Ravnos Antitribu

Contents

History • Strongholds • Advantages and Weaknesses • Ravnos Antitribu in DC • Ravnos Antitribu Characters

Ravnos Antitribu

Pseudonyms	Rogues
Sect	Sabbat
Disciplines	Animalism Chimerstry Fortitude
Rarity	Rare

The Ravnos Antitribu are strange creatures, even as antitribu clans go; with the possible exception of the Tzimisce Antitribu, they are the hardest to distinguish from the clan they split off from, being similarly concerned with freedom, travel, and the ability to create their own society outside the strictures of the western clans. More prone to violence and dangerous pranks than any other group, they are a clan of peculiarly honorable spies and strangely dedicated con artists, using their prodigious powers over reality to horrify, confound, and drive their enemies mad.

Like most members of Clan Ravnos, most Ravnos Antitribu (especially older ones) were once of Indian or Romani descent, but the Sabbat's midnight tricksters tend to be looser about this rule, sometimes Embracing from other ethnic groups for convenience or specific capers.

History

It isn't surprising that a large contingent of Ravnos joined the fledgling Sabbat after the Anarch Revolt saw violence break out across the vampiric world, but the clan's seeds go back further than mere political squabbles. Faced with endless prejudice and abuse from the European clans that held power over them, the Ravnos Antitribu had been debating splitting off for some time, their members agitating for a more aggressive, antagonistic response that would frighten the other clans into ending their oppression for good. Several small groups attempted to found their own new bloodlines without success until the explosion of the Anarch Revolt offered the larger group a chance to band together in numbers.

The Sabbat were more than delighted to welcome the Ravnos Antitribu as new members; while there wasn't necessarily less prejudice among their ranks, they were more willing to overlook it when a Ravnos Antitribu was effective, and the sect was very motivated to keep the advantage of their illusionist members, one that the floundering Camarilla would be hard-pressed to match. The Antitribu proved effective spies and misdirectors, creating chaos in battlefield cities without ever truly integrating into the packs they worked with, and by the time of the Convention of Thorns had earned their place as a strange but deadly weapon in the Sabbat arsenal.

In spite of their fall from grace, the Ravnos Antitribu chose a good time to break away. When the Ravnos proper were decimated by the Week of Nightmares, the Ravnos Antitribu were comparatively less harmed; having twisted and changed their bloodlines into the Antitribu clan, they were no longer as firmly attached to the Antediluvian that spawned the Ravnos, and many of them were able to control or at least survive the powerful hallucinations and violence that his awakening caused. While a large number of them were lost (mostly to friendly fire as their Sabbat packmates responded to suddenly mad Antitribu with lethal means), they suspect there might actually be more of them left now than there are in the Independent clans, at least outside of Asia.

Strongholds

Like many other Antitribu clans, the Ravnos Antitribu do not have a unified base of power; they are unable to return to their native Asian lands without coming into violent conflict with the Ravnos and the Kuei-Jin, to say nothing of other members of the Jati or Shining Kingdoms, and their nomadic existence and attachment to the continually marauding and expanding Sabbat make creating a central stronghold both impractical and frankly not worth the trouble. Most Sabbat packs do not have their own Ravnos Antitribu, and those that do tend to gain a reputation for being dangerous and unstable to work with.

Advantages and Weaknesses

Advantages

While the Ravnos Antitribu wield the power of Chimerstry just as their Camarilla counterparts do, their skill with it runs more toward the brute force end of the spectrum than toward finesse. Ravnos Antitribu can create and sustain illusions more quickly and easily than most, able to pop images and sensations into being at the drop of a hat even when exhausted; while the resulting visions are not nearly as durable as those of the Ravnos and can often be destroyed by an onlooker paying a little too much attention, they give them a powerful and flexible tool for their preferred quick reconnaissance and smash-and-grab maneuvers.

Disadvantages

All Ravnos Antitribu are bound by their word, whether they want to be or not; no matter what the promise or how coerced they were into giving it, once a Ravnos Antitribu agrees to do something, they have little option but to follow through. Ravnos Antitribu are almost incapable of breaking their word for more than a moment and then only with incredible force of will; most of the time, the drive to honor their promise and prove their trustworthiness is so strong that attempting to break a promise is similar to attempting to ignore the effects of a blood bond.

Even more severe, a Ravnos Antitribu who has put an agreement in writing is literally incapable of breaking that promise in any intentional way. Should they discover later that they have broken their word by accident or coincidence in some way, they immediately enter a rage Frenzy, from which they emerge with a new permanent derangement and an extremely unfavorable opinion on their behavior from all other members of their clan.