Founding Titan

"The Founding Titan has the ability to rule and control all other Titans! If only we can get our hands on it, we will be able to destroy Marley once more!!"

- Grisha Yeager announces his plan to the Eldian Restorationists

The Founding Titan (始祖の巨人) was one of the Nine Titans and the first of all Titans. Its Scream (叫び) could create and control other Titans and modify the memories and body compositions of the Subjects of Ymir, but this power had historically only been able to be used by members of the royal family.

According to Marley's Titan Biology Research Society, the Founding Titan was the point where the paths connecting all Subjects of Ymir and Titans cross. Because of this, those who hail from Marley sometimes called it the "Coordinate" (座標).

Abilities
The Founding Titan had several abilities that were activated by screaming. The inheritor of the Founding Titan did not have to transform in order to use these abilities; human screams would suffice. Furthermore, the screams did not have to be loud, or even "screams" in the truest sense: Frieda Reiss used the memory-alteration ability by casually talking, although her target was only Historia, who was right in front of her.

Titan creation
The Founding Titan could transform Subjects of Ymir into Titans and could even make them as massive as the Colossus Titan. Karl Fritz presumably used this ability to create the thousands of Colossus Titans that made up the Walls.

Zeke Yeager's Beast Titan could also transform Subjects of Ymir into Titans by screaming after injecting those he wishes to transform with the beast's spinal fluid. For this reason it was said that Zeke's Beast Titan had abilities similar to the Founding Titan.

Titan control
By screaming, the Founding Titan granted its user the ability to control Titans at will and make them follow virtually any order without question. This was demonstrated by Eren Yeager, who unintentionally commanded nearby Pure Titans to eat Dina Fritz's Titan and attack the Armored Titan. It appeared to be only effective on Pure Titans, although those with the power of the Titans can still feel its influence. It was also used by Karl Fritz to build the Walls, who commanded many Colossus Titans to harden their bodies and confine themselves within the resulting structures. In ancient times, Eldia used to use this ability to command an army of Titans for war; however, once set loose, these Titans became indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction that would slaughter Eldia's enemies. This ability had no known range, although Karl Fritz used it to command Colossus Titans that span across a large portion of Paradis Island. Rod Reiss claimed the power has the capacity to wipe out all the Titans, if used to its full potential.

Memory manipulation
The Founding Titan was able to modify the minds and memories of the Subjects of Ymir, even entire populations at once. This ability was related to the Titan control ability: As noted by Erwin Smith, Titans are simply transformed humans (specifically, the Subjects of Ymir); therefore, the screams that control the minds of the former should be able to affect the latter as well. It was used by Karl Fritz to make the Subjects of Ymir inside the Walls forget the history of the world before the Walls' installation. It was also used by Frieda Reiss to remove Historia's memories of her visits. These memories, however, appeared to be accessible in dreams, as Historia would sometimes be able to dream about her encounters with Frieda, although she would forget about them once she awoke. Members of the Ackerman bloodline and anyone who is not a Subject of Ymir were unaffected by this ability.

Anatomical manipulation
The Founding Titan was capable of changing the body composition of any Subject of Ymir. An Eldian king from 600 years ago once used this power to make the Subjects of Ymir immune to a rampant epidemic. Zeke Yeager wanted to use this ability to make all Subjects of Ymir sterile, so they would die out in a generation and rid the world of Titans once and for all.

Additionally, the Founding Titan was known to have a height of around. However, it was possible that this size restriction is not as definite as it is with the other eight members of the Nine Titans; an example of this can be seen with the body generated by Eren Yeager after receiving full use of the Founding Titan's power from Ymir Fritz.

Telepathic communication
The Founding Titan could telepathically connect with all of the Subjects of Ymir by way of the paths they are connected to. Eren used this ability to communicate with every Subject of Ymir when announcing his plans for the Rumbling of the world.

Clairvoyance
Similar to the Attack Titan's future memory inheritance ability that allows inheritors to receive future memories from future inheritors, the Founding Titan can take things to a much greater scale and directly influence things in the past, although only to preserve history the way it's already played out. It also enables inheritors the ability to perceive time in a non-linear fashion, being able to see the past, present, and future simultaneously. As a drawback, it causes users to think incoherently to a degree and go with the flow of events they have already seen, even if it is something the inheritor would be against doing. Eren goes into depth about the drawbacks about this ability when he converses with Armin in the realm of paths and sorrowfully reveals that he used it to influence Dina Fritz's Pure Titan to ignore Bertolt and head to Shiganshina instead, indirectly causing his mother to be devoured.

Royal Bloodline Necessity
Only those with royal blood—the Fritz or Reiss royal families—were able to use the true power of the Founding Titan. However, if the Founding Titan is inherited by someone outside of the royal family, the power can still be used if the inheritor is in physical contact with a Titan with royal blood. This is demonstrated when Eren Yeager temporarily used the Founder's power after striking the hand of Dina Fritz's Pure Titan. It is implied by Zeke Yeager that it does not matter if the Titan of royal blood is a Pure Titan or one of the Nine Titans, such as the Beast Titan.

If the inheritor touched a human of royal blood, some snippets of the previous inheritors' memories could be realized. The touch of Historia Reiss and her father Rod occasionally resurfaced the memories of Grisha Yeager. However, these memories were erratic and did not always come.

If a person of royal blood possessed one of the other eight of the Nine Titans and that person comes into contact with an inheritor of the Founding Titan that lacked royal blood, then the royal-blooded person could use the Founding Titan's true potential instead of the actual inheritor. This is due to the fact that the Founding Titan's true capabilities are used through commanding the soul of Ymir Fritz, the first of the Titans, whose slave mentality was kept intact after her death. As the First Fritz King was her master as well as the father of her children, she remained in submission for millenniums, until Eren Yeager freed her and she complied with his wish to activate the Rumbling.

Vow renouncing war
Despite having the ability to control the Titans, no Founding Titan of royal blood after the Great Titan War expressed any desire to get rid of the Titans outside the Walls, even if the inheritor had expressed that desire before inheriting the power. This is because these Founding Titans inherited the ideology of Karl Fritz along with his memories. Even before he inherited the Founding Titan, he believed that the Eldian Empire committed too many atrocities towards the world to be forgiven, and that the Eldians should be locked up inside his "paradise" within the Walls, segregated from the rest of the world; the Titans sent to Paradis by Marley assist in this goal by preventing the Eldians from leaving the Walls. He made a vow renouncing war (不戦の契り) to stop Eldia from ever using the Founding Titan again to devastate the world.

The vow "possesses" the King's successors and greatly changes their personality: They become compassionate, desire to create a "paradise" inside the Walls, and preach about peace and love among mankind. However, Frieda Reiss called the people inside the Walls "sinners," and used to suffer from fits of madness and depression. Frieda, who was normally kind to Historia Reiss, once became furious at her for attempting to go over the fence surrounding her farm (paralleling the Eldians trying to leave the Walls).

The vow also prevents them from using the Founding Titan's true power for combat, even for self-defense. Karl Fritz knew that the paradise he made for the Eldians would only be temporary, and that one day, Marley or the other nations of the world would invade. He chose to accept any form of retribution the world would decide for the Eldians as punishment for the atrocities of the Eldian Empire, even extermination, and his vow forces any inheritor of royal blood to comply. No matter what, they will not fight back against any attack against the Eldians, and if the Eldians are slaughtered, so be it.

Circumventing the vow
The vow only applied to members of the royal family; therefore, the vow could be bypassed if the inheritor of the Founding Titan was not related to the royal family and was in physical contact with someone of royal blood.

Despite being a descendant of the royal family, Zeke Yeager says he was able to learn how to nullify the vow during his time spent within the Paths which he entered without being tainted by the first king's ideology unlike the previous kings of the Walls.

History
Around 2,000 years ago, Ymir Fritz's village was attacked and enslaved by the Eldians, who then cut out their tongues. One day after a pig was released, the tribe's ruler, Fritz, called all of the slaves and asked for the culprit. The slaves all began to point at Ymir, who was then "freed" only to be hunted by dogs and men.

Wounded and desperate, Ymir took shelter in a nearby tree, but as soon as she stepped in, she slipped and fell into an underground body of water. There, she came into contact with a mysterious spine-like creature which attached to her back and triggered the first Titan transformation.

With her newfound power, Ymir returned to serve Fritz and used her Titan to cultivate land, build bridges, and amass wealth for the Eldians. Under his command, she also destroyed the forces of Eldia's rival, Marley. To "reward" Ymir for her service, Fritz took her as his concubine giving her his name and, together the two had three children: Maria, Rose, and Sheena.

After serving the king for 13 years, Ymir died while thwarting an assassination attempt on his life. After her death, Ymir found herself inside a mysterious land, meanwhile the king forced his daughters to eat Ymir's corpse in an attempt to preserve the power of the Titans. He commanded the daughters to continue to reproduce and cannibalize each other so that Ymir's blood does not run out and Eldia could rule forever with its Titans. Ymir's powers became the Nine Titans and she continued to serve her descendants, building them Titans whenever they invoked the power of the Titans.

After these seventeen centuries, the Founding Titan was inherited by Karl Fritz, the 145th King. King Fritz chose to abandon the conflicts of Eldia and relocated the capital of Eldia to Paradis Island where he used the Founding Titan to create many Colossus Titans in the building of three Walls: Maria, Rose, and Sheena. In the absence of the Founding Titan, the Great Titan War continued. Over the course of the war, Eldia lost all its territory on the continental mainland to Marley and its people fled overseas to Paradis Island where they entered into the Walls. Some time after the people were gathered within the Walls, King Fritz used the Founding Titan to erase the memories of the outside world from most of the population's minds, leading them to believe they were the last remnants of humanity in a world overrun by the Titans.

Upon the closing of the gates of Wall Maria, King Fritz announced to his relatives who chose to remain across the sea that a pact had been made with the Founding Titan. In order to secure peace for Eldia while simultaneously arranging for the nation's eventual destruction, King Fritz ensured that all successors after him would be overcome by his will if they chose to use the Founding Titan for Eldia's sake. Some time afterward, the King passed his power over to his descendants in the royal family, now known as the Reiss family.

For generations, the Reiss family passed the Founding Titan down from successor to successor. Eventually, the Founding Titan was inherited by Uri Reiss from his father. Early in his life with the Founder, Uri protected himself from Kenny Ackerman using his Titan, and he would later become a close friend of his would-be assassin.

Sometime later, in the year 842, Uri Reiss passed on the Founding Titan to his niece Frieda Reiss, daughter of his older brother Rod Reiss. Frieda presumably made little use of the Founding Titan for the next three years, though on occasion she visited her half-sister Historia Reiss and used the Founding Titan to erase her memories of each visit.

Prologue arc
In the year 845, the fall of Wall Maria began. After hearing of the attack on Shiganshina District, the Reiss family gathered in the underground cavern beneath the chapel where the Founding Titan had been passed on for generations. While in the cavern, they were visited by Grisha Yeager, who had been tasked by Eren Kruger with taking the Founding Titan thirteen years before. Grisha identified himself as an Eldian and a Subject of Ymir and begged for Frieda to use the Founding Titan to save the people of the Walls, but his pleas went unanswered. Seeing no choice but to fulfill his promise to Kruger, Grisha transformed into the Attack Titan and fought with Frieda's Founding Titan. Due to her inexperience, Frieda was quickly overpowered and Grisha stole her power, killing Frieda before turning his attention to the Reiss family and wiping out their line, except for Rod who escaped with his life.

Grisha returned to Wall Rose shortly afterward and searched for his family. He found his son Eren and adopted daughter Mikasa, but learned that his wife Carla had been killed. Grisha entrusted Kruger's mission to Eren, leading him into the woods alone and injecting him with a Titan serum. Eren would have no memory of the event for the next five years, and as a Pure Titan, he consumed his father, inheriting both the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan.

Clash of the Titans arc
For five years, the power of the Founding Titan remains unused until the year 850. Believing that Eren Yeager is the current inheritor of the Founding Titan, the "Coordinate" sought after by Marley, the Warriors capture him with the intent of taking him to their hometown. At this time, the Survey Corps comes to his rescue and a chase ensues. When Eren is freed from the Warriors' grasp, he comes into contact with the Dina Fritz's Titan during the Wall Rose invasion, his father's first wife and a descendant of royalty. In a moment of rage, he punches the hand of Dina's Titan, contacting her royal matter, and the power of the Founding Titan comes forth in that moment in the presence of her royalty. Following Eren's will, all the Titans nearby attack Dina's Titan, tearing it to pieces and allowing for the Survey Corps to escape. When Reiner Braun attempts to pursue Eren, he threatens him and the other Warriors to stay away, and the Founding Titan reaches out to the Titans nearby, causing them to chase after Reiner's Armored Titan.

Royal Government arc
Eren's ability to control the Titans becomes a key mystery for the Survey Corps. Over a week after the Wall Rose crisis, the Founding Titan begins to leak memories of its previous inheritors into Eren's mind, where he sees visions of Frieda Reiss before forgetting the memories. Around the same time, Historia Reiss begins seeing memories of Frieda's visits in her dreams, though she does not remember them when she awakens.

Sometime later, Eren and Historia are captured by Rod Reiss, who desires to feed Eren to a Titan Historia in order to return the Founding Titan to the Reiss family. In the underground of the Reiss Chapel, Rod and Historia place hands on Eren's body, and their royal presence brings out the memories of his father, Grisha, taking the Founding Titan from Frieda five years before. Rod recalls the story of the event and explains the nature of the Founding Titan to Historia and how it influenced the monarchs of the Reiss family since the time of the First King. Historia nearly accepts the task, but refuses it in the end. In desperation, Rod ingests the Titan serum meant for Historia, becoming a Titan of gargantuan size. After escaping from the underground of the chapel, Eren attempts to use the power of the Founding Titan to stop Rod's Titan from advancing towards Orvud District, though he makes no progress and does not understand why.

Return to Shiganshina arc
Two months later, the Survey Corps reclaim Shiganshina District. They come to the Yeager family's basement where Grisha had kept his secrets for Eren. In one of three journals hidden within the basement, they read Grisha's story of his childhood and when he learned the nature of the Founding Titan. In Grisha's past, he had joined a group of Eldian Restorationists who desired to take the Founding Titan from the king of the Walls in order to restore Eldia to glory. The organization failed and Grisha alone was given the task of taking the Founding Titan by Eren Kruger, an Eldian spy in the government of Marley.

When the military of the Walls gathers to discuss the discoveries from the basement, Eren thinks back to the time when the Founding Titan came forth in the presence of the Titan that ate his mother. Recalling his father's memories of his first wife, Dina, Eren realizes that Dina's Titan was responsible for the presence of the Founding Titan. However, Eren decides against revealing his discovery to the military, fearing that the idea of turning a royal into a Titan for Eren to come into contact with may put Historia Reiss's life at risk.

War for Paradis arc
After realizing that he can use the Founding Titan by coming into contact with Zeke, Eren decides to pretend to go along with his half-brother's plan to sterilize the Subjects of Ymir. After they make contact and enter the Founding Titan, Eren discovers that the Founder's power is used by commanding Ymir Fritz before he reveals his deception and learns that Zeke nullified the vow of renouncing war and that he now controls the power of the Founder.

After viewing their father's memories, Zeke learns of the Attack Titan's ability to see into the future and that a future inheritor can influence one in the past (which Eren uses to convince his father to slaughter the Reiss family, and steal the Founding Titan), Zeke initiates his plan and commands Ymir to sterilize all Subjects of Ymir. Following this, Eren breaks free from the chains Zeke crafted and rushes to stop Ymir.

Reaching Ymir, Eren embraces her and begs that she give him her strength so that he can end the world. However, he assures her that he is not going to force her to help him. He recognizes that she is neither a slave nor a deity, she is only a human being and she has the right to choose if she wants to remain in the Coordinate forever or help him end it all. As Zeke desperately tries to stop him, Eren asks Ymir if she was the one who led him to the Coordinate, musing that she has been waiting 2,000 years for him to arrive.

Eren uses the Founding Titan's powers to unleash all of the Wall Titans while creating a body for himself that is even larger than the Colossus Titan. He then uses the Founder's power to telepathically communicate with all of the Subjects of Ymir, informing them of his plans to destroy the world outside Paradis Island.

Later on, Eren uses the Founding Titan to telepathically communicate with his friends individually within the Paths and reveals his true intentions: redirect the world's hatred from Paradis onto himself and have his friends kill him so that they can become heroes in the eyes of the remainder of humanity. He also informs them that the power of the Titans would no longer exist following his death.

As the Survey Corps and Warriors begin working to try and disable Eren, many of the previous Nine Titans begin spawning out of the back of the Founding Titan due to the influence of Ymir; Pieck, Reiner and Annie destroy many of them but are eventually overwhelmed. However, some of the previous Nine Titans fight back against the others, buying the Survey Corps and Warriors time to get away; during this, Jean travels to the head of the Founding Titan and detonates the explosives wrapped around its neck. This completely severs the head off the Titan and the Source of all living matter, in the form of a strange shining centipede, emerges from the neck trying to reconnect with the head, only for the Armored Titan to dive towards it and wrestle it away, as Armin transforms into the Colossus Titan, destroying Eren's Titan in the process.

Trivia

 * The Founding Titan was the only one of the Nine Titans that had a bloodline restriction, as only royals could freely use its abilities.
 * Interestingly, when Zeke Yeager (a descendant of the Fritz family) inherited the Beast Titan, he gained abilities similar to the Founding Titan.
 * Eldian artwork had on several occasions depicted the Founding Titan with a . This may be an artistic representation of the "scream" that activated the Founding Titan's power.
 * Hange Zoë decided to call the power inside Eren Yeager that controls Titans the "Founding Titan" (始祖の巨人). Coincidentally, that is its actual name.
 * The code name for the Founding Titan used by the Warrior Unit is the "Coordinate" (座標); however, after Chapter 77, usage of the term is abandoned completely in favor of "Founding Titan" (始祖の巨人) or simply "Founder" (始祖). Curiously, when the years 845 to 850 are revisited in flashbacks in later chapters, the Warriors do not call it the "Coordinate" despite using that term consistently in previous chapters covering those same years.


 * The Founding Titan's power, according to Eren, causes its inheritors to perceive time in a non-linear fashion; time happens all at once and as a result can additionally cause its inheritors to think incoherently and go with the flow of time as the history they have seen has already been dictated.
 * When members of the Reiss family inherited the Founding Titan, they were affected by Karl Fritz's will, and at times, their normally light-colored eyes darken and emit a glow.
 * When Frieda used the Founding Titan's power on Historia to erase her memory, Historia's eyes also darkened. When Eren briefly had a memory of Frieda brushing her hair, his eyes darkened slightly, which is unusual because his eyes normally stay light when he remembers Grisha's and/or Eren Kruger's memories. However, with Eren and Historia, their eyes did not glow, so their cases could be attributed to artistic darkening effects, rather than their eye color actually changing.

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