Publisher: Agon (A Game of Nerds)
We are in the future - a future where everything is already decided. As ants, men live their lives in vertical cities of glass and steel, lulled by alchemical technology in an apparent order. A divinity has descended on the Earth, offering humanity the peace and tranquility it so desperately wanted in exchange for the freedom to determine its own destiny, making the world a set of perfectly aligned gears. But this well ordered existence has cracks at its edges: other entities, sneaked in hidden from the merciless gaze of The One Who Has Many Names, in the shadows have contacted desperate people who were eager to become their own masters once again. The Aos, creatures of a place/non-place called Wonderland, offered these rebels to break the golden chains of the new divinity and to grant them powers unthinkable for a man of this world, even if the price to be paid in exchange was very high.
Basileo, the Emperor of the Earth Union, gathers under his wing all the Lost Children – those who make the pact with the Aos, known as the Exchange – protecting them from the retaliation of The One Who Has Many Names and its direct servants and at the same time preventing them from acting freely by throwing the world into chaos. Gathered under the aegis of the para-governmental organization Arcana Familia, the Lost Children protect society from both mundane crime and the malevolent influences of supernatural creatures who, one way or another, have penetrated the barrier between this world and the external planes, including the Aos themselves, whose alien interests may diverge considerably from the interests of humanity. The latter must remain oblivious to the events that unfold before its eyes, to avoid, as prophesied by Basileo, the opening of the Door that separates the various worlds and the consequences that this event would unleash.
At the same time, the Lost Children seek an answer to the endless questions that lie behind Basileo and the Arcana Familia. What do the Aos and the one they answer to really want? What is the true nature of the pact, or rather the trap, signed by mankind with The One Who Has Many Names? What's the latter planning for the world and for humanity, and what is the final destiny that awaits everyone? Which other worlds have been annihilated following similar events, and what is hidden in the boundless sea of Wonderland? Is there a way for men to regain their freedom, or are they destined in one way or another to be slaves of alien entities? Torn between the search for truth and the ongoing struggle for survival in a world that is no longer in the hands of humanity, the Lost Children can only count on themselves and on the relationship established with their Aos through the Exchange. The dangers are innumerable, both in the glass and steel jungle of the cities, among criminals and fools, stranger entities and renegade Lost Children, and within Arcana Familia itself, divided between countless factions, secrets and personal interests, whose members are losing more and more of their humanity in their search for power, influence and knowledge.
The players of Arcana Familia will play both the Lost Children and the Aos with whom they have made the Exchange. It will be at the discretion of the gaming group whether to divide the two roles among the various players, or to let each player play her own Lost Child and the Aos of another. This decision will be fundamental: one of the focal points of the game will be in fact the development of the strange relationship to which the pact has given life. Aos and Lost Children's interests can often diverge widely, but at the same time compromises must be accepted in order to move forward. The Aos, despite having nominally complete control over the capabilities and development of Lost Children, still depend on them to be able to interact with our world. Will a fragile truce with agreed rules be reached or will be created a relationship of love/hate, with retaliation and conflict? Which secrets will be hidden to the partner and which plots will be woven behind her back?
Find it out in the mysterious world of Arcana Familia!
