Fic: Amestris, Recent History of
Title: Amestris, Recent History of
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist (anime universe)
Summary: A facsimile encyclopaedia article. Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Characters: King Bradley, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, other characters
Pairings: Roy/Riza
Rated: Uh…PG for encyclopaedia-ness?
Word Count: 772
Warnings: Spoilers for the end of the anime series and Conqueror of Shamballa. Also? It’s metafiction. Really bizarre metafiction.
Author’s Notes: Based upon my abiding love for encyclopaedic things (meta-within-meta; joy!). Not technically AU, since the anime canon is over and thus can’t really contradict it. Begins after King Bradley’s death; I imagine this was written (in-universe) some forty/fifty-odd years after the end of the anime series. Also, I gave Scieszka a first name for stylistic reasons. And mentioned beatniks and hippies; after all, it is parallel to us.
This is my first Fullmetal Alchemist fic. Constructive criticism is love.
Amestris (,əm’Estri:), Recent History of.
After the assassination of Fuhrer King Bradley by Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye (qq.v.), it became apparent that, having started as a fairly standard military government, Bradley’s Amestris had metamorphosed into a far more personality-based system; thus, after his death, the retention of old military-state institutions became impossible. Luckily, the Amestris Assembly, although rendered powerless in Bradley’s years, still had a nominal existence and was able to take power after a brief period of instability. One of the first actions of the new government was to reverse the Ishbal Policy (q.v. under ‘Ishbal, History of’), helping the few surviving Ishbalans rebuild their country, although it would be some years before the State Military was able to fully withdraw from Ishbal.
In the years following the collapse of the military state, tensions ran high, leading to a surfeit of reconstruction contractors. These ranged from the entirely dishonest to the entirely scrupulous: Lieutenant Colonel Alex Louis Armstrong, for instance, was almost entirely responsible for the reconstruction of the ruined city of Lior (qq.v. under ‘Armstrong (military family)’ and ‘Lior’).
Two years after the resumption of civilian rule, the cities of Lior and Central were attacked by mysterious machine men, now thought to have taken advantage of the Gate of Alchemy (q.v.) to cross into Amestris from one of the ‘parallel universes’ previously thought to be science-fiction concepts. Although Roy Mustang had, for personal reasons, demoted himself to the rank of Corporal, he returned from the Briggs range to take control of the situation; with the help of Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, and Majors Edward and Alphonse Elric (qq.v. under ‘Hawkeye, Riza’ and ‘Brothers Elric’), Mustang was able to control the situation. The Brothers Elric vanished after the crisis; Mustang maintained until the end of his life that he had seen them safely escape into the parallel universe.
This year was 1918 (Common Calendar; in the Christian dating system still used in Areugo and Cretura, all dates have five years added). In 1920, due to the Mustang team’s destruction of the gate to prevent further crises, the Assembly resolved to search for a new source of alchemic power. This took six years and was code-named Project Scar (q.v.) for reasons known only to Mustang and his close confidantes.
After Project Scar’s successful completion, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye were elected to the Assembly from the constituencies of Central (North East) and Rural Eastern Quadrant (South), respectively. By this point married, Mustang and Hawkeye filled the positions of Herr Minister-President (the title of Fuhrer President was abolished after the resumption of civilian rule) and Secretary of State for the Ministry of Defence. Although Bradley’s war with Drachma (q.v. under ‘Drachma, History of’) had ended along with his government in 1916, no peace treaty had officially been signed. In 1928 the Frau Secretary Colonel Hawkeye made a personal trip to Bydgostia (q.v.), the capital of Drachma-the first time any Amestrian politician had visited Drachma for a hundred years. This led to the formerly lucrative trade between Amestris and Drachma resuming after two centuries of mutual embargo and tacit acceptance of smuggling.
Although the Assembly tried to amend the constitution to give Herr Minister-President Mustang a life term in office, he refused this, instead resigning (along with much of his Cabinet) in 1940 and moving to Ishbal to help in the rebuilding. Despite their actions during the Ishbal War (q.v.), Mustang and Hawkeye lived peacefully there for twenty years. They oversaw the Ishbalan side during the final departure of Amestrian troops on 11 July 1947, the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding; soon after, Herr Minister-President Jean Havoc had both of them nominally promoted to the rank of General.
Throughout the 1950s, life in Amestris became more and more free and less bound by old social norms. The Beat Generation and, later, the Hippie Movement (qq.v.) changed the face of the country forever, and alchemists, while still prestigious and honoured members of society, declined sharply in number and slightly in importance. After Minister-President Havoc’s death in 1956 at the age of sixty-five, Rose Thomas, the Member of the Assembly for Risembool, became Amestris’s first Frau Minister-Presidentine. Some years later, Generals Mustang and Hawkeye moved to Risembool, where Brigadier General Marie Scieszka (q.v. under ‘Civilian Government Restoration of 1916, Persons Involved In’ and ‘Project Scar Personnel’) lived in retirement. The three died within two months of one another in 1963.
List of Amestrian Leaders since 1900
Fuhrer President King Bradley-1894-1916
Herr Minister-President Arnaut Gruber-1916-26
Herr Minister-President Roy Mustang-1926-40
Herr Minister-President Jean Havoc-1940-56
Frau Minister-Presidentine Rose Thomas-1956-present