Mad Cave Studios announced Our Soot Stained Heart, a new series from Joni Hagg and Stipan Morian, that fuses steampunk, frostpunk, and folklore.
The Coalition is a city of wonder in the deep north, but it is ruled by the cruel Governor Glass and his factory lords. Coal is the lifeline of the city, and for honest workers like young Peggy Stones, life can be hard because of the nefarious quota. To get extra coal at the end of the year, you must be bad, every day! Peggy’s life is thrown into chaos when she is imprisoned and sent into exile, which begins a harrowing journey to the ends of the world to find answers that could change the world!
“Our Soot Stained Heart is a curious story that mixes familiar wintertime stories and traditions with various myths in a unique fantasy setting,” said writer Joni Hägg in a press release from Mad Cave Studios. “It’s not a retelling of any one story, nor do we use any Christmas characters ‘as-is.’ Instead, we’ve reimagined them into an entirely new world—one that draws on my Finnish cultural mindscape and Stipan’s Balkan heritage. At its core, this book speaks to the need for the working class to unite against oppression. For me, writing is always about big ideas, and this is a book of big ideas with simple delivery.”
Our Soot Stained Heart #1 arrives on December 10, 2025.
