Titan

Biodata

Power Progression

The documented developments below concern individual Titan forms, rather than a shared ladder of ranks.

Origin and History

Titans have existed for nearly two thousand years according to Tom Kusava’s Titan Encyclopedia. Order later identifies Grotesque as their creator and explains that Ymir the Founder once rebelled against it. At her strongest, Ymir ruled the world; Grotesque eventually subdued her, but the struggle greatly diminished its own power 322 398.

The Eldia Empire used Titans to conquer and destroy other peoples and cultures. Once it had no external enemies left, internal conflict developed into the Great Titan War. According to Willy Tybur’s public account, Carl Fritz secretly ended that war through cooperation with the Tybur Family and fabricated the Marleyan hero Helos’s role in the victory 338.

Carl Fritz withdrew to Paradis Island and used the Founding Titan to construct three walls from Colossal Titans. His vow renouncing war subsequently influenced royal inheritors of the Founding Titan, preventing them from resisting attacks despite possessing its power 130 154 338.

Marley later sought the Founding Titan as a means of controlling all Titans and preserving its military dominance. Its research expanded beyond inherited powers into artificial Titans manufactured through blood-replacement experiments 106 274.

Types of Titans

The Nine Titans

Appearance and Physiology

Titans vary from humanlike giants to armored, animal-shaped, skeletal, and metallic forms 40 163 218 231 481.

• Size: Ordinary examples include three-, seven-, ten-, and fifteen-meter classes. Rod Reiss reaches 160 meters, while historical Founding Titans reportedly reached a thousand meters 25 40 117 163 322.
• Facial features: Some retain recognizably human faces; others have sharp teeth, masks, skeletal faces, or animal heads 63 163 223 409 481.
• Armor and scales: Marcel’s Jaw Titan bears scales and an armor-like mask. Roald’s evolved form has black natural armor with blades projecting from its shoulders and knees 63 231.
• Steam and decay: Titan remains release steam and gradually evaporate after death 40 42 114.
• Internal structure: Mogwin’s notes describe conventional Titan bodies as hollow, unusually light for their size, and lacking organs needed for ordinary human bodily functions 323.
• Energy source: Mogwin proposes that Titan cells receive energy from an unknown external source rather than internal organs 323.

Abilities & Skills

Transformation and Inheritance

• Eldia people can become Titans through injections of Titan Serum 106.
• A Pure Titan can inherit an Intelligent Titan’s power by devouring its human host. Erwin’s acquisition of the Colossal Titan provides a documented example 154 177.
• Intelligent transformation requires sufficient resolve and a clear objective. Bertolt fails to transform when his subconscious opposition leaves him without the necessary determination 39 67.
• Self-inflicted injuries are repeatedly used to attempt transformation, but injury alone does not guarantee success 57 109.
• Stamina limits can prevent transformation. Severe injuries can also make forced transformation dangerous and cause loss of control 137 364 470.

Strength and Mobility

• Titans can destroy buildings, tear apart other Titans, and overwhelm soldiers through physical force 6 217 349.
• Abnormal Titans can leap down from rooftops, attacking from directions ordinary formations may not cover 57.
• Roald’s recorded feats include leaps approaching one hundred meters and punches exceeding 500,000 joules; the report explicitly leaves his upper limits unknown 322.
• Colossal Titans participating in the Rumbling swim across the sea, approaching fleets at speeds compared to speedboats 466 467.

Regeneration

• Conventional Titans can regrow severed limbs; Mogwin attributes this regeneration to their external energy supply 323.
• Eren regenerates a destroyed hand during combat before hardening it to counterattack 349.
• Roald’s military assessment reports recovery from any injury within seconds 322.
• Exception: Evil Titan Number One shows no healing in its cracked scales or shattered claw 300.

Hardening and Crystallization

• Hardening reinforces Titan limbs and bodies, and Eren uses it to seal Shiganshina’s outer wall 192 349.
• Annie hardens her hands to defend her nape and encloses her human body in crystal after being extracted 120.
• The equipment tested before the Wall Maria operation can kill ordinary Titans but cannot break Annie’s crystal 177.
• Hardening requires practice: Eren initially produces negligible amounts before continuing repeated transformation experiments 163 183.

Founding Titan Powers

• The Founding Titan can control other Titans; full use of its power is tied to royal blood 106 199.
• Its power can suppress memories, as Hange identifies in Historia’s case 154.
• The Titan Encyclopedia records inheritors capable of healing, changing form, controlling weather and oceans, and manipulating space, time, or minds 322.
• Royal inheritors can be constrained by Carl Fritz’s vow renouncing war 130 154.
• Eren summons multiple Titan forms during the Rumbling battles, including Beast Titans and a laser-firing silver Black Iron Titan 467 479 481.

Weaknesses and Lifespan

• Origin of the thirteen-year limit: Order explains that Grotesque imposed short lifespans to stop Titans from accumulating enough energy to rebel, following Ymir the Founder’s rebellion 398.
• Research limitations: Kusava considers the lifespan curse insoluble. Mogwin instead theorizes that future cellular-suppression technology might extend life by sacrificing regeneration; neither position constitutes a demonstrated cure 322 323.
• Conflicting account: The being that empowers Roald describes the ordinary limit as fourteen years before offering him seven years. This differs from the thirteen-year limit given elsewhere 212 323 398.

Artificial Titan Research

• Divine Revelation Plan: Marley launches a program to mass-produce Titans modeled on Roald. Mogwin first creates stable blood by combining samples from six Titans and finds that it matches Roald’s blood 274.
• Roald’s conditions: He agrees to supply blood only if the resulting Titans attack Paradis Island and obey him 274.
• Scale: Willy Tybur plans around a force of two thousand artificial Titans; more than three hundred have already been produced before the Liberio battle 302 335.
• Test subjects: Armin states that each artificial Titan costs a Marleyan life. Zeke explains that Marleyan blood, rather than the unusual Eldia bloodline, meets the experiments’ requirements 345.
• Combat performance: Their armor resists ordinary bullets and can withstand un-hardened blows from Eren. Large groups restrain his Attack Titan and begin breaking its hardened nape 349.
• Gal’s experiment: Mogwin uses Reiner’s active cells to counteract the destructive effects of Roald’s blood, enabling Gal to survive a complete blood replacement 409.

Major Story Events