This chapter examines local-level dynamics in Syria’s Dayr al-Zur governorate from the beginning of the 2011 uprising through the ascendance of ISIS in late 2014. The governorate was the site of both intense armed conflict and a range of experiments in governance. The violent struggle between al-Qaʿida-affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and its offshoot, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/al-Sham (ISIS), unfolded primarily in Dayr al-Zur, creating new enmities between local communities and providing a forum for pursuing old rivalries. At the same time, the absence of a central political authority created space for new local arrangements to deliver services, provide local security, and render legal judgments. The chapter argues that tribal linkages and symbols played an important role in patterns of contestation, alliance, and violence, but not through formal tribal hierarchies, nor at the level of entire tribes. Local networks contained within sub-tribal groupings formed the core of many military formations, while broader tribal affiliations were used only in transactional, often ephemeral ways. Men occupying the historical positions of status and prestige in their tribes were all but irrelevant to these dynamics. Understanding patterns of alliance, service delivery, and violence in wartime provides needed context for theorizing post-conflict governance.