So a character showed up in Not Yours (the AU fic of Ouroboros I recently posted) named Roderich, and I know he really seems like an OC, but I swear Roderich is a canon character. He’s the head Wallist who sits in the King’s throne room in season 3 during that group’s plotting and Erwin’s fucked up trial.
He played a major role in Not Yours, and he will also show up in Ouroboros itself as well!
Since the religion practiced within the Walls in the current loop of the timeloop in Ouroboros is VERY different from the first loop (aka canon), Roderich’s role is going to be very different as well. In the first loop, Roderich strongly opposed the Scouts for daring to uncover the secrets the Order of the Walls had kept hidden for a hundred years, and for refusing to return the sacred Founding Titan to the bloodline that deserved to have it. He was fully supportive of the whole Feeding Eren To Historia Plan. Because to him, Historia was partly divine, and Eren wasn’t. So only Historia (or Rod) had the right to host the Founding Titan.
However, in the current loop, Roderich is still the same person he was in the first loop, for the most part.
Roderich believes that the world is set up in a strict hierarchy. He does not respect beings that he thinks rank below him at ALL, but he has a MASSIVE amount of respect for beings that he thinks rank above him. And he truly thinks that he ranks above all other mortals. However- he also truly believes that the gods rank above him, and that they are pretty much the only beings that do. They are gods, after all. Their power is beyond anything he could possibly hope to achieve. All of the power he has as the High Priest of the Eldian religion comes from the gods, so he would NEVER dare to disrespect beings so incredibly powerful and deserving of proper respect.
He also believes that the gods have finally been reborn in human bodies, as has been prophesied since long before humanity can remember. Even if these individuals don’t fully remember that they are gods, he WILL still show them the respect they deserve. Because they’ll remember at some point. And he doesn’t want them to think of him as disloyal or disrespectful when they do. Roderich would feed Marco’s family to Titans for fun, because they rank so far below him that their lives don’t matter, but he’d give Marco all of his worldly possessions without hesitation of Marco asked. And Roderich LOVES having worldly possessions!
In Not Yours, we saw an example of Roderich going far out of his way to appease what he thinks are gods. He believes that Marco is a god. The mere thought of a random and very mortal noble thinking that he even stood a CHANCE of being worthy enough to marry Marco would be laughable if it wasn’t so horrifying. And the god Roderich believes has been reborn as Jean is known for being hotheaded and very loyal to those he cares about. Marco getting married to anyone other than Jean would be a very efficient way to get all human life within the Walls struck down! At least, as far as Roderich believes. Roderich HAD to stop that forced marriage, because his job is to serve the gods and their interests, and the gods very clearly did NOT want Marco to get married to that noble.
Now. For the main Ouroboros story. In this loop, Roderich has been visited by what he thinks is one of the Eldian gods he worships, and that god made it extremely clear that the Scouts need to be properly funded and supported. And a later visit made it extremely clear to Roderich that the Founding Titan is actually really happy to be living inside of Eren and 100% needs to stay there. Also… that Rod Reiss no longer has the support of the gods… and must be replaced. Roderich is not going to question the gods. If that’s what they want, then that’s what he’ll make sure they get. So he is actually on Team Scouts this time around!
Roderich, as the High Priest and leader of everything to do with the religion practiced in Paradis, had the same job as the previous High Priests: to advise the King and others on what to do to avoid pissing off the gods, and to perform certain rituals meant to keep the gods happy with humanity. The previous High Priest was so ashamed about his failure to do this when the Fall of Wall Maria occurred that… well… the position of High Priest opened up very suddenly… which was when Roderich took over. From then on, he advised Rod Reiss often. Which Rod Reiss REALLY didn’t like. Because Rod Reiss hates being told what to do. Rod Reiss was particularly annoyed with how Roderich FREAKED OUT whenever anyone said the full name “Erwin Smith” or even Rod’s own daughter, “Historia Reiss,” and wouldn’t explain why.
When Rod Reiss gave the order for Eren to be fed to Historia, Roderich absolutely REFUSED to allow this. If Roderich told the people of Paradis that the government wanted to kill Eren and that the Priests were strongly against it, which is what he threatened to do, Rod Reiss would have a MASSIVE problem on his hands. There are very few true atheists on Paradis. Most Paradisians don’t worship the gods more than they think they absolutely have to, sure. But very few fully doubt they exist. The vast majority of Paradisians believe that if the gods got pissed off enough, serious bad shit would happen to humanity. And almost all of those Paradisians believe that the Priests are the experts on knowing how to keep the gods from getting that pissed off. If the High Priest, and all of the Priests who obey him, say that the government cannot be allowed to kill Eren, and that the government is actively trying to kill Eren anyways? Enough devoted and/or fearful people will cause problems in an attempt to stop it that resources would have to be diverted from fighting the way more organized and combat-ready Scouts. Which would give the Scouts the opening they would need to save Eren and stop Rod Reiss.
Which was why Roderich was put in prison to stop him from doing that. Rod Reiss told people that Roderich was sick and would be back soon (once Historia used the Founding Titan to erase his memories that made him want to oppose Rod Reiss, of course).
We’ll see how all that works out for him :)