Attack on Titan
According to lore, over 2,000 years prior to the present day, a young woman named Ymir Fritz came into contact and made a deal with the “Devil of All Earth”, becoming the first of humanoid giants, and imbued with special powers. These creatures later came to be known as Titans (巨人, Kyojin). Her powers were used by her King to establish the Empire of Eldia and, in doing so, crushed the rival nation of Marley. When she died, her titan abilities were passed on, manifesting into Nine individual forms; each with their own special traits. The power of the titans was kept by the royal Fritz family for centuries.
One century before the events of the main storyline the 145th Eldian King, Karl Fritz, became disillusioned by the powers his ancestors had granted him and guilt-ridden over the destructive path the Eldian monarchy had taken. He orchestrated his nation’s downfall, allowing the nation of Marley to rise up in rebellion. In the process, seven of the Nine Titan powers were stolen by Marley. Possessing the Ninth Titan power, the power of the Founding Titan, Fritz took a handful of his people across the sea to the island of Paradis to begin a new, peaceful nation. He created millions of Colossal Titans to be used as part of the construction of three curtain walls, each one named after one of Ymir Fritz’s three daughters: the outermost being Wall Maria (ウォール・マリア, Wōru Maria); the middle Wall Rose (ウォール・ローゼ, Wōru Rōze, sometimes pronounced like rosé) and the innermost Wall Sheena (ウォール・シーナ, Wōru Shīna, alt. “Wall Sina”) which housed the Royal family and was populated by the wealthy and elite. Once the walls were complete, Fritz gave the outside world an ultimatum: should war be declared on Paradis, he would release the titans within the walls to flatten the earth. This, however, was a bluff since Fritz revealed to his family that he had renounced all war. If Marley eventually became powerful enough to overthrow Paradis, then he would accept that. He used his Founding Titan powers to create a blood pact which would instill this ideology in any royal family member who inherited his titan, even if they disagreed with it before. Meanwhile, Eldians who remained within Marley as second class citizens were treated poorly, and any form of dissent or disobedience was punishable by exile to Paradis: they were injected with raw titan spinal fluid, turning them into mindless, man-eating ‘Pure’ Titans which would eventually find their way to King Fritz’s walls.
