Reiss family

"This is the duty of the Reiss family, the royal family."

- Rod reflects on the Titan succession rituals

The Reiss family is an influential family living inside the Walls. While they masqueraded as a minor noble family living inside Wall Sina, they are in truth the true royal family who were in possession of the mysterious Coordinate until it was stolen by Grisha Yeager. Currently, Historia Reiss, the illegitimate daughter of the late Rod Reiss, is the ruling queen of humanity and the last living member.

History
Little is known about the Reiss family prior to the construction of the Walls. However, the First King, a Titan Shifter, constructed the Walls by use of the Coordinate. Even though he possessed the power to eliminate the Titans, he somehow viewed a world ruled by them as true peace. To accomplish this he controlled several Titans and forced them to harden their skin and encage themselves into the three Walls, Maria, Rose, and Sina. To protect the people, he erased their memories of the outside world and the history of the Titans, although this didn't affect the Ackerman family, the Asian races, and the noble families. Some time later, the First King gave the Coordinate to the Reiss family, most likely dying in the process. The Reiss family ruled the Walls in secret by masquerading as a minor noble family. The King of the Walls would be their powerless figurehead. A special ritual would be conducted each generation. The Reiss who possessed the Coordinate, the predecessor would be chained hand and foot underneath the Reiss chapel. Meanwhile another Reiss, the successor, would inject themselves with a serum and transform into a mindless Titan and devour the previous holder of the Coordinate. This would give them the Coordinate, the lost memories of mankind, and Titan Shifting powers. However, this would also give them the ideology of the First King and make them decide to keep humanity under the Titans rule, even if they previously had a desire to free them. They would never reveal the reason for this, even to their own friends and families. Being bound by this will would be noticeable by the user's dark, vacant eyes, which was apparent in Uri, Frieda, and Mr. Reiss. The Reiss who possessed the Coordinate would be the true king or queen of mankind for however long they possessed it, as shown by Uri and Frieda. Usually, the ceremony would be conducted if the holder was too old or unhealthy, as the Coordinate and the memories would be lost if the user died.

One of the many holders of the Coordinate was Mr. Reiss, the father of Rod and Uri Reiss. Uri and Rod always begged him to exterminate the Titans, but he always refused, so much so that he locked Rod behind bars for his attempts. When it came time to pass his position to a son, Uri volunteered, asking Rod to pray. After the procedure, Uri had inherited the First King's ideology, but wished to build a paradise for mankind inside the walls, believing that the world would end in the near future. One way he did this was by stopping the purges of the Asians and the Ackermans. Since they were being persecuted for being immune to the Coordinate's memory manipulation, he stopped the purges after a failed assassination attempt by Kenny Ackerman, who later became a Reiss bodyguard and Uri's closest friend. Many years later, Rod married and had five children with his wife; Ulkin, Frieda, Dirk, Florian, and Abel. He had also conceived a daughter with an attractive maid, Alma, his mistress and confidant. When it was discovered that Alma was pregnant, he sent her away to a ranch where she gave birth to Historia. Historia had an isolated upbringing and raised to believe she was an unfortunate, unwelcome mistake, which led to her martyr complex; she wished to die in a way in which everybody would remember her fondly and not hate her for existing. She had no friends, was constantly harassed by children around the farm and very little interactions with her mother, who only talked to her twice, both times wishing she didn't exist. She, however, was friends with Frieda, who visited her in secret and taught her to read. Frieda told her to be a lady; a girl who was kind, gentle, and thought about those around her, a girl all would love. She would often scold Historia for not doing this and would become emotional when Historia viewed her as a lady. After her visits, she would wipe Historia's memory to protect her.

When Frieda was 15, she inherited the Coordinate by devouring Uri in the Reiss succession ritual. Before she inherited the Coordinate, she was a cheery and generous girl who would be known to go to the fields to thank the farmers for their work. However, after becoming the true queen of humanity, she began to experience bouts of depression and mania. Historia mentions how she would go on ranting about how all humans were sinners and then feel very depressed afterwards. However, it was evident that she still loved her family. Days after the fall of Wall Maria in 845, the Reiss family went to the Reiss Chapel to pray. However, Grisha Yeager, a Titan Shifter who lost his wife to the attack on Shiganshina, launched an attack on the Reiss family, attempting to exterminate the whole house. He fought Frieda as a Titan to the death, but Frieda was defeated due to not being able to control the Coordinate to its full potential and was eaten by Grisha through the neck. Grisha then killed Rod's wife and the Reiss children and destroyed the Reiss Chapel, with the only survivors of the Reiss family being Rod, who fled blindly, and Historia, who wasn't present. Grisha then injected his son Eren with a Titan serum and allowed himself to be eaten, since Eren wasn't a Reiss, he wouldn't fall under the First King's ideology; and because of Eren's desire to slaughter the Titans, he could free humanity from their encagement. With Frieda's death, Rod succeeded her as the true king.

Rod attempted to go to the farm and get Historia, possibly in order to bring her up as a true heir since his trueborn children were all deceased. However, the First Brigade of the Military Police beat them there, attempted to kill Historia and Alma, with Kenny Ackerman slitting Alma's throat. This was because they viewed Historia, an illegitimate child, as unfit. Rod decided on a way to keep Historia alive; she would give up her old identity, forsake any claims, and join the Survey Corps, hopefully dying by a Titan. This was seen as an acceptable alternative, and Historia was given the identity of Krista Lenz and sent to live in a refugee camp until she was old enough to enlist in the Military. Under her Krista persona, Historia was the lady Frieda wanted her to be, but also sought to die in a way that would be considered a martyr. In the year 850, it is discovered that the Reiss family is the true royal family and Historia has a chance to claim the throne. The rebelling Survey Corps decided to overthrow the current monarchy and install Historia as queen. However, Historia and Eren were captured by Rod and Kenny. Eren was bound and gagged underneath the Reiss Chapel in the same way all of the previous Coordinate holders were during the succession ritual. Rod continuously attempted to persuade Historia to transform and devour Eren. Historia was about to, until she learned that all the Reiss Coordinate users would fall under the First King's ideology. She refused to allow Rod to do this, so she smashed the Titan serum and attempted to free Eren and escape. Rod was shocked and crawled on the floor and licked the evaporating Titan serum, deciding to devour Eren himself. This, however, transformed him into the largest Titan in existence, a 120 meter Deviant Type Titan and destroyed the Reiss Chapel. With Rod being a mindless Titan, he began to crawl towards Orvud District. The Garrison and Survey Corps led an attack on him, using explosives to blow his hands and head off. They then attempted to cut the nape of his neck, with Historia herself delivering the final blow.

After this, Historia took the throne as queen. Historia, however, let the Scouts do much of the ruling for her, preferring to run an orphanage ranch in Wall Sina. The orphanage is composed of all of the children orphaned in the Walls by the Titans and in the Underground Districts. She does, however, sanction the operation to reclaim Wall Maria.

Trivia

 * The Reiss family is one of three notable bloodlines mentioned in the manga, the other two being the Ackerman family and the Asians.