The Royal Family:
Public face: King Fritz. Actual power: The Reiss family, hidden behind the throne. The king is a figurehead; the Reiss hold the Founding Titan and the true authority. Most people don't know this. Most people think the king rules.
The Nobility:
Great houses controlling land, trade, and military positions. They live in Mitras, marry each other, and rarely think about the people dying on the Walls. Some are genuinely corrupt; most are simply indifferent. The system benefits them; why question it?
The Merchant Class:
Traders, shopkeepers, moneylenders. Wealthy enough to matter, not wealthy enough to be noble. They navigate between classes, dealing with nobles above and commoners below. The Reeves Company is the largest and most powerful.
The Military:
A class unto itself. Soldiers are respected (Survey Corps), tolerated (Garrison), or feared (Military Police), but they exist outside the normal hierarchy. A commoner can become an officer. A noble can die in the ranks. The Walls make everyone equal—briefly.
Commoners:
Farmers, laborers, craftsmen. The vast majority of humanity. They work, they eat, they sleep, they die. Most never see a Titan. Most never see a noble. Most never see anything but their village, their fields, their life.
Refugees:
The lowest class, created by the Fall. They have nothing, own nothing, and are owed nothing by a government that wishes they would disappear. They live in camps, work for scraps, and die in numbers no one counts.
The King:
Supreme authority in theory. In practice, he does what the nobility tells him.
The Nobles' Council:
Advisers to the king, representatives of the great houses. They control legislation, taxation, and military policy. They also control information—what the public knows, what the public doesn't, and what happens to people who ask too many questions.
Military Police:
Enforce law in the interior. Also enforce noble interests. Also sometimes enforce actual justice, but that's optional.
Garrison:
Enforce law in the outer districts when MPs aren't around. Less corrupt, more practical. They know the people they police; they're less likely to abuse them.
Local Government:
Each district has its own officials—mayors, magistrates, tax collectors. Appointed by nobles, ignored by most, bribed by many.
Agriculture:
The foundation of everything. Grain, vegetables, livestock. The interior farms feed Mitras; the middle farms feed the districts; the outer farms fed Wall Maria, and now lie fallow.
Trade:
Goods move by canal and road. Trost is the hub, connecting interior to outer regions. Merchants carry everything from salt to silk, paying tolls at every gate, bribes at every checkpoint.
Craftsmanship:
Wheelwrights, blacksmiths, coopers, weavers, potters. Skilled labor passed down through generations. Apprentices learn from masters; masters die; apprentices become masters; the cycle continues.
Rural:
Wake before dawn. Work the fields. Tend animals. Repair tools. Cook, eat, sleep. Sundays might mean church, if there's a church nearby. Market days mean travel to town. Harvest means exhaustion. Winter means survival.
Urban:
Wake to bells. Work in shop, warehouse, or market. Eat street food or carry lunch. Evening means tavern, or family, or both. Sundays mean church, or markets, or sleep. Noise never stops. Light never ends. People everywhere.
Military:
Wake to whistles. Train until exhausted. Eat, clean gear, train more. Sleep in barracks with thirty others. Dream of Titans. Wake screaming. Do it again.
Refugee:
Wake to cold. Stand in line for rations. Trade what you have for what you need. Avoid MPs. Avoid gangs. Avoid hope. Sleep crowded with strangers. Wake to cold. Repeat.
The Wall Cult:
Official religion. The Walls are divine; the king is chosen; Titans are punishment. Questioning is blasphemy. Many believe, especially in rural areas. Many pretend to believe, especially where MPs are watching. A few know the truth, and those few are silenced.
Folk Beliefs:
Ancestor worship in some regions. Spirits in the forest. Luck charms against Titans. Old ways, fading as the Walls close in.
The Survey Corps as Myth:
To children, Scouts are heroes. To adults, they're either fools or martyrs, depending on the last expedition. To the desperate, they're hope. To the cynical, they're a waste of tax money.
Death:
Everyone thinks about death. Everyone knows someone who died. Funerals are frequent, brief, and heartbreaking. The memorial gardens fill; the names accumulate; the living carry on.
Horses:
The primary mode of transport. Everyone rides if they can afford it. Military horses are specially bred; civilian horses are whatever survives. A good horse costs more than a year's wages.
Carts and Wagons:
For goods, not people. Farmers bring produce to market; merchants move goods between districts; military moves supplies to the Walls.
Canals:
A network of canals connects the major districts, allowing barge traffic. Slower than horses, cheaper for bulk goods. The Trost canal is wide enough for two barges to pass; others are narrower, shallower, slower.
Gates:
Every district has gates, controlled by the Garrison. Open at dawn, closed at dusk. Papers required for passage. Refugees are often turned away.
Messengers:
Riders carry messages between districts. Fast, vulnerable, essential.
Signal Fires:
In emergencies, fires on hilltops relay warnings. Used during Titan sightings, rarely otherwise.
Flare System:
Military only. Colored flares communicate between squads, between walls, between life and death.
Newspapers:
Printed in Mitras, distributed to districts. Controlled by the government, censored carefully. News is what the nobles want you to know.
Roads:
Paved near cities, gravel in between, dirt in rural areas. Maintained by local labor, funded by local taxes. In disrepair where money runs short—which is everywhere.
Bridges:
Stone bridges over major rivers, wooden bridges over smaller ones. Some maintained, some collapsing. The Fall disrupted maintenance; repairs are slow.
Wells and Aqueducts:
Mitras has running water, piped from hills. Other districts rely on wells. Some have public fountains; most have pumps. Water is life; water is also a source of disease, when sanitation fails.
Sewers:
Mitras has sewers, built centuries ago, maintained intermittently. Other districts have ditches and hope. Disease is constant; cholera visits regularly; the poor die first.
ODM Gear:
The only effective weapon against Titans. Worn by Survey Corps and some Garrison. Requires years to master. Manufactured in Mitras, maintained by soldiers, lost constantly.
Blades:
Ultrahard steel, formula secret. Designed to break on impact, forcing replacement. A soldier carries four pairs into battle; most will use them all.
Cannons:
Mounted on Walls, operated by Garrison. Effective at slowing Titans, rarely at killing them. Slow to reload, hard to aim, obsolete against intelligent enemies.
Flare Guns:
Standard issue for squad leaders. Colored flares communicate across distance. Red for retreat, green for Titan, black for commander's signal, white for all clear.
Trost:
Population: 150,000 (swollen with refugees)
Economy: Trade, port, military
Notable: Largest city, busiest port, site of major battle
Character: Crowded, loud, desperate, alive
Karanes:
Population: 40,000 (plus refugee camps)
Economy: Horses, agriculture
Notable: Horse markets, refugee camps
Character: Rural, practical, stubborn
Yarckel:
Population: 25,000
Economy: Timber, forestry
Notable: Proximity to training forests
Character: Quiet, woodsy, watchful
Quinta:
Population: 15,000
Economy: Farming, grain
Notable: Grain silos feed Trost
Character: Flat, dusty, endless fields
Ehrmich:
Population: 20,000
Economy: Textiles, weaving
Notable: Cloth for uniforms
Character: Industrial, smoky, poor
Mitras:
Population: 150,000
Economy: Government, luxury, everything
Notable: Capital, royal palace, Underground
Character: Divided—rich above, poor below, never meeting
Stohess:
Population: 30,000
Economy: Religion, administration
Notable: Chapel, noble residences
Character: Quiet, pious, watchful
Orvud:
Population: 20,000
Economy: Agriculture, supply
Notable: Granaries feed Mitras
Character: Functional, overlooked, essential
Shiganshina:
Ruins. The gate is gone. Titans wander the streets. The Yeager house still stands, empty, visited only by memory.
Hohenzoll:
A farming village, now overgrown. Grain silos stand empty, doors swinging in the wind. The dead lie where they fell.
Unknown Territory:
Most of Wall Maria's land has never been re-entered. The Survey Corps ventures there, mapping, exploring, dying. What they find is always the same: emptiness, silence, and Titans.