it's gonna be long
there was 2 "races": Mare and the Elodians (called also people of "Ymir" and each side claim that he is the victim and tried to take revenge.
Ymir the Incestor made a packt with the devil and recieved the power of titan.
*(the story from the Elodians side):Ymir the incestor, using the titan power, cultivated the land and made life prosper, after her death, her power was divided into 9 Shiffters. Mare, who wantes to have the power and rule the world, started a war.
*(the story from the Mare side): Elodians, who had the power of titans, decided that they are the rulers of the world and that all other race are inferior, so Mare started the war to take down the Elodians.
After years of war, the first King "Fritz" didn't want to keep fighting, left the continent to the island with some Elodians and built 3 walls around him, erased the memories of his subject, and threatend, if Mare interfere with them, titans inside the walls will destruct the continent.
Elodians left in the continent lost the war and became "like slave" living in Ghetto ruled by Mare.
**don't forget that the progenitor titan, the one who has the power to control all other, should be a royal blood, or else his controlling power won't work (which I think is not the total truth coz eren was able to use it even if he isn't a royal blood, (sensei's toying with us))**
After the death of Fay (Grisha's sister), Grisha joined the secret resistance to bring back glory to Elodia. With the Elodians left in the continent, they started gathering information, helped by the "owl" an Elodian who is a Mare officer.
their hope gained when a royal blood, Dina, joined them (she is one of the royal blood who didn't left to the island) and so their objectif was clear: taking back the power of the progenitor titan from the king inside the wall and give it back to one of the royal family left in the contitnent so they can revive Elodia again (making Elodia great again hehehehe ^^)
After years of technologie devoleppement, Mare's aim are the natural resources of the island, and to have access to them, they should take down the king and steal his power "secretly" by sending "warriors" and invading secretly the walls, and to do so, they needed Elodians kids, coz Elodians are the only one able to hold the power of Shiffters who are possessed by Mare (Mare, after winning the war, had 7 from the 9 Shiffter power) (so basically Annie, Berth and Reiner are Elodians, who at the age of 7, became Mare worriors and to whom the power of shifters was entrusted).
==> at this point of the story, Elodia's resistence and Mare have the same aim: taking the power of the progenitor titan, and so they made Zeke (who is a half royal blood) a Mare warrior, so he can be trusted by Mare, get the power of the progenitor titan and use it to revie Elodia, but as a kid, Zeke informed the Mare gov about his parents and so all members of elodia's resistance were send to heavens (which is to be turned into a mindless titans.
when Grisha was about to be executed, the owl saved him and revealed his identity: he is an elodian holding the power of the Shingeki no Kyojin ( a Shiffther titan)
he gave that power to Grisha coz he does not have much time and asked him to keep on with their planes (taking back the power of the progenitor titan).
the rest u knew it, Grisha took the power of the progenitor titan from the Fritz and gave it to Eren (Eren holds 2 titans power)
that's all what we have about their past, we stll don't know from what is that injection made, how came, that the owl knews about Armin and Mikasa even if they wasn't born at that time, how did Eren had that vision of his mom being eaten before she was eaten and how he could control the power of the progenitor titan even if he isn't a royal blood.
I hope I didn't forgot anything.
(PS: sorry for my bad english)
1/ The people of Ymir (Elodians) are the ones in the walls. They are the ones whose DNA is capable of being turned into titans and titan shifters. There are 2 bloodlines, the Mare and Ymir's bloodline the Elodians. So (outside the walls) the Mares took over the Elodians and held the titan shifter powers captive, they allowed Fritz to leave with some Elodians to an island where Fritz built the walls and erased everyone's memory of the origin of titans and society outside the wall.
2/ The Mares demonized the Elodians and made it seem like they were cruel people and that the Mares were doing everyone a favor by taking control over the titan shifters and that they were 'kind' enough to allow the Elodians to live. However the Mares really hate the Elodians, turning them into titans as punishment and unleashing them onto the island in hopes of killing the Elodians that left to live in the walls. But they still need to maintain control over the titan shifter powers so they do have to keep Elodians around to allow the powers to be passed on since Elodians are the only ones capable of becoming shifters. However, they keep a tight leash on these shifters (Reiner, Bertholt, Annie, idk about Zeke).
3/ Grisha was one of those Elodians meant to be punished, but he was saved by an undercover Elodian who was dying (since titan shifters have a lifetime of 13 years after they become a shifter). That power was passed onto him to infiltrate the walls and take back the ultimate titan shifter power known as progenitor titan from King Fritz who at that point has been passing that power down to the closest royal blood to fritz the Reiss family (Historia's family). And you should remember how Eren got his shifter powers from Grisha and how Grisha ate the whole Reiss family to take over the progenitor power.
4/ In short. The Mares are the bad ones in this situation as they are painted as cruel people who mistreat the Elodians and deliberately turn them into titans to kill the Elodians who left for the walls. The Elodians outside the walls hate the Mares but can't do anything about it cause they have control over the titan serum and the titan shifters (Reiner, Annie, etc, who seems to be brainwashed or forced to follow the Mares or risk consequences).
The Elodians are painted as the good side since they just want to live in peace, but can't, they must fight for their freedom, those within the walls and the Elodian resistance outside the walls under Mare rulers.
The Mares goal is to take over the island, kill the Elodians to take over their resources. But from the latest chapter Eren doesn't believe that they want to take the resources. He believes that the Mares just want to eradicate all of the Elodians from the earth since the Mares see them as less than human.
I made my own post, but your post covered everything. Just wanted to add that even though Eren is not of royal blood he found out that if he consumed royal blood he may be able to access more of the progenitor titan powers. When he killed and ate the Smiling Titan (who is Dinah Fritz, full royal blood) he was suddenly able to use the Progenitor Titan powers. And from the latest chapter, when he just touched Historia he was suddenly able to access the memory of Grisha begging Frieda Reiss to use her Progenitor Titan powers to save them before they are eradicated by the Mares.
sorry but eren didn't kill or ate Dina's titan, he just punched her so that all the mindless titan jumped on her
http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/shingeki_no_kyojin/mr/manga/shingeki_no_kyojin/c050/pg-30/
Thanks a lot for your post. I didn't even remember Eren having a vision of his mother being eaten before that happened and it's a great reminder of those long chapters that draw all of the past story that, being the updates not continuous, is quite difficult to follow.
Oops remembered that part wrong. But Eren does think that making a connection to one with royal blood will allow him to use the Progenitor Titan powers. They jumped on her cause the Smiling Titan was one of the titans he hated so much. And in that moment through the punch/connection his anger drove the other titans to eat her.
http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/shingeki_no_kyojin/mr/manga/shingeki_no_kyojin/vTBD/c089/pg-35/
No, this was hugely helpful, thanks. So basically the Mare are the evil ones who want to rule the world, and Fritz took the Elodians and the power of the titans to live independently from them, and the titans are Elodians who were turned into titans for defiance. So now the Nare, to gain the resources of the Elodians, kidnapped Elodian children (Annie, Bertolt, Reiner), and are using them to try and kill off all the Elodians by convincing them that they're evil. So Eren and the others are fighting the Mares, the titan shifters, and all the Elodians that were turned into titans.
actually we don't really know who is the "real" evil one
each side claim that he is the victim coz we have 2 versions of the story, told by each one but we do not know "the reallity" that really happened.
so we can't really judge now.
(if u remember the part of the female titan, we all hated her coz she killed Levi squad, but now, after like 50 chap, we knew that she herself was a victim, of course she is responsible, but not the only one to blame her for it))
and I think that Isayama sensei isn't the type to just throw the blame on only one side
actually, this is the biggest message that sensei is trying to give us, in some ways we are all responsible and part of the evil side
Maybe it's the gaps between updates, but I'm getting mixed up. Are the people of Ymir the ones inside the walls? Are they the Titan shifters like Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt? Are they someone else? And who are the actual bad guys? And all these different royal families and betrayals and stealing powers and stuff, I'm getting mixed up with who is who, and which people are doing what, what the goals of the different sides are, and what's happening in general. Someone explain things to me.