Embark on an epic odyssey through the legendary Satanic space and confront a new dark force of Annihilation.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
OV Forging beneath Bleeding Stars
5 days ago
– Sat, Mar 28, 2026 at 05:32:03 PM
The stars are aligning. As you can see, the Satanic Edition is the next milestone, and it will be released next week. The final finishing touches are being done right now.
While working on the alternate imagery for the Satanic Edition, we came away with the feeling that it would be a waste not to let some of those pieces enrich the Flesh Edition as well. So, while the most occult and overtly Satanic imagery, the more subdued coloration, and most of the margin texts will remain exclusive to the Satanic Edition, many of the alternate images will now replace the original pieces intended for the Flesh Edition, making it just a little darker overall.
On that topic, the first print files for the Flesh Edition have now been sent to the printers. The witches actually celebrated with something suitably sparkling last night.
The Flesh Edition will be printed on the same thick, gorgeous paper as the Legendary Edition and with its 136 pages it will be a nice sturdy book. The cover will be printed front and back with a gritty textured laminate, giving it a nice elegant sensation when handled.
Content-wise, there has been some changes since Ashen Edition 1.0. We are now waiting for the print files to be approved, after which we will update the DriveThruRPG Ashen Edition PDF to the latest version as well. Most of the changes are grammar and spelling corrections, but there are also a number of last-minute balance adjustments and some mechanical refinements.
Changes in short:
Spelling and grammar corrections
Adjusted some consumable loot opportunities to be Elixirs or Grenades instead
Balanced some costs of reparations in chapter 11
Balanced stats on adversaries through the entire campaign
Altered some instances of penalties to be material instead of character bound
Added an excerpt from Apothecary’s Journal
Since we ended up with one extra page to work with, we used it well and included 24 Elixirs from the upcomingApothecary’s Journalto spice things up and make looting a little more exciting. Together with the grenade section, this should also make the campaign more approachable for casual groups who may not be ready to dive straight into the full campaign, stat wise. But with explosives and drugs in abundance, blessed be the meek.
The printers are currently expecting an early May print window, and since we are shipping directly from the printers to the hubs this time, it should be substantially faster than when we launched the core game. My hope is that everything will be in backers’ hands before June.
(As usual, do not carve that prophecy into stone just yet.)
Here we share our current official roadmap. Not much has changed since the last one, time wise.
Ghost Engine BETA
We are very excited to finally share the beta for the Ghost Engine. It is a full-fledged online engine for playing, storing, and managing your sessions and characters online.
Players can create characters through a character wizard, which is far easier than flipping through pages in a book, while the GM oversees everything from a dedicated GM session, monitoring rolls and managing the flow of play. Players and GMs can roll dice, generate loot, vestiges, consumables, weapons, and armors, and instantly loot, sell, or equip gear onto a character sheet with a single click.
Ghost Engine - GM Session - Character view
There is also a shared notes tab for campaign notes, as well as a Journey tab where the GM can create chapters and songs that automatically award all players in the session with XP, which in turn updates their Skill Points and Quality Points as they level. All in all, it is shaping up to be a very neat system and should make playing online a great deal smoother.
Here are some examples of what the engine can do:
Vestige Generator - With random inspiration/rule suggestions/images.
Grenade Generator - Using the same logic
Elixir Generator
Poison Generator
Augment Generator
Gear Generator - With the ability to instantly transfer gear to the character sheet, sell it or use it as upgrade material and so on.
The ability to level up Corruptions and Dark Marks will be added in the coming weeks.
Stuff we are currently working on, and hope to have implemented in the engine before the full launch:
Automatic Learned and Daily Fragments system
Uploading maps/images and drawing or marking directly on them
A Party Sheet for the players’ collective assets
If you would like to register a GM account, which is needed to create a full session, visit our Discord and ask for the GM role into the black void. Satan will grant you access to the Setup Key you need. If you simply want to try the Character Wizard, you can enter Character Creation (Solo) to experience the player side of the engine.
Characters created this way can also be used for pre-gens and similar things, just remember to copy each character’s UUID and save it somewhere safe.
The Ghost Engine is still very much a work in progress, so expect some bumps and rough edges before official launch. But it is essential for us to get people inside it now, clicking buttons, rolling dice, and generally trying to break things, so we can see what needs to be improved before release.
As for the rest of the roadmap, things are looking fairly optimistic, and at the moment we do not see any clouds in the Satanic sky above the projects to come.
What is next?
Release - Satanic Edition - April 4th
Add on delivery - Size Chart - April
Printing - Flesh Edition - May
Release - Flesh Edition - June
Refine psychotic ember - flee flesh and soil - bury your arms inside god
You have no choice of life or death My face you will not see I'll rip your flesh 'till there's no breath Dismembered destiny Piece by Piece - Slayer
OV Ashen Release & Witchfire Ordinance
about 2 months ago
– Sun, Feb 08, 2026 at 03:12:31 PM
I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear:
How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry Every black’ning Church appals; And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot’s curse Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
ASHEN EDITION [2026-02-20]
Circle up. The candles are lit, the ink is warm, and Crown of Ruin is shedding its last skins before it is nailed shut in paper and judgement. Up here in Northern Sweden we've had a couple of weeks with -20 to -30 degrees Celsius, so the Witches are aching for some spring to come soon.
The full Ashen Edition is now available for all Crown of Ruin backers. We call it Beta 0.9 until it is official, but it is likely the final product, apart from a few spelling stabs or grammar curses. Go to your BackerKit digital downloads and it should be waiting there.
If anything looks wrong, odd, missing, doubled, misaligned, cursed, or otherwise suspicious: report it within the Google pdf. We still have time to correct issues before the book goes to print, and we would rather exorcise them now than discover them after.
THE EXPLOSIVE JOURNAL
For groups who like to solve problems with thunder, a new two-page spread has been added to Crown of Ruin: 30 grenades pulled from the Explosive Journal. They are designed for making things go boom in interesting, unkind, and very table-friendly ways. And if you think 30 is plenty: the full Explosive Journal will (hopefully) contain 100+ “grenades” and an unreasonable amount of fun, malice, and inconvenient consequences.
Seeing some of the comments from fellow GM's, some groups are going to need them to rise to the challenge that Crown of Ruin truly is!
Here are two examples to tempt your better judgement:
THE FUTURE
We are currently jumping on the Flesh Edition and trying to time a clean print-window with our printers. February is not off the table yet, the omens are dark as always, but not starless and bible black. Once the Flesh Edition is sent to the printers, we will immediately go feral on the final pass for the Satanic Edition. – Expect grime. Expect flesh. Expect gore.
ROADMAP
Here is our current Haxan Studios Road Map, and there is plenty to look forward to. The current thought is that one Kickstarter per year could be feasible – with a couple of smaller releases in-between. Each Kickstarter likely funding a couple of sourcebooks at once.
Other projects either in full bloom, planned, or plan to be planned are all in here (click the image for larger view):
The sourcebooks will acts as campaign guides to locations in the Fractured World, including:
An overview of the place (what it is, why it hates you, what it wants)
Adventure sites with maps
A handful of NPCs, establishments, and adventure hooks
Artefacts and vestiges, creatures to tackle, and loot worth bleeding for
Plus a shorter adventure in each book, to push the horizon outward and make the Fractured World feel endless in the best way
THE DEMON FORGE
The first iteration of “the Demon Forge – Weapons” is open right now. If you want to generate a gun or a sword with a click, go have a look. It makes generating loot faster and more fun, and far more likely to produce something you will regret handing to players.
We also built a "Death Singer - Hall of Fame" where you can enter your character and compete for having the highest Level. If you want your name etched into the black ledger, submit yours today.
Both of these are very much experiments, but nontheless, works surprisingly well.
As always: thank you for your patience!
“Even Hell sends flowers to a noble’s tomb.”
She's addicted to nicotine patches She's addicted to nicotine patches She's afraid of the light in the dark 6:58 are you sure where my spark is? Here, here, here!
She's convinced she could hold back a glacier (between cotton balls and xylophones) But she couldn't keep baby alive (I'm getting old) Doubting if there's a woman in there somewhere (I tell it too many times.) Here, here, here Tori Amos - Spark
OV the Crowning of the Gray Witch and 0902
3 months ago
– Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 12:55:00 AM
The Witches work around the clock to finish the tome of Ashen soil, and the Beta pdf has been updated to version 0.90.2.
Added content; Three “new” images, Maps or abstracts of most locations, extended lore for the final chapters as well as some mythical poetry to enhance the overall Astro Inferno feel of the events taking place. Also added a section for “when shit hits the fan” and players do what players do.
The total page count will be 132 pages + endpapers and hardcover, totaling 140 pages.
What is left to do?
Page numbers are correct, but pagination inside the texts are still not checked and need an oversight.
Consistency needs an overview and it is my plan to have this ready next week. So that stuff follows a nice red line and things aren't switching names suddenly. So much has changed during writing and concepts that were part of the initial drafts could still be present in the texts.
Balancing and mechanics fine tuning (and consistency check). I think we've reached a good balance of mechanics and their implementation (and explanation), but need to go through and make sure they are easy to understand. An example is the End troubles. I'm personally a fan of having them spelled out for the GM to read: “The creature writhes and raises its body and will slam down on you, at the end of this verse”. The problem with this is that: 1. It takes a lot of space. 2. It won't be consistent and needs to be individually changed for each instance and wont work to read for each situation. So it could even be harder for the GM.
Game balance. This is probably the hardest one and can't be done without playtesting. But we'll do our best to logically go through each chapter to see if the mechanics seem rational, compared to a fictional "median" group. Astro Inferno is quite forgiving when it comes to mechanics because of its death/rebirth, but it is also quite extreme with many instant kills and surprise twists.
When all of this is done we're moving over to the Flesh Edition and its additional contents, and finally when we've gotten the books to the printers, we're doing the Satanic Edition.
If you want to influence the contents or just see the spectacular stuff in the campaign, the beta is available to read in your Backerkit Digital Contents section. We want as many eyes as possible on the texts to find as many as possible of the pesky errors.
92% have finished the Survey, if you still haven't finished it, please do as soon as possible so we can move on to printing at the end of this month.
In the Fracture’s shimmering desolation, prayers’r coins and songs’r chains, a shadow witch walked alone, crowned with cold, alut sensation.
A King of Midnight, faceless, near, spoke soft as ash in thirsty ears; he promised back the vanished dawn by teaching ruin how to throne.
He set one pearl before her sight, a seed of silence, heavy, white; it sang no hymn, it made no sound, yet existence grew thin with fright.
- Ballad of the Witch of Ruin 1:1 - 1:3 Tantius, High Witch of the Phosphor Coven
OV The Shattered Crown & the Purged Pages
3 months ago
– Sat, Jan 10, 2026 at 07:05:19 AM
It is done! (well sort of)
For the first time, The Crown of Ruin can be read from the first cursed page to the last, cover to cover, in full-blown infernal glory. The text of the campaign is complete. The campaign exists now, not as scattered fragments, not as a heap of notes and rituals, but as a single, continuous journey from the first step into the void to the final shattered crown, (or Still World). It is already looking spectacular on the page, even if some of the mortal details are still shuffling around in the shadows.
Pagination is still a mess (pages are phasing in and out of their proper places like lost souls), and we are doing minor editing passes across the entire tome. But all the major arteries are in place and pumping black ichor as intended.
I am expecting a full Ashen Edition beta to be ready this coming week. That version will be the complete campaign in one coherent volume, ready to be read, ready to run, but still open to small refinements.
On top of what you will see now, we are still adding and polishing:
Added appendix entries: A couple of maps – key locations rendered so you do not get entirely lost in Satan’s shattered cartography. A grenade section – because sometimes negotiations in the Fracture require a more… persuasive tone.
Continuity passes – tightening up things that have changed during editing.
Streamlined stat blocks & rules – during development some things got better.. or worse.
Balancing – not sure we ever get there... But hey, we’ll make a try at least.
We're looking at about 130 pages in the final version. A couple more in the Satanic Edition.
From the Digital Void to the Physical Flesh
The current plan (written in bone dust, not yet in blood) is to spend January finalizing the three editions and have the Flesh Edition sent to the printers in February. We haven’t booked a printing slot yet, but we’re getting there. Bare with us.
New sets of illustrations with a new epic brush I found. Check them out in the BETA pdf.You'll probably see more like this in the future.
The beta version of the campaign is already available in your BackerKit digital downloads. You should have a mail from us waiting. This is the full campaign, playable from start to finish. Close to final version, but still flexible enough for us to enhance, with the help of your feedback.
If you have time and energy, we would love any eyes you can spare to help scour the texts before we slam the “DONE” sigil on there.
The campaign is ready to play right now if you are eager to sink your teeth into it and drag your group through the Crown of Ruin ahead of the printed book, then you can absolutely begin your descent now. Just be aware that the blood might still be sticky at places, and the file will be updates the coming weeks.
Thank you for walking this long, cursed path with us. We are very close to placing the Crown of Ruin in your hands. Then the Black Stars of Lake Hali - awaits.
"In dim eclipse, cunning plants, the soiled monarch, of breathing flesh"
Despite all my forms In spite of my warmth I hear whispers of someone else And their grip is merciless on me So come and take it from me You won't Mercia - Thornhill
OV The Eternal Dance of Manuscripts
3 months ago
– Wed, Dec 31, 2025 at 04:57:20 AM
O Rose thou art sick The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm
Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. The Sick Rose - William Blake
We are presently deep in the final layout pass of Crown of Ruin. The texts are set, the margins are behaving, and the book is rapidly congealing into its final, printable form. Act I and Act II are fully assembled and ready for review. If you are a backer with digital access, a preview should already be waiting for you in your BackerKit digital downloads. Go open it. Stare down into it. Let it stare back into you.
This is also the last practical moment to adjust text, clarify procedures, and catch contradictions before we hard-lock the campaign for print and final export. If you have time to proofread, we would be grateful for any notes you can provide, especially on:
Unclear instructions or missing steps
Contradictions between lore and mechanics
Layout issues (tables, headings, stat blocks, readability)
Typos, tense shifts, naming consistency
You should be able to make comments in the pdf:s themselves.
A small expectation-setting charm: the preview is not a perfect reflection of the final file. The structure is stable, but we are still doing layout and detail passes, which means spacing, pagination, and some placements will change.
We’re as an example hesitant about the synopsis. Should we have a full campaign synopsis at the very start of the book, or keep the current structure: each act begins with its own synopsis and framing. Tell us what you think.
After you read the preview, tell us which you prefer and why. The correct answer is whichever makes the campaign easiest to run at the table, especially when the room is loud, the pizza is arriving, and someone has already forgotten what happened last session.
We are genuinely proud of what Crown of Ruin is becoming. The puzzles, the art, the intricate details, the deepened lore and overall infernal cadence are aligning exactly the way we intended, unmistakably Astro Inferno. The machine is purring. The coven is pleased. The book is… reluctantly cooperating.
As of now, 82% of backers have answered the BackerKit survey. If you have not done so yet, please log in and complete it as soon as possible, it is essential for fulfilment and prevents delays later.
The Great Trial is currently at a stand still, but the Witches will be throwing fuel at that fire sooner than later. But not today.
Questions or issues are easiest to resolve via Discord or email, details in bottom of the Kickstarter campaign. Reach out whichever way is fastest for you, and we will respond as soon as possible.
A true Satanic funeral ends with fire, blood, and something missing from the will.
This is me Hell, I don’t know where it went wrong I was chewed out spitting blood Guess I was holding on to dust
But can we wait for this feeling to pass? It’s like a drug feeding me in the dark We’re on the run from the King of Terrors Just look away, there’s no need to scare us. In the Name of the Father - President
