Tribe (WTA)

Tribes are the largest social unit of the Garou. Tribe members are often bound by bloodlines, similar totems or Patrons, and lifestyles.

Legacy Tribes

A tribe is the "family" of a Garou, determining a werewolf's social ties, totem, and spiritual connections.

A Garou is not bound to join the tribe of their ancestry; a cub, for example, may not meet the standards expected of a tribe and is therefore unacceptable as a member. The personal philosophies of an individual Garou may also drive them to seek another tribe that meshes better with their views. Some tribes, such as the Black Furies and Children of Gaia, specialize in taking in cubs who were rejected by their ancestral tribes.

In order to become a full-fledged member of any tribe, ancestral or not, a Garou must pass a Rite of Passage, in which the totem of the tribe accepts them; only then are they viewed as a true tribe member and adult Garou.

There were originally sixteen tribes that formed after the Impergium split the One Tribe. Of these, 12 tribes serve the Garou Nation, one is a member of the Asian Beast Courts, one has fallen to the Wyrm, and two tribes no longer exist.

Garou Nation Tribes

• Black Furies
• Bone Gnawers
• Children of Gaia
• Fianna
• Get of Fenris
• Glass Walkers
• Red Talons
• Shadow Lords
• Silent Striders
• Silver Fangs
• Uktena
• Wendigo

Beast Court Tribes

• Hakken
• Stargazers (Garou Nation instead in 20th Anniversary edition)

Wyrm-Eaten Tribes

• Black Spiral Dancers (formerly the White Howlers)

Independent Tribes

• Boli Zouhisze
• Siberakh
• Singing Dogs

Extinct Tribes

• Bunyip
• Croatan

5th Edition Tribes

In the alternate continuity presented in Werewolf 5th Edition, werewolves are not automatically assumed to belong to any one tribe, and must instead make the decision to prove themselves worthy of a Patron Spirit, by which the corresponding tribe is defined. Until then, young werewolves are tribeless. Garou who join a tribe but then later leave it, whether voluntarily or by being cast out by their tribemates, are called Forsworn until they find a new Patron Spirit to accept them, if such a thing ever occurs.

A tribe emerges from the patronage of a powerful spirit. When a Garou pledges their lives to a specific Patron Spirit, they become a part of that tribe. Given the patronage of that spirit, a tribe bears a certain outlook. It’s a worldview, as well as an implicit call to action in service to Gaia. Tribe membership confers some degree of culture and belonging, but all tribes consist of werewolves, who are passionate creatures and prone to infighting. Tribes are not lockstep perspectives, but fractious and factional groups based upon certain commonalities.

Being part of an appropriate tribe is the de facto definition of being a Garou in the first place, now that the collapse of the Garou Nation has made tribal membership of the Nation an invalid criterion.

14 tribes exist in the 5th edition continuity. As of the Era of Apocalypse, three have broken off from the cause of the rest, becoming estranged, or 'wayward'. By and large, these wayward tribes do not cooperate with the remaining 11 or one another, and pursue their own goals in isolation from those that retain the privilege of calling themselves Garou.

Garou tribes

• Black Furies
• Bone Gnawers
• Children of Gaia
• Galestalkers
• Ghost Council
• Glass Walkers
• Hart Wardens
• Red Talons
• Shadow Lords
• Silent Striders
• Silver Fangs

Wayward tribes

• Black Spiral Dancers
• Cult of Fenris
• Stargazers

Gallery

References

• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised Edition, p. 62
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 80-105
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition, p. 58-81