The Freak Nation’s Seven Tribes

The tribes that form our nation are many and varied, and each has its own sub-clans. You could easily build a gigantic taxonomy of every major or minor group within the Nation, and have probably a hundred entries or more. But if you want to pare that list down to seven major groups, you can do it like this:

	The Fans: Not just science-fiction and fantasy fans, but also the fans and collectors of comics and animé — these groups have been together for a long time as a united tribe, and the classic fans are one of the oldest of the freak tribes. (Maybe this is why sci-fi cons are where practically everyone in the Freak Nation winds up really meeting.)
	The Re-Enactors: Originally an offshoot of the Fans, this tribe has expanded into its own community of SCAdians, boffers, Ren Faire people, and similar folks who re-create the Medieval and Renaissance eras.
	The Goth/Punk/Industrial Scene: Though goth and punk diverged a long while ago, they’ve been coming back together again lately, driven partly by the industrial scene as an intermediate “glue”. Now the three form a stylistic trio that the mainstream occasionally makes a failed attempt to assimilate.
	The Mystics: The shamans and hermetic mages, the Thelemites and Chaotes, Pagans (including Wiccans), and members of other alternative religions and mystical world-views — they’re all exploring reality and religion in ways that fuse the old and the new, and break out of the mold of mainstream belief.
	The Alt-Sexers: Not just the BDSM/fetish community and the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities — the alt-sex community also takes in the polyamorous, the polyfidelitous, transgendered, and others who are experimenting with new and different models of relationships and sexuality.
	The Gamers: Since the dawn of AD&D, these people have been playing RPGs. In later years, they’ve branched out into LARPs, MUDs and other types of computer and video games... but even after the recent CCG explosion, the core of the tribe remains the same.
	The Geeks: The hackers who have flourished since the advent of interactive computing. Builders of the Internet, tinkerers with computers and programming, they’ve forced the whole world to sit up and take notice of the power that we “outcasts” can have.

Keep in mind, these tribes all overlap — heck, one of the major points of the entire Freak Nation site is that these tribes are all coming together into one big stew. So don’t be at all surprised if you find yourself fitting into four or more of these groups.