WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Vampire: The Masquerade, by Tim Seely, Tini Howard, Blake Howard, Pramanik, Nathan Gooden, Addison Duke, and Andworld Design, on sale now.
Vault’s new comic Vampire: The Masquerade - Winter’s Teeth resurrects all the classic horror elements of the original 90s roleplaying. The comic features two separate stories that introduce readers to the World of Darkness.
Written by Tim Seeley and with art by Devmalya Pramanik, the titular first story "Winter's Teeth," follows Cecily Bane, a Brujah who serves Prince Samantha Merrain, ruler of the Twin Cities. Each issue ends with “The Anarch Tales,” which concern a family of Anarch vampires struggling to survive and hold themselves together. The stories illustrates a different element of Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game while helping to prepare for the upcoming video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.
"Winter's Teeth" immerses readers in the complicated feudal politics of vampires of the Camarilla through the eyes of Cecily Bane. A war is about to break out and challenge Prince Samantha's control over both of the Twin Cities, and since Cecily has avoided becoming entangled in the political intrigues of the court, she must prove her loyalty to her Prince or risk being treated as a potential enemy. She is encouraged to sire a new vampire Childe, but after finding a newly-sired vampire named Alejandra Deluna, Cecily takes the younger vampire in and falsely passes off Alejandra as her own Childe.
"The Anarch Tales" follow a family of Thin-Blood Anarchs outside the sphere of the Camarilla. The story, which is written by husband-and-wife team Tiny and Blake Howard and with art by Nathan Gooden and All Tales, opens from the perspective of Colleen Pendergrass, who was sired by her estranged husband. Colleen's Thin-Blood status allows her to hunt for blood in daylight but also has resulted in a lack of fangs. Focused on the mundane aspects of (un)life, this story juxtaposes a tragic domestic drama with the fear of being hunted by the New Inquisition.
Vampire: The Masquerade rose to prominence in the 90s as a horror game that emphasized the social and intellectual aspects of roleplaying as much as the combat mechanics more heavily pronounced in other games. A common saying at the time was the World of Darkness games were about roleplaying, rather than so-called 'roll-playing.' Players often relied less on dice rolls and rather character-based developments through the story.
The initial storyline of Vampire: The Masquerade came to an end with the apocalyptic Time of Judgment event in 2003 and 2004. This was followed by a new White Wolf game, Vampire: The Requiem, released in August of 2004. However, later that year the video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was released, functioning as a prequel to the Time of Judgment.
There have been several major developments in the years since, the most notable being the release of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition in 2018, which adapted the story and world to be better suited to modern times, and the announcement of an upcoming sequel to the popular Bloodlines video game, scheduled for release in 2021. Additionally, in 2019 the visual novel Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York was released.
Beyond introducing readers to the world, "Winter's Teeth" goes a step further by ending its final issue with character sheets for its two protagonists and including a blank character sheet at the end of the second issue, directly connecting the comic to the tabletop game while heralding the upcoming release of Bloodlines 2.