Eldia

"Eldia was a great and ancient nation that destroyed Marley and came to rule our continent. That is when the Dark Ages began."

- Mr. Yeager teaching young Grisha Yeager

Eldia (エルディア) is a nation chiefly populated by the Subjects of Ymir, a race that can turn into Titans. In ancient times, the Eldians used Titans to build their empire, slaughtering countless peoples and taking their land. Eventually, the Eldian Empire grew unstable due to internal conflicts between the families with the power of the Titans, and collapsed during the Great Titan War a century ago. Eldia lost most of its land as well as seven of the Nine Titans to a newly reborn Marley, and many Eldians retreated to Paradis Island, their last territory. King Karl Fritz raised the Walls to protect Eldia from Marley and the other nations of the world, and erased the memories of Eldia from the Subjects of Ymir inside.

After discovering the truth from Grisha Yeager's basement, the Eldians on Paradis Island embrace their true identities. Although they are officially the "nation of Eldia," the Yeagerists want to institute a New Eldian Empire (新生エルディア帝国).

History
In ancient times, the people of Eldia existed as a primitive tribe. The Eldian tribe pillaged and raided opposing peoples, even cutting out the tongues of those they took for their slaves and gouging out the eyes of disobedient slaves.

Around 2,000 years ago, a slave girl named Ymir gained the power of the Titans. The ruler of the Eldian tribe used Ymir's newfound powers to war against enemy nations such as Marley, and he would later take Ymir to mother his children in the Fritz family. 13 years later, Ymir Fritz died in defense of her king, and her powers were inherited by her three daughters when they cannibalized her body. Her powers would spread until there were Nine Titans. With their Titan powers, the Subjects of Ymir established the Eldian Empire.

The Eldians used the Titans as weapons of mass destruction to conquer other nations, wiping out countless cultures in the process. It is estimated that the number of people the Eldians have slaughtered is over three times world population of year 854. Allegedly, Marley was once again victim to Eldia's warmongering around 1,200 years ago, when Eldia assaulted Marleyan cities during the "Fall of Lago," the "Devastation of Monte," and the "Ravaging of Valle." Survivors from the Fall of Lago fled into the wastes, but were caught by Titans who had been awaiting their retreat. However, the historical validity of these Eldian attacks against Marley are a matter of debate.

Around the year 240, the Subjects of Ymir within the Eldian Empire were spared from widespread death from a worldwide epidemic through the actions of the King of Eldia. Using the power of the Founding Titan, the Subjects of Ymir were altered in their biology, rendering them immune to the disease.

At some point in later history, the Eldians made allies with Hizuru.

Eventually, the Eldians ran out of enemies and began fighting each other. The eight of the nine houses with the Nine Titans remained in a state of conflict, but the Fritz family maintained order with the Founding Titan. After 1,700 years, the Founding Titan came into the possession of Karl Fritz, the 145th King. The King believed that Eldia's sins cannot be atoned for, and that Eldians and Titans should not have existed in the first place. He pitied the Marleyans and devised a plan alongside the Tybur family, the keepers of the War Hammer Titan, to end the Eldian rule. The King abandoned the internal conflicts, and without the Founding Titan to keep order, the Eldian Empire collapsed. The Eldians fought and weakened themselves during the Great Titan War, while the King and the Tybur family presented the legend of Helos, a Marleyan hero who joined with the Tybur family to defeat the King. The Tybur family fought to restore Marley in the war; other noble families would evidently follow suit. They succeeded and Marley gained seven of the Nine Titans as a result. The King moved the capital to Paradis Island, Eldia's last remaining territory, and gathered as many Eldians he could on the island.

On Paradis Island, the King used the Founding Titan to cause Colossus Titans to form three concentric Walls around their territory: Maria, Rose, and Sheena. Afterward, Karl Fritz, now known as the First Reiss King, used the Founding Titan once more to erase the Subjects of Ymir's memory of the Great Titan War and all of history before the raising of the Walls. For the next century, the Subjects of Ymir in Paradis Island lived on in peace, unaware of their past conflicts, their history as the Eldians, and the world outside the Walls.

On the mainland, the Eldians who did not flee to Paradis Island were conquered by Marley. Marley spared these Eldians, who became second-class citizens. They were forced to reside within internment zones, such as Liberio's, separate from the Marleyan population. Marley used their new influence to spread slander of the Eldian Empire, claiming they had resorted to eugenics against the other races of the world for 1,700 years and that Ymir Fritz had gained her power from the "Devil of All Earth." Any Eldians accused of committing wrongdoing against the Marleyans were sent to "Heaven" and turned into Pure Titans, doomed to wander for eternity.

However, some Eldians attempted to resist and restore Eldia. The remaining members of the Fritz family still on the mainland led a revolutionary army against Marley, but the army was crushed and its members were executed, including Eren Kruger’s family. Others, such as Grisha Yeager, met together in secret, plotting to venture to Paradis Island and retrieve the Founding Titan in order to bring back the Eldian nation. Few Eldians were allowed to keep their status after Marleyans conquered them. One notable example is the Tybur family, who retained their status and wealth because they fought for the Marleyans in the Great Titan War.

Ancient Eldia
In the 1,700 years between Ymir Fritz's death and the Great Titan War, the Eldian Empire divided into various houses, each possessing one or more inheritors of the Nine Titans which split from Ymir's "soul." These houses warred against each other within the Eldian Empire, though conflicts in the Empire were nonetheless maintained with the power of the Founding Titan held by the Fritz family, the royal house.

Marley
After having lost the Great Titan War, the Eldians descended from those who remained on the continental mainland are regarded as low-class citizens by the nation of Marley, considered "filthy-blooded" and inhuman. Eldians are segregated from the main population into the designated areas such as in Liberio, with Subjects of Ymir as a potential selection of Titan weapons. Eldians in these internment zones evidently possess no system of currency. However, many who are aware of this contingency oppose it, believing that it would be better to exterminate the Eldians in order to rid the world of the Titans altogether.

On occasion, Eldians can be given permission to exit the internment zone with special permits distributed by the Public Security Authorities. Furthermore, all Eldians both within the internment zone and beyond in Marley territory are required to wear armbands denoting them as Eldian when appearing in public. Even the Warrior Unit are required by law to wear their armbands at all times, though those who receive the power of the Titans are granted special red armbands to denote their status. Families of these Warriors also receive red bands. The Tybur family, with their honorary status as Marleyan nobility, are not required to wear any armbands despite their Eldian heritage. Most Eldians seem content with this existence, though on numerous occasions resistance forces had been organized in order to restore the Eldian Empire, though all known attempts have failed.

Besides resistance movements, other secret Eldian organizations included a cult dedicated to the worship of Ymir Fritz, the first Titan and a goddess in the eyes of several of her subjects. The followers of this cult were fanatic in nature to the point of resorting to worshiping a homeless girl by the name of "Ymir," though the leader of said cult seemed to lead the group only for profit. Eventually, the cult was discovered and captured by the Public Security Authorities, in which the cult's leader turned against Ymir without hesitation, and all were exiled to the borderline of Paradis Island as Pure Titans. However, their devotion to their goddess was strong enough to cause one follower to display great reverence even in Titan form to a soldier who resembled Ymir.

Because they are treated as second-class citizens, many young Eldians strive to join the Warrior program in order become honorary Marleyans. These Eldians also serve as potential candidates to inherit the power of the Titans under Marley's control.

There are organizations that want to protect the rights of Eldians but they are considered to be freaks no one will take seriously. One of their spokesman believes that only the Subjects of Ymir outside of Paradis Island deserve compassion since they are the victims of the Eldian Empire's contrived breeding.

Paradis Island
When the Eldian Empire was isolated to the Walls on Paradis Island off the east coast of the continental mainland, Karl Fritz made use of the Founding Titan to force his subjects to believe they were the last remnants of the human race in a world overrun by Titans. The Fritz monarchy remained as the royal family over Eldia, however they went into hiding as the Reiss family while a pretender bloodline was placed upon the throne under the Fritz name.

Other Eldian races unrelated to the Subjects of Ymir also lived within their new territory, such as the Asian clan. Due to the nature of the Founding Titan, these bloodlines interfered with King Fritz's plan for a perfect peace. Most of these bloodlines complied with King Fritz's orders keeping silent concerning the history of the world beyond the Walls, becoming the nobility within the interior of Eldia's new territory, however the Asian clan along with the mysterious Ackerman clan objected to the King's ideology and rebelled. Both bloodlines were subjected to extermination, and those who survived fled into hiding in places such as the underground beneath Eldia's capital of Mitras or in the isolated wildernesses beyond the towns.

As an additional measure to ensure the Eldians within the Walls would never be able to venture beyond them without authorization, the Royal Government placed firm restrictions on the technological progress that could be achieved by the craftsmen and engineers of Eldia. Those who broke this regulation would be secretly targeted by the First Interior Squad, the elite force within Eldia's Military Police Brigade, who received orders directly from the monarch of Eldia. Due to this restriction of progress, Eldian technologically would fall behind the rest of the world as the decades passed.

A majority of the Eldians within the Walls are content with their isolated existence under the King's rule. Those who desired to see humanity's territory reclaimed would join the Survey Corps, the military branch authorized to exit the Walls periodically, though many civilians considered the act of leaving the Walls to be a foolish and wasteful gesture.

Cuisine within the Walls appears to consist of basic meals such as bread, smoked meats, grilled fish, alcohol, soups, stews, and apparently canned food, though meats have been designated as a rarity after the fall of Wall Maria.

Information is spread throughout the territory within the Walls through various newspapers such as the Berg Newspapers. However, until the coup d'état which overthrew the old system of government, the newspaper industry was heavily influenced by government interference, disallowing the publication of any information which conflicted with the motives of the government. Information is at times also spread through the merchants' association, which as its name implies gathers information solely from civilian merchant groups such as the Reeves Company. Before the overthrowing of the government, it was at a civilian's discretion whether to trust the official word of the government or the hear-say of the merchants.

Paradis Island Technology
The firearms used by the military of Paradis Island are based on the flintlock mechanism, where a piece of flint ignites the gunpowder and fires the gun, which must be reloaded after every shot. These come in the form of muskets, pistols, buckshot rifles, hand cannons, and flintlock sniper rifles. The firearm technology has not progressed much as guns were proved ineffective against the Titans. Part of the reason was due to the Military Police First Interior Squad stopping firearm advancements in technology to maintain order within the Walls, with two of the advancements that were suppressed being the development of revolvers and metallic bullet cartridges. The Survey Corps and the Garrison also use flare guns to communicate over long distances. Furthermore, cannons line the top of the Walls. While each one originally had its own track so it could be pushed to the outer edge or the inner edge, tracks were later laid along the entire Wall to connect them all and enabled them to be pushed to different positions. Four years later, the Survey Corps were able to incorporate semiautomatic and bolt action firearms into their arsenal with the covert aid of the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers, while Thunder Spears became standard issue equipment for anti-Titan and anti-fortification warfare.

One of the most sophisticated pieces of technology the Walls use is the vertical maneuvering equipment. The advances needed for the system to work include steel wire, compressing gas under pressure derived from iceburst stone, and blades made of ultrahard steel, a substance which can only be manufactured in the blast furnaces of the factory city.

Transportation within the Walls is derived primarily from horses. Furthermore, sailless boats guided by pulleys and rails connect some districts by river, such as the boats providing transport between Shiganshina District and Trost District. In the year 851, a port along the coastline begins development, allowing the Walls to use captured Marleyan ships. At the same time, the Walls are introduced to locomotives and obtain access to an airship, later used by the Survey Corps for their mission in Liberio.

Other forms of basic technology have been shown to exist within the Walls, such as pocket watches, pulley-based lifts, metallic water pumps, and the printing press. Photography is not something that the people inside the Walls initially know about, as Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman, Hange Zoë and Levi Ackerman are not able to identify what a photograph is without Grisha's note written on the backside.

Language
Eldian is the country's national language which is also used in Marley and other nations across the world due to the Eldian Empire's imperialism in the past. However, other nationalities such as the Marleyans use a different alphabet unrecognizable by the people of Paradis. Various accents also existed in Eldia and still exist inside the Walls. For example, the inhabitants of the isolated village of Dauper speak with an accent which is also found in present day Southern Marley.

Ancient Eldia
Presumably, since the days of Ymir Fritz, Eldia has run on a monarchy with the Fritz family acting as the royal bloodline over the Subjects of Ymir. However, due to the nature of the "Curse of Ymir," no monarchs could rule over Eldia for longer than the 13 years allowed for inheritors of the Nine Titans. Based on the succession rituals of the later Reiss family, it is likely that in ancient times successors were chosen around every 13 years, and succession could occur in a non-linear fashion, as was the case with Uri Reiss and his niece Frieda in later years.

Outside of the Fritz bloodline, the remaining eight Titans were kept within various families subservient to the monarchy. Conflict frequently arose between the houses, though the exact influences each had over Eldia as a whole is unknown.

Marley
While under the authority of Marley, the people of Eldia held no political influence in the nation, being segregated into internment zones separate from the population. The only government information received by the Eldians of Marley came through public announcements or secret information sent from spies such as "the Owl."

Paradis Island
When the last remnants of Eldia after the Great Titan War were isolated within the Walls, the Royal Government served as the head of power throughout the land. The main body of the Royal Government consisted of the monarch of the Walls as well as an assembly of noblemen subservient to the monarch. However, soon after the founding of the Walls, the King, Karl Fritz, took his family into hiding under the new name of the "Reiss family," playing the role of a house of nobles in Wall Sheena. While in hiding, the Reiss family would still communicate with the assembly while a false monarch held the public throne.

Politics and Diplomacy
Little can be said of the diplomacy of the Eldian Empire in ancient times, due to slander spread by the Marley government after the war. What is known is that the Eldian Empire was once allies with Hizuru. After the Empire's downfall at the hands of Marley, the Eldians of the continental mainland held no political positions of power, with the known exception of "the Owl," an Eldian spy within the Marleyan Public Security Authorities.

As King Fritz had wanted, the Eldians of Paradis Island who lived within the Walls made no interactions with any nation of the outside world, believing themselves to be the last surviving remnants of humanity in a world conquered by the Titans.

Ancient Eldia
Very little can be said of the military possessed by the Eldian Empire in the days before the building of the Walls. Evidently, the Nine Titans under Eldia's control played a great part in the nation's conquering of the known world centuries ago. These Titans may have served as leaders or commanders for ground infantry in ancient times, as portrayed in the history books in Marley. Furthermore, the Founding Titan was able to command armies of "Pure Titans" on the battlefield, with great destructive potential. While nothing is known exactly of the Eldian military at the time of the Great Titan War, it is highly likely that its technology would be comparable or equal to that of the military of the Eldians who would live within the Walls by the end of the war, since technological advancement was suppressed by the Royal Government after the raising of the Walls.

Marley
After the downfall of the Eldian Empire and the rise of Marley on the continental mainland, the Eldians under Marleyan rule ceased to have a standing military, but they did make organized attempts to fight off their new rulers. At some point in Eren Kruger's childhood, an Eldian revolutionary army was raised by the remnants of the Fritz royal family remaining on the mainland. However, it was unable to withstand the Marleyan onslaught and was utterly crushed. All its members, including Kruger's parents, were executed by being burnt alive.

In Grisha Yeager's youth, open rebellion had become a thing of the past. Militant-minded Eldians largely went underground or chose to continue the fight by infiltrating the ranks of Marley's government and military force. Most of the Eldians of Marley, as low-class citizens, would have no possession of serious military power until the time of the Warrior program, where Eldian children were given the opportunity to inherit the seven Titans in possession of the Marley government.

Paradis Island
After the raising of the Walls, the Eldians of Paradis Island possessed a three-branch military with each branch serving specific functions: the Garrison, which safeguards and reinforces the three Walls; the Survey Corps, who venture beyond the Walls into Titan territory as a means of researching the Titans; and the Military Police Brigade, which exercises control and order over the citizens of the Walls. The latter-most branch is a position of privilege available only to the top ten graduates of each yearly Training Corps.

Return to Shiganshina arc
Upon finally reaching the basement in the Yeager family household in Shiganshina, the Survey Corps discovers three of Grisha Yeager's books, describing all his knowledge of the history of Eldia and his own experiences in joining the Eldian resistance in Marley. These findings are later discussed in a meeting between the surviving members of the Survey Corps as well as the highest military leaders, where the nation of the Walls is acknowledged by its people as Eldia for the first time in over a century.

Trivia

 * The emblem of Eldia is a nine-pointed star, most commonly found on the armbands of Eldian citizens in Marley.
 * Nine is also the number of Titan powers created after Ymir Fritz's death.
 * However, the ancient King Fritz wore a crown decorated with five nine-pointed stars about 2,000 years ago, even before the existence of the Nine Titans.
 * The name Eldia in Japanese, Erudia, is similar to the Latin word "erudio," a word that has multiple translations such as instruct, educate, and enlighten.
 * The relationship between the Marleyans and the Eldians features many real-world reflections of Nazi Germany and the Jews.  Like Jews living in pre-WWII Nazi Germany, the Eldians live in segregated ghettos, forced to wear star-emblemed upper armbands to distinguish them from non-Eldians, suffer severe discrimination with frequent comparisons to demonic entities, and face constant calls to be exterminated. The Germanic-traits of the culture as well as most of Marley's and Paradis Island's inhabitants reinforce these strong similarities. Note that this comparison has been considered offensive by many readers and viewers, due to the implication that Jews must have earned their oppression by oppressing non-Jews for 1700 years.
 * The history of Marleyans and Eldians is also partially comparable with that of the populations of  and . By 1700, the Rwandan populace coalesced into around eight kingdoms, of which the Tutsi Kingdom of Rwanda became dominant and oppressed the Hutu, fueling a hard relationship between the two races that lasted for centuries. In 1994, during the, the then Hutu majority government perpetrated a  which resulted in the extermination of around 70% of the Tutsi population. However, this comparison completely glosses over the role of British colonialism in fomenting the tensions in Rwanda. As there is not a greater imperial power playing Marleyans off against Eldians in SnK, the comparison is deeply flawed.
 * The technology of the Eldians within the Walls appears to roughly correspond with the technology of pre- or early Industrial civilization in the Western world.
 * If mirrored vertically, the territory of the old Eldian Empire is very similar to.
 * Marley's placement in an alternate Africa also coincides with the Rwanda parallelism, as Rwanda is a country within the mainland of Africa some distance northwest of Madagascar. When turned mirrored vertically, Rwanda is at the southwest, and it is said that Titans primarily target the southern regions of the Walls.

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