Vampire: The Masquerade – What You Need to Know About LA by Night – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Get to know the World of Darkness and Kindred society through Vampire the Masquerade - L.A. By Night.

The pen-and-paper game, Vampire: The Masquerade allowed players to create their own characters and create their own stories, each taking place in the World of Darkness. However, White Wolf Publishing's games had a larger meta-story that unfolded across different editions of the game and two video games, the latest beingVampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which will soon see a sequel.

Following the events ofBloodlines, the story of the Kindred in L.A. continues in the ongoing weekly web series, Vampire: The Masquerade - L.A. By Night, which is played using theVampire:The MasqueradeFifth Edition book.The series is considered canon, which means everything that occurs throughout the story regarding the state of Kindred society in L.A., or the rest of the world, will be reflected in future games, stories and the like. For those who wish to dive in and watch the meta-plot grow in real time, here's what you should know.

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The state of Los Angeles, where Kindred are concerned, can partially be explained by the events of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.Here,the Camarilla -- a vampire sect that enforces the masquerade -- lost its Prince, LaCroix, and its foothold in L.A., a city that had been an Anarch Free State for much of the last century. In essence, this means that instead of a single governing body, the city has been split into small baronies ruled by different Anarchs.

However, the ever-persistent Camarilla has installed a new Prince, Vannevar Thomas, who threatens the Anarch Movement and the freedom of the Kindred in L.A. The city is now in a state of tension as the Anarchs struggle to combat the Camarilla, encroaching from within and around the city.

L.A. By Night features a multitude of different characters, but generallycenters on a single coterie consisting of four vampires of the Anarch sect: former fashionista and Toreador, Nelli G; music mogul and Ventrue, Victor Temple; the enigmatic Nosferatu, Jasper; and finally, the rebellious Brujah, Annabelle. They are played by Cynthia Marie, B. Dave Walters, Alexander Ward and Erika Ishii, respectively. Other characters are played by guest players or World of Darkness Brand Marketing Manager Jason Carl, who also serves as the storyteller.

Related: Bloodlines 2's World of Darkness Is Home to More Than Vampires

As both Bloodlines and L.A. By Night are canon, several characters from the video games have made appearances throughout the series, including the Brujah and de facto baron of downtown L.A, Nines Rodriguez; the Malkavian baron of Santa Monica, Therese/Jeanette Voerman; and the Toreador baron of Hollywood, Isaac Abrams.

The story of L.A. By Nightbegan with an investigation into a mysterious outbreak on a college campus and the introduction of a mysterious fledgling, Annabelle. Over the course of the series, Annabelle discovered more and more about Kindred society in L.A. and, along with the rest of the coterie, dominated the Valley area. Victor and Nelli attempted to establish baronies of their own while fending off human Hunters and the Second Inquisition.

Success placed the coterie in the path of the Camarilla. That meant having to ensure their ties to fellow barons around L.A. were solid enough that an Anarch revolt could stand a chance, only none of it turned out the way anyone expected. Matters were complicated, not just by the political squabbles in L.A. itself, but by greater events such as the Beckoning. It was and continues to be a story about surviving the night in a society that constantly threatens to crush those who are unprepared, unwilling or too weak to attain power.

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The series was produced by Geek & Sundry until late 2019, when World of Darkness took over. The web series' episodes are all available online but partially scattered across different sites.

The web seriesused to stream weekly on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel every Friday at 8:00 p.m.. Episodes from Seasons 1-3 of the series have been archived and are still available on both the Geek & Sundry website and YouTube channel. Starting with Season 4, the web series will air exclusively on the World of Darkness Twitch channel before being uploaded tothe WoD YouTube channel.

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Narayan Liu (/Nran L/ in IPA) is a contributing features and news writer at CBR. His slowly developing writing career began with two independently published novellas and a blog that occasionally gets updated. He started writing both after moving from the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong to the tranquil countryside of Sweden. It was a passion he developed at a young age after his first ever book-- put together at the age of eight, using twenty odd sheets of paper and a couple of staples-- received glowing reviews from his mum. Nowadays Narayan writes about films, TV shows, and comic books for CBR as well as language and culture for FluentU. He does this while studying to become a much more skillful writer. You can follow him on his blog (narayanliu.wordpress.com), on Twitter (@Narayan_Liu) or contact him directly at Narayan(dot)Liu(at)gmail.com.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - What You Need to Know About LA by Night - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero