Rod and Uri's father

A hairline in full retreat marks this middle-aged king, a trait both of his sons eventually inherit. His light hair reaches his neck and curls where it ends, and a mustache flows into a short beard that climbs along his jaw to join his hair.

During the years the First King's will works through him, his eyes carry a dark, hollow look.

The story preserves only fragments of the man himself, and much of his recorded behavior seems dictated by the will he inherited. Pleas from his children to free the world of Titans meet total indifference; he never once explains his refusal. When Rod presses the matter too insistently, the king answers by having his own son locked away.

He receives the crown and the Founding Titan through the Reiss succession rite, consuming the previous holder while in Pure Titan form. Royal blood grants him that Titan's complete abilities, among them command over the memories of the Subjects of Ymir, a gift Rod later calls an invincible power, along with the rapid healing shared by every inheritor. His own Titan form never appears in the story, though it stands 13 meters tall.

The inherited will of Karl Fritz shapes his entire reign: he regards a world governed by Titans as genuine peace and will not turn his power against them, no matter how many times Rod and Uri beg him to liberate humanity. Rod's persistence eventually lands him behind bars.

When the time comes to pass the power on, the king is chained to the ground in keeping with tradition so that his heir, after transforming, can devour him and return to human shape. Uri volunteers for the inheritance, asking his brother to pray. The moment Rod looks into Uri's eyes afterward, he recognizes their father's presence within him and concludes that his brother has become God.