Pride is a homunculus originating from the world of Full Metal Alchemist.

Please note that this page is very, very spoilery.

Character Info

Personality:

Selim Bradley is an energetic young boy, the adopted son to the Fuhrer of Amestris, King Bradley. As the First Son of Amestris, he is most commonly seen impeccably dressed as any young elite boy should: wearing a blazer, shirt, and tie along with short trousers. His hair is cropped short, and he is usually seen with a smile on his face.

Selim, along with his mother, show a softer side to the fuhrer, a strong military leader who is active in military service even at the age of 60. Selim loves his father greatly and constantly asks to hear stories of the fuhrer's work. He has a great bit of pride in his father, going so far as to compose essays at school about him and then bringing them home to read before his family. Despite being adopted from distant relatives, the bond between Selim and his parents couldn't be greater. They very much love each other.

Selim wants to grow up to become a State Alchemist, inspired by the stories of his other hero, Edward Elric, who gained his license at the young age of twelve. Such a tiny alchemist gives him aspirations to gain his license at a young age too so that he can be of use to Amestris as well. Mostly importantly, though, with his license, he'll be able to help his father, King Bradley, in any way he can. Unfortunately, due to being unable to leave his schooling, he has only had one chance to meet the tiny alchemist hero (and his brother) once.

Think that's all there is to Selim? Then his acting and propaganda are successful.

In reality, Selim Bradley is the eldest of Father's homunculi, Pride, made in Father's original form's own image. He is over three hundred years old, despite his young appearance. He has maintained this same appearance over centuries, showing up alongside the corrupt military leaders of the nation of Amestris before finally being set up as the fuhrer's son in a game of "house" for King Bradley as a sham to give him a better public image.

However his human body is really just a container - his true body is his shadow itself. This shadow is not a regular shadow, but rather a thing of nightmares. It's a frightening combination of bloodshot eyes, mouths with huge razor-sharp teeth, armour-piercing spikes, and tendril-like hands. With the ability to make his shadow extend so long as there's a light to cast it and not a bright enough light to injure it, he's very much the eyes and ears of Father in Central City and along the nation-wide transmutation tunnel.

As Pride, he is most arrogant of the homunculi, looking down on humanity as trivial beings that have been out-evolved by their successors including himself. While almost all homunculi have at least some pride in being "better" than humanity, Pride looks down even upon his siblings as lesser. He's even seen reprimanding the other homunculi, including his "father", King Bradley, for failing at tasks. Part of this stems from his position as second-in-command to Father, as well as his place as the eldest homunculus. He views the other homunculi as simply being parts of the same system, and has no qualms whatsoever with absorbing another homunculus who has lost its use. His power is also significantly greater than most of the other homunculi, as well. Even just Pride's name is enough to get the unmotivated Sloth to continue his work.

Pride's devotion to Father is central to his existence. He was born out of an attempt for Father to rid himself of his "Pride", giving it shape and form as a son. This son fights for his Father's goals to become a perfect being, doing anything necessary to realize this dream. Pride claims that all the other emotions which are considered the "Seven Deadly Sins" are not present within him. Rather it's this pride that is the basis of all of his actions. For example, he wouldn't kill out of wrath so much as pride, as killing humans is like stepping on ants to him. They're so beneath him that it's inconsequential. However, having absorbed his brother, Gluttony, this isn't completely true anymore, as along with Gluttony's sense of smell he gained a voracious appetite, which comes to drive his desire to consume.

Despite his great pride in being a homunculus and disdain for humanity, Pride is shown to have a bit of a human side as well. He admits to being fond of his adoptive mother, a human who knows nothing of his true homunculus self. She once desperately tried to protect him from a car crash at the risk of herself, leaving him bewildered. He became intrigued with the thought of a mother, as he's never had one before.

Abilities:

Pride has mastery over his amorphous shadow, which can change shape and size to suit his needs to some degree. This shadow can take the form of sharp spikes, tiny tendril-like hands, mouths with jagged teeth, and horrific eyes all over its forms. These eyes and mouths can extend anywhere his body can, leaving him capable to watch and talk at any point of his body. It's these abilities that came in handy for passing on orders to the other homunculi as well as for patrolling the nation-wide transmutation tunnel. The shadow "hands" are capable of holding and even scratching people, but the spikes and teeth are more dangerous. They can cut through flesh, bone, even some metals like iron. Normal weapons have no use against it, being shadows, but it can be deflected by very hard objects, such as those reinforced with carbon. This shadow body is also rather fast, capable of chasing after an early 20th century car moving at top speed.

Pride has, on one occasion, been shown to be able to tamper with blood seals (like that of Alphonse's soul when bound to an armour) using his shadow hands. This may be attributable to his close biological relationship with Alphonse, being essentially a clone of a clone of Al's father, Hohenheim. This allowed Pride to talk using Al's voice and control his body from within, holding the boy hostage.

There are a couple of limitations to the shadow, however. It has a double-edged reliance on light - it won't work in pure darkness. Furthermore, with a bright enough light (like a flashbang grenade), the afflicted parts of the shadow body are destroyed. Should one of his limbs be cut off from his container in this way, it will dissolve, even if the end is in a place unaffected by the light. In addition, this shadow form requires a container of some sort, like Father's original form which was confined to a glass flask. In Pride's case, he's canonically shown to have two containers: the child-like humanoid body, which lets him move around at will, and the nation-wide transmutation tunnel. While within the tunnel, he's able to extend his shadow as far as he wills, so long as there is some light to cast a shadow. Other than in this transmutation tunnel, his shadow can only extend for a smaller distance around his body, much more limited compared to the kilometers of reach the tunnels grant him.

If necessary, he can find a replacement container, should his Philosopher's Stone become so depleted that he stops regenerating. He's been shown trying to take another humanoid container on one instance, that container being Edward Elric's body. This body is likely compatible due to genetic issues, though due to his failure it's unclear. Other bodies may cause rejection.

Another striking ability is Pride's ability to assimilate those he eats and gain their abilities and some of their traits. He's consumed his brother, Gluttony, for example, which gave him Gluttony's Philosopher's Stone as well as Gluttony's strong sense of smell and ravenous hunger. Gluttony's sense of smell allows Pride to detect people around him in a significant radius while not looking, including while in the dark where he cannot use his shadow body's eyes to see.

He's also been shown to eat Kimblee, who shows up in the sea of souls contained in Pride's philosopher stone, and may have contributed some fundamental knowledge of alchemy as such. He isn't shown using alchemy beyond this point (prior to absorbing the doctor noted next), but seeing as Kimblee hasn't seen Truth, it would require carefully drawn transmutation circles that Pride would likely not bother with, seeing as how useful his shadow is. While this is further on in his canon, he also is shown assimilating an unnamed alchemist doctor and gaining his knowledge of and capabilities of alchemy along with human transmutation. (However, the point Pride would be brought from would be prior to eating this doctor, so he wouldn't have this knowledge.)

Like all homunculi, at his heart is a Philosopher's Stone, which allows him to regenerate his shadows and human-shaped container quite a number of times, even if "killed". However this regeneration is not unlimited and upon dying enough or upon his "container" being destroyed, he will revert to his very basic true form. This form appears like a tiny human infant with a circle mark on its head, small enough to easily fit inside a normal-sized human hand. This form appears to be helpless, only capable of crying "Mama!"

Also, like all homunculi (particularly those originally formed from Philosopher's Stones), he exudes an unsettling aura of unnaturalness. While most people won't notice such a thing, those who can read "qi" or "ki" energy, such as the royal family of Xing and their bodyguards, have been shown to sense this presence. He also seems to exude a bit of a bloodthirsty aura when he wants to kill someone, which might be picked up by trained combatants sensing someone approaching. However, as "Selim Bradley", he has a great skill in acting, having been able to fool pretty much any human that cannot otherwise determine his inhumanity.

Although not a special skill, Pride's container body is of a small size and thus is relatively quick and nimble for a human. This may make him able to avoid the attacks of fighters who are not used to fighting small shapes. However, those used to fighting smaller enemies or those who can read the movements of smaller enemies (for example by being small people themselves) would probably have no trouble with this.

Selim also seems to be rather intelligent, having picked up a number of strategies for manipulating people, as well as other skills like knowledge of Morse Code.

Residence: Shelter in Sector 0 

     Roommates: none 

Class Schedule: