Sorry I was silent yesterday, was stuck in a conference for over 12 hours...so, I'm playing a little catchup...
1) Valgard's Background: Valgard was born in the "bad part" of Austin, the child of a single "exotic dancer". At the age of 13, he got in a fight with a couple of older "tough boys" that called his mother a whore. He had his first change, and would have killed them both had his father, who had been secretly keeping tabs on him, intervened.
His father is Stalks-the-Wyrm, an Adren Lupus Fenrir Ahroun (that's right, his father is lupus, he is homid) member of the sept (mentor). A week after his first change, Stalks took Valgard to Norway to a "proper Fenrir sept" for training and to undergo a "proper" Fenrir Rite of Passage. He has returned recently (fitting with necessary plot or background ties) to join a pack try and earn his father's respect (there are daddy issues because he was born a crescent moon instead of full moon).
2) Re: Pack dynamics/why are we a pack...
I think there are a few ways to go about this. One way I've seen that I like is that the pack was dictated by the sept leaders to deal with a specific issue. This might be to deal with "those vampires over there," or to find a lost fetish in the umbra, or whatever. We were chosen specifically to be members of the pack for "reasons"; maybe we're the only packless cliath's, maybe there are issues between some of the tribes here, and making a multi-tribe pack of cliath is a way to show how the tribes can work together better. Extra points of there's a Shadow Lord who, for "reasons", wants to see the pack fail, and made sure it included a Fury and Fenrir (always volatile), and a Gnawer and Silver Fang, to sow discontent.
I like this approach because it doesn't require us to shoehorn backgrounds so everyone knows each other, it gives us a reason to work together even if we don't like each other (for example Valgard wants to succeed because that means Glory for him, which leads to earning respect from his father, so he'll work with whoever he has to). And it helps narrow down the totem search. If we have a specific purpose, that will dictate the best totem; war is probably the best way to go for killing vampires, while a totem that grants bonuses in the umbra (owl, uktena, etc.) would make sense if we've been tasked to search the umbra.
3)
Jimena:
Things I dislike in Werewolf Games(in no particular order)
-Player fights over who gets to be alpha, and heavy emphasis on "alpha-ness" in general; constant IC calls for challenges
I'm curious what
exactly you mean by this. I
totally agree that players fighting over who gets to be alpha is a sure-fire way to destroy a game. But, I do think pack alpha, dominance and submission, and the like are an integral part of Werewolf and completely dismissing them from the game changes it significantly. For example, the "offset" to the game mechanics advantages that metis get, beyond their flaw, is that they're generally treated like crap by other garou. Many of the mechanics of the game are specifically designed to bring this aspect of the game out. Pure Breed is a perfect example, and something I would expect our Silver Fang to exert. There is no reason that character disagreements/challenges should ever become player issues.
Now, I agree that "constant" IC challenges are not helpful, and something that a good Philodox should deal with, but being able to challenge the pack alpha if you don't like their way of doing things is, I believe, part and parcel to the Werewolf experience, just not when you're out on a mission where there is no time for such nonsense. That should happen back at the sept between missions. With that being said, since we have a Silver Fang in the group, I think the assumption, at least in Valgard's eyes, is that she will start as the pack alpha.
4) I'm in agreement with Jimena's "like" list, but would add another; sept life. ST, as you keep mentioning a "larger pack", I wonder if that could instead be a sept? That would still provide a hierarchy over our pack, and allow us to explore other aspects of sept life, like moots, caern rites, sept positions, having to deal with other packs if our mission takes us into their territory, etc. It's an aspect of Werewolf that I feel often gets lost, and is something I feel that sets it apart from other games. Like Jimena said, the pack should be a family (albeit likely dysfunctional), while the sept should be our extended family.