Peeling Back the Layers of ‘Attack On Titan’s Mysterious Setting

Where does Attack On Titan take place? That’s a loaded question. More loaded than Miriam Margoyles’ take on adult Harry Potter fans. Dare I say more loaded than the question of how to pronounce the title Godzilla x Kong. Loaded questions? I shoot answers.

Paradis: The world’s worst island getaway

Getaway? More like get away from me. The island of Paradis is where the majority of Attack on Titan‘s action takes place. Though its denizens don’t know it, the island of Paradis is a distant little place far away from any other nation in the rest of the world. It’s kind of like if you took a place the size of Madagascar and stuck it in the middle of the Pacific.

The island of Paradis is home to thousands of people living in the relative safety of a triple-walled city. It’s basically Ba Sing Se, for all you Avatar fans out there. And just as politically f*cked up! The city is divided up into three different segments, between which are Wall Sina, Wall Rose, and Wall Maria. Wall Sina divides the city from the world outside, Wall Rose divides the city’s outer and middle layers, and Wall Maria surrounds the innermost core of the city where all the royals and upper class live. The walls essentially serve to divide the city into social classes, with the rich in the center and the poor at the fringes.

The population of the city has no idea what exists outside of these walls. Well, they have some, and they don’t want to know any more. Outside the city roam the titular Titans—giant, naked humanoids with a taste for human flesh. No one knows where they came from. No one knows how to get rid of them. No one knows what lies beyond them, if “beyond” is even a place that exists. All of these secrets were lost after the many centuries that humans lived inside the walls. For the better part of a century, humans lived in peace … until a particularly large titan decided to kick a hole in Wall Maria.

The world beyond

Unknown to the island’s inhabitants, they are actually exiles, living in what is essentially a penal colony. Their jailers are both the titans themselves and the outside world. Beyond the Island of Paradis is a world that resembles the early 20th century. Powerful nations struggle for control and dominance, and one of the most powerful of all is the nation of Marley. The nation of Marley knows the Island of Paradis better than anyone else. After all, it was they who exiled people there in the first place.

Long ago, the world was ravaged by the Eldian Empire. Eldians were unique, as they possessed the power to turn into Titans. Nine families emerged as inheritors of Titan powers, but the Empire was thrown into unrest as the families began to war with one another. This allowed the Marlayens to gain an advantage over the Eldians, and the Eldian King Fritz sealed a fraction of his people inside a walled city on Paradis using the power of the Titans. As a reprisal against their former oppressors, the Marlayens rounded up the remaining Eldians and forced them into ghettos. Eldian criminals were injected with Titan spinal fluid and turned into mindless monsters, then released into the wilds surrounding the walled city on Paradis, trapping the once great Eldian Empire in a prison.

Outside of Marley and Paradis, the world is wider still. The nation of Marley is surrounded by a group of smaller nations that eventually organize themselves into the Mid-East Allied Forces. This alliance of nations wages war against Marley, who have begun to use the power of the Titans themselves in order to assert their dominance on the world stage. East of Paradis and Marley is a place known as The Orient, which contains the nation of Hizuru. The nation of Hizuru is one of the few that allies themselves with the Eldians, and members of that land’s Azumabito family settled on the island of Paradis. Mikasa Ackerman is one of their descendants. The world of Attack On Titan is basically just 20th century Earth! With giant flesh-eating people walking around!

(Featured Image: Wit Studio)