Reiss family

Royal blood runs through the Reiss line, though for a hundred years almost nobody inside the Walls knows it. The family descends from the ancient Fritz dynasty, whose earliest ancestor fathered children with Ymir Fritz roughly 2,000 years ago as a reward for her bringing the tribe prosperity through the power of the Titans. When Eldia lost the Great Titan War, King Karl Fritz withdrew to Paradis Island, raised the three Walls from countless Colossus Titans, and erased his gathered subjects' memories of the outside world so they would believe themselves humanity's last remnant.

On the island the royals dropped the Fritz name, restyled themselves as minor nobles living near Orvud District inside Wall Sheena, and installed a false king in Mitras to absorb public attention. Bloodlines outside the Subjects of Ymir, among them the Ackerman clan and the Asian clan, proved immune to the memory wipe; families that cooperated received noble rank, while the defiant were hunted close to extinction. Karl Fritz also bound the line with a secret vow renouncing war, guaranteeing that no successor would ever wield the Founding Titan against the world, even to repel an invasion.

Each generation the family gathers beneath the chapel on its estate for a hidden succession ritual. The chosen heir injects Titan serum, becomes a Pure Titan, and devours the reigning monarch, absorbing the Founding Titan together with humanity's sealed memories. Inheritance carries a curse: the First King's ideology overtakes every new ruler, compelling them to keep humanity caged whatever their previous convictions. Rod Reiss watches his brother Uri accept the power from their father this way, and years later Rod's daughter Frieda devours Uri at fifteen to become the true queen.

In 845, as Wall Maria falls, Grisha Yeager confronts the family at prayer in their chapel. Frieda refuses his plea to save the Walls' population, so he transforms into the Attack Titan, overwhelms the inexperienced queen, and eats her, then kills Rod's wife and remaining legitimate children. Rod alone escapes, publicly blaming bandits for the ruin. He collects Historia, his illegitimate daughter by the maid Alma, and hides her under the alias Krista Lenz.

Once the Survey Corps uncovers the truth, Erwin Smith plots to seat Historia on the throne. Rod abducts her along with Eren Yeager, urging his daughter to devour Eren and reclaim the family's Titan, but she smashes the serum instead. Rod licks the spilled liquid and becomes a crawling 120-meter Abnormal, the largest Titan on record. Historia strikes the killing blow at Orvud District and is crowned, reigning as a beloved figurehead while the military governs in practice. She later accepts a plan to preserve the royal line by bearing children, delivering her first in 854.

Thirteen members are known, ten of them dead. Historia Reiss and her child carry the bloodline forward. The deceased include Rod Reiss, his legitimate children Urklyn, Frieda, Dirk, Florian, and Abel, his brother Uri, the brothers' unnamed father, and the ancestral First King Karl Fritz. Rod's wife and Historia's husband belong to the family through marriage.