Board Thread:Theories/@comment-26472215-20160222034906

After having recently rewatched the entire Attack on Titan anime, I started trying to figure out the background to the world in which it takes place and why the First King didn't use the Coordinate to kill off all of the titans. From what has been revealed already, there are Asian people and the humans within the walls are European. From my speculation, and the fact that there are a lot of German themes to SnK, it seems that the primary race of humans within the walls are German, or at least from around German North Europe. As revealed in the anime and manga, Humans seem to have converged on Europe when the Titan epidemic took place, most notably Asians who fled to Europe at the outbreak. The year in which SnK takes place in is 845. Assuming that SnK is based off of reality, I put that year into Wikipedia and according to it, the only really notable stuff happening in that year is a lot of Viking attacks on Europe and all kinds of Medieval battles and so on. I tried putting 745 into the search bar as well since we know that Humans have lived within the walls for 100 years. The most notable thing happening at that time is that the Bubonic Plague had just hit the Byzantine Empire, but I doubt that First King refused to wipe out all Titans on the basis that Humans would simply be killed by the Bubonic Plague, so we can rule that out. Now, from what we can obviously see, Humanity in SnK is NOT living in the Dark Ages. The technology shown does more than prove this; next to ODM gear, muskets and cannons are some of the most advanced technologies that have been discovered. If they have muskets and cannons, we can assume that they live sometime in between the 14th and 15th centuries (1300s and 1400s). I'd rather like to say that it's actually the 1500s through the 1700s, but by then, Humanity in real life had already disovered the New World, North and South America, and so therefore they could have just shipped off to the New World if something like the Titans started showing up. From what I conclude, 100 years within the walls has allowed Humanity to make very far strides in military technology, such as creating cannons that can be fired in virtually any direction, including downwards; despite this however, Humans within the Walls seem to be focused on military tech, as mundane technologies such as the lightbulb have not been discovered. This is shown to be true when the glowing stone discovered in the Reiss family's cave is utilized as a cheap light source for commoners and soldiers alike; if they had lightbulbs, those glowing stones wouldn't be needed as much as they were.

It's shown that when a Human gains the power of the Coordinate, they gain the First King's Ideology and so therefore do not use the power to wipe out all of the titans, simply becoming deeply secretive and unwilling to reveal their reasoning for why they're keeping Humanity locked inside of the Walls. Which brings me to my next point: the Warriors. The warriors of the south who are responsible for having sent titan shifters like Reiner and Bertoldt to destroy the Walls are also a mystery. If they're from the south and the Humans within the walls are Euopeans living in the middle of Europe, then I presume the Warriors are either from an area such as the Italian Peninsula, the Spanish Peninsula, or, though it's a bit far fetched, as far as Greece or Anatolia. Well maybe all three of those are a bit too far, they could be located just north of Italy. The agents they sent were able to gain expertise in ODM gear and other weaponry at the same rate that the other trainees did, if not quicker. This suggests that the southern warriors are just as technologically advanced as the walled humans. Southern warriors are most notably known by their abilities in transforming into all types of titans, unlike the walled humans who have to go through a special procedure to gain the ability. My theory here is that before Titans existed, Humans were just as they were back in time: greedy, squabbling, warring creatures who held land in higher regard than anything else. Because of this nature, war was commonplace and peace was but a myth. When the titan epidemic began, only a small percentage of humanity was able to defend themselves against titans, these humans are the southern warriors, a special type of human who had natural titan shifting abilities. Because of the constant need for defense, the culture of the southern warriors could have developed into a rigid society, focused on mainly defending itself and giving no care to the humans who were without the natural titan shifting abilities, saying that the other humans deserved what they got at the hands of the titans. I theorize that the First King was a sympathetic person who hated his people's constant disregard for the other humans, despite the fact that humanity was a war-hungry species that almost wiped itself out with war. Because of this, he could have developed a rebellious nature and decided that enough was enough; he was going to put a stop to all of the bloodshed. To this end, he ran away from his homelands into Northern Europe where he used his coordinate ability to command the titans to create the three walls. He would also use the coordinate to wipe away humanity's past memories of both the titans and of the times in which humanity was constantly at war with itself; though, he didn't wipe away all of humanity's memories as the humans within the walls still talk about how there was once more than one race of human and how before the titans, humans were always at war with one another.

At the end of his life, the First King would pass on the secret to gaining the titan shifting ability to the Reiss family who would for the next 100 years pass on his abilities and memories to future generations. When future kings would gain the memories of the First King and would remember how the world existed before the Walls and before the titans, how humans constantly warred against one another, they would refuse to bring about the extinction of all titans as the titans are the only force powerful enough to keep humans working with one another and in peace. That's pretty much all I got, tell me what you guys think 