Archive Spotlight: The Seven Tribes

Original Drawings by Ian Piexoto - 2013

I mean, I’ll just straight up admit it: The Seven Tribes is Lego lore.

A hundred percent, it was written down as a way for me to chronicle my Lego adventures. Most of the character descriptions and locations were pulled straight from custom builds or minifigures I’d constructed.

The story’s roots in Lego definitely helps to explain its obvious “inspirations”. Names, lore, and concepts are pulled directly from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean because these were the Legos I had on hand. They were also the things I was obsessed with at the time. Percy Jackson was another big inspiration, or more accurately, Greek and Roman mythology. Almost all of the names for locations and characters are not-so-subtly references to mythological gods or figures.

The Seven Tribes was written at a time in my life where my interest in movies and books really shifted. I’d been introduced to whole new worlds of fiction, what might be considered “grown-up” sort of content. Characters actually died, themes were more mature, and (gasp) blood might even be included.

This kicked off what I think I’ll refer to as the Notebook Era in my writing. I moved away from writing super short and silly parodies or stories on scraps of paper and began asking for my dad to bring home five subject, spiral notebooks. My plan was to fill these big behemoths with one long story--I’d write the next Lord of the Rings! Most of the writing from this era is incomplete, as I’d often bite off more than I could chew or lose interest and want to write the “next big thing”. I’d also annoyingly carry around these notebooks wherever I went and show them off to my classmates; I was super cool.

Every fantasy world needs a map, and Polut is no different.

To first explain the lore of The Seven Tribes, I think I should include the “insert” that is written on the inside of the spiral notebook it was first written in, also unchanged:

Over a hundred years ago, seven people crashed a boat on the shore of a mysterious island. They each knew that magic lingerd in the air, so they each decided to create a tribe to share the magic. This made seven tribes. They lived in peace and harmony for years. Untill now…

It’s a solid enough hook, but I wish I’d spent more time on worldbuilding this island (called Polut). Nowadays, I could spend hours naming cities, towns, and mapping out the economic, social, and political climate for these tribes. Back then, I’d usually use lore to just justify all the cool fighting I wanted to write about.

The idea was that Polut was an island in the Caribbean which you could only access by crash landing on it. It was isolated from the rest of the world and featured advanced technology and magic unlike anything ever seen before. The island would eventually go on to “evolve” separately from the rest of the world, enhanced by magic. 

The Seven Tribes were the Time Travelers, Hunters, Beast Warriors, Scorpion Warriors, Royals, Elves, and Pirates. They were all clearly inspired by the media I’d been consuming at the time. The catch phrase for the book (which is written on the cover and the title page) is “Seven is a lucky number… right?” Pretty cheesy, but also kind of cool? This was planned as the first book in a series. Its full title was “The Seven Tribes I: The Rise”.

I find it really interesting that I’d managed to incorporate somewhat of a theme at such a young age. Power and the struggle for power is explored in the written pages and the plans for the story going forward would have explored this even further. This power struggle was also over a limited resource, magic. To this day, I still enjoy telling stories about factions competing for power over limited resources, the greed that can come from it, and the hardships of war.

While I don’t think the story holds up nearly as well as some of my other work at the time, I do think The Seven tribes was the most influential story in my journey as a writer. It pulled from so many things I loved and still love, and the flavor of the worldbuilding, action, and themes is still something you can see hints of in my work today.

Characters like Arané, a runaway determined to prove herself and move beyond where she came from, are found in many of my stories. Worlds full of magic and wonder yet fraught with conflict and strife are always a favorite of mine. Concepts like banishment, loneliness, and guilt are still themes I tend to like to explore in the fantasy and science fiction genres. 

So, what started as carpet-burned legs bending over epic Lego builds eventually turned into a foundational story for my own journey as a storyteller. The Seven Tribes will always hold a special place in my heart, and it’s been a joy to pull it from the Archive and reflect on the writer I was then and am today.

Read the story here!