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Titan Shifters are humans who possess the power to transform into one of the Nine Titans. Unlike Pure Titans, Titan Shifters retain their human intelligence and personality while transformed. Their Titan body is controlled by the human within it, normally positioned inside the nape of the Titan's neck.
For this RPG, Titan Shifter is a class. The class represents possession of the Power of the Titans, while the character's subclass determines which Titan power they inherited. A player who selects the Titan Shifter class must therefore select an appropriate Titan subclass. The subclass determines the character's Titan form, physical characteristics, specialized abilities, and combat role.
The nine canonical Titan subclasses are the Founding Titan, Attack Titan, Colossal Titan, Armored Titan, Female Titan, Beast Titan, Jaw Titan, Cart Titan, and War Hammer Titan. These are the Nine Titans descended from the power originally possessed by Ymir Fritz.
A Titan Shifter normally requires an injury that draws blood in order to transform. The injury is commonly self-inflicted, such as biting the hand, although an injury caused by another person can also trigger transformation. The shifter must simultaneously have a clear objective or intention. The transformation is accompanied by a sudden release of energy, followed by the formation of the Titan body and large amounts of steam.
The player should therefore not be able to transform casually without satisfying the transformation requirement established by the DM's rules. For RPG purposes, an injury that draws blood combined with a defined immediate objective is the standard transformation trigger.
Upon transformation, the human body becomes integrated with the Titan body. The human normally occupies the nape and functions as the Titan's control center. The shifter can perceive and act through the Titan body while retaining their own intelligence. The exact degree to which the human body is physically connected to the Titan varies between transformations and individuals.
A Titan Shifter does not become a generic Pure Titan. The resulting Titan is the specific Titan associated with the character's subclass. A character with the Armored Titan subclass transforms into the Armored Titan, while a character with the Jaw Titan subclass transforms into the Jaw Titan. The class and subclass combination therefore directly determines the character's transformation.
Titan Shifters possess powerful regenerative abilities. They can regenerate injuries to their human bodies as well as injuries sustained while transformed. The speed depends on the severity of the injury and the individual's condition and concentration. Losing limbs does not necessarily permanently disable a shifter, and even extremely severe injuries can be regenerated.
Regeneration is not unlimited. Severe injuries consume the shifter's ability to recover and may prevent or delay another transformation. A shifter can also deliberately suppress or delay regeneration, allowing them to conceal their identity or appear more seriously injured than they actually are.
The character's will to live is relevant to regeneration. Titan power does not make the user literally indestructible. Sufficiently severe damage can kill the shifter, particularly when the connection between the brain and the rest of the nervous system is destroyed.
Transforming repeatedly consumes the shifter's physical resources. A shifter who repeatedly transforms, regenerates severe injuries, or remains in Titan form for extended periods will eventually become exhausted. The exact limit varies according to the individual and Titan.
For RPG purposes, transformation should therefore consume a class resource or impose exhaustion rather than being treated as an unlimited ability. A character who has exhausted themselves through repeated transformations should have reduced ability to transform again until they recover.
The Titan body can also be pushed beyond its limits. When an Intelligent Titan is severely exhausted or incapacitated, the human may emerge from the nape in a weakened, semi-conscious, or unconscious condition.
The Founding Titan is the central Titan power connected to the Subjects of Ymir through Paths. Its abilities include transforming Subjects of Ymir into Titans and exerting control over Titans, as well as altering the memories and bodies of Subjects of Ymir. The full use of the Founding Titan's abilities is restricted by the requirement involving royal blood. An inheritor without royal blood cannot freely use its full power merely by possessing it.
The Attack Titan is one of the Nine Titans and is associated with combat ability and freedom of action. Its most unusual characteristic is its relationship with memories across its inheritors. The Attack Titan can receive memories from future inheritors as well as memories from previous ones, although the nature and availability of these memories are not equivalent to possessing complete knowledge of the future.
The Colossal Titan possesses an enormous body approximately sixty meters tall. Its defining characteristics are its immense size, tremendous physical power, and the enormous heat and steam produced by its body. Its transformation can release an explosive amount of energy, although controlling the scale of this effect requires sacrificing part of the Titan's available energy. The Colossal Titan's size makes it extraordinarily powerful while also making its movement and endurance substantially more demanding.
The Armored Titan possesses hardened armor covering much of its body. The armor provides exceptional protection against conventional attacks and allows the Titan to survive impacts that would destroy other Titans. The inheritor can manipulate where armor is present to some degree, sacrificing protection in particular areas to improve mobility. The Titan can also harden its limbs into claws suited for climbing and combat.
The Female Titan is highly versatile, possessing strong mobility, endurance, and selective hardening. Its defining special characteristic is its ability to reproduce or utilize traits associated with other Titan powers more readily than the other Nine Titans. Consuming Titan tissue can improve its ability to manifest particular characteristics. The Female Titan can also emit a scream that attracts nearby Pure Titans. This attraction does not give the shifter normal command over those Titans; the attracted Titans will converge on the Female Titan and can subsequently attack and consume it.
The Beast Titan varies considerably according to its inheritor. Its animal-like characteristics are strongly influenced by the inheritor's traits, meaning that the Beast Titan does not possess one universal animal form. Zeke Yeager's Beast Titan, for example, had ape-like characteristics and exceptional throwing ability. The Beast Titan can also possess specialized abilities dependent on its inheritor.
The Jaw Titan is the smallest of the Nine Titans and specializes in speed, agility, and close-range attacks. Its jaws and claws possess exceptional strength and hardness, allowing the Titan to tear through materials that resist the attacks of other Titans. Its small size makes it particularly mobile and well suited to rapid attacks.
The Cart Titan specializes in endurance and sustained operation. Its quadrupedal body allows it to remain transformed for extremely long periods compared with the other Nine Titans. Its endurance makes it useful for transport, reconnaissance, supply operations, and prolonged combat. Its human operator can also transform repeatedly in relatively short succession.
The War Hammer Titan possesses a unique form of Titan hardening that allows it to create solid structures and weapons from hardened Titan flesh. It can form weapons such as hammers, blades, pikes, and other structures, and can create hardened structures directly from the ground. The War Hammer Titan can also place its human operator inside a hardened crystal beneath the ground and operate its Titan body remotely through a cable of Titan flesh. This makes its control arrangement fundamentally different from the other Nine Titans.
A Titan Shifter is heavily incentivized to keep their identity as a shifter hidden, and will almost NEVER openly share that they are one.