Tribes

The basic unit of community in the Outlook is “The Tribe”. Tribes are groups of 3-40 individuals, often tied by bonds such as blood, love, or ideology. Larger Tribes are likely to be primarily composed of a few families, and will have more entrenched structures; they may be longstanding. Smaller Tribes are more likely to be newly formed, as people strike out on their own to form new groupings based on the factors above.

The Tribes have co-existed in and around the surrounds of the Outlook for generations. This leads to a minimum of territoriality and outfighting, although the occasional conflict is not unheard of. Every so often a Warmaster, Queen, Emperor, or some other Appellation attempts to unite several Tribes under their control, but it has yet to really take; often the Tribes join together for a short while in face of the threat, then disband just as quickly, preferring their own traditions to the subjugation necessary to being part of an empire. Mostly this joining together comes in the face of a would be conqueror from outside the Outlook, or to fight off a particularly dangerous wave of beasts.

Relationships Between Tribes

Leaving a Tribe is not usually considered an act of hatred, although it may be source of enmity if you wish it to be; children often move away from the Tribe of their parents, and the lack of warfare means that few “Montagues and Capulets” situations develop.

The Tribes enjoy their peace, and they find few reasons for violent conflict. Resources are not all that scarce in the Outlook, and the food that can be gathered often isn’t enough to keep long enough to make a store, so anything resembling a military campaign is near to impossible.

Tribes may have ideological disagreements, but these seldom escalate to feuds, perhaps because it is recognised that those groups who show the most aggression are often targeted by a gathering of other Tribes. However, it isn’t that uncommon for someone’s older relatives to say that the next door Tribe has a well known habit of an annoying trait, based on the actions of one relative many years ago- broad stereotyping rather than active dislike. For example- It isn’t a surprise that Jeni Pilcher has such a habit of snatching kills; her grandfather was well known for hogging far too much of the beef and feasts, and you know what people like THAT are like.

Slavery is not a concept that has been developed in the Outlook, so the idea of fighting for humans as resources does not either. To an outside observer, versed in statistics and anthropology, the resources around the Outlook would appear to exist in a “Goldilocks” zone of “just-rightness” to prevent anything larger than the occasional disagreement.

Tribes and Mutations

Some Tribes are composed entirely of a single strain of humans, either gene-strain or dead-strain. Many are composed of freely intermingling strains, a few have a “caste” system where one or other strains guides, leads, or controls the other. There is no real trend to which controls which. Some Tribes have dead-strains leveraging their connection with the AI to have a sort of religious leadership within the community. Others have gene-strains guiding the Tribe in communion, the constantly mutating pooling of leadership seen as an advantage

Tribes and Relationships

Relationships, and marriage, happen. Marriage can be done out of love, or to bind families together, perhaps into a Tribe; marriages are not always between two people, and are formal declarations of togetherness and community. Relationships can happen too. It is not especially uncommon for members of different strains to have a relationship or to marry, with or without the intent to produce children. Opinions on the appropriateness of an alliance, or of the reasonableness of marrying for love, or of marriage and relationships between the strains vary between Tribes, and sometimes within Tribes.

Your Tribe

Tribes are, in general, defined by players and by player groups wanting to share background. We are happy for players to create a new tribe as a part of their character creation. Unless you have talked with a ref to the contrary, your Tribe will be a relatively peaceful Hunter/Gatherer community which exists near the Citadel.

You may choose one of the current tribes as your starting point. If you would like to start as a part of a tribe which was created by other players, please talk to them about this beforehand.

Not wanting a Tribe

I left the Mutati three days ago, and my stomach gurgles. Striking out on my own, trying to keep away from the Communion I grew up inside, was a dangerous decision, but I know how to find food. Berries and roots are everywhere, and they should be enough for me. But I’m greedy, and if I bag myself some game then I’ll be able to trade it. And I’ll be proving I can do more than survive in the Outlook.

If you don’t want to pick a Tribe, or create one, an easy default would be creating an ex-member of a Tribe who don't mind people leaving such as the Mutati. However, this should be a highly unusual occurrence given the state of the world.