Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mark Rein-Hagen began developing the World of Darkness series in 1990 at White Wolf Publishing. His goal was to create a new major role-playing game project following his 1987 work on Ars Magica.
Vampire: The Masquerade arrived in 1991 followed by Werewolf: The Apocalypse in 1992, Mage: The Ascension in 1993, Wraith: The Oblivion in 1994, and Changeling: The Dreaming in 1995. These early releases used the Storyteller rule system and were designed as annual entries in a planned series.
CCP Games acquired White Wolf Publishing and its intellectual properties in 2006. Business operations continued normally until 2009 when CCP began shifting staff toward video game development which caused tabletop production to slow significantly.
Over three million game books sold by the late 1990s made White Wolf the second largest tabletop publisher after TSR Inc. By 2001 Vampire: The Masquerade ranked as the second best-selling role-playing game behind Dungeons & Dragons.
White Wolf ended the original series in 2004 with Time of Judgment which was a collection of books concluding overarching narratives across multiple lines. Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming, Demon: The Fallen, Hunter: The Reckoning, Kindred of the East, and Mummy: The Resurrection all received final story arcs during this event.