At the dawn of the twentieth century, London stands at the pinnacle of civilization. In this great city, four men wield unimaginable power.

The prime minister, from his seat in the parliament, governs vast swaths of the world. From his bank, the mogul controls the prosperity of all. The archbishop, leader of the Church, governs the spiritual lives of the populous. Lastly, from his unknown hideout, the crime lord runs the syndicate, a massive empire peddling in vice and corruption.

A prophecy says that one fateful day all four men will die. On this day, their successors shall fix the destiny of all mankind. Five supernatural factions vie to influence the outcome of this prophecy. Though they have tremendous abilities, they must work through the agencies of man to ensure the world is shaped to their liking.

Contents of the Game

Your game should come with the following pieces.

Setting Up

Take the four influence location boards and place them together to make one large square. The successor tracks form the outside of the square, while the underground forms in the center.

Place the successor pawns on their starting squares (indicated by the position’s name). As the game progresses, these pawns will move back and forth along their tracks, ultimately determining the fate of each successor.

Shuffle the primary and secondary prophecy cards and place them face down on the table.

Beginning The Game

Starting with the youngest player and moving clockwise, each player chooses a faction and takes its deck of personality cards. The youngest player also takes the turn indicator. He will act first when the game begins. Additionally, each player randomly draws both a primary and secondary prophecy card. The primary prophecy card indicates which trait in a successor the faction would prefer for each of the four positions. The secondary prophecy card indicates the first and last successor they would like to see come to power. These cards should remain hidden from the other players.

Before play begins, each player must place three personaly cards into their discard pile. They should be left with four personalities in their hand.

The Turn

Each turn is divided into four phases described below.

1. Preparation Phase

The player to the starting player’s right (counter clockwise) decides how much influence to put into each of the four influence locations. First he/she picks a location and places five corresponding color tokens in the center of that board. The next location picked receives four tokens, the third location receives three tokens, and the final location receives two tokens.

Example: The illustration on the Overview page shows one possibility. Here, the player chose to place 5 green influence tokens, 4 blue tokens, 3 brown tokens, and 2 red tokens.

2. Placement Phase

Beginning with the starting player and moving clockwise, each player takes one or more of the following actions in order.

Step 1. (required) take a personality card from your hand and place it face-down on one of the influence locations (parliament, syndicate, church, or financial district), the underground, or directly in front of you. You may not place a card in a spot that already contains one of your cards.

Step 2. (optional) turn one of your face down cards face up. This does not have to be the card placed in step 1. At this point you may use that personality’s power. Powers can only be used once and must be initiated when the card is first turned face up.

Step 3. (optional) If, in step 2, you turned a card face up in front of you, you may spend influence in one of the following ways.

The placement phase repeats until each player has placed three personality cards.

3. Reveal Phase

In turn, the cards at each of the four influence locations are revealed. The player with the highest strength takes the influence tokens at that location. In case of ties, the influence tokens are split evenly among all the winners, with any remainder being discarded. Next reveal all the cards at the underground. The player with the highest strength immediately takes the turn indicator and gives it to whomever he/she wants (including themselves). If a tie occurs here, the turn indicator remains where it is. (During the reveal phase, cards turned face up may not use their powers.)

4. Resolution Phase

At this point, all successor pawns are moved to their new positions, removing all influence tokens and returning them to their respective piles. If a pawn has reached the end of its track, it is considered locked and may not be moved for the remainder of the game.

If at least one position is locked and the remainder of pawns reside on the colored squares indicating they have clear successors, the game is over.

If the game continues, all played cards are placed in the player’s discard pile, and all previously discarded cards are returned to the player’s hand. Remove any unclaimed influence tokens from the board. A new turn begins with the preparation phase.

End of The Game

Once at least one successor is locked and all other successors have been resolved (they reside on a colored square), the game ends. For each successor that matches the player’s primary prophecy card, he/she received two victory points. Additionally, if the first successor locked matches that on the player’s secondary prophecy card, the player receives two victory points.

Likewise, if the last successor determined matches that on the player’s secondary prophecy card, the player receives two victory points. Matching both the first and last successor will garner the player an additional bonus victory point (5 points total). Each victory token the player has already acquired by "moving the masses" is worth one victory point. The player with the most victory points wins.

Trading

At any point during his/her turn, a player may exchange resources of one type for resources of another type. This exchange is done at a rate of 4 for 1. For example, a player with a surplus of religious influence decides to trade 8 religious influence for 2 political influence.

The Factions

Children of Light
These children of fire have remained loyal to the Almighty. They seek to lead mankind to its salvation and protect them from the evils that would lead them astray.

Children of Darkness
These fallen children of fire swear allegiance to Sammael, the accursed one. It is their ambition to lead mankind away from God.

Grigori (the Watchers)
Before God created the world, before He even conceived the nine choirs of angels, He brought forth the Grigori. These mightiest of celestials, were sent to watch over mankind, but their desire and greed corrupted them. Having brought forbidden knowledge to men, the Grigory have an understanding of technology missing in other celestials.

Sorcerers
Some men are not content to be pawns in this celestial game. They spend centuries researching and learning how to harness the power of angels in an effort to control their own destinies. With talismans and summoning circles, they have learned to thwart even the mightiest of supernatural foes.

Anakim/Nephilim
When the Grigori succumbed to the desires of flesh, they produced these hideous offspring. The Anakim are giants, voracious in their appetite for both food and power. The Nephilim are monstrosities relegated to the darkest shadows. Though these offspring are very different in nature, their hatred for their mortal and celestial parents unites them.