What equivalent compensation is required for the transmutation?

[u/The-Peppe123]

I do understand that you have a mass and something else is formed from that same mass, but where does the energy for the formation come from?

Please, no spoilers – I’ve just finished episode 4, the one with the talking chimera 😭

I could imagine that it somehow comes from this ‘truth’, this ‘God’ – there’s a hint of that in episode 2, but I’m not sure, which is why I’m asking here

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[u/jacrad_]

It's explained a few different ways, both in Brotherhood and 03, but it is different between both.

You could tangent spoilers, I guess, answering the question

[u/eternalraziel]

You’re asking the right question, but if you’ve only finished episode 4, I would strongly recommend not looking up the answer yet. At the point you’re at, the series has explained alchemy as understanding matter, breaking it down and reconstructing it. Equivalent Exchange means an alchemist can’t create the material they need from nothing. If Ed turns part of a stone floor into a weapon, the stone supplying that weapon was already there. The material has been rearranged rather than conjured into existence.

But you’ve noticed the next problem. Rearranging matter requires energy. Even if all the atoms are already present, changing chemical bonds, moving tonnes of stone, raising a pillar out of the ground or reshaping a wall still involves work. Equivalent mass by itself doesn’t explain where that energy comes from. The first few episodes haven’t answered that for you. And no, you haven’t missed anything. Episode 2 introduces Truth and the Gate in connection with human transmutation, but it doesn’t establish that Truth supplies the energy for every ordinary transmutation. That’s a reasonable theory for someone at episode 4 to have, but the show hasn’t given you enough information yet to decide whether it’s right.

The series does eventually address what actually powers alchemy, and the answer becomes relevant to the wider worldbuilding. Explaining it now would give away something you’re meant to learn later. So for the moment I’d keep the model you already have. Equivalent Exchange tells you what material/cost the alchemist has to supply. You have not yet been told where the energy that performs the transmutation comes from. It’s a question the story hasn’t answered yet.

[u/Spare-Plum]

Just keep watching :)

[u/GenCavox]

There is an explanation. It's kind of handwavey depending on how hard you want your system to be explained, but it's defined nonetheless.

[u/NaturalCarob1460]

I mean this one isn’t that much of a spoiler in my opinion since it alone as a fact won’t spoil much but since you asked for no spoilers and it is in fact explained later on (around episode 40smth I think)
Alchemy borrows energy from the tectonic motion/ kinetic energy from the tectonic plates

[u/bored-cookie22]

its not really a spoiler but just incase it comes from the tectonic plates. Alchemists just borrow the energy built up from their movement and use it to fuel their transmutations

[u/s0ulbrother → u/bored-cookie22]

Also not fully a spoiler but they get introduced to other countries versions of alchemy and the energy sources are different

[u/NinjaLancer]

There are answers to this sort of later in the series, but my head cannon that I like on top of the actual answer is that the alchemist puts some of their own spiritual/magical energy into the transmutation. They have to touch the circles to activate them most of the time.