Editing Werewolf: The Apocalypse (section)

==Pentex: Evil Incorporated==
[[File:Pentex.png|400px|thumb|right|For the Wyrm. For glory. For profit.]]
What do you get when you take large corporations as painted by hippies and cross it with cartoonish evil? What, the villains from Captain Planet? That's true, but in Werewolf this end result has a name, and the name is...

'''Pentex'''

More of a holding company than a business in its own right, Pentex is everything wrong with modern businesses cranked up to 11. Of course, all of the megacorporations of our world have at least some [[skeleton]]s in their closet, but Pentex takes it to the extreme. Its goal? Nothing less than the spiritual, moral and environmental degradation of the planet for the glory of the Wyrm, engineering a "controlled crash" scenario in which human civilization comes to an end, and Pentex alone survives to rule over the rubble. This is done in one of three ways: corrupting the world directly via pollution, selling Wyrm-tainted products to an unsuspecting public, or by subtly altering the minds of humanity via metaphorically poisonous messages. Most of the people working for Pentex don't know any of this, or even that they work for Pentex. They are regular people doing regular jobs (but depending on the writers Pentex leadership are varying levels of petty, exploitative assholes towards their employees), either unaware they are actively working to make the world a worse place or just too jaded and desperate to care.

Those elements of Pentex who are in the know are all corrupted sooner or later. If they aren't already part of the big happy Wyrm family like Banes or the Black Spiral Dancers, they can look forward to being turned into Fomori, horrific monsters warped by Banes into something more fitting to serve their master, and rather capable in their own right. Pentex is run by the secretive Board of Directors: six managing directors supported by five subdivision chiefs, all of whom directly worship the Wyrm and are beholden only to their master and their peers. Notably, the Director of Acquisitions and Information Collection is at odds with the Director of Human resources: the latter rather openly wants the former removed or dead, with the former being more covert with his plots to remove the latter. Then there's the likes of Harold Zettler: the Director of Special Projects. He has been a monster for almost four centuries now, has overseen the production of the most horrific Fomori and can keep them under control with his terrible powers. Zettler's appearance with his blue, icy skin, cold stare only interrupted when he remembers to blink, his unnerving way of talking and the rumors of him having been a cannibal, Nazi doctor, cult leader, serial killer and far more (and worse) lets him creep out even the most monstrous of his peers.

This is likely helped by the fact that Harold Zettler is a [[Malkavian]] [[Antitribu]] [[Vampire: The Masquerade|of the 5th generation, well-respected by the Sabbat]] and rumored to be the same person as the ancient ''Harold of Zettler'', who alongside his cabal dove into the terrible secrets of Dark Thaumaturgy to aid their [[Salubri]] allies to stand against the onslaught of the [[Tremere]] and their blood magics. According to legend this ancient betrayed his cabal to the Wyrm in exchange for the secrets of the Path of the Tyranny of the Wyrm. A few of the ancient's writings remain to this night, tempting Kindred to Infernalism. If these rumors are true, Harold Zettler is likely a millennium-old Methuselah, one of the most powerful servants of the Wyrm and a Kindred that even the [[Baali]] would be wise to avoid. He holds immense respect with the Sabbat, even with his rather limited participation within the Jihad. He has been offered the title of Priscus, a title he's considering. It's within his madness to spread the taint of the Wyrm even more, but this would expose Pentex to the Sabbat and he's lucid enough not to do so on a whim. Nobody on the board knows of this, and Zettler's currently debating the issue with his only Childer, Persephone Tar-Anis, the Pentex Chief of Security. She further complicates the matter by being loyal to both Pentex and her Sire, but doesn't care at all about the Wyrm. On top of all this, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h91Fri8FO8&index=14&list=PLqARvpQDkw7BjG41oDd8Ks6nquXkMV9Pg Harold Zettler also has given council to a subordinate regarding the various tribes of the Garou].

===Subsidiaries: the Many Faces of the Wyrm===
[[Image:Blackdog.jpg|thumb|Playing RPGs does this to you, according to Black Dog.]]The Wyrm possesses many subsidiaries, each corrupting the world in its own way. For every of these subsidiaries to be exposed, ruined or outright destroyed, Pentex has two ambitious new startups that it's soon going to integrate into its web to aid in the corporation's ultimate goal. A few of these subsidiaries are:

*'''Ardus Enterprises''' has their evil take the most basic and cartoonish form: dump toxic or radioactive waste wherever they can to infest as much land and as many people as possible without getting caught.

*'''Avalon Incorporated''' takes a more dated route: it's toys and TV that make children misbehave. Inserting Wyrm taint into the cheaply made toys designed to influence children and make them more pliable in the future. Products include the hideously violent ''Action Bill and the Danger Squad'', a borderline R-rated G.I. Joe parody who is often pitted against shape-shifters to condition the public to despise them (gee, I wonder how Pentex profits off of that); the Cici line of dolls meant to convey unhealthy self-images to impressionable young girls, the [[Pokémon|Pocket Beasts]] collectibles which are the target of Pentex-backed skinners to drive up the prices of certain figures to make more people want them (which should be eerily familiar if you're into Amiibo and the likes), the Nuke 'Em board/card game meant to teach the inevitability of nuclear war to spread despair and many more. The problem with Avalon is that the Garou can't just destroy all their stuff and kill everyone who uses it: there's just too much and they'd be killing kids. Aside from guiding moral authorities and fanning the fires of moral outrage there's little that they can do to directly oppose Avalon.

*'''[[Black Dog]] Game Factory''' is White Wolf making fun of themselves and the industry of a whole. Black Dog is also the imprint used for White Wolf's more risqué (read: adult and-or mature themed) books so as to not tarnish their good name. The logos of the two companies are also identical. To illustrate the former point, in-universe the company claims their games are far cooler since, instead of [[Dungeons & Dragons|"geek romps through Arthurian landscapes"]] or [[Star Trek|"nerdy]] [[Traveller| interstellar]] [[Star Wars|politics"]], they deal with ''REAL'' issues in the ''Real World™'', despite most of their plots and characters being shamlessly cribbed from the in-universe equivalents of Terry Brooks novels and ''Star Trek''. They even go so far as to resort to [[Satanic Panic]]-esque propoganda, as shown on the right.

*'''Endron Oil''' forms the heart of Pentex and is the most overtly destructive of all the subsidiaries. Remember that South Park episode where an accidental oil spill summons Great [[Cthulhu]]? Not only is that Endron's goal, they've made sure that the oil will spill. Valuing profit over safety, a large number of oil spills, humanitarian disasters and even the appointment and fall of despots can all be lead back to Endron if you know where to look. As it turns out, people don't really care about how workers are treated in some far-off African nation as long as oil prices stay down, and workers are willing to overlook a thing or two if it means the plant remains operational. On top of being the world's largest oil company Endron is a large player in the alternative energy industry, with geothermal energy being a favorite (because it requires highly polluting energy plants to harness this power) and (expensive and faulty) electrical cars coming into focus as well.

*'''Incognito''' is the Pentex Internet Defense Force combined with an anarchist hacking group. [[Anonymous|It's pretty obvious who they are based on, Guy Fawkes mask and all]], and between doxing sexual predators and providing sauce they attack anyone they like, including other Pentex subsidiaries. Certain elements within Pentex don't agree with this, but the ensuing chaos and the impotent rage against Incognito does more than enough to feed the Wyrm.

*'''King Distilleries''' is a collection of breweries, distilleries, moonshine stills and other booze manufacturers that make alcoholic beverages. From cheap beer to a variety of wines and a whole bunch of hard liquors, King makes it all. Owned by the King family, its former patriarch Dexter King was a stern but upstanding and fair man who ended up in a hospital and died of a lung disease. This was convenient for his son Jeremy King who not only sold the company to Pentex but also signed on for the whole Wyrm business. Overall King's plan to serve the Wyrm is simple: sell beer that's just a bit stronger than anyone else's, put in just a bit of Wyrm taint and let the ensuing rampant alcoholism do the rest. Because of this simple strategy paired with a clever marketing scheme and only the most basic of additional Wyrm-based enhancements has King rolling in money. Massive sums of that money goes into lobbying and bribes, they also publicly perform alcohol awareness campaigns and back AA groups to improve PR. [[Games Workshop|But when push comes to shove King employs its massive cash reserves to fun an army of lawyers, headed by Dexter's slavishly loyal younger brother Louis, to beat the fight out of their opponents with settlements and appeals until even the most hardened attorney backs down.]]

*'''Magadon Pharmaceuticals''' run the gamut of medical sciences. From vaccines to dermatology, vitamin pills and psychological treatment to even planned parenthood and veterinary care: Magadon does it all. While most of the people here truly want to make the world a better place, it's very easy for the servants of the Wyrm to mess with the things they make to have either minimal effect or even the opposite: downers become uppers, anesthetics tend to fail, antibiotics have something else in them, psychiatric therapy leaving people prone to possession and so on. This has the useful side effect of funneling already-skeptical humans down the dark roads of germ-theory denialism, alternative medicine, essential oils, and other such mommy-forum guff, undermining public faith in true medicine as a whole and letting other subsidiaries peddle their shady snake-oil.  They are also very useful for the other subsidiaries: Magadon is the market leader for Bane-in-a-Bottle that makes the lives of their fellow Wyrm-worshippers so much easier.

*'''O'Tolley's''' is what animal rights groups will tell you what McDonald's is. Sure they might appear healthy and eco-friendly these days, but their farms and slaughterhouses are places of death and disease, with animals and workers alike being sickly, tortured and covered in filth. The minimum-wage workers meanwhile are suffering because of the low pay and soul-crushing despair that comes with being a burger flipper. And the meals themselves... well, take ''Supersize Me'' and make it the norm. That's what O'Tolley's is like.

*'''Sunburst Computers''' combines everything wrong with Microsoft, IBM and Apple rolled into one. One of the world's leading manufacturers of computer hardware and software, Sunburst's profits shot up dramatically in the last decade by selling not only cheaply made computers to users all around the world, the smartphone and tablet business boomed and Sunburst boomed with it. Of course because this is Pentex Sunburst's computers crash all the time with all customer support being outsourced, their cheap SunPads having the nasty tendency to leak private information like [[PROMOTIONS|browser history]] to people who really shouldn't see it and their Solaris phones being very expensive, built to exact specifications and are made under appalling conditions. The Glass Walkers are best suited to combat them, and they often have to resort to MAGICAL WEREWOLF HACKING to enter their phones and PUNCH OUT THE MALWARE.

*'''Tellus Enterprises''' is everything wrong with the video games industry combined with poking fun at CCP Games, the current owners of [[White Wolf]]. Their games include the highly addictive Biological Warfare series (whose latest installment made $1 billion in under two weeks), the popular space MMO Eden Online (no points for guessing that one), The Clones and its spinoff Clones Online: both of which relying heavily on microtransactions to make a profit. All their games are designed to be highly addictive, have subtle anti-environmental messages, allow players to act like utter jackasses to one another or any combination of the above.

*'''The RED Network''' consists of conservative and other far-right/left talk shows and other programs that feed hatred, distrust and ideological zealotry while at the same time shilling the various subsidiaries of Pentex.