Szilard Quates

"I don't know anyone greedier than the old man. Knowledge, money, power – he'd take everything he could."

- Victor Talbot to Edward Noah on Szilard

Szilard Quates (セラード・クェーツ, Serādo Kuētsu) is one of the alchemists who obtained complete immortality aboard the Advena Avis in 1711. He devours thirteen of his fellow alchemists aboard the ship, and spends the next two hundred years advancing alchemic research in his quest to recreate the Grand Panacea. Firo Prochainezo devours him in November 1930.

Szilard is the main antagonist of The Rolling Bootlegs and has left a blinding legacy towards the character development of several characters, chiefly Firo, Ennis, Feldt Nibiru and Fil.

Appearance
Szilard has short grey hair and sports a thick mustache and beard both in the 1700s and 1930. His face is furrowed with deep wrinkles, and in the anime his eyes are lilac. His descendant Bilt Quates bears a striking resemblance to him.

Aboard the Advena Avis he wore a heavy hooded cloak and cravat over his attire, and his old-fashioned attire two hundred years later—though updated—remains reminiscent of it: he wears a black gentleman's short cloak in 1930 coupled with a white cravat, and carries a cane.

Personality
(To be revised)

Aboard on the Advena Avis, Szilard was close-minded and denounced the idea of summoning a demon as heretical. He quickly changed his tune once he obtained immortality and sought to learn the secret of the Grand Panacea by going after Maiza Avaro (only to accidentally devour Gretto Avaro instead).

Szilard is one of the greediest characters in the series, motivated by an obsessive lust for perfect knowledge and absolute loyalty. His thirst for knowledge - to know everything - is so profound that he is more than willing to kill in his quest for it.

Chronology
(To be added)

Pre-1711
Szilard, along with Victor Talbot, is hired as an alchemist for House Dormentaire, a powerful Spanish aristocratic family.

1711
In 1711, Szilard and Victor arrived in the now Dormentaire-controlled Lotto Valentino, under Dormentaire orders. They end up leaving the city with twenty-eight other alchemists aboard the Advena Avis, where they become complete immortals. Szilard jumps overboard after devouring thirteen of the other passengers, including Gretto Avaro.

Skills and Abilities
Physical - Szilard has enhanced his body's abilities over the years, first and foremost training himself to withstand pain. Given that he was able to stay alive despite being riddled with bullet holes in 1930, as well as quickly regenerate from being stabbed in the back, it is extremely likely that he had himself killed over and over again by various methods in order to speed up his regenerative processes.

Research and Knowledge - Szilard is a highly skilled alchemist, and over the centuries made considerable advancements to the field of homunculi research in particular. He has also accumulated vast amounts of knowledge from all the people he has devoured over the years.

Organization - Szilard established and expanded a large research network over the years, with laboratories and other hubs spread across the United States and extending into Europe. At least one research lab of his has survived into the twenty-first century, led by his descendant Bilt Quates.

Trivia

 * His name, Szilard, when correctly pronounced in Hungarian, is "C-lard" and means solid or firm.
 * In the anime outro, he is only ever credited as Szilard.
 * He is potentially named after Leo Szilard, a Hungarian physicist who hypothesized nuclear chain reaction and helped develop the atomic bomb. After the Second World War, he focused his studies on biology and was involved in the first cloning of human cells. The Szilard-Chalmers effect, which is a way to chemically separate an atom from its molecule, was named after him.