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(Image: ILLUMINATI CARD GAME)

A card game appears to have pinpointed future events BEFORE they happened with chilling similarities to what really unfolded.

At first glimpse it looks like a normal fantasy card game families would play to unwind after Sunday lunch.

But a closer look reveals a more sinister side.

Steve Jackson's Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy was released in 1995 as a challenging role playing pursuit for people aged 12 and above.

Players take the role of a secret society and draw cards as they plot world domination.

Nothing too alarming with that.

(Image: GETTY)

But conspiracy theorists believe the game was designed and launched by a real-life secret society pulling the strings behind the scenes and plotting the global agenda.

The first trigger is the game's title – "Illuminati".

For years the idea of the illuminati has been the focal point for the majority of conspiracy theorists, who believe a shady group consisting of the world's elite are orchestrating a plot to usher in a New World Order.

Crackpot theories suggest the society was behind the 9/11 terror atrocities in New York and Washington – and even the first and second world wars.

The Illuminati game consists of more than 100 cards with cartoon artwork split across goal, group and special event cards.

(Image: GETTY)

But it's the game's themes and possible prophecies that have spooked both players and conspiracy theorists.

Here Daily Star Online looks at the cards and what the future has in store for us.

The 9/11 Terror Attacks

(Image: ILLUMINATI CARD GAME)

Nearly 3,000 people died after a series of al-Qaida terror attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001.

Two passenger jets smashed into both towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan causing them to collapse onto the city below.

Terrifyingly, two of the cards in the Illuminati card game seem to foresee the attacks.

The "Terrorist Nuke" card depicts drawings of two large towers with an explosion ripping through the middle of one of the buildings.

The top of the building is also tipping to the right, suggesting it is about to collapse.

(Image: GETTY)

The image is strikingly similar to the horrifying pictures relayed back as the World Trade Center burned.

Another card called "Pentagon" shows the US defence HQ burning.

The Pentagon was targeted in the same atrocity and suffered serious damage after a commercial plane smashed into the side of it.

These cards were released in 1995 – six years before the events unfolded.

The death of Princess Diana

(Image: ILLUMINATI CARD GAME/GETTY)

Another strange inclusion is the "Princess Di" card.

Wearing a tiara and a purple dress, she is surrounded by the paparazzi flashing away with their cameras.

Strangely, the card comes with the description that she is "immune to attacks by your rivals' Peaceful or Liberal groups…except for the media".

Although it makes no reference to her dying, the fact she has a card all to herself to set off alarm bells for conspiracy theorists, with some claiming her death in 1997 – two years after the release of the game – is not as clear cut as it seems.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan

(Image: IG)

One of the wild claims made by doom mongers suggests the "Combined Disasters" card depicts the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

The card shows a clock tower collapsing with citizens running away from the chaos behind them.

Many believe the clock in the card is the Wako tower in the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo and claim the image foretold the 9.0 magnitude quake that hit in March 11 four years ago.

Nearly 16,000 people died in the quake and devastating tsunami.

Oil Spill

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Oil spills are nothing new but there are some that claim the "Oil Spill" card in the game predicted the devastating BP leak off East Grand Terre Island in 2010.

The card shows a bird covered in thick, black crude oil – strikingly similar to the sombre photos showing marine wildlife caught up in the aftermath of the disaster.

"Oil spill" is an in-game disaster card and is described as "an instant attack to destroy any coastal place".

Jihad

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The rise of ISIS and the threat to our safety over the past year has rarely been away from the news agenda – but was its rise predicted in the game?

The "Jihad" card gives a player the chance to control or resist a fanatical group and features a drawing of a Middle Eastern looking man holding a machine gun while resisting enemy fire.

The image is strikingly similar to footage beamed across the world of Jihadi fighters currently operating in Syria and Iraq.

And with Russia's latest military intervention in Syria, the card has never been more prevalent.

WHAT'S NEXT?

World War 3

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Perhaps the most chilling card of them all.

The "World War 3" card gives players the chance to unleash another global conflict to usher in a New World Order, which is also featured on it.

A large drawing of a mushroom cloud – suggesting a third global war will be nuclear – takes up most of the card.

Is this a stark prediction of what's in store for us?

Gun Control

(Image: IG/PA)

Not one for us in the UK but the idea of gun control measures being introduced in the US has been a major talking point this year.

Mass shootings are becoming more common across the Atlantic and just last night (October 1) Brit Chris Harper-Mercer went on a murderous rampage at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

The card shows what appears to be a man's arm being held down on the ground by a boot while other hands try to prize away a handgun from their grasp.

Splatters of blood are also scattered around the card.

But many conspiracy theorists believe firearm attacks – such as the Sandy Hook shootings or the Virginia Tech massacre – were carried out by secret societies to push through gun control measures and disarm the American population.

Meteor

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Uh oh – another world ending prediction.

Players have the opportunity to turn over a meteor card and wipe out their opponents.

But with the other chilling cards, is this a forthcoming event?

The idea of an asteroid or comet destroying our planet this week was predicted by self-styled prophets, who believed the apocalypse would coincide with the Blood Moon phenomenon.

That didn't happen – but there's always the fear of a giant space rock wiping out mankind.