Astro Inferno

Ov the Beta 2.0 and Misery
almost 2 years ago – Fri, May 27, 2022 at 12:18:23 AM

FIRST

Development is coming along fine altogether. We’ve tweaked the main mechanics somewhat and made some general simplifying changes to characters and their creation, trying to streamline the process as we go.

Finishing the lore has been paused while we’ve mostly been trying to finish up the Beta 2.0 to start more general playtesting. In this process we’ve accidently written an over the top epic adventure called “The Festering Heart”, that we really tried to get finished for this update, but we have to make another update next week when it is finished. Because of this we’ve chosen to delay the Beta 2.0 also until next week, giving it all to you in one fat package.

You can download a preliminary and unfinished version of the Beta right now from the quickplay link from the Kickstarter page. (faaaar down)

SECOND

Let’s discuss the Misery and the reason we’ve decided to call this game “Beyond grim dark”.

Player characters zoom through this world as Greater souls, slaying gods and socializing with greater entities, and seldom show much interest for the dreadful and horrific life that most souls in Fracture are living. 

From the perspective of an Ashen or Soiled soul this world is a purgatory of trials and horrendous despair. They live their fear filled life day by day, more focused on surviving than actually living. Locking themselves in poorly maintained and often ruined homes, only coming out to satiate their lusts and inner demons.

Few actually participate in the soul "society" and those who do often are anxious and tense, living their lives in the shadow, or circle of a Greater soul who cares for them, or at least makes them feel safer. It could bea tavern owner who wants to maintain and build a community, a local Undying scientist trying to research this new world or even a mad, self-proclaimed, mayor whose reign, even if it is sadistic and tyrannical, is better than the alternative.

Communities without greater souls are often pure anarchy, where every night is a slaughter-fest of murder, violence and rape. Such settlements often turn into desolated places within a few years and unless a Greater soul or even a Satanical being decides to turn it into something else, it's often lost into the Unlaw.

Soiled souls are present in all societies, they're souls who have gone too far into corruption to be real people anymore. They are mostly harmless, wandering the streets dressed in rags, if at all, fools and idiots, starring, mumbling, laughing, harassing and gathering around other souls in some sort of existential hunger - to be part of the sweet unlife again.

Adventurers and Satanic beings pass through the shit filled streets of these settlementsfrom time to time, and that souls disappear or get killed in their wake is a very common occurrence, not even worth mentioning. Corpses can litter the streets, face down in mud, until they are unrecognizable as such, before anyone bothers to remove, them because of vermin or wild creatures are starting to take interest. 

In more developed settlements corpses in the street often means that the local butcher can offer fresh or semi-rotten meat, for a day or two. Something worth celebrating, for the few souls who can afford such luxurious extravagances.

In the black water - The sun shining at midnight

The fruit shall come ripe - in the golden darkness

I'm losing my faith in you

You don't want it to be true

But there's nothing you can do

There's nothing you can do, yes, I've lost my faith in you

I'm waiting for your call and I'm ready to take your six six six in my heart

I'm longing for your touch and I welcome your sweet six six six in my heart

- Sweet 666

Ov Survey & Pregnancy
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 02:09:32 AM

FIRST
All surveys are on their way out and the answers are starting to pour in! If you can’t find the mail it should be titled “Response Needed — Get your reward for Astro Inferno”.

It can get stuck in trash cans and spam filters if you’ve got them since it could look like spam to the divine algorithms.

If you still have not got your survey by the end of this week, contact us and we’ll see if something is up.

SECOND
Our brand new webpage is up! It is superheavy with art and we’re going to optimize it further to make load times better. If you’ve checked the old webpage and the kickstarter there is not much that is new for you, but we managed to squeeze in some little tidbits of brand new shiny stuff.

Oh and by the way it is not proofread yet so if you find any spelling mistakes we’re glad to be informed of them!

THIRD
Something that won’t be explored thoroughly but still is a cool thing about the world of Astro Inferno is the offspring of Gods and Angels. Gods and Fallen angels have procreated for a long time, making half breeds of gods and true unlight and even genesis powers. The birth of these new entities, that can be half Golden Blooded and half True Unlight in the worst case, often takes mythical proportions. Being born out of someone's skull fully dressed for combat or opening someone's chest like saloon doors, stepping out into the world as a god of blood.

There will only be lore-driven and inspirational examples of these myths that can be created in the game and used in stories. An Undying character waking up from cryostasis, unknowingly impregnated by a Red God could be a cool start of a campaign.

Well, let’s leave the blood gods to their own business and look forward!

Free our minds - from the chains of our gods

The night is full of grace

The trees, they shine

King of the afterworld drives his chariots home

The breasts of mothers are overflowing
The night is full of grace

To the earth we return
- The Breasts of mothers

Ov Dis
about 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 06:32:19 PM

FIRST
 The Survey has started to be sent out to you and it will be done in chunks during the weekend. We’ll give you another commune when they are all sent out so you can check your spam filters and trash cans in case you have yet to receive it.

 In the pledge manager you have a cart just like a web shop with what you have pledged in the Kickstarter and you can change your pledge or add add-ons if you please, this is not final and the pledge manager will stay open at least until July, (probably longer) before being locked.

 In the survey we need to collect your card information again since we’re now in backerkit and the pledges were charged by Kickstarter. The information is needed even if you don’t add any add-ons, for shipment at a later date and nothing will be charged at this time.


SECOND
 Let’s talk a little lore.
 Today we’re visiting DIS, the unholy city of Satan.

 Locations can differ in size between a room and a desert. But some locations can be really large and Dis is one of these exceptions. Some say it spans 4 eternities across and some say it is eternally expanding, while some say it is shrinking. What is clear is that the events of the Damnation still linger within its walls. The skyline is dominated by Industrial palaces and Fortresses of torture and death, powered by the unholy forces from the rivers of the underworld that pass through the city.
 

 Dis also houses the largest number of True Unlight and their kin in all of Fracture and to a small extent also some of the less scrupulous Ancients that call the city home. Since the Great Dark the access to fresh souls has diminished, making most servants and workers of Dis antiquated and decaying. New souls are therefore an always highly sought commodity, both for replacements as servants but also to feed the never-ending need of sacrificial fuel.

 In Dis you can find some of the most mythical places of the Black Kingdom such as Avenue de Malizia - the road to lost Pandemonium, the highly overworked Ministry of Souls and the Black plaza where traitors of Satan are brought to be filled with mucus and bile from the ancient Cocatrice before hammered into the very stones of the square.
 

THIRD
 Progress is coming along fine. There has been a lot of administration this last month, but after this survey is sent out and we’ve sorted out all kinks and administrational bullshit, we’re heading directly into development full throttle again and maybe can share more of this fabulous, dark world we’re creating.

Hope you all get through this in one piece and - catch you on the black side!

 “Mightiest self!

Cast out of thy Elysium

With blood of Nazarene

I write the history of man

2000 years is nothing

though it has been enough

Come forth victorious

muting the foul angelic choirs!”
 - Conquer All

Ov Magic
about 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 17, 2022 at 03:00:01 PM

FIRST
  The Survey has yet to be sent out to you. We’re waiting for a review process that may take a few days more, but we hope that it’ll be sent out in the coming week. We’ll share an update when it happens so you don’t miss it. 

Getting the hype up. 

SECOND
  We’d like to share some progress on the construction front also and today we’ve come to “Magic”.

Rituals
  Arcane users can manipulate the aether and the unlaw through psychic programming, a kind of “think hard enough and it happens” kind of thing or wish-magic. There are a total of seven schools and they manipulate reality in different ways.

Celestial rituals  “Miracle workers”
  These are short psalms and have great effect on the fate or events they affect. Their casting is almost silent and often poetic words read by the caster. Their effect is totally invisible and the target or bystanders never see that a ritual has been cast. But the time aspect is in control of mother time and could be next minute or next year.

  Celestial fragments are hard to come by and can only be learned through artifacts, blessings or by reading old tomes. The Satanic Court are very eager to get their hands on Celestial mystics.

Aether rituals - Three schools (Salt, Sulfur and Mercury)
  These manipulate the aether around the mystic and can affect anything from the physical to emotion or personality to events or fate of souls. But they are colorful, loud and very visible to all nearby and things affected by rituals shimmer with the aetherial shine. While casting the Mystic draws flaming sigils in the air in front of them making even what they are casting identifiable.

 Abyssal Rituals - Two schools (Satanic and Death)

Satanic mystics use the power of the unlight to form their effects and these spells are dangerous and dark in both nature and effect. They are powerful and affect mostly the physical world with a focus on deforming and destroying. Effects of abyssal rituals are somewhat sentient, demonic and can turn and twist the mystics' intentions and some haunt the location where they are cast or the Mystic themself for hours or days after casted.

  Death rituals are something completely else and we probably touch that subject further ahead.

Abyssal fragments are also hard to come by, as with celestial fragments. All mystics within the Satanic Church and Legion are Abyssal mystics.

Witchcraft
  Witchcraft is grotesque and messy magic, using the aether and unlight within all living things to affect reality and dreams. Witchcraft is a blend of Aether and Abyssal but tainted and more connected to nature. They are also the rituals closest related to matter and objects, and witches are often equally alchemists and are experts on programming objects with both aether and unlight.

Alchemy tech
  Alchemy is used to merge items with power in different ways, creating magic grenades, magical sigils, runes or even golems.

  We can go into one of the things an alchemist can create to give you a hint of what to expect from them. The Nexus is the same thing as a pre-cast ritual that can be contained in an object. There are different kinds but let's focus on the Nexus prime.

Nexus Prime
  The Nexus Prime is an object loaded with one or more rituals at the same time. The Alchemist can spend many days or weeks preparing a Nexus prime, coding reality into gates, dimensions or the release of energy. The Nexus then, depending on how powerful it is, a catalyst is needed to activate the Nexus. The catalyst is often Life, Sanity or Darkness that anyone can offer (willingly or unwillingly) to the object activating it but it can also be things like events, emotions or locations. One of the most horrible Nexus Primes are the death-activated ones that the witches of Haxan are very fond of using. These gather the power of death around the prime and can contain so much power that even Gods and True Unlight fear these magical entities. 

The sword upon the altar - the soul upon the sword
Watch it writhe - watch it scream
Every turn is like a dream
Five witches - Ritual of the linen cloth

/Haxan Studios

"There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.

But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and 

the light that you shine can't be seen."

Kiss by a Rose

Commune ov the Pre order store
about 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 11:19:12 PM

FIRST

The Pre order store is open. This is for those who missed the kickstarter, got stuck in kickstarter credit card hell, or just happen to want to buy the game, like a normal pre order.

If you backed us on Kickstarter you will receive a survey within two weeks where you can upgrade, sidegrade or add things to your pledge. We must wait for Kickstarter to collect all funds before we can send that survey to you so you can access the pledge manager.

So share the pre order store to any friends who might enjoy a slice of hell in their life.

https://astro-inferno.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

SECOND

Let's dive into the different planes of existence in the Satanic void for a bit and hold on this might get bumpy.

The Black Kingdom has folds and wrinkles where whole dimensions dwell.

The Hollow

Beneath the Fracture lies the Hollow. A dead mirror world ruled by Ruin Kings. Where abominable Hollow Gods dwell looking into the past and through the future in the black blood of souls. A dangerous place where riches lure and True Death always is present.

The Deep

Before the Rapture our spirit went into the dream when we slept. Now when dream is gone, it left a deep vacuum behind called the Deep. Souls can't travel the deep, but their spirits do as soon as they sleep. You never remember what has happened in the Deep, meetings, fights, love affairs all gone as soon as you wake. Liliths on the other hand can walk the deep and remember everything that takes place there.

The Abyss and The Beyond

The region around the Great city of Babylon is called the Midnight sea. Beneath the black water lies the Abyss. Seven Levels of gradually increasing horrific hellscapes where the Unlaw rules supreme. Holy divers search the midnight sea and the upper levels of the abyss for fame and fortune and it has become something of a business for Babylon to equip the divers and larger expeditions setting course for the deeper levels of the Abyss, either coming back with stories no one dare to speak of after, or never returning at all.

At the bottom of the Abyss, the mythical Pandemonium is said to be located, where Satan is rumoured sitting on his throne surrounded by all the riches of the universe. Past Pandemonium lies The Beyond. A mythical world where the moon has devoured the sun, where dark creatures the size of planets will make your eyes bleed and rupture in an instant just by seeing them. This is where Darkness come from and the source of all evil and corruption.

There's also the lairs of the Worm gods, deep within the layers of reality, and the para-existence of the Eternals who, themselves are dimensions. The Seventh of the Eternals is Death itself, and it's eternal tusks is the weave of time, and it's trunks are crimson red from stomping Life out of Souls.

OKAY, that's long enough! Not sure anyone will get this far into the text, but if you got all the way here, leave a Like so I can see how many actually read this?

To remind you again - If you backed the Kickstarter do not order from the Pre order store. It will only make you miserable! 

I'm not your gateway
I'm not your prodigal son
I am the vile lesser-than
Just who do you think I am?

I'm not your standard
I'm not your vision divine
I am no sacrificial lamb
Just who do you think I am?

I am death
I am death
I am death
I am death

I'm not your sacrifice
I'm not your shelter in the storm
I am determinately man
Just who do you think I am?

I'm not your child
I'm not your paragon of just
I am by other means damned
Just who do you think I am?

I am death
I am death
I am death
I am death

- Death