Marley (Anime)

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Marley
Name	Marley マーレ Māre
Information
Region	Continental mainland
National language	Eldian
Status	Active
Notable inhabitants	Marleyans Eldians (Subjects of Ymir) Multitude of other ethnic groups and nationalities
Debut
Anime	That Day
Anime movie	Attack on Titan: Chronicle

	Though once repressed more greatly than any, Marley has used the devils to oppress other nations and repeat the tragedy.
— Willy Tybur points out Marley's hypocrisy

Marley (マーレ Māre^?) is a nation located beyond the Walls and across the sea from Paradis Island. Marley was once conquered by Eldia in ancient times, but during the Great Titan War, the Marleyans rose up and subjugated Eldia's territory, except for Paradis Island. In modern times, Marley sustains its global power using the power of the Titans, while attempting to seize Paradis Island to capture the Founding Titan and the island's natural resources.

Marley serves as the main antagonist to the Eldians inside the Walls and were the ones that filled Paradis Island with Titans. In the year 854, Marley officially declared war on Paradis Island.

History

Marleyans surrendered to Fritz

Marley was once a powerful nation in ancient times; however, this changed over 2,000 years ago when a slave of the Eldians named Ymir gained the power of the Titans. King Fritz used her abilities to defeat Marley and force their surrender. Ymir became Fritz's concubine and conceived three daughters with him. One of the Marleyans attempted to assassinate Fritz several years after their defeat, but Ymir intervened and was killed instead.

After Ymir's death, her power was split and passed down to her descendants in the form of the Nine Titans, who subsequently built the Eldian Empire. Using the Titans, the Eldians waged war against Marley and many other nations, utterly destroying them and obtaining complete rule over the continental mainland. This is considered to be the start of the Dark Ages.

The destruction of Lago narrated in history books in Marley

About 1,200 years ago, the large Marleyan city of Lago was destroyed by Titans of the Eldian Empire over the course of a single day. The Titans would continue their advance and went on to commit "The Devastation of Monte" and "The Ravaging of Valle" which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Marleyans. Grisha Jaeger claimed these are all lies; however, he was in denial of Eldia's brutal history of war and slavery.

A statue of the Marleyan hero Helos in Liberio

Eventually the Eldian Empire began to run out of enemies and the nine aristocratic families who possessed the power of the Titans grew resentful of each other, creating a state of constant bloodshed. This eventually led to the Great Titan War. According to Marleyan legend, a legendary Marleyan hero named Helos turned the tides of war to his people's favor by manipulating the Eldians against each other, which allowed Marley to claim victory in the war and even succeed in obtaining seven of the Nine Titans that were in Eldia's possession. The first of these Titans was the War Hammer Titan, held by the Tybur family, who had turned against their king and sided with the Marleyan uprising.

The Marleyans and Tyburs defeated Karl Fritz

Over an unspecified amount of time, Marley gradually gained control of the continental mainland that once was ruled by Eldia until only Paradis Island remained as King Fritz's undisputed territory. In the year 743, King Fritz moved as many Eldians as he could to Paradis Island, and used the Founding Titan to guide a massive number of Wall Titans in the raising of three concentric Walls around Eldia's remaining territory. In order to force peace between Eldia and Marley, King Fritz gave the ultimatum that any further act of war against Eldia would be met with the releasing of the countless Titans within the Walls. With this, the Great Titan War ended.

Karl Fritz conspired with the Tybur family

However, the truth of the matter is that Eldia's defeat during the Great Titan War was actually orchestrated by Karl Fritz himself, who took pity on the oppressed people of Marley. Believing that the sins of the Eldians were too heavy to justify his rule, he joined forces with the Tybur family and manipulated the other families against each other to destroy his own empire and reinstitute Marley. To that end, both the Tybur family and the King himself fabricated Helos to facilitate the myth that it was the Marleyan people themselves who won the war.

At that time, the king also took a vow renouncing war, forbidding the Eldian people from hurting the world again, as well as renouncing the right to defend themselves if Marley or other external powers grew strong enough to invade Paradis Island. The ultimatum was never meant to be enforced. Instead, its purpose was to allow him to spend the remainder of his reign in peace. To enforce this, he used the powers of the Founding Titan to wipe the memories of the outside world from most of the Eldians on Paradis Island. Karl Fritz wanted to ensure his vow would be followed by the future generation, so he made it so that his descendants—the only people who can use the Founding Titan's absolute power—will also inherit his ideology alongside his memories. Although it had surrendered sovereignty over the continental mainland to the Marleyans, the Tybur family remained the real seat of power behind the Marleyan state, but the house chose to withdraw from active politics, being content to observe events and allowing the Marleyans complete freedom of governance.

Following the collapse of the Eldian Empire, the remaining Eldians of the mainland would then be forced into internment zones, where they would be treated as second class citizens. The nation of Marley would then utilize the Titan powers to become the world's major superpower.

Marley would later recognize the Power of the Titans would not be enough to maintain its position as leader of the world in an age where military power is backed by fuel and began to turn its attention to Paradis Island which is said to have massive amounts of fossil fuels. However, the island is also home to the remnants of the former empire of Eldia, ruled by the Fritz family who possessed the Founding Titan.

The Eldian Restorationists arrested by the Marleyan authorities in Liberio

In 832, Marley Public Security, a paramilitary organization on the Marleyan mainland tasked with controlling the country's Eldian populations and their internment zones, managed to capture and dissolve the an underground Eldian resistance group in Liberio called the Restorationists, with the assistance of a young Zeke Jaeger, who informed on his parents.

In the year 845, Marley launched the Paradis Island Operation. Four of its Titans were sent to the island in order to infiltrate the Eldian kingdom and retrieve the Founding Titan from the king of the Walls. The operation resulted in a failure: the Colossal and Female Titans were lost, Marcel Galliard was killed on the first day of the operation, and the Founding Titan still remained in the hands of the enemy. Only Reiner Braun returned alive from this operation, nearly having had his Titan transferred to another Warrior due to his defeat in Paradis Island.

Story

Marley arc

Marleyan high-ranking officers in a meeting after the battle of Slava

After Marley's failed operation, the Mid-East Union, a coalition of various nations, took advantage of the defeat and declared war on the nation, starting a four-year long war. A significant portion of the war took place on the sea, with Marley gaining the upper hand over the course of the four years, at the cost of half of its navy. During the last battle of the war, the Marleyan forces, with the help of its infamous Warrior Unit, was able to conquer Fort Slava and destroy the Mid-Eastern fleet. With the annihilation of their fleet, the Mid-East Allied forces signed a peace treaty which ended the war with Marley victorious. Despite their victory, the conflict made the Marleyans realize their global military dominance was greatly in danger because of their military's outdated capabilities which increased the urgency to apprehend the Founding Titan.

During the war, the Marleyan military sent 32 ships and destroyers to Paradis Island. However, none of them managed to return.

The internment zone's plaza in the aftermath of the raid on Liberio

Following the war, Willy Tybur met with Theo Magath to reveal the nation of Marley is under the authority of the Tybur family. However, Marley was given its own freedom as an act of atonement and followed the path of militarism on its own. Willy Tybur invited various ambassadors, noble families, and journalists from around the world to a festival. During the festival, Willy made a stage production in which he would tell the world what truly happened during the Great Titan War before proceeding to officially declare war on Paradis Island. Willy is then brutally crushed by the Attack Titan sparking a battle within Liberio.

The battle was a calamity for Marley because of numerous casualties including multiple Marleyan military executives alongside the destruction of its primary ports and fleets. In addition, Marley's War Hammer Titan was taken by Eren Jaeger.

War for Paradis arc

In the aftermath of the battle, Marley and the major nations come together to form a global military alliance to conduct a scorched-earth operation on Paradis. However, Reiner Braun suggests that Marley should launch a surprise attack immediately.

The Rumbling devastating and trampling Marleyan cities to dust

Marley indeed launches a major attack against Shiganshina District on Paradis in a desperate but determined bid to recapture the Founding Titan from Eren Jaeger, but this course of action only leads to the awakening of the Wall Titans. In the following days, these Titans are able to reach the mainland, slaughtering the Global Alliance's fleet gathered in the port city of Karifa, leading to the destruction of most of the Marleyan continent, with tens of millions of people dying crushed by the Titans.

Society

Technology

Marleyan diesel powered automobile

While technological development on Paradis Island had been relatively stagnant for a century due to King Reiss's isolation policies, the other nations of the world have already progressed far beyond it. By Grisha's early adulthood, Marley had reached the modern age and possessed technologies such as airships, early cars and planes, electricity, and photographs. Technological progress was not developed evenly across the world, however, with Marley lagging behind most of its adversaries in at least the area of military technologies as a result of them relying on the Power of the Titans for many wars, and not worrying about their technology.

Titan Biology Research Society

The Marleyan government has a vast knowledge of the Titans to the extent that they are able to make use of Titan-related technology, as they possess insight into the origin of the Titans. The Titan Biology Research Society is the institute that put forth the theory that all Subjects of Ymir are connected by unseen Paths from which the flesh and bones of Titans are sent to them, and that all the Paths cross at a single "Coordinate," the Founding Titan. This academy is the reason for the development of multiple Titan-related objects and weaponry that helped the both the Marleyan government and military to conquer multiple foreign nations in expansionist wars and control the country's Eldian populations. For example, the Titan Society are the reason for the development of Titan serums that have been extensively used by Marley to transform both the Warriors and Eldian criminals into Titans.

Culture

Marley is notorious for its adherence to militarism and colonial expansion. However, the general populace has since lost touch with the reality of war, both due to the abolition of the conscription system in the past and the extensive use of Eldians as rank-and-file troopers. As its only knowledge of war comes from newspaper stories, Marleyan citizens have little concern about the true cost of war. Out of patriotic sentiments, the Marleyans and the Eldians loyal to Marley refer to their country as the "Motherland."

Helos statue in Marley's biggest port city

The Marleyans built statues to honor Helos, a folk hero who was renowned for slaying the Devil of All Earth during the Great Titan War. A Helos statue is erected in front of the Warriors' headquarters in Liberio, and in other major cities in the country. Helos' figure is also engraved in Marleyan currencies.

Cuisine

A table made up of different Marleyan dishes

Marleyan cuisine is varied, consisting of pasta dishes, pizza, as well as seafood such as lobster and clams. The different dishes, drinks and deserts from the Marleyan cuisine have the particularity of being popular and enjoyed by people worldwide. Even the Eldians of Paradis also compliment them for being able to make good wine.

Architecture

A neighbourhood in Liberio

The country's architecture is also varied. Due to the Marleyan nationhood existing for more than 2,000 years, the country has an incredibly rich and varied culture, and this history is reciprocated in its varied architecture. In the country's major cities, most buildings in the modern age are rich in colors, whether it be the façades, the windows, the balconies or the roofs of the buildings. Because of the country's status as a world power thanks to the power of the Titans acquired after the Great Titan War, its society has been in constant prosperity, and that prosperity is translated in how elegant the streets and buildings are in Marleyan society beyond its Eldian internment zones. Marleyan cities are well organized, with large public buildings being gathered in the same areas, either in the coastal part of port cities, or at the center of cities who are more inland, alongside residential areas comprised of prosperous and beautiful estates and villas, and more working-class residential buildings in areas inhabited by people from the middle-class. Buildings and streets are the more colorful and well maintained in affluent areas, with cleaner façades, windows, balconies, streets and lamp posts. Basilicas possess an important place in Marleyan culture, being present mostly in affluent parts of cities, and are usually the largest and most impressive buildings in Marley's major cities.

Damaged Eldian houses in Liberio's internment zone

Buildings found in Marley's important cities are made of different materials, such as stones, marbles, bricks, or concrete with some buildings being built using only one material, while others are a mixture of materials. Some materials are more used than others depending on the prosperity of the different cities and areas. For example, the impoverished hometown of Ymir is made of simple buildings and roads that are mostly built with bricks and rocks. There is a clear difference in the architecture between larger part of city of Liberio and its Eldian internment zone, with the Subjects of Ymir living in an area where buildings are less colorful and elegant than the rest of the city, being also made of mostly bricks. They are also more damaged, less clean and less maintained than buildings and houses found outside the internment zone.

A Marleyan port city

Another important factor that renders Marley's modern cities aesthetically pleasing is the presence of greenery around buildings in some areas, which can be found for example in the city of Liberio beyond its internment zone, or beautiful palm trees which can be found in some cities' harbors. Due to the enormous size of the Marleyan mainland, many of its port cities have flourished in the modern age, prospering and growing to the size of being able to host populations reaching or surpassing the hundreds of thousands. Marleyan cities are particularly crossed by multiple rivers and lakes, which resulted in the construction of Roman-type bridges consisting of arches and keystones such as in Liberio connecting the different areas of town. Those cities are notable for the presence of large harbors that permit the anchoring of various different ships, whether military warships or civilian ships such as cruisers or fishing boats. These port cities such as Karifa in the north or Odiha in the southeast connect the mainland to the rest of the world, exporting and importing an influx of people, materials, technologies, food, animals, to and from all over the globe, making the Marleyan mainland hold a special place in the world's economy, trade and culture. In those types of major cities, there are market days where multiple merchants gather in one place, put up stands and sell all types of different Marleyan or foreign cuisine or performing for the locals such as playing guitar or selling sweets and candies to children, making the cities' ports crowded with all sorts of people.

Liberio's train station

As a result of Marley's industrialization, the structure and landscapes of its major cities have been considerably altered or impacted by the new technologies developed in the last years and decades. For example, city streets have been considerably enlarged in order to accommodate the newly developed automobiles. The streets of cities around the country have also been filled with countless lamp posts fueled by electricity in order to light the streets at night. Marleyan cities have also seen the development of industrial areas inside the cities, being characterized by being areas with a concentration of multiple factories, emanating smokes from their chimneys in the air. The city of Liberio is seen having one, being located right next to the Eldian internment zone. Another important result of industrialization, are the railroads and train stations in and around cities, with the development and democratization of trains in latter years, whose purpose is to connect the different regions and cities of the country, both for civilians and the military.

Language

A Marleyan newspaper with the mainland's version of Eldian alphabet

Eldian is the national language of Marley and various nations across the world, due to Eldia's expansionism in the past for many centuries. Various accents and dialects exist in Marley; such as the accent found in southern Marley, which is surprisingly also present in an isolated village deep within Paradis Island. The way Eldian is written in the continental mainland and the way it is written in Paradis Island are totally different, so much so that the Eldians soldiers from the Scouts who discovered a bottle of alcohol in Utgard Castle left behind by infiltrating Marleyan soldiers who helped Zeke ravage the village of Ragako couldn't decipher what was written.

Iconography

Marley's national emblem appears to be a seashell motif. In the times when Ymir Fritz was still alive and ravaging ancient Marleyan armies with her newfound Titan powers under the orders of Fritz, the seashell motif was present in the Marleyan flag, while 2,000 years later, this same emblem could still be found on several structures located in the city of Liberio, on the modern navy's caps, and even in the official currency of the country.

An ancient Marleyan flag engraved with the seashell motif

This emblem is another example on how Marley's access and control to various seas and rivers shaped the nation's culture for countless generations.

Geography

The unique terrain of Marley's southern regions on the mainland

Marley is a gigantic empire, stretching over one large continent to the west of Paradis Island, a smaller continent to the south, an entire peninsula to the south east. It also has territories in a western continent, as well as various small islands. This large territory enables Marley to have access to various oceans and seas, and that may have influenced the nation's culture, since Marleyan cuisine consists of seafood and since the national emblem represents a seashell. Due to its size, it can be assumed that Marley experiences multiple different climates, going from polar to tropical climates accross different regions. The southern regions of the continental mainland are known for being a large desert alongside multiple canyons and mountainous terrain.

Demographics

The exact numbers of Marley's population is unknown, but the country having territories accross multiple continents leads to it being a conglomerate of numerous ethnic groups and nationalities, having been absorbed into Marley over the past century years through multiple wars of subjugation resulted from a desire for colonial expansion and imperialistic conquests.

Marleyans

Marleyans in an outdoor cafe

The nation is chiefly populated by the people known as Marleyans (マーレ人 Māre-jin^?), who control the nation's politics, economy, diplomacy, culture, and military. As the dominant ethnic group, the Marleyan people have experienced after the Great Titan War a golden age of military conquest, cultural dominance, technological prowess and high quality of life, as their country benefited from the resources acquired from the multiple lands conquered by their military by using the Eldians' Titan powers. The Marleyans are a highly patriotic people, possessing a deep rooted sense of superiority and pride for being the nation of heroes who paved the way for a worldwide rebellion during the Great Titan War, ending with the fall of the demonized Eldian Empire.

A group of Marleyan citizens celebrating the military's victory at Fort Slava

Most of the Marleyan population is shown to be completely in support of their government's radical imperialistic and oppressive policies, since they aren't the ones who are directly impacted by it. The government is shown to indulge in the brainwashing of its people, which is most probably an important factor in explaining how much the average Marleyan support the country's expansionist wars and the systemic oppression the Subjects of Ymir of their country have to go through. The people of Marley have developed a superiority complex towards all other nations, due to Marley's continuous victories and having managed to conquer huge swathes of foreign land.

Theo Magath and Willy Tybur discussing the decaying state of the Marleyan military

Though, it has been shown that not all Marleyans agree with the entirety of their government's policies and the state of their society. For example, the now deceased former Marleyan Public Security Sergeant Gross has criticized Marleyan society for having been too accustomed to peace, which he considered to be an unnatural way of life. Gross and many other Marleyans were also totally against the government's policy of keeping Eldians in internment zones, letting them reproduce and live, and using their Titans as military weapons against foreign nations, considering the Titans to be too dangerous and unreliable to keep as weapons. For these reasons, many Marleyans believed that simply eradicating all Subjects of Ymir would be better. Marley's latter military general Theo Magath was against many of the government and military's policies, such as relying on four children in the Paradis Island Operation, abolishing the conscription system for ethnic Marleyans, or arrogantly over-relying on the power of the Titans at the expense of developing new military technologies, which led to him to conspire with Willy Tybur to take down the Marleyan highest-ranking officers.

Eldians

Eldian families from Liberio's internment zone

The most notable minority ethnic group in the country are the Subjects of Ymir, also commonly referred to as Eldians. After the Great Titan War, most Eldians who were stranded on the continental mainland were left at the mercy of a resentful Marleyan nation, which was nevertheless aware of the military potential of their genetic trait. To exploit it, the Eldians were segregated from the rest of the population into designated areas such as the Liberio internment zone under the watch of Marley's Public Security. These ghettos act as a reserve pool for Pure Titans. In wartime, internees were brought out to be turned into Titans and released onto battlefields as living weapons.

In order to separate the Subjects of Ymir from the other races, Marley put in place a system of armbands only worn by the Eldians so that they could be easily recognizable in public. These armbands make people from other races easily distinguish the Eldians, leading to their oppression being inescapable beyond the internment zones.

To justify its exploitation, Marley indoctrinated both its citizens and Eldians with a revised history that demonized the latter group. As a result, the Marleyan populace saw the Subjects of Ymir as evil due to their ancestor Ymir Fritz's deal with the "Devil of All Earth." On the other hand, average continental Eldians, such as Jaeger and Gabi Braun, became convinced that they were genuinely indebted to their "merciful" Marleyan overlords, and that the only ways to redeem themselves would be through loyal service to the Marleyan motherland and the extermination of "bad" Eldians on Paradis Island.

The main gate of the internment zone in Liberio

Compared to the Marleyan society beyond the fence, life inside the internment zones is lackluster but not poverty-ridden. For example, the Jaeger family was able to make a living working as doctors, a reputable profession. Nevertheless, they do have to endure abuse from the Marleyan authorities from time to time, which are occasionally lethal, as evidenced by the murder of Fay Jaeger. Movement in and out of the ghettos is also restricted, with the camp's main gate only open at a specified time of the day. One has to produce a permit in order to gain passage.

Not all Eldians suffered that fate, however. A few Eldians were awarded "honorary Marleyan" titles for services to the Marley Motherland, such as the Warrior Unit and their families. With this status, Reiner Braun claimed he could live outside of the internment zones if he wanted to and asked for permission.

By the year 832, the military value of Eldians was put into question. It was known that Pure Titans are inherently uncontrollable and pose as much a risk to the enemy as to itself. There were opinions for the extermination of all Eldians in Marley. At the time, Eren Kruger noted that once Marley secures the Founding Titan, the debate would end in favor of those opinions and seal the doom of all Eldians.

By the year 854, however, the attitude changed again. The Marley Mid-East War laid bare the fact that Titans are losing to the advancing military technology deployed by Marley's many enemies, but since the nation needs time to close the gap in arms development with the rest of the world, the Eldians are still needed as a stop-gap measure. It not only prompted the Marleyan leadership to renew the operation to seize the Founding Titan, but also started a "symbiosis" relationship between the two ethnic groups where the Marleyans need the Eldians to sustain its military might and the Eldians need Marley to keep a hostile world at bay. After the war, Eldians are not only hated in Marley but also all around the world, due to the usage of Titans by Marley in wars of expansion, much like during the age of the Eldian Empire. The universal hatred escalates to the point that most of the world nations now demand the extermination of all Eldians but the Tybur family.

The Marleyan government, such as all other governments around the world, determines the ethnicity of its citizens with blood tests in order to filter out and find out any Subject of Ymir that is living amongst the non-Eldian populations, and the result of which affects their eligibility to get into privileged professions. To join the Marleyan Public Security, for example, one has to prove that they are not of Eldian ancestry by passing the test. Despite that, agents of the Eldian Restorationists were able to get around it by using falsified medical records and having their tests done by doctors sympathetic to their cause.

An international forum hosted in Marley revolving about the global Eldian refugee crisis

Although harsh, it is noted by Udo, who used to live in a different country, that Marley is, in fact, more tolerant of Eldians than many other countries, wherein Eldians face much more severe hostilities that make the Marleyan discrimination pale in comparison. There are some Marleyans, such as Theo Magath or the guards that Gabi Braun befriended, that genuinely care about the well-being of the Eldians under their care. Additionally, the Marleyans in the Panzer Unit have a friendly relationship with Pieck. There is said to exist several organizations in Marley who fight for the Eldian people's human rights, but they face hostile critics from the general population for taking defense of the Eldians. One of these organizations are the Subjects of Ymir Protection Group who defend the refugee Subjects of Ymir scattered around the world because they believe that they cannot be considered as Eldians, claiming that those who live in Paradis are the only ones who fall into that category because of their status as remnants of the Eldian Empire, thus the only ones deserving of hatred.

The Tybur family

Willy Tybur, his sister and War Hammer Titan holder Lara, and the leader of the Tybur's personnal guard

Due to its dominant power within the Marleyan state, a privilege obtained after helping Marley and the rest of the world free themselves from the Eldian Empire during the Great Titan War, the Tybur family was not only excepted from the persecution against its ethnic brethren, but also enjoyed privileges such as the retaining of aristocratic status, where they were given honorary citizenship and were allowed to live on regal estates, as well as owning a detail of personal guards. As such, they weren't required to wear armbands, like the rest of the Eldian population gathered in the internment zones.

Other ethnicities

Due to Marley's constant expansionism and colonization policies post-Great Titan War, which lead to the conquest and subjugation of multiple nations and the different peoples inhabiting those lands, the country has managed to establish itself as multicultural empire whose borders are populated by different ethnicities and nationalities.

Though not to the same extent, brutality and intensity as the persecution faced by the country's Eldian populations, the other ethnicities and nationalities who saw their countries and homelands being subjugated into Marley's colonial empire endure severe oppression at the hands of their conquerors. Many people from those subjugated lands have been forcefully conscripted into fighting for the Marleyan military.

Mid-East refugees in a makeshift camp in Marley

The Marleyan people also exhibit xenophobic tendencies towards immigrants and refugees who are from foreign nations, especially those who hail from countries openly at war with Marley. Many refugees from the Middle East who migrated to Marleyan territory were faced with enmity from the local populations.

Politics

Government

Despite being supposedly independent, Marley is in fact secretly controlled by the Tybur family. That made Willy Tybur, the past head of the family, the de-facto ruler of the nation during his life. Before the year 854, the family did not actively exercise its power and was content to observe events in the shadows, allowing the Marleyan persecution of Eldians and the nation's drive to militarism to go unchecked, a stance that Willy regretted. But as worrisome news surfaced from Paradis Island, he decided to step in and make public his true nature in a festival in Liberio.

Foreign relations

After gaining the power of seven Titans, Marley implemented a colonization policy in all conflicts with enemy nations. While the nation's territory before or immediately following the Great Titan War is unknown, by the year 854 the nation of Marley had conquered territory across at least three continents, including overseas.

A Marleyan ambassador giving a speech to foreign dignitaries in Liberio

Due to Marley's constant imperialistic approach and colonialist mindset which led to the conquest and subjugation of multiple nations across the globe thanks to the power of the Titans and especially its Warrior Unit, the country has managed to attract an intense enmity from different countries and peoples worldwide. Marley has a reputation of being arrogant and treacherous, and since their desire for global conquest has been made clear through all the conflicts the country has engaged itself in after the Great Titan War, many major nations have focused on developing anti-Titan weaponry solely in order to counter Marleyan imperialism.

One of those enemies is the Mid-East Allied Forces. In the year 850, after it had become known that Marley lost two Titans in its operation against Paradis Island, multiple neighboring nations joined together under the Mid-East Allied Forces finally declared war against Marley, a long one that lasted 4 years and in which Marley's Titans were finally surpassed by human technology.

By 854 before the raid in Liberio and the subsequent Rumbling, Marley was under the direct threat of being invaded by other major nations.

Willy Tybur mentioned that some of Marley's enemies could be allying with Paradis Island from the shadows against them. This statement was proven true about the nation of Hizuru and a group of renegade Marleyan soldiers known as the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers.

Jaegerists celebrating the execution of a Marleyan on Paradis Island

Because of the numerous atrocities committed by the Warriors and the Titans sent by Marley on Paradis Island, the Eldians who live there have developed an extreme aversion for the nation of Marley. Most of the population calls out for the complete slaughter of the Marleyan people in revenge, and POWs who have been captured by the Eldian military face constant oppression and suspicion on the island for being ethnic Marleyans. Eren's activation of the Rumbling has been much acclaimed by the Eldians of Paradis, now under the rule of the Jaegerists, an extremist group advocating for the New Eldian Empire and the total extermination of humanity outside the island. Their hatred for the outside world is more intense towards the people hailing from the Marleyan mainland.

Military

The Marleyan military is the combined armed forces of the country. After the Great Titan War, Marley has been revived as a formidable military power thanks to the power of the Titans.

Former General Calvi alongside fellow high-ranking officers of the Marleyan military

As an example of Marley's militaristic state, the country's military has huge influence inside the government. The various branches of the military are led by a general, supplanted by various commanders responsible for the training and the control of the different army divisions, naval fleets, or special combat units.

The Titan powers of the Eldians have been used in the form of the Warriors, a group of Eldians under Marleyan rule who have been given the Titans acquired by Marley during the Great Titan War, for multiple generations. As a symbol of the country's racial segregation, Eldian and non-Eldian members of the military are separated in different forms, mostly when it comes to their uniforms.

Marley's military conquests made the country become the global superpower, replacing the former Eldian Empire. However, their reliance on Titans has made their military obsolete as their enemies developed technology that could easily defeat Marley's Titans.

Trivia

• The national emblem of Marley appears to be a seashell motif and is found on several structures located in Liberio as well as official military paperwork. The seashell motif is also found engraved in the ancient Marleyan flag, on the modern navy's hats, on the Tybur family personnal guards' spiked helmet, and in the current official currency of the country.
  • Marley draws on Latin and Italian inspiration for much of its naming and culture.
    • The original Japanese name for Marley (マーレ Māre^?) bears a strong resemblance in pronunciation to the Latin and Italian word "mare," meaning "sea." This nomenclature would match with Marley's seashell emblem.
    • In ancient times, Marley shared some similarities with the Roman Empire given their names for historical events such as "The Tragic Fall of Lago," "The Devastation of Monte," and "The Ravaging of Valle," which all three are names from the Latin family of languages. The names of Lago, Monte, and Valle are derived from the Italian words for "lake," "mountain," and "valley," respectively.
    • The conflict between Marley and Eldia also reflected enmity between Romans and the Germanic tribes respectively.
    • Marleyan cuisine includes pasta, pizza, and seafood.
    • Some of its citizens have Italian names such as Nicolo and Calvi.

• Marley's policy of segregating Eldians into ghetto parallels the Nazi anti-Jewish policy. Similarly, many named Marleyans and Eldians have Germanic names.
• The history of Marleyans and Eldians is also comparable with that of the Rwandan populations of Hutu and Tutsi. 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 Rwandan Civil War, the then Hutu majority government perpetrated a genocide against the Tutsi which resulted in the extermination of around 70% of the Tutsi population over the course of a hundred days.
• Since Isayama is Japanese, the Marleyan government's exploitation of ancient grudges for expansionist purposes might or might not have been inspired by the Japanese controversies in Asia, most notably in China and Korea, where the memory of the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945 and the period under Japanese rule between 1910 and 1945 continues to be a point of contention. The landmass size difference between Marley and Paradis Island is also reminiscent of China and Japan.
• When flipping the known territory of Marley vertically, the continents roughly match with real world Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East and southern Asia

Territory of Marley flipped vertically.

Real world continents.