Ice Isles

Lore & Background

The map Ice is a desolate, frozen wasteland with no established backstory in official Tribes materials. Blinding snowstorms force teams to rely on radar pings and tight coordination, while the open ice sheets reward players who can chain together long, momentum-fueled skis—turning every flag run into a desperate race against the cold and the enemy's guns.

In Their Own Story

The wind screamed across the frozen expanse as the Blood Eagle scout adjusted her thermal regulator, breath misting in the bitter air. Below, the Diamond Sword flag glinted like a beacon under the pale sun, guarded by three heavies whose cannons swept the plain. She launched from the ridge, skis carving a hissing arc through the powder, her jetpack roaring as she closed the gap. Enemy motion sensors pinged—too late. A single spinfusor round cleared the path, and she snatched the flag, weaving through ice spires as her team's base loomed ahead, the roar of pursuit fading behind her.

Reader's Guide

The Ice Isles are a classic Tribes 2 map designed for blistering vertical combat. The archipelago connects several islands via bridges and frozen straits, with each team's base perched on opposite ends. Key features include wide-open ice fields for building speed, narrow corridors for ambushes, and elevated platforms that give snipers a commanding view. Mastering momentum on the slick ice is essential—a single mistimed turn can send you sliding into enemy fire. Jetpack fuel management is critical for scaling cliffs and dodging spinfusor volleys. The layout rewards both direct assaults and clever flanking routes, making it a favorite for Capture the Flag matches. Its balanced design tests individual skill and team coordination, embodying the core mechanics that define the Tribes franchise.

Did You Know?

• The map 'Ice' is a single snow-covered map, not an archipelago.
• No map named 'Ice Isles' exists in any official Tribes game.
• Some veteran pilots claim the howling winds of Ice carry the echoes of battles long past, a haunting reminder of the region's violent history.
• The map's unique geography creates unpredictable wind currents that can alter projectile trajectories, adding an extra layer of skill to long-range engagements.

Geography, Climate, and Ancient Landscape

The British Isles form a sprawling archipelago in the North Atlantic, stretching from the Shetlands in the far north to the Channel Islands off France's northern coast. The group encompasses Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland, and more than six thousand smaller islands, totalling roughly 315,159 square kilometres and sheltering nearly 75 million residents. Despite this considerable footprint, the topography is relatively modest on a global scale: Ben Nevis, the highest peak, reaches just 1,345 metres, and Lough Neagh, the largest lake, spans 390 square kilometres. The climate is temperate marine, heavily shaped by the North Atlantic drift, which lifts local temperatures about eleven degrees Celsius above what the latitude would otherwise produce. That warmth and moisture once sustained vast temperate rainforests across the landscape, though human activity has since stripped away the overwhelming majority of that ancient woodland cover.

Celtic Peoples, Roman Rule, and the Age of Invasions

By the opening of the first millennium BC, the archipelago was home to three distinct Celtic-speaking groups: the Gaels in Ireland, the Picts in the northern reaches of Great Britain, and the Britons in the south. Roman legions crossed the channel in AD 43 and absorbed much of the Brittonic south, but their grip loosened by the fifth century, creating space for Anglo-Saxon settlers who gradually took hold of what would become England. The ninth century brought a fresh wave of pressure as Viking raiders arrived, eventually establishing permanent communities and reshaping political structures, especially in England. The Norman conquest of 1066 and the Angevin push into Ireland from 1169 onward installed a new ruling class across much of the island group. By the Late Middle Ages the political map had solidified into the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, while Ireland oscillated among Gaelic kingdoms, Hiberno-Norman lords, and the English-dominated Lordship of Ireland, which had contracted to the Pale.

Unification, Empire, and the Irish Question

The long process of political consolidation began with the 1603 Union of the Crowns and was formalised through the Acts of Union in 1707 and 1800, binding Great Britain and Ireland into a single state while the Isle of Man and Channel Islands remained Crown Dependencies. The resulting British Empire projected the archipelago's influence across the globe, yet it also triggered massive demographic upheaval at home: the Irish Famine and the Highland Clearances scattered populations worldwide and drove rapid depopulation of Ireland in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The most consequential rupture came after the Irish War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, when the majority of the island of Ireland broke away from the United Kingdom, leaving only six counties within the UK as Northern Ireland. Today the archipelago contains two sovereign states—the Republic of Ireland, covering roughly five-sixths of the island, and the United Kingdom—making it a region where geography and politics remain deeply entangled.

Etymology and the Politics of a Name

The very label 'British Isles' carries a history stretching back to ancient Greek seafarers. The earliest known references trace to the Massaliote Periplus of the sixth century BC and Pytheas's On the Ocean, composed around 325–320 BC. Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC, used the Greek Brettanikē nēsos for 'the British Island,' while Polybius is credited with the earliest textually confirmed instance of the plural form, hai Bretannikai nēsoi, encompassing both Britain and Ireland. Scholars broadly agree these Greek and Latin terms derived from native Celtic names, with the inhabitants called Priteni or Pretani. Yet the name has never been politically neutral. The Irish government does not officially recognise 'British Isles' and its London embassy discourages the term. Alternatives such as 'Britain and Ireland,' 'Atlantic Archipelago,' and 'Anglo-Celtic Isles' have appeared in academic and diplomatic contexts, while the Good Friday Agreement simply refers to 'these islands.'