In the world of Attack on Titan, the Titan shifters are the biggest source of threat for mankind. However, at the same time, they are also the greatest military assets a country could ever hope for. Even the Marleyan who despise the Eldian with every fiber of their being are still using the Eldian Shifters in order to wage war with its neighboring countries.
That being said, Titan shifters are not immortal beings who can wreak havoc for as long as they live. No, there are several limitations in place that prevent them from doing that. They are The Curse of Ymir and The Fritz’s Vow. So what are The Curse of Ymir and The Fritz’s Vow? And why do they exist?
Who is Ymir?
Let’s talk about Ymir first. Ymir was the first person who was blessed with the power to turn into a Titan. Her story goes back to around two thousand years before the current story. She was just a small girl when the Eldians attacked her village and enslaved her people. At the time, the Eldians were just a small, warmongering tribe.
One day, Ymir was accused as a thief and was punished by the king of the Eldians, a man named Fritz, to be hunted like an animal. She ran into the woods with numerous wounds all over her body. When she hid inside a giant tree, she met a spine-like creature, and that was when Ymir turned into a Titan.
When he found out about this, Fritz took this as an opportunity and began to order Ymir to use her newfound power to help the Eldians. She would help with clearing land, building infrastructure, and of course, wage war on the name of the powerful king Fritz.
In order to keep Ymir under his leash, Fritz married and even had three daughters with her. But make no mistake there is no such thing as love in his mind. All he did was just keeping his greatest weapon close to him. Unfortunately, Ymir herself seemed to genuinely feel an affection towards the man.
What is The Curse of Ymir?
-5.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Due to the help of Ymir’s Titan form, Fritz and the kingdom of Eldian quickly grew in size and influence. They conquer and massacre countless nations together. But Fritz’s thirst for power and his tendency to torture people simply knows no bound. Which is why an assassination attempt on his life was a daily occurrence.
One day, the spear of a man who despised King Fritz was finally close enough to kill him. Thankfully for him, Ymir quickly jumped in front of him and ended up pierced to death instead. This event happened precisely thirteen years after Ymir gained the power of the Titan shifters.
Rather than grieving, Fritz told her three daughters to eat their mother’s remains. As expected, they also gained the power of the Titan, and inherited Ymir’s memories.
That being said, as the founder of all Titans, Ymir has the ability to force her will onto her subject. And since Ymir can only use the Titan’s power for 13 years, then every Eldian who received her Titan power would also only have 13 years to live their life. And that is the curse of Ymir.
Who is Karl Fritz?
Long after the time of Ymir and Fritz, the Eldians manage to become the most powerful empire on the planet. At the time, Karl Fritz was the 145th king of Eldia. However, unlike other Eldian royals before him, Karl Fritz felt deeply ashamed of the bloodbath caused by his ancestors. So much so that he considered that the world would be a better place if the Titans and the Eldians never existed in the first place.
Karl Fritz wanted to stop the war and oppression, and ended this cycle of violence once and for all. But he knew that telling the nobles to give up their way of life was an impossible thing to do. Luckily for him, there was an unprecedented level of power struggle happening at the time. The nobles who already had a Titan Shifter felt that they deserved more power, so the fights for Titan’s powers began to brew.
Knowing this, king Fritz worked together with the Tybur family to stir up the nobles into a fierce civil war, also known as The Great Titan War. This left the Eldian Empire in a weakened state. Then they helped a small country called Marley to rise and took their land back from the Eldian.
What is The Fritz's Vow?
On the wake of the Eldian's biggest defeat, Karl Fritz took this chance to move their capital to an isolated place called the Paradis Island and brought his people there with him, which was actually what he had plan on doing all along. In his mind, with the Eldian trapped on this island, the world will be a better place.
For the last phase of his plan, Karl Fritz used the power of his Founding Titan to do several important things. First, he erased the memories of the outside world from every Eldia on the Paradis island.
After that, he gathered millions of Colossal Titans and used them as the foundation for the walls in Paradis. He also used it as a threat to the outside world that if they ever tried to hurt the Eldia in Paradis, then he would unleash these massive hordes of Colossal Titans into the world. Though he never actually intended to do such a horrible thing.
Finally, he used the Founding Titan’s power to make a vow to renounce war, and every descendant of the royal family must follow this vow. Even if the world comes with a vengeance, the royal family who holds the power of the Founding Titan must stand down and let them kill the Eldian. That is the least that they can do to atone for their insurmountable sins. And that is The Fritz's Vow.