[edit] The Mechanism of the Stone
The two types of Stone operate in the same manner. When a transmutation is performed, the matter is usually supplied by the alchemist himself. A broken radio can be reshaped into a fully functional radio, some scrap iron can build a sword, a spear, a gun, etc., but the source of the energy necessary to the process is only revealed in the final episodes. This energy is supplied by the mysterious Gate, a passage present in every human soul, linked to the "real" world (in the movie, the Fullmetal Alchemist world was thought to be the mystical Shamballa by the Thule Society). Every death in "our" world generates energy, meaning the souls of our dead became the energy harnessed by alchemists to perform their transmutations. The Philosopher's Stone supplies an additional energy source, utilizing not the souls from the other side of the Gate, but souls collected in the alchemy world which are transmuted into the Stone. This allows amazing feats, such as human transmutation and incredible alchemic augmentation, to be performed as the souls from the stone are sacrificed as Equivalent Exchange for the desired power, effectively meaning giving up more than what you initially had. But as you use the stone the souls used in making it are sent through the gate as energy, so over time the stone "rots" by using it.
The two types of Stone operate in the same manner. When a transmutation is performed, the matter is usually supplied by the alchemist himself. A broken radio can be reshaped into a fully functional radio, some scrap iron can build a sword, a spear, a gun, etc., but the source of the energy necessary to the process is only revealed in the final episodes. This energy is supplied by the mysterious Gate, a passage present in every human soul, linked to the "real" world (in the movie, the Fullmetal Alchemist world was thought to be the mystical Shamballa by the Thule Society). Every death in "our" world generates energy, meaning the souls of our dead became the energy harnessed by alchemists to perform their transmutations. The Philosopher's Stone supplies an additional energy source, utilizing not the souls from the other side of the Gate, but souls collected in the alchemy world which are transmuted into the Stone. This allows amazing feats, such as human transmutation and incredible alchemic augmentation, to be performed as the souls from the stone are sacrificed as Equivalent Exchange for the desired power, effectively meaning giving up more than what you initially had. But as you use the stone the souls used in making it are sent through the gate as energy, so over time the stone "rots" by using it.
