cassandra donahue

Growing up in Vectora, a town located in the northern region of Amestris, Cassandra was used to the cold. She had visited Drachma a few times with her family, though she didn't know that she would eventually find herself fleeing there. After the failed transmutation experiment to create a philosopher's stone in order to cure her sister's illness, she was summoned to the Gates of Truth to be judged for her actions. Her gate symbolises her alchemy; the sigilum dei aemeth. Her right eye was taken as punishment by Truth, the reason being that the experiment may have been minor but she still was due to reap a consequence. The damage dealt does not seem signnificant, however because of the violent, gruesome scarring that covered half of her face as a result, the outcome was far worse in practice than theory - ultimately giving her a taste of her own medicine for attempting to experiment with human souls. She gets phantom pains in her eye socket which become much more common when she is in a bad state of mind or experiencing some form of flashback/PTSD episode.

Cassandra never knew much about her extended family - the most she knew was that they existed, and that most were in Drachma. When she was 12, she began researching her family tree as her mother obviously wouldn't disclose any of that information, finding out about Frances, a commander of the southern division of Drachma's military (Drachma and Amestris were allies after some shaky relations being sorted out, and crossing the border was much easier compared to a few decades ago), as well as Mikhail, a.k.a the Arcane Alchemist, a State Alchemist originally from Drachma with an invitation from Amestris' Fuhrer to partake in the State Alchemist examination as commendation for his breakthrough research into various types of alchemy. This discovery motivates Cassandra even more to study the vast world of alchemy, and she fine tunes her skills as well as being given the original documents of Mikhail's work when she refuges to Drachma with Frances (the notes are mainly in Drachman with some Amestrian script, so Cassandra eventually translates them for the use of state alchemists in Central City's military library).

Cassandra's mother, Ameliya, treated Cassandra very different to her twin, Theresa. As Cassandra was predisposed to emotional instability due to hereditary traits she inherited from her father, as well as the divorce she witnessed at a very young age, making her very paranoid and acting strangely compared to her sister. As a result of this, Cassandra experiences a form of neglect, leading to attachment issues with her mother (temper tantrums and becoming very upset if she interferes) and ultimately her extremely religious mother convincing herself that it is an external issue - Cassandra is "possessed by the devil" in her eyes, and proceeds with cleansing rituals such as herbal remedies, rituals, repenting and even to go as far as full blown exorcisms. As a result of these, Cassandra has severe scars from these rituals but is convinced that it is normal, and Theresa knows hardly anything about it. She is yet to know anything about her father, but in hindsight, he wouldn't have treated her much better, she thinks.