Ymir the Founder obtains the Power of the Titans by accident and changes the course of history forever. She absorbs the Shining Centipede approximately 18 centuries before Attack on Titan's current timeline, and her children carry on the legacy by consuming her body (thereby inheriting the Founding Titan).

RELATED: Attack On Titan: Eren's First 10 Victories (In Chronological Order)

As a consequence, eight of the Nine Titans - the Attack, Colossus, Jaw, Armored, War Hammer, Female, Beast, and Cart Titans - come into existence, triggering a devastating series of wars between the Eldian people and their enemies. Each of the Nine Titans is unique in design and capacity, although their forms differ depending on the time period and the nature of the person wielding them.

9 The Attack Titan's Physical Prowess Pales Before Its Future Perception Abilities

Attack on Titan Final Season Eren Attack Titan
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The Attack Titan seemingly mimics the physical traits of its inheritors, with Grisha's version sporting a beard and a thick coat of chest hair, while both Erens (Kruger and Jaeger) turn overly muscular.

Further, the Attack Titan has the most prominent set of abs among the Nine, a reference to its overwhelming physical strength and durability. It is around 50 feet in height, which isn't all that impressive. However, the Attack Titan's true powers have nothing to do with its anatomy.

8 The Cart Titan Carries People, Cargo, And Weaponry On All Fours

Attack on Titan Cart Titan

The only Cart Titan shown in the series (excluding the final battle) belongs to Pieck Finger. It is relatively short - 13 feet tall at the shoulder, but that's because it's built for lugging cargo around. The Cart walks, trots, and gallops on all fours, and has more speed and stamina than the others.

Unfortunately, it suffers from a major drawback. It requires significantly longer durations to recuperate from severe injuries. Pieck's Cart Titan more than makes up for her shortcomings by carrying enormous cannons and turrets for use in battle.

7 The Beast Titan Intimidates Almost Everyone With Its Sheer Size

Beast Titan Season 4

The Beast Titan stands at around 56 feet tall, but its main feature is its disproportionately large volume. Zeke transforms into a gigantic hairy ape-like being with skinny arms, but past inheritors have been able to manifest other animals, from birds and wolves to rabbits and crocodiles (Tom Ksaver's resembles a bighorn sheep).

RELATED: Attack On Titan: All Titan Users, Ranked By Maturity

The Beast Titan intimidates almost everyone with its sheer size, not to mention taking up half the screen/panel whenever it appears. That said, it poses no threat to the force of nature known as Levi Ackerman.

6 The Female Titan Can Absorb Abilities From The Other Eight

female titan glaring attack on titan

Annie's Female Titan looks considerably more human than the rest of the Nine, explaining the reasoning behind her name. At 46 feet in height, it isn't really imposing, but Annie's ferocity and self-sacrificial nature make it a serious threat.

Interestingly, the Female Titan can eat the flesh from its comrades' bodies and obtain their abilities, the most notable of which is the Hardening technique Annie uses to encase herself in indestructible crystal.

5 The Armored Titan Is As Invulnerable As It Is Inflexible

Attack on Titan Armored Titan at the top of the wall.

The fifty-foot-tall Armored Titan is sheathed in layers of unbreakable skin-toned armor plating, protecting it from most kinds of direct impact. In fact, it is invulnerable by most standards, allowing it to break through walls and take destructive attacks head-on.

Reiner's Armored Titan is capable of tolerating Bertholdt's conversion into the Colossal Titan, despite the latter releasing extreme amounts of heat in the process. On the other hand, the Armored Titan suffers from a lack of flexibility and agility, but it can technically sacrifice its armor to temporarily improve its mobility.

4 The Jaw Titan Can Destroy Anything Between Its Teeth (And Can Also Fly)

Falco's Jaw Titan in AOT

The Jaw Titan is first seen in the possession of Ymir (of Marley), but most people assume her to be an ordinary Titan until much later in the storyline. Strength and agility aside, this entity possesses a set of jaws with incomputable bite-force, enough to destroy Titan crystal without much effort.

RELATED: Attack On Titan: Eren's 10 Biggest Failures, Ranked

Marcel Galliard's Jaw wears a white mask over its face, while Falco displays a smaller version around its chin and mouth. Nevertheless, Falco's ultimate form as the avian Jaw Titan is nothing short of magnificent, given that it loses none of its previous skills while gaining the ability to fly.

3 The Colossus Titan's Steam Is As Dangerous As Its Strength

Colossal Titan Attack on Titan

The Colossus Titan is nearly 200 feet in height, making it the second-largest of the Nine Titans and the fourth-largest in the entire series (after Eren & Ymir's Founding Titans and Rod Reiss' Pure Titan). In addition to its explosive transformation, it is overpowered in every imaginable way.

As a result of its mass and strength, the Colossus' freedom of movement is sorely limited, forcing it to move at a glacial pace. However slow it might be, it's still terrifyingly dangerous to take on the Colossus as it generates clouds of scalding vapor as a defense mechanism. As long as the wielder doesn't go overboard, as Bertholdt does, the steam shield is impregnable.

2 The Founding Titan Dwarfs Every Other Titan By A Mile

Attack on Titan Eren As The Founding Titan

As the origin, the Founding Titan is blessed with a vast array of powers that aren't available to its minions. For instance, it can modify the physiology of the Eldian race, even tampering with its memories on a neurological level. Ymir's Founding Titan is ridiculously oversized, but the final form is several times larger.

Eren turns into a writhing tangle of skeletal thorns that end up looking like a gutted fish, except with a slightly modified Attack Titan head latched onto the spine. Most importantly, Eren's Founding Titan dwarfs the Colossus Titans it sends to destroy the world.

1 The War Hammer Titan Is Radically Different From Its Counterparts

The War Hammer Titan looks over their shoulder.

Although the same height as the Attack and Armored Titans, The War Hammer Titan is radically different from its counterparts. Its skin is pure white, with ringed patterns of flesh around the nape and collarbone. Parts of its head are lined with a series of narrow apertures, a prison-bar design that partially exposes the War Hammer's eyes, mouth, and throat.

Lara Tybur's War Hammer wields a powerful war hammer while fighting Eren, but later scenes have revealed that it can employ other weapons, like knouts, bows, axes, sickles, and so on. This Titan's defining characteristic is its ability to operate independently of its user, albeit connected via a thick cable extending from the War Hammer's left foot.

NEXT: Attack On Titan: 10 Times Actions Spoke Louder Than Words