fu, pausing at the ruins of Xerxes before slipping into Amestris.

Half-starved in the streets, he first meets the Elric brothers, who feed him, and he attaches himself to their search once he learns they too are chasing the Stone. His wandering soon lands him in a Central jail as an illegal immigrant, where Barry the Chopper frees him in exchange for help smuggling the framed Maria Ross out of the country. Alongside Lan Fan he throws himself at the Homunculi Gluttony and Envy, discovering that Fuhrer King Bradley bears the Ouroboros mark and is one of the creatures. The fight costs Lan Fan an arm, but Ling manages to bind and capture Gluttony, only to be swallowed together with Edward and Envy into the darkness inside the beast, a botched imitation of the Gate of Truth. Edward opens the real Gate to drag them back, and they emerge face to face with Father.

Judging the prince a useful pawn, Father drives a Philosopher's Stone into his body to forge a human-based Homunculus. Rather than resist the flood of souls, Ling deliberately accepts the one calling itself Greed, reasoning that the power he came west to find is being handed to him. The two share the body uneasily, trading control, with Ling reclaiming himself whenever Greed grows careless, especially to defy Bradley over what it means to be a king. Fu's death at Wrath's hands devastates him, and he honors the fallen warrior by helping defend Central's main gate. In the end Father absorbs Greed to reclaim the Stone, and Greed tricks Ling into surviving the process before dying himself. Ling later offers the recovered Stone to restore Alphonse, though Edward refuses it. He returns home to become emperor of Xing, granting mercy to the rival clans, enacting sweeping reforms, and negotiating trade and alliance with Amestris.