Titans (巨人 Kyojin?, lit. "Giant") are the primary antagonists in the Attack on Titan series, a mysterious race of humanoid giants that appeared roughly a century prior to the series events and rapidly exterminated humanity to near-extinction. If put into a calculable perspective, the Titans first appeared in year 743. Eren and his friends eventually learn that the Titans, a by-product of the first Titan Ymir Fritz, are fellow Eldians turned into monsters by the Marley government as a form of exile and genocide. But a Titan's hunger for human flesh seems to stem from an instinctual need to seek out a powerless Titan Shifter to devour and regain human form.