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Reference

Glossary

Every term, organisation and invention from the world of Attack on Titan, explained in plain English. From ODM gear to the Curse of Ymir.

Equipment and warfare

Term	Meaning
Anti-personnel ODM gear	Lighter equipment fitted with firearms, designed for fighting people rather than Titans — used for the first time during the uprising.
Nape wound	The only way to kill a Titan: a cut roughly a metre wide and ten centimetres deep taken out of the nape. Anything less than that grows back within seconds.
ODM gear	Omni-directional mobility gear: a harness with grappling cables and gas cylinders that lets soldiers swing through the air like darting shadows. Without it a human being stands no chance against a Titan.
Scouting formation	The diamond-shaped spread the Survey Corps rides in across open country, so that lookouts on the flanks can signal Titans before the core of the formation runs into them.
Signal flares	Smoke and light signals that let scouts communicate over long distances during expeditions: green means a change of course, red means danger, black means an intelligent Titan.
Thunder Spears	Explosive spears developed during the preparations for the recapture of Shiganshina, meant to break open armoured Titan skin.

Titans and titan power

Term	Meaning
Abnormal Titan	A Titan that behaves unpredictably: it runs, ignores prey, or heads straight for a particular target. These are the most dangerous specimens, because formations are not built to account for them.
Coordinate	The junction of all the Paths, embodied by whoever holds the Founding Titan. From that point every Eldian and every Titan can be commanded.
Curse of Ymir	Anyone who inherits one of the Nine has at most thirteen years left — the same span Ymir Fritz lived after her transformation. The power then passes to a newborn Eldian.
Paths	A dimension outside time and space in which all Eldians are connected to one another. Memories, titan powers and bodies all travel through the Paths.
Pure Titan	An Eldian turned into a mindless giant by an injection. They make up the overwhelming majority of the Titans beyond the Walls.
Royal blood	Descendants of the Fritz/Reiss family. Only with royal blood does the full power of the Founding Titan come free.
Spinal fluid	The liquid used to turn Eldians into Titans. Zeke can work it into wine and other drink and activate it later with a scream.
The Nine Titans	The nine hereditary titan powers Ymir Fritz left behind: Founding, Attack, Armoured, Colossal, Female, Beast, Jaw, Cart and War Hammer.
Titan	A vast, human-like creature between three and fifteen metres tall. Titans eat people without needing food at all, move on sunlight and regenerate almost any damage.
Titan shifter	An Eldian who carries one of the Nine and can transform by wounding themselves with a clear purpose in mind.

Peoples, countries and politics

Term	Meaning
Anti-Marleyan Alliance	The alliance of former enemies that tries to stop the Rumbling.
Eldian Empire	The empire that subjugated the continent with titan power two thousand years ago — the historical root of the hatred towards Eldians.
Eldians	Descendants of Ymir Fritz. They alone can turn into Titans. On Paradis they live freely; in Marley they live in walled-off districts and wear an identifying armband.
Hizuru	The eastern nation with historical ties to Paradis, represented by Kiyomi Azumabito.
Marley	The great power on the mainland that wielded the titan powers as weapons for centuries and treats Eldians as second-class citizens.
Paradis	The island on which the three Walls stand. To the people inside it is the whole world; to the rest of the world it is a prison full of devils.
Rumbling	地鳴らし — the release of the millions of Colossal Titans inside the Walls, which then trample everything beyond Paradis.
Warrior candidate	A child in training who still has to prove themselves worthy of a titan power. Gabi and Falco are the best-known examples.
Warriors	Eldian children trained by Marley to inherit one of the Nine and deploy it in war.
Yeagerists	The paramilitary movement on Paradis that backs Eren’s plan without reservation and takes control of the island after a coup.

Walls, corps and institutions

Term	Meaning
Cadet Corps	The three-year training every soldier goes through. The 104th Cadet Corps is the intake Eren, Mikasa and Armin belong to.
Garrison	Responsible for the Walls themselves, the cannon and public safety in the towns.
Military Police Brigade	Guards the innermost ring and the king. Only the ten best cadets of each year are allowed to join.
Survey Corps	The corps that operates beyond the Walls. Highest death rate, greatest idealism. Emblem: the Wings of Freedom.
Underground City	The slum beneath Wall Sina where people without civil rights live — the place where Levi grew up.
Wall Cult	A religious movement that worships the Walls and forbids anyone from tampering with them. It turns out to know rather more than it admits.
Wall Maria	The outermost wall, fifty metres high. It is the first to fall, in the year 845.
Wall Rose	The middle wall, behind which humanity retreats after 845.
Wall Sina	The innermost wall, enclosing the nobility, the king and the headquarters of the Military Police Brigade.

Key terms explained in full

How the manoeuvring harness works and why it is so hard to master.

What it is, how it begins and how it ends.

The Curse of Ymir

Why those who carry a titan power die after thirteen years.

Eldians and Marleyans

The conflict that runs beneath the entire series.

Where they come from and why they eat people.

The movement that worships the Walls — and why.

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Last updated on September 8, 2026.