Planned Release Date: Mar 3, 2027

About This Game

The village you save may be the one that turns you in.

Before the Pyre is a single-player, turn-based card strategy game about leading a secret coven in a medieval land torn apart by plague, war, and witch hunts. Study forbidden magic, navigate dangerous politics, and build a future for your witches in a world that fears what they can do.

Turn forbidden knowledge into power

Assign your witches, study forbidden books, and experiment with ingredients to discover potions and rituals across six schools of magic. Heal the sick, conceal an ally, alter memories, or bargain with an ancient spirit. Each discovery gives you new ways to confront a crisis. Using that power can expose the people you are trying to protect.

Build a coven worth saving

Your witches have their own talents, loyalties, and limits. Decide who studies, who gathers the next week’s supplies, and who risks being seen. Assign responsibilities, navigate disputes, and weigh the needs of the coven against promises made to individuals. Your decisions put their trust, freedom, and lives at stake.

Stay ahead of the hunt

A witness. An unusual wound. A forbidden object. Small traces can become a case against someone you need.

Investigate accusations, challenge the evidence, secure political protection, or plan a prison break. Establish safe houses and move your coven when a refuge becomes too dangerous. Choose your methods carefully: an investigator’s death does not make their records disappear.

Make allies—and live with the terms

A village needs medicine. A noble needs support. A priest may offer protection, but ask something difficult in return. Trade supplies, secrets, and promises to secure the help your coven needs.

Plague, famine, crusades, and struggles for succession can overturn those arrangements. Decide which debts to honor, which demands to refuse, and which enemies you can afford to make.

Decide what your coven becomes

Choose from three origins and work toward one of five main ending paths. Preserve your knowledge in secret, negotiate a place in society, establish a realm for witches, or pursue powers beyond the human world.

Your future takes shape through the people you protect, the knowledge you uncover, and the commitments you make throughout the campaign.

Keep them alive. Give them a future.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

AI assisted with artwork and text creation, with no live AI generation during gameplay.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Contains mature themes including witch hunts, persecution, plague, death, imprisonment, and blood magic, presented primarily through text and illustrated cards.