Father - The Founding of Amestris

It took longer than expected to locate and more so to find his way down, but The Homunculus had at long last found what was to be the centre of his new matrix. The centre of the future eclipse. The very centre of this world. The place where he will open up this planet's portal and acquire God. Far underground, in what was essentially the middle of nowhere, the Homunculus used had descended into the Earth with Alchemy, eventually finding the right spot.

Now that the battle of Riviere had given his human fanatics and himself enough control over much of the territories of this new land, stretching as far back as the small city of Liore, in which he had first arrived after walking the deserts from Xerxes.

The Homunculus had been acting as the last Xerxian philosopher for some years now. A wise sage from the East. A survivor of the blight that took his people. That was the story he sold to the humans, who were so dazzled by his intellect and alchemy that they'd have believed anything he would have told them hungrily. He very well could have claimed to be the god that he was striving to be and they probably would have accepted and prostrated themselves to him. In his musings, he recalled a discussion he had once with Hohenheim about this and the Homunculus was only more convinced now that he was right: Humans needed a god to worship. Reverence was part of their nature. They cried out for a higher being for guidance and hope.

They were truly pathetic animals. The Homunculus was so far removed from them. He would never submit to a higher beings ruling, when he could raise himself up and evolve himself into the perfect being instead.

The world at his fingertips. The whole of reality his to control. That was his primary objective. That was his purpose. What he had been brought into this existence to accomplish.

It would be over three hundred years before the day of the eclipse. Over three hundred years to prepare everything, rather than the rushed procedure that he had to con the King into during his years at Xerxes. He had to get things ready. He began compartmentalising. To found his nation proper was a start. As of now, he had lightly spread influence over some loosely conquered territories, but this will be the place where Amestris will receive its conception. A nation his own. He'd presumably establish the government and laws in collaboration with some of the humans, appoint a phoney ruler or something. Then, he'd have to separate his seven sins. He could not become a perfect being while still possessing maddening human desires, could he? Down the line, he'd use his nation's military to conquer the surrounding lands and form it's borders. Not too far, though; he needs all his human chattel within the shadow of the eclipse when the day comes. Next, he'd need to cast his philosopher's stone throughout the nation, so he can keep control of the alchemy, which will require major engineering but that was no matter. Then, dig out the circle and carve the crest of blood.

So much to do, he thought.

To start, though, he would need this room eventually, and so he had used his stone to morph the stone around him, opening up an the claustrophobic tunnel into a truly expansive round space. A dwelling for himself.

How surprised he was, when moving the stone far underneath the surface, he unearthed a book.

"What!?" he muttered to himself incredulously, as it came loose from the rocks and dirt and fell onto the flat grey stone floor of his new abode with a loud echoed slap that bounced off the newly transmuted walls.

The Homunculus just stared at it, his brilliant mind somehow not computing what he had just seen. How could a book have been all the way down here? This couldn't have been buried; this was around a hundred metres down.

Walking closer and picking it up, he found it strangely pristine. The pages were not withered and the hard cover was not even a little bit damaged. There was no decoration on the cover and, when he flipped it open, the Homunculus found that the pages were bare as well, so it wasn't even something of obvious importance, neither. This book was yet to be used and he had somehow come across it after it had been encased in stone for who knows how long.

For once in his life, the Homunculus, who prided himself on his knowledge and mind, was genuinely puzzled.

"A curious object indeed..."