Golems

Golems are a type of monster originating from Amestris that make their first appearance in The Interference II: Curse of the Crimson Elixir. They are artificial beings created via alchemy.

History
Golems originate from the Kingdom of Lebis, as the creations of its ruling families. Designed to act as manual labour (slaves), they were primarily responsible for the vast development of the kingdom into a superpower lasting over a millennium.

At the height of the Kingdom's prosperity, several Golems were created after the death of the Queen of the thirty-second King, as he tried and failed to use them to support the soul of his fallen lover. The final Golem went berserk, killing the King; the rest of the Golems followed suit, turning against their masters and felling the Kingdom in a single evening. The art of creating Golems fell with the city, until Jack Crowley revived it for his personal gain.

Nature
Golems are primarily constructed from soil and natural materials. They were intended as temporary servants, so they generally decompose back into their original ingredients after a few hours, though this can be staved off for a while. The Grand Arcanum (alchemy) is used to imbue them with intelligence, which allows Golems to interpret their orders, and even to understand and speak human tongue.

Because their body is made of a non-living element, it can be broken apart and reformed with ease, thus contributing to their easy construction and destruction. Golems are capable of transforming their own bodies as well: the majority of human-sized Golems are capable of appearing as regular human beings; certain larger Golem types are capable of spawning smaller Golems from the material of their own bodies.

Types
Standard Golems are simply animated to their instructions. Though their intelligence is enough to make them capable of rebelling, this is a rare occurrence that can only be triggered by a more powerful Golem, and the majority of Golems will simply follow the task set them by their master.

Certain Golems are created via the binding of a human soul to the soil, similar to the art that binds Alphonse Elric to his armour. This can be done with both the living and the dead; regardless of the soul's origin, the end result is a real human resurrected into a potentially very powerful but temporary body. Because of the temporary nature of the body, the soul bond deteriorates, causing horrific side-effects such as insanity and mutation before the body is finally destroyed. Ironically, a Golem body was originally sought in this fashion because of its perceived immortality.

Important Golems
Twice in known history has someone attempted to use Golems in order to revive a lost love:

The Queen of Lebis was the first recipient of such treatment by her husband the King. It is not known for how long the final version of the Queen lasted before she rebelled, but her existence and subsequent rampage led to the destruction of the entire Kingdom and the near-loss of its Grand Arcanum to the sands of time.

Elma is the second such subject. The lover of Jack Crowley, he attempted to resurrect her via Golem after failing with modern alchemy. The first Golem was successful for six months prior to her deterioration; watching her die again, he plunged back into his studies and fashioned vessel after vessel. Driven to insanity by the constant cycle of death, Elma developed a second personality, Phantom, who was obedient to Crowley and took on an obvious Golem appearance; this personality faded during Elma's dying moments.