| “ | Hey, you there. You’re going to come live with us from now on… You’ll be able to live a brand-new life now. A brand-new life… needs a brand-new name. Understand? | „ |
| ~ The cult leader to a young Ymir. |
The Cult Leader is a minor antagonist in Attack on Titan, but important to the character of Ymir, being the man that created a fake identity for her so he could profit from others worshipping her. His actions are responsible for Ymir’s desire to continue living a life with truth and no regret.
Appearance[]
Human form[]
He was in his first introduction a younger man of average height with a short crop of light-colored hair that in the anime version was brown. He used to wear simple townsfolk attire, a long white buttonless jacket, with a green tunic underneath it. He wore simple brown trousers and boots.
As Ymir began creating more wealth for him his clothing became more luxurious. Wearing long robes and numerous accessories such as necklaces. He would also at that point neatly comb his hair to two sides.
Despite living in Marley, he was never once seen carrying the Eldian armband, presumably because such policy was not enforced yet at the time. The town he and other Eldians lived in, however, appeared to be in rather impoverished conditions, indicating the possibility that it was a settlement meant for Eldians in Marley.
Personality[]
He was shown to be an influential man that could easily unite others and persuade them to do what he wants, although he never had the best intentions in mind. He was very greedy and materialistic, only caring about wealth and had no issue frauding people to get it. He was also very cowardly, as he pushed all the blame of his actions to a young Ymir claiming she tricked him, visibly terrified at the prospect of becoming a Pure Titan when discovered by the Marley Public Security.
In the manga, he was portrayed to be charismatic and was often seen smiling, while in the anime version was more serious.
Biography[]
Background[]
Although it is unknown in what year he was born, it is assumed that it was close during the fall of Eldia and resurrection of Marley in the Great Titan War.
Because he was an Eldian, he had to live in a severely impoverished town, presumably a ghetto. The town might have been an internment zone, or simply a safe area for Eldians to live in, if the surrounding walls were not present yet during the man's times. The man lived in a time period in which the Subjects of Ymir in the world were still being discovered among the human population and were chased away to live in exile in their own separate territories, separated from the other humans (before new policies, such as armbands and the need of exit permits were added). All of this was likely being the main motivator for his desire to attain wealth.
Some time around the year 780, several decades since the end of the Great Titan War and the rebirth of Marley, the man led a group of Eldians who worshipped Ymir Fritz as a goddess and glorified the blood of Subjects of Ymir as capable of obtaining immortality, as many Eldians were still mourning the old days of the Eldian Empire. The cult leader presumably claimed to his followers that he was going to bring them a member of the Fritz royal family.
The cult leader was looking for a child beggar with no home nor family in his hometown, to pass as a descendant of royal blood. He picked a little girl and told her she was going to live with him from now on, receiving no protests from her. He offered her a roof, a bed, food, and company, if she accepted to play along with him and the role he planned to give her. He gave her the name "Ymir", after the ancestor Ymir Fritz, and brought her into his place of gathering to present her to his followers. He claimed that the orphan girl named Ymir carried the blood of the King of Eldia, and that so long as everyone worshipped her, they would all be blessed with immortality through the blood connection between the Subjects of Ymir. The Eldians present acclaimed her with smiles and excitement, and Ymir was in turn delighted by such confusing reactions. She chose to abide by the role created by the cult leader, in order to bring happiness to those around her, although she knew she was unlikely to have royal blood.
In the following years, the members of the cult raised Ymir and took care of her, giving her better clothes, feeding her, and brushing her hair. At the same time, the worshippers revered Ymir as royalty in a religious fashion, as Eldia's loyalists maintained the belief that Subjects of Ymir were "God's chosen people". Ymir noticed that the cult leader who named her progressively gained better clothings for himself, displaying a visible improvement of his lifestyle. The man was the one who kept presenting Ymir at every worshipping session, and grew visibly happier as he kept dressing more extravagantly each time, indicating that he acquired wealth from his scam and possibly gained more followers to support him.
The cult leader pointing all the blame to Ymir.
For five years everything went well for the cult leader, until around 785 (about 40 years since the end of the Great Titan War), the cult's existence and activities were discovered by the Public Security Authorities of Marley, who aggressively raided the place and apprehended all the worshippers, and revealed to the cultists that she was not even a member of the Fritz royal family, exposing the group's leader as a fraud. When contronted by the soldiers over his actions, the cult leader was terrified, and in a desperate attempt to receive mercy and a lighter punishment, he pointed at Ymir and accused her of deceiving him and that he and his followers only believed her.
This to Ymir was a cruel reminded that everything in her life had been a lie, although she knew she was not true royalty. Nonetheless, she kept abiding by the role and name that were given to her by the cult leader, and to save all her cultists she took full responsibility for the leader's actions, claiming to the Marleyans that she had royal blood. All the cultists were shocked by Ymir's selflessness. Nonetheless, the whole group were promptly arrested for their fraudolent crimes and practicing the Eldian religious customs and glorification of the Founder Ymir's blood.
The cultists, their leader included, and Ymir were taken by the Public Security Authorities and paraded around a city in Marley, where they were stoned and cursed upon by angry citizens. Afterwards, the cultists were sentenced to exile from Marley for life and "sent to Heaven", deported to the borderline of Paradis Island. Once everyone was gathered at the top the wall of Marley's wharf, the cult leader was not pleading for mercy and looked defeated. All the cultists including the leader and Ymir were injected with the Titan spinal serum and turned into Pure Titans to roam in the island forever until their deaths.
Although the cult leader became a Pure Titan, he is not seen as a Titan in the series. It is unknown for how many years he had to mindlessly roam around as a Titan, but he was inevitably killed by the military of the Walls or the Intelligent Titans from Marley between c. 785 or 851 (a period of 66 years), depending on whether he was found by Survey Corps troops of past commanders, Keith Shadis's, or Erwin Smith's, or even by the Garrison and Training Corps troops inside the Walls. If he was killed by Marley's soldiers, it was presumably at the hands of the Warrior Unit, if he lived long enough through the rest of the century to reach the times of Marley's Paradis Island Operation. It is also possible he was one of the Titans killed by Ymir's Jaw Titan if he was still around by then. Either way, he likely died at least by 851, as all the Pure Titans on Paradis Island were killed by the Survey Corps at that point, and the only Titan left was Connie Springer's mother within Wall Rose.
