Aquarian Age (アクエリアンエイジ) is an out-of-print Japanese collectible trading card game. It is marketed and produced by Broccoli, which produces games and Anime-related goods.
In the game, the player takes the role of a "Mindbreaker", who can control and unlock the powers of the game characters. The goal is to defeat other Mindbreakers (players) and to grow stronger. The game continues until the player has defeated all of their opponents, or has been stripped of their powers; thus being knocked out of the game.
Unlike similar TCG, the player fields game characters instead of spells. They must gain control over each character before it can be used in a game. If a player is unable to control a character properly, it may turn on them.
The Aquarian Age franchise now supports a PlayStation game, a comic book, and a TV series; Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution featuring a musical score by composer Yuki Kajiura.
Story
As far as the history of humanity is concerned, there has always been war. Conflicts overt and covert, known and secret, battles fought that would influence the histories of future generations. Across centuries, three secret but powerful organizations have fought for control, even as mere mortal forces struggled with their own petty wars and attempts at grandeur. These three forces have worked to shape mankind's destiny with their powers of magery, savagery, and mysticism all the while keeping away from the eyes of those they control.
Each force was a counterbalance to the other. Arayashiki represented the mysticism of the Eastern world. WIZ-DOM subsisted on the magicks of the Western world. Finally there were the inhuman Darklore, from which tales of were-beasts and changelings abound. Each faction, however, sought also to duel with the others for control and power. Using both their abilities, and their influence over those they controlled, these forces caused many of the great battles humanity knows as part of its bloodstained history. Today, two millennia since it had begun, these three forces were locked in stalemate.
The year 2000 AD, the opening of the 21st century. The Age of Aquarius which astrologers had long since foretold, had finally arrived. Some believe it to be an age of peace, a new world order. Others proclaim it as the coming of the biblical end times. Whatever truth it would be, the Aquarian Age is the age of great changes, during which the shape of humankind would never be the same. From this generation emerged a new breed of human, one with the ability to influence objects and other people with the mere power of their minds. Calling themselves E.G.O., this group of psionics claimed to represent the new evolution in humankind, a new faction that challenged the existing triumvirate for the power to shape destiny.
Another group also emerged; Individuals who have the gift to both empower and control members of the other factions, and using them to fight their battles. This unaligned group's members gained control of agents from the previous groups, just as those factions once did mortal men. These were the Mindbreakers, who were loyal to no one but themselves, and served their own personal agendas.
Anime
Aquarian Age was adapted into an animated Japanese television series, Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution.
Factions of the Aquarian Age
Arayashiki
The Arayashiki represent the eastern mages, primarily the onmyouji, who practice magic in theory with the Tao (Yin and Yang). Most of the members of this group seem to primarily represent Japanese mystics, but Chinese (and maybe even Indian) mages are included as well.
Although not as widespread as E.G.O., most Arayashiki members are quite commonly found, even ignored, in modern Asian society. Most of their kind occupy Asia as a whole, with particular concentrations in Japan and China (two of the most socio-politically developed nations in the region). Typical Arayashiki skills include the ability to commune with spirits and nature, all inclined towards the Eastern forms of magic (such as onmyoujitsu). Some are even skilled with martial arts of varying types, as well as Eastern (particularly Japanese) archaic weaponry.
Common types of Arayashiki are: Miko (Japanese shrine-maidens) and other spiritually-inclined occupations. Many martial arts practitioners of the esoteric bent, especially the infamous Ninja, are also surprisingly common among them as bodyguards and spies. Of particular note is that members of the Ainu indigenous tribes of northern Japan also figure quite strongly with them. The remainder of the Arayashiki consist of spirits, especially those of various Asian mythological figures.
The Arayashiki are highly traditionalist, and clash constantly with their direct western opposite, the WIZ-DOM.
The name "Arayashiki" most likely comes from the Japanese word for the Buddhist Yogacharan concept of a store consciousness, the idea that karmic occurrences are "stored" in the unconscious and affect our karma and perceptions of the world.