Marley

**Marley** is a nation that houses the Marleyan people, as well as the remaining Subjects of Ymir outside of the Walls. Marley was once conquered by Eldia in ancient times, but during the Great Titan War, the Marleyans rose up and subjugated all of Eldia's territory with the exception of Paradis Island. Marley sustained its global power using the Power of the Titans possessed by the Warriors, but began to lose its status due to lagging behind other nations in technological progress.

## History

Marley was a powerful nation in ancient times; however, around 2,000 years ago, 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. 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.

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.

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.

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 Karl 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 Colossus 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.

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 become an expansionist state with colonial policies and would utilize the Titan powers in order to become the world's major superpower. With the power of the Titans possessed by the Warriors, a select group of Eldians who serve Marley, Marley would invade various neighboring countries, annexing and adding them into the large colonial empire.

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 which possessed the Founding Titan.

In 832, the Public Security Authorities managed to capture and dissolve the Eldian Restorationists with the assistance of a young Zeke Jaeger, who informed on his parents.

## Society

### Technology

While technological development on Paradis Island had been stagnant for a century due to King Reiss's isolation policies, the other nations of the world had already progressed far beyond it. By the year 845, Marley and other nations reached the modern age and possessed technologies such as photographs, blimps, electricity, steam & diesel-powered transports in civil society. 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.

The introduction of Harry Potter's journals would change this, allowing Marley to focus more on gaining more electricity, new forms of power, and new concepts for technology and weapons.

### Titan Biology Research Society

The Marley 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. For example, the Marley government are known to create Titan serums to transform the Warriors and Eldian criminals into Titans.

An academic discipline known as "Titan biology," headed by Marley's Titan Biology Research Society, was founded in dedication to the research of Titans. It is the Society that put forth the theory that all Subjects of Ymir are connected by unseen paths from which the flesh and bones of Titan are sent to them, and that all the paths cross at a single "coordinate," the Founding Titan.

### 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."

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. He is described in legend as a brave and beautiful man who was unwounded in the struggle against the greatest Titan on earth. A Helos statue is erected in front of the Warrior unit headquarters in Liberio.

Marleyan cuisine is varied, consisting of pasta dishes, pizza, as well as seafood such as lobster and clams.

### Language

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.

## Demographics

Marley is an empire comprised of an enormous continent as well as various oversea territories. Its entire population is unknown, but the main ethnic group are the Marleyans, leading the nation politics, economy, diplomacy and military. There are a considerable number of Eldians, contained in several ghettos around the mainland, and numerous other ethnic groups and nationalities, added into Marley over the past 100 years through military conquest and expansion.

## Geography

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 various seas, and that may have influenced the nation's culture, since Marleyan cuisine consists of seafood and the national emblem is a seashell.

## Eldian minority within Marley

### The internment zones

After the Great Titan War, most Eldians who were stranded on the continental mainland were left at the mercy of an unforgiving 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 the Public Security Authorities. 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.

To justify its exploitation, Marley indoctrinated both its citizens and Eldians with a revised history which 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 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 Marley Motherland and the extermination of "bad" Eldians on Paradis Island.

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; and the residents were able to put up a feast for their family members returning from war. Also, the Potter's were well-known as business-owners, giving them a stable living.

Nevertheless, Eldians do have to endure abuse from PSA guards from time to time, which are occasionally lethal, as evidenced by the murder of Faye Jaeger. Movement in and out of the ghettos are also restricted, with the camp's main gate only open at a specified time of the day or during special occasions, such as the gathering to welcome the troops home. 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 Warriors and their families.

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 secured the Founding Titan, the debate would end in favor of those opinions and seal the doom of all Eldians.

The Marleyan government determines the ethnicity of its citizens with blood tests, and the result of which affects their eligibility to get into privileged professions. To join the Public Security Authorities, 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.

Although harsh, Marley is, in fact, more tolerant of Eldians than many other countries, wherein Eldians face much severer hostilities that make the Marleyan discrimination pale in comparison. There are some Marleyans, such as Theo Magath, 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 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.

### The Tybur family

Due to its dominant power within the Marleyan state, 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.

## Politics

### Government

Despite being supposedly independent, Marley is in fact secretly controlled by the Tybur family. That made Willy Tybur, the head of the family, the de-facto ruler of the nation.

### 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 845 the nation of Marley had conquered territory across the former Hizuru nation and the western continent.

Marley has a historically poor relationship with the Mid-East Allied Forces. By the year 845, the two nations were in a long-standing war that began seven years prior.

## Military

The Marleyan military acts as the main force of order within Marley's borders as well as the key to their global conquest. Consisting primarily of a navy and an army, a large portion of Marleyan ground forces consists of Eldian troops within the Eldian Unit of the army, led by a Marleyan commander. Within this Eldian Unit is the infamous Warrior Unit, the volunteer Eldian soldiers who strive to inherit the power of the Titans.