The Gaia Garou tribes are losing the war against the Wyrm due to the mistakes of their ancestors and their inability to cooperate with each other and the Fera on a large scale. However, that's not the only reason they're losing. Gaia designed Garou to be war machines for a primitive era, intended for short-range combat and a handful of mystical gifts. However, many of the Wyrm's modern threats — oppression, ignorance, environmental harm — are rooted in social problems and destructive practices, require more creative and sophisticated solutions than small-scale violence. While a few tribes seem to understand this (namely the Children of Gaia and the Glass Walkers), many Garou do not. The Garou are losing because their modus operandi is outdated and inappropriate for the Wyrm's current threats.
Throughout history, the Garou Nation has repeatedly undermined Gaia's cause with short-sighted violence (the Impergium, the War of Rage, the genocide of the Bunyip etc.). The Garou's history of violence and bad decision-making is a direct result of their leadership culture. In most tribes, leadership disputes are settled with ritual combat, meaning that aggressive Garou are more likely than diplomatic or wise Garou to rise to leadership positions. The Garou Nation made foolish, bloody mistakes throughout history because it was being led by its most violent and ferocious members, not its smartest members.
In the event that the Wyrm does escape from the Weaver's web (destroying Gaia and much of the fabric of reality in the process), who is to say that the next universe they create will be any better than the setting of the World of Darkness? The Weaver will still be insane, the Wyrm might have some residual insanity from his prior captivity in the Weaver's web, and who knows what role the Wyld will play. If the Triat members do not return to sanity and harmony, the next universe they create could be just as unbalancedand doomed as the current one.
The Wyrm's madness is explicitly a result of the unending pain that comes from being trapped in the Weaver's web, and the Weaver's madness comes from the struggles of the Wyrm to escape that web. Without these, the Wyrm and the Weaver have no reason to remain mad. The Wyrm getting loose would, in time, result in the two returning to sanity and the universe to balance. Mind you, it's still a lousy place to be during the interim.
Not exactly. Although the Wyrm's struggling probably drives the Weaver even more insane, the whole reason the Weaver tried to entrap the Wyrm in it's webs in the first place was because the Weaver was effectively having an existential crisis. Even if the Wyrm gets free and is healed, the underlying reasons why the Weaver imprisoned the Wyrm will go unaddressed, likely causing an Eternal Recurrence.
Exactly (to the immediate above) - the basic reason they are BOTH insane is because they achieved consciousness. Supernals - basic forces of Nature - are not supposed to be "aware" of anything, they're supposed to be spiritual machines that run the Universe. It was the nature of the Weaver's work that Awakened Her Mind, so to speak, and it was upon becoming aware at what she saw as the ultimate futility of her job that caused the mental breakdown of a mind that wasn't supposed to exist in the first place. The Wyrm's mind awoke when being trapped "happened" to it, and it "felt" something for the first time.
In Chronicles of the Black Labyrinth, Charles Manson was a Seventh Generation devotee. Manson was eventually imprisoned for his crimes, which would have assured his safety during King Albrecht's extermination of Seventh Generation followers. In other words, King Albrecht didn't wipe out the cult. Who is to say that the fictional Manson isn't recruiting Wyrm worshipers in prison?
Or Manson is dead in the WOD. Then again, the Seventh Generation was basically a Proto-Pentex and its destruction just means they can focus on the Big (Black) Dog in the room.
In Garou Saga, Bone Gnawer Jack Debiltongue has an affair with Constance, the kinfolk wife of Silver Fang King Phillip de Valence. Jack and his lover suffer no consequences for their adultery in the story. However, the tale becomes darker in retrospect when one remembers that the Silver Fangs are obsessed with the purity of their bloodlines. According to the revised Silver Fang tribebook, kinfolk who couple with partners outside of the tribe are killed or sterilized. Constance probably suffered a violent fate for sleeping with a Bone Gnawer.
In Garou Saga, Ryn Ap Bleidd and Writlish are among the few Garou who are getting close to uncovering the Garou's Ur-legends (and by extension, the ancestor spirits common to all Garou). After Ryn Ap Bleidd is subjected to the Hunt, Writlish is left as one of the only scholars with any leads on the Ur-legends. If Writlish successfully contacts an Ur-ancestor, he will probably do everything in his power to turn the ancestor into a Wyrm servant. Since corrupted ancestor spirits can taint living Garou, a Wyrm-tainted ancestor could do serious harm to all Gaia Garou.
The Delirium is the excuse for the Extra-Strength Masquerade in-setting: mortals who see a werewolf freak out and lose their memory of the event. One wonders whether werewolf movies exist in the World of Darkness, and if they do, if they involve the audience going nuts and/or passing out. Even if horror movies like the ones we know aren't close enough to "real" werewolves to trigger Delirium, what about security camera footage of real transformed Garou or the like? If that knocks out viewers, then any entity that gets their hands on such a recording has a handy-dandy disable-and-drive-crazy movie on their hands to show to people that get in their way, similar to Monty Python's Funniest Joke In The World. If something about the recording process means it doesn't knock out viewers, does this mean that Pentex guards just need to be distributed electronic visors to be able to see werewolves with and not be rendered helpless? The fridge can potentially be quite deep here...
I mean, does a picture of a bear scare you as badly as being in the same room as one? Why would a recording be enough to convince random people that werewolves are real, and real enough to scare them into cataonia? There are dozens if not hundreds of zombie movies out there, and most people agree that zombies aren't real. It's stated to be something to do with the actual physical presence of a werewolf in their war form- their sound, smell, and general force of presence- hitting a hidden genetic (and magic) Fear Button in humans. Later editions have handwaved away recordings by saying that most people discount those recordings as 'VFX' or 'just a bear,' unless their Willpower is high due to a magical effect known as The Veil. Similarly, the fact that what you're seeing is technically a recording isn't going to make you feel any better about the fact that you're standing in the same room as a car sized superpredator who you can experience unfiltered with your other four senses.
Basically everything written about Pentex goes out of its way to mention that Pentex's products aren't just evil, they're crap. To name one example, the entire section on King Breweries in Subsidiaries: Pentex talks at length about how awful the alcoholic products they put out are (I think the most flattering word they use is "mediocre"). I get that this is to emphasize how the corporation is too big to fail, but short of actually paying people to buy their products, how the hell is the company still in business? They can't buy out all their competitors.
