Starsiege TRIBES is a unique first-person shooter set in the Starsiege universe. Combining breathtaking visual
displays with seamless gameplay, TRIBES will revolutionize the world of multiplayer squad-level games.
With never-before-seen features like the "commander view," full support for team multiplayer games and worlds
that stretch out for kilometers, TRIBES will revolutionize the way you look at and play first-person shooters.
Installation Instructions
Insert the Starsiege TRIBES CD-ROM into your CD drive. The Autostart program will automatically
begin the installation procedure. Follow the instructions listed on the screen to install and begin playing
Starsiege TRIBES.
System requirements and a troubleshooting guide are found in the “README” file on the T RIBES CD-ROM
as well as the Starsiege TRIBES website at http://www.tribesplayers.com, in addition to an on-line manual
containing the most up-to-date information about TRIBES setup.
23
Note: If this is your first time playing TRIBES, it is highly recommended you start by playing the single-player
“training” missions in order to acquaint yourself with the controls and feel of the game. Once you feel
comfortable enough to jump into a multiplayer game, follow the steps below:
• Dial up your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to get connected to the Internet.
• Open TRIBES, either by double-clicking on the TRIBES icon on your desktop or by selecting
it from your START menu.
• Select the PLAY GAME button.
• Type in a name for your player and click on DONE.
• Click on the NEXT button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
• Select JOIN MULTIPLAYER. Click on N EXT when done.
• Select a server from the list that is not grayed out. The server list may take a few moments to appear.
For the best performance, choose a game that has a green or yellow circle in the Connection
Quality column. A red circle indicates that you may suffer from “lag.” (see PING and Lag on page 33)
• Click on JOIN GAME to join the server.
• Kick some butt.
• You can disconnect from the server and quit from the game at any time by pressing the Esc key and
choosing DISCONNECT.
Newblood
by Blake Hutchins
Minax Phasma III
Month of the Burning Swan,
3940 Old Earth Reckoning
“Pay attention, newblood!” Minerva yells
across your comlink. Too
late, you spot the Blood
Eagle hoplites waiting on
the rise below.
Instinctively, you cut
power to your flight pack
and plummet downward.
A spinfusor disk slices
overhead in a blue-hot
whirl, instant death missing by an arm’s length.
Around you, your tribesmates engage the scarletarmored Blood Eagle
in bright candle flare
bursts of plasma and the
45
Tr i b e s F i ct i o nTr i b e s Fi c t io n
sharp, popping crackle
of laser bolts.
Someone to your left
screams and explodes
in white fire.
Remember your training, your father’s voice
whispers from
memory, and you
realize you must follow
your lessons to the letter if you are to survive
this day. This is no
training game, and
you’re not facing the
prospect of bruises or
embarrassment. These
are Blood Eagle, your
people’s ancient foes,
and they will kill you if
they can.
You fall through a deceptively peaceful blue sky
toward rocky hills covered with the barbed, brittle
stuff that passes for grass in this place. Dry alien air
stings your nostrils despite the filter plugs. The sun
is a distant white glow, and you hold the hard, reas-
suring weight of a Telamonian-made minigun, multiple barrels poised to begin their deadly spin. The
familiar tingle of a phased-shield aura across your
skin indicates your Hoplite armor is active, but right
now the nano-threaded polybronze breastplate and
greaves feel
like small
protection
amid the
chaos erupting around
you.
Keep moving,
Minerva told
you as the
warband’s
dropship
creaked and
rocked its
way down
from the
blackness of
orbit only a
few hours
ago. It’s the
main thing that’ll keep you alive -- that and not
panicking! Trust your instincts, newblood! Phoenix
knows enough scroffin’ time’s been spent developing
them, ayia?
Triggering your flight pack again, you arrest your fall
with a jolt and swing the minigun at the foe. The
Telamonian’s
barrels blur;
explosive
flechettes
shred alien
soil into
chaff around
the Blood
Eagle. The
hoplites activate their
flight packs,
and they’re
agile enough
to evade the
brunt of
your deadly
spray. Only a
few of your
rounds hit,
sparking
harmlessly off the shield-reinforced crimson armors.
A warrior in heavy Myrmidon-class armor simply
stands there, grinning behind his transteel faceplate.
You curse your poor aim, and land with bone-jarring
impact in a soft crunch of dry pseudo-grass, your
powerful legs absorbing the shock easily.
6
7
Tr i b e s F ic t i o nTr i b e s Fi ct i o n
Your lessons. Yes, you remember how you sat with
the other children on the training ground of your
birthworld, listening to Old Kantele as he lectured in
his rasping whisper ... There are only three foes wor-
thy of our mettle, young ones. The Starwolf, who
favor swiftness and daring. The Diamond Sword,
who weave strategies of
shadow and steel. And
the Blood Eagle, butchers
who laugh in the face
of fire...
Minerva swoops up on a
blue trail of phosphorescence and fires a brace of
grenades at the myrmidon. The Blood Eagle
warrior leaps ponderously aside, but the grenades’
staccato explosion swats
him away like a broken
doll and hammers you
back a few steps. A
Blood Eagle hoplite
scores Minerva with a
laser as she descends
onto the hillside. An
instant later, you regain your balance and hose the
bastard down with your minigun. The Blood Eagle
staggers under the incandescent hail and falls as
your flechettes finally penetrate and find meat to
explode in. You have marked your first kill, and you
scream in triumph, but there’s no pleasure in it. The
stench of blood and ozone and burnt flesh fills you
instead.
It is better to die than suffer capture by the Blood
Eagle, you once told your father’s sister years ago.
She looked into your eyes serenely and replied,
Ayia! Fear is their weapon, true. But you are of the
Children of the Phoenix, the first tribe, the eldest
tribe, the pure ones sprung from the Blessed
Harabec himself, hero of the Cybrid Wars, savior of
humanity. Such knowledge will spur you above fear.
A couple of laser pulses hit you in the back, searing
even through the shield aura, and you grunt in pain,
but the armor holds. You look over your shoulder
and trigger your flight pack to thrust you into that
indifferent blue sky. Another bolt scorches a furrow in the ground under you, and you vector
toward the sniper, a female hoplite, emptying the
Telamonian at her as she tries to maintain cover in
the rocks of the hilltop. A bellyful of fear gives your
hands speed as you let the useless minigun snap
back to standby on the warharness while you pull
up your plascannon. The Blood Eagle raises her
longrifle too late as you drop directly onto her and
crash a boot into her faceplate. The next instant, you
unload white-hot plasma into her at point-blank
range. You can’t even hear her scream under the
roar of the flames.
these weapons since you were old enough to walk,
and their use is now deeply instinctive for you. Still,
you remember your father’s words to you upon
Presentation after your received the Dragon Marks
of adulthood: Your life, too, is a weapon.
You land on your belly and skid down a slope in a
dry cloud of dirt, through charred patches where
blaster bolts scored the ground. Two Blood Eagle
peltasts snipe at you, first one, then the other, as you
scramble to reload the minigun with a second
ammo canister. Your shield aura won’t hold much
longer, and you’re bleeding from a half-dozen
minor wounds. The flamer is lost, dropped by the
smouldering remains of your last kill. Come on!
you pray. You’ve done this hundreds of times
before, under fire, underwater, in the dark -- all intraining -- but now your fingers can’t get a good
grip on the canister. Then you fetch up against a
rock and the ammo’s gone. Dust is everywhere. A
hyper-vee round whangs off your cuirass, and you
8
9
Tr i b e s Fi ct i o nTr i b e s F i ct i o n
know you’re going to die.
Two standard weeks back, the Blood Eagle dropped
onto a world held by your people, slaughtering the
populace and setting the flayed bodies of their victims on spears around their LZs. The ghosts of our
people cry out for
vengeance, the elders said.
The famed Scar Captain
assembled a battalion of
warriors to strike in retribution. You joined quickly, eager to serve your
people and win glory in
the eyes of Phoenix.
One way or the other,
you’re high in the favor of
Phoenix today. One of the
two Blood Eagle about to
destroy you erupts in a
spinfusor explosion, and
the second one breaks off
to meet the new threat.
Harach’Xu. -- another
newblood of your tribe -salutes you as he skims by.
“That’s three for me!” he calls with a grin, chasing
the Blood Eagle into a gully with another spinfusor
shot.
Even you, newblood, should be worth any four of
these Empire-loving scrofs, Minerva joked as you
disembarked from the
dropship. I’ll have four
markers on my belt by
moonsrise, you boasted.
She’d replied with a
raised eyebrow. You
know now you hadn’t
any idea what you were
in for.
You grope for the ammo
canister, find it, and slam
it into place on the
Telamonian with a sharp,
metallic click. Relief fills
you, but it’s only
momentary. The Blood
Eagle peltast rockets back
out of the gully with a
minigun leveled and
buzzing. Caught offguard, Harach’Xu tumbles out of the sky in pieces. You leap aside as
flechettes reach for you in a wake of fury. A quick
thrust from your flight pack scoots you beneath the
Blood Eagle peltast, and you open up with the
Telamonian, but the peltast is too damn fast ...
You remember the bruises left by your weapons
instructor, Azendai, and how he taught you to focus
through the pain, to keep your attention on the tar-
get. But never lose your awareness of your surround-
ings, he would say. Always know where the nearest
ditch is, and grow eyes in the back of your head. The
1011
Tr i b e s Fi c t io nTr i b e s F i ct i o n
enemy does not forgive blindness or laxity.
“Left, newblood! Left, damn it!” Minerva’s voice
screams in your ear and you tear your gaze away
from the peltast to see a battered scarlet myrmidon
drawing a bead on you with something big and
black. You roll up and boost hard for cover. The
myrmidon sidesteps to avoid fire from Minerva as
she pokes a longrifle over the crest of the hill and
snaps off a couple of shots. The Blood Eagle peltast,
her true target, never makes it to the ground. The
laser pulses blow his head off neatly; the sudden
blast of blood reminds you fleetingly of one of the
roses in your mother’s garden, its petals dissolving
into gentle red mist. You glimpse the slumped body
drifting downward on its flight pack’s thrust as you
drop over the rocky lip of the hilltop. A heartbeat
later, before myrmidon’s rockets shatter the world
and turn your day into night.
Dawn casts long shadows over you as the last warriors climb laughing into the dropships. Beyond the
mobile landing pads, golden hills roll gently down
to a calm sea. Your mother is there, and your sisters,
offering you a luck gift: the blaster pistol your
grandfather won from the Starwolf -- what? Two
jumpgates ago? Three? You tell Mother not to
bother, that you were killed on Minax Phasma III,
but she just smiles. You are of the Phoenix, my
bright one, she says. We more than any other tribe
return reborn from the ashes of defeat. Go now,
and return.
“We’ll strip their armor after we’ve destroyed their
brethren,” the Scar Captain orders in his gravelly
voice. The Blood Eagle myrmidon’s blackened
corpse lies in a small crater at the foot of the hill.
You rest your head on your knees while Minerva
plays a knitterbeam over you. Your helmet lies
nearby, blown off from the force of that last
explosion. You’re exhausted, your head hurts, and
your burns pulse raw agony, but you’re almost too
tired to cry out, and pride keeps your teeth gritted.
As the nanodocs do their work, blackened flesh
flakes away to reveal pink new skin spreading across
your wounds with incredible speed. The pain fades.
You relax and stretch gingerly. Around you, Phoenix
warriors reload their weapons and run nano-repair
kits over their armor. The sight of their gleaming
wingmask helmets fills you with resolve. Minerva
grins and winks as she spies you clipping the
Telamonian back onto your warharness.
“Welcome back ... warrior,” she says, and tosses you
your helmet. “Remember, you owe me two more
by moonsrise, ayia?”
1213
Tribe Descriptions
regiments called Pyres, and squads called Flames.
Children of
the Phoenix
“Someday, perhaps, the tribes will
be one again. Let us keep that flame
burning. Until that day comes, we
must remain vigilant against those
who would extinguish the light and cast us into the
darkness of anarchy.”
— Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, Phoenix Prime
he oldest and most traditional of the tribes,
the Children trace their ancestry back to the
T
legendary Harabec, the immortal Phoenix.
Their ultimate goal is reunification of all tribes
under the Phoenix banner. The Children adhere to a
body of custom called "The Tenets of Harabec" and
expect other tribes to follow it as well.
Although the Children speak of peace among the
tribes, they are warriors without peer, and finish
their battles with terrifying finality. The Phoenix take
pride in their elite status. And so far, no other tribe
has succeeded in shattering that reputation.
They organize themselves into armies called Wings,
On the Starwolf: "They turn disadvantage to advantage,
adversity into asset. A worthy ally and a dangerous
enemy, they are yet too fond of roaming to accept the
wisdom of our teachings."
On the Diamond Sword: "Everything is a question to
them, a puzzle to solve, a mystery to unravel. But not
everything is gray, and the Sworders lack the strength of
conviction necessary to act decisively."
On the Blood Eagle: "Butchers united only by bloodlust
and their preposterous claim to be the oldest tribe. How
they have fallen from their noble origins."
On lesser tribes: "Those who join us are welcome.
Those who choose otherwise will suffer. We can only
hope to show them the truth."
On the Empire: "Let it rot in decadence and greed.
Someday Phoenix will return, and we will raise something infinitely finer in place of mere Empire."
On Immortals: "Some deny that Harabec and other
ancient warriors still walk among us. Fools! Have they
not listened to the histories? The Immortals exist!"
14
Tr ib e D e s c r i p t i on s
Starwolf
“Victory is within our jaws today.
The Great Wolf walks with us this
day, and those who fall shall walk
with him for all eternity.”
— Viktor Abanath, Great
Sergeant, Third Claw, Hepta
Ourubis Pack
The Starwolf tribe evolved from humble
origins. But adversity bred strength, and the
T
Starwolf eventually exploded into the tribal
wars and carved out a large holding with predatory
swiftness.
The Starwolf follow a shamanistic religion, with
"The Great Wolf" as their tribal totem. Warriors
who fall in battle are said to "walk with the Great
Wolf." Starwolf holdings spread across vast regions
of space, and Starwolf warriors are the first to
explore new worlds and follow jumpgates into the
unknown. This great dispersal makes massing large
armies difficult, and so the Starwolf favor fluid,
guerrilla-style tactics and mobility.
Claws, and then into Squads.
On the Children of the Phoenix: "The Phoenix want
everyone to suck up to them, but they'll never make
us bow our heads. Never. We choose our own way."
On the Blood Eagle: "They favor slow and heavy
fighting, which makes them our meat. Don't let them
capture you, though."
On the Diamond Sword: "Too much thinking, not
enough fighting. The quickest way through a knot is
a sharp knife."
On the Empire: "Feh! Crabs. Crack their war
machines, and it's all soft flesh inside."
On lesser tribes: "If they cross us, we cut them out
of the herd."
On Immortals: "Make the sign of the Wolf when
you mention Harabec. Not that I believe that scrof
about Immortals, but you never really know, ayia?"
16
Starwolf organize themselves into Packs named for
their world of residence. Packs are broken down into
Tr ib e D e s c r i p t i on s
Diamond Sword
“The sharpest sword cannot compare
to the sharpest mind.”
— Wylim Totoro,
Warrior/Philosopher
he Diamond Sword craft the most innovative
and dangerous strategies of any tribe. They say
T
the mind is the greatest weapon, and practice a
philosophy derived from the Zen Buddhist teachings
of ancient Terra. Tribe members tend to be enigmatic, even cryptic. When not fighting, they are usually
meditating on obscure riddles. The phrase "talking to
a sword" comes from the Sworders' reputation for
answering with a question.
The Diamond Sword tend to rely overmuch on
their elaborate plans. If caught unprepared (a rare
event), they become surprisingly disorganized and
vulnerable.
Diamond Sword forces fall into three main armies:
the Unyielding Facet, the Reflective Facet, and the
Pure Facet. A Facet contains from three to eight
Bolts, which in turn contain up to fifteen squads
called Blades.
On the Children of the Phoenix: "Their aim is true,
but the distance is far greater than they think."
On the Starwolf: "There is a time to fight and a
time not to fight. The Starwolf have yet to learn the
second lesson."
On the Blood Eagle: "Their dark past devours
their hearts."
On the Empire: "Hollow and blind, wrapped in the
gilded veils and perfumed smoke of illusion."
On the lesser tribes: "In the forest there are many
paths. Those without light lead to oblivion."
On Immortals: "They need to exist. Logic alone
cannot answer all the questions of the universe."
18
Tr i b e D es c ri p t i o ns
Blood Eagle
"There's one simple rule in war: Win
and live, or lose and die. If the other
tribes are too weak, we'll carve the
blood eagle on their sorry carcasses
and carry the remains as banners
into battle."
- Brakus D'Vehne, Blood Eagle Talon Prime
he Blood Eagle claim descent from an Order
of Imperial Knights sent to conquer the tribes
T
long ago. They maintain a formal military
hierarchy marked by byzantine politics. Rumors say
they maintain contact, perhaps even trade, with the
Empire. Blood Eagle technology is the most
advanced of any tribe.
In combat, the Blood Eagle are unmatched for sheer
ferocity. They use the flayed bodies of fallen enemies
as banners, follow a scorched earth strategy, and
never accept or offer surrender. Despite their brutality, they follow a rigorous code of honor and are the
most courteous of hosts during a parley. They never
break their sworn word. Never.
sions called Talons. Talons are divided into Squads. Most
units use colorful titles, for example, the Second Pennant,
Third Talon, is known within the Blood Eagle as "the
Eviscerator Talon of the Wolfslayer Pennant."
On the Starwolf: "Don't waste my time. I have a wolfskin
rug in my quarters."
On the Diamond Sword: "Words make poor weapons.
The sandrakers pose little threat with their mumblings."
On the Children of the Phoenix: "Dreamers easily
placated with honeyed words. Beware, though, for they
fight almost as well as we do."
On the Empire: "We remember our roots, and the
Empire respects our strength. It's enough... for now."
On the lesser tribes: "Target practice."
On Immortals: "Give me a break. My plascannon says
no one's immortal."
20
Blood Eagle forces are precisely organized into
Pennants, which are in turn broken down into divi-
Tr i b e s T i m e l i n e
TRIBES Timeline
ca. 2832 — Starsiege ends.
2845 — Beginning of the
defeated Cybrids to other star systems using new
FTL technology.
3245 — Beginning of
discovery of first interstellar transfer conduit, or
“jumpgate.”
Chase
. Humans pursue
Cyberstorm
corporate wars;
3289 — Discovery of first “meta-jumpgate,” allowing
travel over far greater distances.
3291 —
of the meta-jumpgate.
3350 — Meta-jumpgate discovered to be part of a
network of such gates. Beginning of the
humanity begins to spread throughout the galaxy.
“Those Who Jumped,” the first people travelling
through the jumpgate, forsake the security of the Great
Human Empire to journey into the unknown. These
pioneers develop a nomadic tradition and find new pride
in their ability to survive away from the trappings of
civilization.
ca. 3400 — Settlers begin to refer to themselves
as a “tribe,” the
follow the teachings of the renowned warrior Harabec
Weathers, hero of the Cybrid Wars.
3450 — A powerful force of Imperial Knights, the
Blood Eagle, appear in tribe space to “subdue” the
Children of the Phoenix
The conflict fractures the Children as groups break
away to form their own tribes. This event becomes
known as the Splintering.
Cyberstorm
Children of the Phoenix
corporations battle for control
for the Great Human Empire.
Diaspora
, claiming to
, as
3455 — The
from renegades of the
Blood Eagle
3480 — Tribal culture is now a perpetual state of
war.
The Blood Eagle
decades, begin to consider themselves a “tribe.”
Finding Hercs impossible to maintain, they adopt the
flexible armors used by the many tribes.
3530 — Formation of the
under the tutelage of the Enlightened Master.
3641 — First Firetruce held by the
Phoenix
each century on a planet chosen by the
collective tribes gather on these worlds in an event
similar to the ancient Olympics on Terra.
Much is accomplished. A convention of
up, and all tribes agree to abide by them.
3670 — Using innovative strategies and striking
with precision and economy, the
rapidly carve out a large holding for themselves.
3741 —
battling some “scourge” abound, as Imperial advances
. They declare this event will take place twice
Starwolf
.
Third Firetruce
tribe forms, supposedly
Children of the Phoenix
, far from their home bases for
: Whispers of the Empire
Diamond Sword
Children of the
Diamond Sword
tribe
Children
tenets
and
. The
is drawn
2223
Tr i b e s T i m e l i n eTr i b e s T i m e l i n e
into tribal space falter and fade. It is a time of much
prosperity among the tribes, and a lengthy period of
peace ensues. Many smaller tribes fall back in line with
the
Children of the Phoenix
3831 — Hector
Komarosu, Great Eagle
of the
Blood Eagle
assassinated. The culprit is never caught or
identified, but the
Eagle’s
nemesis, the
are blamed.
3841 — The ultimate
purpose of the
Firetruces
has been to try to
reunite the tribes, but
the harsh reality is that
little progress is ever
made toward unity, and
splinter groups from
larger tribes often take the opportunity to be recognized
as independent tribes.
This year is no different, as the
age-old
, is
Blood
Starwolf
historically
.
,
Blood Eagle
leadership,
still undecided, is unable to hold the allegiances of the
Wolfsbane, Excelsior, and Shadow Stalker
skirmishes break out between
warriors.
of 106. His son, Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, is elevated to
Phoenix Prime.
3904 — Alexandre Konovalev, grandson of Illya Ajax,
The Diamond Sword
Blood Eagle
champion humiliates the
chief of the
Killers
peace at this “time of
reconciliation.”
3844 — Illya Ajax
Konovalev is named Great
Eagle of the
The
rejoins the
but the
Shadow Stalker
choose to remain independent.
3903 — Phoenix
Prime Alexi Stefanos
yl-Harabec, leader of the
Children of the Phoenix
dies in his bed at the age
groups. Many
and
Starwolf
Gorgon
. There is little
Blood Eagle
Wolfsbane
Excelsior
tribe
Blood Eagle
and
tribes
assumes the mantle of Great Eagle. In an effort to reconcile age-old differences with the
Freya Cloudchaser, daughter of a
chieftain, as his wife.
3905 — Birth of
Ulysses Konovalev to
Alexandre and Freya.
3922 — The
tribe settles on Theta
.
,
,
Draconis IV after lengthy
battle with
Sword
the planet.
3924 — The union
between Alexandre and
Freya decays to the point
where she leaves him to
rejoin her pack. Ulysses
Konovalev takes command
of his father’s Marathon
Pennant to recapture her.
3925 — Most of the Marathon Pennant dies in
battle with the
Konovalev is not found among the survivors. An incon-
over possession of
Starslayer
Diamond
Starwolf
Hepta Ourubis Pack. Ulysses
Starwolf
Starwolf
, he takes
solable Illya Ajax Konovalev vows to destroy the
Starwolf
3925 — The
on Hepta Ourubis II.
entire Ourubis Pack, nearly 80,000 strong, is wiped
out. The
resort to using ecocidal weapons, outlawed for
once and for all.
Blood Eagle
Starwolf
Starwolf
are outraged that any tribe would
Wolfslayer Pennant,
including the elite
Eviscerator and
Deathbringer talons,
begins an offensive
against the Starwolf
holdings in the Hepta
Ourubis system.
3929 —
tribe vanishes from Theta
Draconis IV. No trace of
the 100,000 tribesmen
remains, and no clue
sheds light on their
disappearance.
3932 —
forces prevail in the Hepta
Ourubis system following
use of ecocidal weapons
losses are high, as the
Starslayer
Blood Eagle
2425
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