Board Thread:Wiki/@comment-30771283-20170910044933/@comment-1327106-20170910174704

Think of it like real world countries. There are ethnic groups in countries like Spain or China where they are not considered Spanish or Chinese in ethnicity (the Basque in Spain and the Uyghur in China). They live in those countries so as far as citizenship goes, they are Spanish or China on their passports. But if you ask them if they are Spanish or Chinese when speaking about their ethnic heritage, they would say no.

Or, if your parents were born in France, but you were born and raised in the UK, you would probably call yourself a British citizen, even though you're ethnic French.

Those are very real ways we can end up with people who are Eldians who are not Subjects of Ymir. The country is Eldia, and they either lived there for centuries as a minority ethnic group or moved there as immigrants.

Kenny's father makes reference to minority bloodlines within the Walls that are not affected by the king's memory wipe ability, which includes the Asians and the Ackerman lines. The king's ability only works on the "majority race" (Kodansha' translation) so it's clear there are racial differences between different types of Eldians.

This is why the nobles on Paradis, also minority bloodlines, make sure not to have mixed marriages with the common people. Someone of mixed race becomes a Subject of Ymir as far as Titan affinity goes, so any descendants of that marriage would to lose the immunity they have to the Founding Titan.