Noticias

Antitribu were a concept introduced to VTES in one of the earlier sets, the fifth and final one by WOTC.  Until that point there were only vampires from the 7 clans of the Camarilla (8 if you count the Caitiff), plus the four Independents (and, back then, Camarilla was the default sect, with the Independents specifically spelled as “non-Camarilla”. With the release of THE SABBAT in 1996, this changed, and the titular sect was explicitly indicated in all the crypt cards in the set.

Besides the 2 clans who were specifically aligned with the Sabbat (Lasombra and Tzimisce), we got the antitribu -or «darker» version of the 7 Camarilla clans (plus Panders as foil to the Caitiff). This concept was ported over straight from the RPG but… was it ever really ever necessary?

Essentially, a Nosferatu antitribu was a Nosferatu that was aligned with the Sabbat instead of the Camarilla. They mostly had the same main disciplines, with maybe some secondary ones switched in, their voting titles might be different but, really, nothing that absolutely required a functionally different clan in game terms. From a design perspective, by treating them as separate clans they just forced themselves to duplicate their design efforts for both crypt and library support cards, with no actual payoff. In fact, you can say the antitribu concept was a relic from the RPG splatbook model, that required offering new alternate character ideas to their players with each book, but probably never made much sense for the card game.

Now, with recent world-shaking events in the WoD, the new inquisition, the second Anarch revolt, and the apparent disappearition of the Sabbat,  it seems that antitribu concept may be a thing from the past. One clear example is the V5 Salubri deck. While the Salubri were introduced later as an almost extinguished clan, they came in their vanilla and antitribu version. The concept for the regulars were scarce mystics who searched for mythic Golconda, not aligned to either sect, and practitioners of the healing discipline of Obeah. On the other side, the antitribu were militant crusaders, fierce warriors of the Sabbat with the signature discipline of Valeren.

Following the V5 design mandate, both disciplines have been phased out in favor of combinations of the basic disciplines, but both flavors of the clan (the healer and the warrior) are still represented, only under the same colors.

I guess we will only know if we eventually get a resurgence of the Sabbat, but if that happens, its not going to be anytime soon, as the Anarchs have apparently taken their place as the opposition to the Camarilla.