In Fullmetal Alchemist a major element in the story line is Alchemy, their science of changing one substance to another. Alchemy has three steps to perfrom a transmutation (a sucessful change of matter). The first step is understanding in which a person understands the molecular composition of an object. The second step is decomposition in which all bonds in the substance are broken through the use of alchemic energy and the final step is reconstruction in which those atoms are reconstructed into something new. Very good alchemists can also change the atom's element into something different too.
Now then Alchemy does do not every element under the sun. Infact there are only a few(I think it's a few) which consist of:
Fire
Earth
Air
Water
Light
and Forbidden human alchemy.
(just a crappy little image I found to repsent the FMA world)
-Amestris-
Amestris is the country where almost everything happens. The government is a military dictatorship, with King Bradley at the top. A parliament does exist although it has absolutly no power what so ever. The military has divided the country into four administrative regions with a region headquarter. The captial is called Central city and Central HQ is the hub of all military actions. Mount Fuji is located to the south of Youswell, in the east. Dublith, in the south
Almost all alchemist research done in Amestris, unlike other countries, is entirely devouted to war and destruction.
-Creata, Drachma and Areugo-
Creata lies to the west and Areugo to the south. Not much is known about these countries other than the fact that they have border skirmishes quite frequently with the Amestrian Military. Drachma lies to the north and is seperated from Amestris by the Briggs mountain range. Drachma has signed a non-agression pact with Amestris but who knows how long that will last?
-Ishbal-
Ishbal is the FMA world's equivilant to the middle east. The people who live there, called the Ishvbalites, worhip their god Ishbala and had a strict code forbidding alchemy.
A war broke out between Ishval and Amestris and ended up having all of the Ishvalan people displaced and refugees and the country of Ishval becoming annexed my Amestris.
-The Great Desert and Xing-
The great desert is an enormous desert that seperated Ishval from Xing. In the middle of the desert lies the ruins of the city of Xerxes ,which, as legend has it vanished in a single night when the people of the city tried to gain the philsopher's stone. There used to be a rail line from Ishval across the desert to Xing but the sands covered it up and rendederd it unusable.
Xing is the FMA equivilant of Asia, and their form of government is a monarchy with an emperor(king) on the throne. Despite this form of governemtn the country is still divided into many different clans. Each clan is help together only by the emperor and without him the entire country would crumble into chaos. Xing's major use of alchemy is medecinal and some even call is Pharmacy in lieu of this trait