Age of Titans is an Attack on Titan fanfiction by Kairomaru. It can be read on FanFiction.Net here
and Archive of Our Own here.
Over a century ago, the Eldian Empire fell. The ones that survive live under the heels of those their ancestors oppressed or on a single island, hiding behind massive walls. But what does the World have to fear from only Nine People? Why hate and fear those that have already been brought low?
Unless there's a reason that everyone fears them all.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Ymir's Jaw Titan form is designed more like Porco's, having a bone mask as
Kairomaru disliked the goblinoid appearance of Ymir's canon Titan compared to the other Jaw Titans. - Adaptational Badass: Several due to there being more than just nine Shifters.
- Annie is the Prime Female Titan, making her all-around more powerful than canon.
- Mikasa is a hybrid Titan Shifter, namely of the Female and Warhammer Titans, dubbed a Blade Titan.
- Historia is a Founding Titan Shifter, which is a less powerful version of the Prime Founding Titan.
- Sasha is a Warhammer Titan Shifter.
- Franz is a Colossal Titan Shifter who later gains the power of the Prime Colossal Titan after he's fed the de-limbed and crippled Bertholdt.
- Erwin is an Attack Titan Shifter who gains the power of the Prime Armored Titan after Annie force-feeds his titan form an unconscious Reiner.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Downplayed. The old Eldian Empire caused chaos throughout the world due to vicious in-fighting rather than brutally enslaving the world.
- Annie is loyal to her fellow Eldians, unlike in canon where she was happy to kill them all for the sake of Marley and her adoptive father.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Armin becomes a Jaw Titan rather than the Colossal Titan.
- Adaptation Personality Change:
- The original Ymir was more assertive after becoming a Titan, notably using her powers to threaten Karl Fritz if he ever got too out of line or backslid to his old ways.
- Eren has less anger issues than canon due to a combination of having a more defined goal beyond "kill all Titans" and a loving relationship with five different women.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Karl Fritz and Ymir were Happily Married rather than the latter being the former's Sex Slave.
- In canon, Annie did have some attachment to her fellow Marleyan warriors Bertholdt Hoover and Reiner Braun despite her aloofness towards both. Here, she has no love for either Bertholdt or Reiner and is secretly working against them.
- Ymir (the second) and Mikasa were both examples of Single-Target Sexuality in canon (Historia and Eren respectively). In Age of Titans, they're in a relationship with Historia, Eren, Sasha, Annie, and each other.
- BFG: A variant. As a Warhammer Titan, Sasha uses her hardening to create a massive bow and fire arrows larger than a man at titans.
- Death by Adaptation: Reiner is killed during the battle of Trost when he's fed to a titan Erwin.
- Defector from Decadence: The Tybur family defected to Marley in order to stop the generations-long conflicts between various Eldian clans and their Titan Shifters.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Rather than Taking the Bullet for Karl Fritz, Ymir lives to a ripe old age and dies peacefully in her bed.
- Bertholdt is fed to Franz while he's in his mindless state after Eren awoke Franz's latent Titan Shifter abilities.
- Enemy Civil War: From Marley's perspective. Eldia was devastated by in-fighting between the various clans and their Titan Shifters.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Karl Fritz bowed to Ymir when she first turned into a Titan and declared that she was his equal in all things.
- La Résistance: Annie forms such a group with her lovers and whoever they believe will be sympathetic while they're all still in training, with the end goal being overthrowing the false king and rebuilding the Eldian Empire in a new and improved form.
- Loophole Abuse: Because Marley keeps their shifters until just before they die to the Curse of Ymir, Annie gets around the "knowingly cannibalizing" part by simply holding the previous shifter in her mouth for a couple of minutes until the woman dies on her own.
- Oh, Crap!: Reiner has a moment when he's told there's evidence that Bertholdt is a traitor, due to him saying "How?" rather than something along the lines of "What"?, which helps prove he's one as well.
- Polyamory: Eren, Annie, Mikasa, Sasha, Ymir, and Historia are all in a relationship together before their training ends.
- Resurgent Empire: Annie's overall goal is the rebuilding of the Eldian Empire, including freeing their people around the world.
- Sex for Services: After Hange learns about titan shifters, she offers to let Eren "use any hole" if he'll turn her into one.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Franz is turned into a titan shifter after being fatally injured at Trost, sparing him his canon fate.
- Took a Level in Badass: Mikasa, Sasha, Historia, and Armin all become Titan Shifters during their cadet training.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After Ymir became the first Titan, Karl Fritz slowly started treating his subjects better, including no longer disfiguring his slaves.
- What If?: Plenty to go around:
- Since Ymir did not have to be cannibalized by her daughters, she gets to refine her Titan abilities even further and create more Titan Shifters, with the nine canon Shifters replaced with nine Prime Shifters and several more Lesser Shifters.
- Since Ymir amended her namesake Curse to only activate if someone knowingly and willingly consumed a person who held the power of the Nine Prime Titans, Titan Shifters like Annie, who did not cannibalize the previous holders, or Eren, who didn't knowingly commit cannibalism with that intent when receiving his powers, get to enjoy a full human lifespan rather than have their life expectancy cut short.
