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While Freemasonry is frequently referred to in film and text, little research has been done into its occurrence in games. Curiously enough, this card game, preoccupied with conspiracy theory and the Illuminati, makes no mention of the freemasons. Please contact our editor with other examples.
ANTI-MASONRY FAQ
FREEMASONRY DEFINED
FREEMASONRY IN FICTION
BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI
MASONIC BIOGRAPHY
GAMES
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Illuminati,
New World Order
A convulated, confusing, and often quite humourous card game, the official card list of April 18, 1995 includes 413 cards with an additional 125 cards in an Assassins set. While none of the cards make specific reference or mention of Freemasonry, several cards refer to groups often associated with Freemasonry in the popular mind: the common cards, "Fraternal Orders", "Rosicrucians" and "Templars"; the uncommon cards, "Illuminati" and "Society of Assassins (Illuminati)"; the rare Illuminati cards, "Adepts of Hermes" and "Bavarian Illuminati"; and the uncommon rare card, "Illuminati University." The object of the game is world domination. Copyright 1995 Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. (1994)
The Bavarian Illuminati card depicts the illustration above, an eye in a pyramid. Through the ages, the all-seeing eye has been a pagan, Christian or new age symbol for God while the triangle represents the triune nature of God. While the freemasons will use the all-seeing eye alone or in a triangle, and the US Great Seal depicts an eye in a triangle above a pyramid, it is only in fictional usages such as this that the eye is actually in the pyramid.
The Adepts of Hermes card depicts the illustration at left. None of the symbols are uniquely masonic.
Illuminati was first released at the gamers' convention, Origins, in September 1982, promptly spawning two expansion sets, with an Expansion Set 3, published in January 1985, adding a board. In 1994, Steve Jackson reworked the old Illuminati card game into a trading-card format: INWO (Illuminati: New World Order). There have been two subsequent expansion sets: Illuminati Brainwash and Illuminati Y2K. GURPS Illuminati was released in 1992. [See: sjgames.com/illuminati/designart.html and io.com/~sj/sjbio.htmlM.]

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