Barbarian Tribe

You no longer need to ask what's worse than one angry barbarian.

The Barbarian Tribe is usually portrayed as a group of barely literate and often chaotic warriors, often inspired by — if not directly originating from — the cultures of Northern Europe or Central Asia. They have no problem burning villages, kicking dogs, playing polo with severed heads, and stealing cable. In a work of fiction, they may form the mook army of the Dark Lord, Evil Prince, or religious fanatic. Often, they obey no rulers beyond their own local warlords. To fit their comparatively primitive status, they will wear rough clothing, like a Loincloth and Pelts of the Barbarian.

If the work wants to portray them positively, they will be composed of Proud Warrior Race Guys or Noble Savages who are in touch with the environment. A Barbarian Hero will originate in one of these tribes.

Such depictions are Truth in Television to an extent; one of the main thrusts of history in Eurasia (until the advent of gunpowder weapons) was the periodic invasions of urban and agriculturally settled areas by mounted steppe tribes. Many other groups, such as the ancient Germanic peoples (including Norse raiders), Native American tribes, and tribal Africans could fall into this trope.

While the term "barbarian" has a lot of baggage and associated stereotypes, it's connotations have arguably been nebulous from the very beginning: The Ancient Greeks, who invented the term, applied it pretty liberally to anyone they didn't like, including peoples who were quite civilized by any reasonable standard (like the Egyptians and the Persians), and even to other Greeks who didn't live up to Athenian ideals. Its also worth noting that the original context of the word was much closer to "foreigner", specifically people who did not speak Greek, rather than "uncivilized." A modern work that applies Character Development to its barbarians may quickly find them to be not that different from those calling them barbarians in the first place.

See The Horde (when they are portrayed as Always Chaotic Evil), Hordes from the East, and Born in the Saddle.

The Sufficiently Advanced often compare those "below" them to this. Soldier vs. Warrior will often have Barbarians being the "warrior" side in contrast to "soldiers" such as Roman Legionnaires.

noreallife

---

Examples:

Advertising

• The Visigoths from the Capital One credit card commercials. They shill the credit card by talking about ordinary-sounding purchases that we see are being done in a "barbaric" way. For example, they might talk about using the card to pay at the drive-through when we see them in the drive-through in a war chariot. In the original commercials they were a representation of a competitor's high interest rates. They would tear a path of destruction through the background, only to be thwarted when the ad's protagonist mentioned he was using the card advertised. Over time they apparently just forgot what the purpose of having them in the ad was.

Anime & Manga

• Kingdom has a number of these. Since it is set in Ancient China, this makes sense. They all tend to be proud, relatively less civilized, have tribal markings and are stronger in combat than a plainsman.
  • The "Mountain People" allied to Qin are led by Yotanwa, and their aid has been instrumental in helping Qin in multiple key engagements such as the defense of Sai, and the siege of Gyou.
  • The Xiongnu are a ruthless bunch of barbarians always raiding and pillaging the kingdom of Zhao. Riboku made a name for himself by defeating them, a feat earlier thought impossible.
  • The Quanrong are an offshoot of the Xiongnu who ended up settling (and allying) with the Zhao, although they tend to keep to themselves in their city of Ryouyou. They end up losing to, and joining with, Yotanwa's Mountain People.
  • Ordo from Yan is noted to have grown up with one such barbarian tribe, and has a contingent of them in his army. They are efficient trackers and have a near-perfect understanding of mountainous terrain. This doesn't help him when he comes up against Ousen and he gets thoroughly crushed.

Card Games

• In Magic: The Gathering, there are the Gruul Clans of Ravnica, a loosely organized affiliation of clans and tribes of humans, goblins, giants and centaurs led by the Cyclops Borborygmos. They used to be the guild responsible for maintaining Ravnica's wildernesses, but as the plane became covered by urban growth and what nature was left taken over by the Simic, Golgari and Selesnya, the Gruul were written out of the Guildpact and stripped of all the protection and benefits of a guild, leaving them as bands of roving, angry barbarians hungry for revenge and lashing out at the world they feel betrayed them. Their modern-day lifestyle chiefly consists of forcibly taking over an area, pillaging it for all it's worth, and squatting in the ruins until all resources are exhausted, at which point they move to a new area and repeat the process.

Comic Books

• Asterix: Played for Laughs. The main characters are all proud barbarians, but instead of being ruthless and dramatic they're mostly weird, self-obsessed, shallow and a bit pathetic. There's also hints that despite their constant resistance to the Romans, they are becoming quite Romanized. There are other barbarian tribes too, like the Goths, Normans and Danish Vikings.

Fan Works

• In Dear Scootaloo, it is revealed that Pegasi were once a race of warriors who often abandoned foals they deemed to be sick and weak (like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy). While they've now mostly abandoned this mindset, some still cling onto their brutal beliefs such as Feather Duster.
• The Palaververse: The Corvids, based on the real-life Scottish highland clans.
• In RONMAN THE BARBARIAN!, a Kim Possible AU based off of Conan the Barbarian, there's the Actuarians, Ronman's tribe.

Films — Live-Action

• Native Americans in movies about the Old West in America will use this trope. Older movies use the more negative version, while newer movies will use the positive one.
• In The 13th Warrior, the barbarian Vikings defend themselves against the even more barbarous Neanderthal tribe.
• The Celts who allied themselves to the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
• The Scorpion King: The Black Arrows are a Barbarian Tribe that the heroes cross paths with when trying to reach the Temple of Scrolls. They do have a sense of fair play and honor when they agree to give safe passage to Mathayus when they hold a contest with him, which not only he wins but shows mercy to his opponents earning their respect.
• Star Wars:
  • The Sand People (a.k.a. the Tusken Raiders) of the deep deserts of Tatooine are a vicious, aggressive tribal people who seem to exist in a constant state of hostilities with the other natives of the planet. Their raids are constant danger for farmsteads and outposts, and they'll happily ambush lone travelers. Not even the planet's other natives species, the Jawas, are safe from their attacks.
  • Certain spinoffs dive deeper into Tusken culture. The main character of The Mandalorian points out to another character that they're invaders in the Tuskens' eyes, and barters with them for passage through their land. There's more in the Legends continuity, with the player in Knights of the Old Republic having the opportunity to peacefully settle a conflict with the Sand People, and characters like Sharad Hett and Tahiri having spent years as part of their society. It turns out that they while they're violent to outsiders in many cases, they have good reason, as settlers have steadily encroached on their land over the years. Many have been killed by outsiders, including children, who were "in the way" of settlement, and so depictions which implied they're always chaotic evil were not at all correct, only showing one side.

Literature

• An Army of the Dead has the invading Burgid horde, who crush all opposition before them until they smack against an army of the dead.
• Bazil Broketail: There are two different groups like this west of Argonath. Sometimes they raid each other, and the Argonathi, to gain slaves which Padmasa buys.
  • The Teetol, a forest-dwelling people somewhat resembling Native Americans like the Iroquois.
  • The Baguti horse nomads, who wander the Gan grasslands, who seem like Mongols or similar cultures.
• Belisarius Series: The Ye-Tai serve as this for the Malwa Empire, while the Roman army uses Germanic tribes to bolster their forces.
• Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest: The 1984 winner mentions a "barbarous tribe":
  The lovely woman-child Kaa was mercilessly chained to the cruel post of the warrior-chief Beast, with his barbarous tribe now stacking wood at her nubile feet, when the strong, clear voice of the poetic and heroic Handsomas roared, “Flick your Bic, crisp that chick, and you’ll feel my steel through your last meal.” — Steven Garman, Pensacola, FL
• The Candlemass Road: Lady Dacre sees all the Borderers as this when she arrives, but by the end is becoming acclimated to the "custom of the country".
• The Chronicles of Dorsa:
  • The Terintan desert nomads have a simple, itinerant way of life as herders living in tents.
  • The mountain folk, or Quanca Carin, were Eastern people driven out of their homes by the Empire and into the mountains (thus their name). With help from the Empire's enemies, the Quanca Carin slowly drove the Empire back enough to retake the territory. Fierce, brutal warriors, they dress in furs and were initially far less organized. Over time, they got better weapons, organizing themselves enough to beat the Imperial soldiers.
• Commentaries on the Gallic War: Caesar paints a rather unflattering picture of the Celts as a group of savages that are constantly feuding and scheming against one another, faithless in their alliances, and savage in combat. He's harsher still when talking about the Germanic tribes, whom he describes as considerably more primitive than the Celts to the point where they only live for hunting and war and don't even have towns or agriculture.
• Conan the Barbarian: Conan often ends up being taken in by one such tribe and rises to its leadership. Conan himself comes from one, the Cimmerians.
• Dinotopia has sapient, barbarian carnivorous dinosaurs living in the Rainy Basin.
• Discworld: The Hubland tribes are a parody of the hard-bitten, fur-clad, quarrelsome barbarians of sword-and-sorcery fantasy. The major export of the Hublands used to be Barbarian Heroes.
• Dreamblood Duology: The Shadoun, Banbarra, and basically everyone outside Gujaareh and Kisua are barbarians. At least, that is what the people of Gujaareh and Kisua think. Granted, the barbarians from the north join the conflict only because it offers them an opportunity to fight and loot.
• Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian: The titular character's home of Skullbania is full of these (with his own tribe being the Mighty Lizard Clan), and they have devoted themselves to preventing the Evil Sorceror Venomous Drool from seizing control of their world.
• The First Law: Joe Abercrombie's Northerners. They are like Vikings without boats. Southerners see them as The Horde, while they see the South as The Empire. Northern characters include nuanced and sensitive characters as well as raging psychopaths.
• The General Series: The "Barbarians" are descended from Federation troops stationed in the boonies before the Fall. It is undoubtedly just coincidence that their native language is "Namerique" and they have a variety of Northern European names.
• Nightside: Parodied with the Tribe of Gay Barbarians: urbanized variants with their own reasons for dressing in spikes and leather loincloths.
• Phenomena: The mortok tribe wear only pelts around their waists; strangely, they do have advanced arm armory, but make weapons out of bones. They are (at least some) literate. They keep elves as their slaves.
• The Reynard Cycle: The chimera are usually depicted as being antagonistic tribal creatures, who invade from the East every generation or so.
• Second Apocalypse has the Scylvendi, the "People of War," who live in the steppes and are at constant war with the more sophisticated Nansur and Kianene Empires. During the first Apocalypse, they fought for the No-God, and they continue to worship it as the Dead God. Believing that all other nations bear the blood guilt of deicide, they kill any non-Scylvendi they find. Each Scylvendi warrior scars his arms for each kill, called swazond, in the belief that they have inherited all the unused potential of the life they cut short.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: There are a number of these in the setting, often living in wilderness areas on the edges of civilization and sustaining themselves through whatever combination of hunting, herding, and raiding is most convenient at the moment. The ones living in Westeros are primarily descended from First Man tribes that were not assimilated into the Andal nations.
  • The savage wildlings beyond the Wall scorn the feudal society of the Seven Kingdoms and consider themselves to be the Free Folk, and routinely raid into the Seven Kingdoms for wealth, food and women. They are further subdivided into a large variety of independent tribes, such as the forest peoples who serve as the south's common image of them, cave dwellers who paint their faces and file their teeth to points, Hornfoot men with soles like leather and the Thenns, a hard and fierce people from the furthest north.
  • The northern mountain clans, who are basically just wildlings whose ancestors happened to live south of the Wall. Although they're less hostile than the Free Folk (in particular, they're on good terms with the nobility of House Stark), they're still a rough and pugnacious crowd who are usually left to themselves.
  • The Bandit Clans in the Mountains of the Moon, who live by robbing travelers visiting the Eyrie and raiding the Vale of Arryn when the knights aren't there to stop them. They're considered a public menace. In A Game of Thrones, Tyrion convinces a number of warbands to follow him as mercenaries; after the conclusion of the Westerosi civil war, most return home to the mountains, but the Stone Crows, who had been sent to harry Stannis' forces in the Kingswood, find the woodlands to their liking and decide to remain there as forest bandits.
  • Essos has the Dothraki, an equestrian warrior civilization who make their living by sacking towns or accepting tribute to go away.
• Split Heirs: The Gorgarians began as a hard-living steppe tribe who trekked along whatever terrain stood in their way to invade and then conquer Hydrangea, a civilized kingdom. Afterward, their people settled down to rule it. They are mentioned to have various customs that Hydrangeans scorn though still, but they can't say anything.
• Tolkien's Legendarium: The Dunlendings (hill-people who were ejected from their ancestral homeland by the Rohirrim) were portrayed this way in The Lord of the Rings. Middle-earth's backstory also includes the Wainriders and other barbarian groups from the east. The original humans who migrated to join the elves in The Silmarillion were a heroic version of this.
• The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Northern Barbarians are a fierce and savage people who live in the cold northernmost regions of Fantasyland, but despite this don't seem to wear anything beyond fur loincloths and copper wristguards. They will try to kill the Tourists when first encountered, and the Tour must win their respect by defeating them in battle and then exposing their shaman as a fraud.
• The Traitor Son Cycle:
  • The hillmen are a more "classical" variety, though they're mostly based on Scotsmen and rather heroic, even if they worship a "pagan" nature goddess.
  • The Outwallers are a more morally grey variety, and are based on Native American tribes rather than European ones. They're known for raiding Wall-side settlements and allying themselves with many Wild Powers, though they have peaceful interactions with Alba and Morea, too.
• Warrior Cats: The forest Clans are viewed this way by house cats: ruffians who are constantly fighting, catching live prey, and eating bones. Upon joining ThunderClan, Rusty privately thinks that the Clans are actually a lot more organized than he'd been led to think they were.
• The Wheel of Time: While almost every race and country sees the others as this, the labels tend to all be correct within their own set of assumptions, but many have very noble or civilized traits as compared to where their comparable society in the real world was at roughly the same level of technology.
• The White Stag: Kate Seredy inverts this by telling the story of the Huns from their point of view.

Live-Action TV

• Beastmaster actually includes an inversion of the trope during one season, when the "civilized" new military power overshadowed the previous Big Bad barbarian tribe, wiping them off the map with ease. They saw the Beastmaster and his allies as this too.
• Game of Thrones: The Wildlings from beyond the Wall. The only time they prove a significant threat to the realm is when they band together behind a King-Beyond-The-Wall. The rest of the time, they're more of a nuisance south of the Wall, occasionally raiding towns and farms in the Gift (a stretch of land meant to help sustain the Night's Watch).
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Beastmaster all use this trope extensively. These TV shows were made in Australia or New Zealand, so they may draw upon the same group of writers who particularly like these types of antagonists.

Tabletop Games

• Pathfinder:
  • The most direct example of this are the semi-nomadic Kellid tribes, the natives of the main setting's wild frontiers, the Realm of the Mammoth lords and Numeria. They're a notoriously hardy people — the Mammoth Lords have to contend daily with the Ice Age megafauna and aggressive giants with whom they share their home, the Numerians' lands are filled with dangerous robots and aliens left there when a spaceship crash-landed centuries ago, and both have to deal with the demons of the Worldwound constantly trying to invade their lands — and are also the archetypal source of Barbarian heroes alongside the Ulfen. For all intents and purposes, the Kellids are there for players who want to be Conan the Barbarian.
  • Taiga giants are a supersized take on this trope. They're tribal nomads native to the high arctic, fiercely territorial, and strongly resist the influence of civilization. They're fairly benign as long as they aren't bothered, but respond to encroachments and trespassers in their territories with terrifying ferocity and overwhelming force.
• Pendragon has plenty of these, with the Saxons being the most prominent. Over the course of the campaign, the majority of the barbarian nations (including the Saxons) civilize and adopt the tradition of knighthood.
• Traveller: The Aslan are an example of this with overlap into Proud Warrior Race. They are a technologically advanced society that maintains a tribalistic social and political structure.
• Warhammer Fantasy has a fair share:
  • The human tribes who live in the world's northern latitudes are heavily influenced by their proximity to the Chaos Wastes — they worship the Dark Gods and openly and proudly bear any gifts or marks of their deities. These tribes battle among themselves for supremacy, but occasionally launch raids into more civilized lands to the south, if not full-fledged invasions when a mighty warlord raises an army. They can be divided into three loose groupings: the Norscans live closest to the Empire and Kislev, and as capable sailors are essentially Horny Vikings. The Kurgans live farther east and are fearsome steppe horsemen similar to the Turks or Mongols, and threaten the distant lands of Cathay. The Hung are also steppe nomads, are known for their treacherous natures and primitive society, and live to the farthest east, sharing a border with the Dark Elves of Naggaroth.
  • At least the Norscans are somewhat civilized — the Beastmen who dwell in the Old World's dark forests and lonely mountains are even worse. These horned, braying savages want only to tear down and defile the other races' domains, and have no culture beyond erecting herdstones in their campsites, raping and/or eating any unfortunate souls they manage to capture alive, and a shamanistic religion that combines Chaos worship with other ancient gods of war and slaughter.
  • The Orcs and Goblins have a society built entirely around waging war, and at most will occupy and fortify a settlement they've captured. They're so violent that they spend as much time fighting other Greenskin tribes as the other races, which is good because they can be found everywhere in the world since they literally spread like fungus. They're also a softer take on this trope than the Norscans or Beastmen, since the Orcs and Gobbos are more concerned with having a good time on the battlefield than committing war crimes — their atrocities, like the infamous Blood River massacre and barbecue, are more a result of their Blue-and-Orange Morality than a commitment to Evil. While this trope generally applies to all Greenskin, it is especially emphasized in the Savage Orcs and the Forest Goblins.
    • The Savage Orcs are by far the most primitive of the Greenskins, living outright Neolithic lifestyles without even the most basic knowledge of metalworking. They live in nomadic tribes following herds of huge boars, and when they join other Orc tribes in battle they do so as wild berserker troops wielding stone weapons and with no armor save warpaint.
    • The Forest Goblins, like the Savage Orcs, live in a considerably more primitive way than their fellow Greenskins. They make their camps in the dark forests of the Old World and the jungles of the Southlands, where they often end up competing with the equally barbarous Beastmen, and worship the giant spiders that live there with them, and which they sometimes tame and ride as mounts (or use as war engines, depending on the size of the spider).
  • The Ogres are little different from the Greenskins, their only concern in life being what to eat and where. They are invasive, migrating raiders driven from their old homes by some cataclysm, and now roam the world hunting their next meal.
• Warhammer: Age of Sigmar takes place after an age of Chaos ruling the world uncontested; consequently, the vast majority of humans still alive are barbarian tribes, most of whom worship the Chaos Gods in once capacity or another. These Slaves To Darkness, and the Darkoath in particular, act as the Spiritual Successor to the aforementioned Norscans. Likewise, the Grand Alliance of Destruction (Orruks, Ogors, Gargants, Troggoths and Grots) are a loosely connected set of tribes whose main interests are fighting, eating, and stealing.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Imperium designates as Feral Worlds those planets with stone age to crude iron age technology and culture. These worlds may barely be aware that the Imperium exists beyond legends of 'sky warriors' that occasionally take tithes on behalf of the God-Emperor, but their warrior cultures and frequently inhospitable conditions make the planets natural recruiting grounds for Imperial Guard regiments or Space Marine chapters. The most famous Feral World is probably Fenris, the cold and barbaric home of the Space Wolves.
  • The Orks have shades of this trope — their culture is centered around waging WAAAGH!!!, their political structure is nothing more sophisticated than "do wot da Warboss and da Nobz say," and their technology is decidedly crude if occasionally remarkably effective. Some Ork tribes have managed to carve out mighty empires, while more traditional clans like the Snakebites or the Feral Orks exist on a more tribal level, often outright shunning technology.

Toys

• Masters of the Universe:
  • The early mini-comics that came with the action figures had a He-Man come from a barbarian tribe living in a jungle. Later DC Comics had him being a standard prince who would had a magic sword that let him turn into the Barbarian Hero, He-Man.
  • The earlier He-Man was later turned into a separate character called Oo-Larr whose action figure bio said he was an earlier hero who had the Power Sword before Prince Adam.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: Beneath Freeway 42, the Outcasts who fully succumbed to the after-effects of the Mechanika Virus splintered off into a tribe called the Mutants led by a ruthless general accompanied by savage beasts to attack whoever trespasses onto their territory.
• Battle Brothers: The Warriors of the North expansion adds a whole new barbarian faction. Warbands of barbaric raiders roam the northern edges of the map, attacking anyone who comes near. They rarely have access to shields or heavy armour, but they more than make up for it with high morale, initiative, and a lot of hefty axes and hammers. You can even play as these barbarians with a new starting origin for your warband.
• The Civilization games have barbarian hordes, which spawn in areas covered by the Fog of War, can't be the subject of diplomacy beyond their demands of "Give us gold or we'll pillage you," and exist only to attack your units, wreck terrain improvements, and sack undefended cities.
  • In 6 there is a mode that turns Barbarian Encampments into these. The more you pay them off and hire them the closer they get to turning into a straight up random City-state that no longer spawns hostile units. The process can be reversed by antagonizing them before they make the change.
• In Darkwood there are the Savages, humans who have devolved to a more primitive mindset due to a mysterious plague that has turned a forest in 1987 Soviet-controlled Poland into an Eldritch Location. At daytime they are territorial, grunting and/or waving large tree branches at you menacingly if they see you from a distance, but at night they shed the “territorial” part and will invade your chosen hideout to try and murder you.
• Diablo:
  • Act 5 of Diablo II had you helping a friendly version. Barbarians were even a selectable class.
  • The Barbarians have a great deal more backstory, as Diablo III exposes; the Barbarians believe themselves to have a god given mission to protect their territory, which houses the greatest gem in the Diablo universe (and also the largest. This causes frequent clashes with the more civilized people who have no idea what they're guarding, and just see them as aggressive and territorial beyond reason. Sadly, with the corruption and subsequent destruction of said gem, most of them died off or went insane. Those that remain are still as badass as ever.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • This is a common depiction of the Nords by their enemies, especially the races of Mer (Elves). The truth lies somewhere in the middle, as the Nords do love to battle and can be viewed as uncultured by the Crystal Spires and Togas Altmer or Ancient Rome-inspired Imperials, but they are also lovers of music and mead and a deeply spiritual and traditional people with a strong sense of honor (too strong, in some cases). Nord criminals (bandits, pirates, petty thugs, etc.) like to play up this image for intimidation value, but they live on the fringes of society and are a small minority, and their kin loathe them for giving Nords a bad name to outsiders.
  • The ancient Atmorans, ancestors to the Nords, also fit the trope. It is said that they had no knowledge of agriculture and survived off of hunting, a way of life which likely encouraged their ceaseless warfare. They also did not have a written language until they came to Tamriel (where they adopted one from the elves, blending it with Atmoran language principles).
  • The Reachmen (also known as Witchmen), are another such group. Racially but not culturally Breton, they inhabit the Reach, the area along the border between High Rock and Skyrim. They are a group primitive in dress and technology who practice the closest thing to a "pagan" religion in Tamriel and are violently hostile to outsiders. Since the 1st Era, they've maintained an insurgency in the Reach, warring against any outside conquerors attempting to claim the Reach for themselves. In Skyrim, they've rose up once again as the Forsworn, taking advantage of the weakened state of the Empire and of Skyrim itself to once again attempt to retake their homeland.
  • Minotaurs have a primitive clan-like social structure along these lines. Typically living in groups numbering in the twenties, Minotaur clans are led by the strongest male who has breeding rights with all females of reproductive age. Younger males may attempt to challenge him for the position via a Duel to the Death.
• Europa Universalis: Rome includes barbarian incursions and uprisings as periodic occurrences. Unlike in other games, if they go unchecked for long enough, they'll actually establish a new faction from the victim's conquered territory.
• Exit Fate: The mountain tribes in eastern Kirgard. They were mighty enough to repel the kingdom's effort to annex the region. Eventually the authorities opted to let them be as the tribes were busy fighting each other to pose a threat. That's it, until Pereious came into the picture and was such a charismatic and strong leader that he managed to keep all the tribes under his control. He waged war against Kirgard years prior to the events of the game and came damn close to capture the capital St. Reinard until his defeat and subsequent retreat. In the game proper, they show up as allies of the invading Almegian army during Chapter 7 until Daniel and the forces of Elysium Castle best them in combat, earning them Pereious' respect.
• In Fall from Heaven, many factions are barbarian in character, and some of them even have the "Barbarian" trait, allowing them to keep peace with the Barbarians unless they take a commanding lead in the game. The Clan of Embers have the trait, as does one Doviello leader (and the Doviello under the other still fit this trope); Hyborem of the Infernals also has the Barbarian trait but doesn't quite fit.
• In Fallout: New Vegas the Khans are a post-apocalyptic version of a barbarian tribe. Caesar's Legion is a collection of barbarian tribes assimilated into one massive Horde by a highly-educated man with a love of Roman history. Honest Hearts includes the White Legs, a band of savage tribals trained by Ulysses who possess military hardware after raiding a weapons cache. The White Legs are a deconstruction; since they lack skills like food preservation, tanning, or even hunting and cooking, they can only survive by raiding and scavenging. Daniel observes that they'll die out within a generation if they don't join Caesar's Legion.
• The majority of the beastmen tribes in Final Fantasy XIV fall under this and are always at odds with the spoken races (including the player). They like to steal from travelling merchants, kidnap people to use them as sacrifices to their primal gods, and enslave the people they kidnap by having their primal temper them. There are some sects in each tribe that don't want to engage in such barbaric activity and may sometimes even help the spoken by going against their own kind.
• Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords: The Drengin Empire are Mongols in space, more or less.
• Heroes of Might and Magic has featured a Barbarian faction throughout the series. At least some of their towns that appeared throughout the campaigns were this trope, though the actual term 'Barbarian tribe' doesn't come up that often.
• King of Dragon Pass is basically a fantasy barbarian tribe simulator. Subverted in that, while warlike and, well, barbaric by present-day standards, they have a lot of hidden depths and a culture that places a high emphasis on learning, literacy and commerce. And, of course, they're the good guys (arguably even more so in Runequest, where they are traditionally put against a civilized, evil empire).
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Bulblins seem to operate in this fashion. They live in a crude encampment in the desert, but venture out into the world for raping and pillaging. They tame wild boars, and are ruled by the gargantuan Lord Bulblin (who, as the biggest of the Bulblins, is also Large and in Charge)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
    • Bokoblins and Moblins originally poured out across Hyrule as a massive horde during the Calamity, but their modern descendants live in scattered tribes in the wilderness, making homes in crude encampments, wooden forts or giant stone skulls. The mostly sustain themselves as bandits, arming themselves with stolen weapons alongside their own primitive spears and clubs, and are often found attacking travelers or laying ambushes along roads.
    • There was once a (presumably) human tribe of these that lived in the Faron region. Link can wear a Pelts of the Barbarian armor set of theirs that increases his attack power.
• Mount & Blade:
  • Two words: Sea Raiders.
    "I WILL DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL!"
  • The Nords and the Khergits would also qualify, though to a lesser extent — they've since settled down into cities to give this whole "building a stable nation" thing a go.
• In the Overwatch universe, this hat belongs to the Junkers...they wear Post-Apunkalyptic Armor, and pilot Mini-Mecha often made from scraps, while the rest of the world has their own level of advancement.
• In RuneScape, the residents of the Barbarian Village are an offshoot of the Fremenniks, the game's Viking expy.
• Mentioned in Tears to Tiara 2, based on the Germanic Tribes bordering Ancient Rome. They are depicted as not that different. Artio is princess of the Suebi.
• The Total War series have barbarian/rebel/bandit armies that spawn to give you something to do when you're not at war with your neighboring domains. The games also assigned minor or unaligned civilizations to a "Rebel" faction that all the proper factions are perpetually at war with, though more recent games have done away with this in favor of including nonplayable minor factions that can be treated with like any other side.
  • Medieval: Total War and its sequel have the scripted invasion of the Mongols in the late 13th century, which will probably steamroll any civilizations (or players who don't know much medieval history) that haven't spent the entire game preparing for them. They're technically a proper faction that you can engage in diplomacy, but with their seemingly-limitless hordes of veteran warriors commanded by fearsome and brilliant generals, they have little interest in anything but attacking the nearest targets. Medieval: Total War even has a cheat code allowing you to play as barbarians/rebels. The code? "conan".
  • In Rome: Total War there are the Gauls, Scythians, Dacians, Germans and Britons (all from the point of view of the player of course) and there was even an expansion called Barbarian Invasion featuring the Huns, Goths, Vandals and various other Nomadic and Germanic tribes.
  • In the Empire: Total War game, the minor native civilizations appear as this to your player.
  • Total War: Attila is a barbaric time indeed. All civilizations except for the Roman Empires, the Persian factions and some of the other Eastern kingdoms are barbarians, whether they're Celtic, Germanic, Sarmatian...or the Huns. The mechanics for all of these reflect their less-civilized, often migratory nature.
• Wizard101: Grizzleheim (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Viking Age Scandinavia) has barbarian boars who wield spears, wear loincloths, and live in tents. In contrast with the more civilised bears, wolves, and ravens, almost all boars the player encounters are hostile.
• Centaurs in World of Warcraft are based on the Mongols. They call their leaders Khans, wear fur-lined conical helmets, travel in nomadic hordes, and live in tent villages.

Web Comics

• In Drowtales, there's the Black Sun clan, a nomadic nation of oddly tan-skinned drow who lives on the edges of the underworld's settled lands. They're usually divided into small tribes and prey on the weak or work as mercenaries, but when they unite they are a serious threat to even the most powerful city-states.
• Tiffany from Exiern comes from an almost textbook perfect example of one of these tribes. This causes some problems when it comes to her attitude to women and being turned into one.

Web Original

• In The Gamer's Alliance, the Khitans (horse riders of the grass plains) and the Sarquil (warriors of the desert) were this trope until the Cataclysm when they had to adapt their way of life to survive. The Khitans still keep their nomadic life for the most part and raise horses on the plains, but their Khan has built the large camp Kara Khitai where more and more Khitans are moving into so that they can better protect themselves from outer threats if an invasion takes place in their homeland. The various squabbling Sarquil tribes, however, have been forcibly united by the Sultana of Vanna over the years into what has become known as the Sultanate of Karaganda.
• The Selahren in The Worldbuild Project are an islandful of barbarian tribes.

Western Animation

• The Barbaric Bears in Adventures of the Gummi Bears are a Barbarian version of the Gummi Bears using all the common tropes.
• Kulipari: An Army of Frogs: The Scorpions fill this role in the Outback, caring only for strength and attacking their more civilized neighbors in vast hordes.
• Primal: The Vikings are a tribe of marauding warriors dressed in pelts, wielding spears and battleaxes to attack villages and capture their residents to force them into being slaves.

---