In 1995 games designer Steve Jackson created a role-playing card game called Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy. When playing, you take on the role of the shadowy puppet masters who supposedly make up the ruling elite of the Illuminati. Your mission is to launch black-ops false flag attacks on your own people, and generally conspire to act out evil plans to elevate your own wealth and, more importantly, to strengthen your ironfisted grip on world domination

Speaking on Steve Jackson, Blankenship says: “Steve is a huge fan of conspiracy theories. Not that he believes in them—as far as I could tell in five years of working with him—rather, he is immensely entertained by them. As for the "predictions" from the cards, it's pretty much like any psychic—say that a Middle Eastern leader will be killed next year and you have a decent chance of getting it right.”

I got in touch with Dan Smith, the main card illustrator, who told me, “Unknown to most, and I say this with a degree of apprehension, speaking out now that the events are in the past, Steve dabbled in reprehensible, unclean practices to obtain his card ideas. I wouldn't say a Golden Dawn level of occult mastery, but there were times I would get messages from people who I didn't know... Steve often kidded that he was Nostradamus' second cousin's grand-nephew. Now I wonder...”

“The Twin Towers card is actually titled Terrorist Nuke, which I recall from that time was a concern relating to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” says Grigni. “Terrorism was heating up as a 'headline seller' without the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation, but we were still looking at Hamas and Palestine as likely culprits for such acts. Art direction-wise, frankly a nuke wouldn't just blow up one building, even a 'tactical' nuke would do damage on a much larger scale. It does seem oddly prescient, given the 'twin towers’ shown.”