Winter

Nature of Winter

Winter is an undetermined force behind the thaumaturgies employed by the Russian Republic since the ressurection of Grigorij Rasputin. It is not known what exactly the Winter truly is, as it seems to transcend human understanding and achievements of both technology and science... and conventional thaumaturgy.
Despite the attempts of the thaumaturgists, engineers and scientists of the Ministry of Winter, the exact nature of the power they wield remains unknown. It was brought by the Rasputin back from the world of the dead (or whatever exactly he was when he was believed to be dead). He is the only person that (probably) comprehends the Winter. He, however, is disturbingly quiet and not communicative when the subject is brought into question...

Effects of Winter

Winter can come in many forms. Light (or something like that), magnetic field (or something like that) or in a more material form (once again, more or less, as nobody is exactly sure how much of a matter it truly is). While it comes in many forms, the researchers managed to compile a list of most notable effects the prolonged exposure to Winter has on both living creatures and the world as a whole.

• Drop of Temperature - Most directly detectable effect of Winter is sudden drop of temperature, proportional to the strength of the Winter effect. The effect is strong enough to be weaponized (and it was fact the first way the Winter was weaponized). Artillery rounds loaded with enough Winter can cause an instant drop of temperature by circa 50C, enough to cause thermal shock (bonus points when used in winter, as in Siberia they can cause a drop to -100C or a similar temperature - and the effect can stack all the way to actual absolute zero).
  
  Effect is temporary, but there is some aftereffect, especially after a prolonged exposure. It is expected that major industrial areas in Republic-controlled territory used to Freeze things will remain a cold spots for centuries after the war ends.

• Enforcement of Truth - This is one of the more powerful (and often underestimated) effects of the Winter. Lies are impossible under it. From the moment its concentration reaches a level strong enough, the sheer concept of lies seem to be eradicated from the common psyche. People simply forget that not saying truth is an option.
  First step is an enforcement of arystotelian two-value logic in a scale depending on the strength of the effect. It's either yes or no under the Winter. When you are ordered to attack and you say yes, you either do it all out and willingly, or not do it at all. Middle states are impossible. Even probability distribution starts getting more and more 'simple', with for example a 0-1 system being 0101010101 and so on, indefinitely.
  Then, when the effect grows, lies are slowly disappearing until complete nothighness. This fact is used in a creation of Chinovnik, a Republic officials that are physical devoid of ability to lie and are impervious to falsehoods as a whole. They are one of the most feared creation of the Winter...

• Unification of Past - When something happens, each people remembers it differently. A hundred people participating in a single event will remember details with some little changes. Due to stress? The way the human memory works? Or is it something more metaphysical and past as we see it never really existed? It is unknown, but that's how the world works.
  But not under the Winter. Events under Winter are crystal clear. A hundred soldiers participating in battle under strong Winter influence will remember it without a slightest discrepancy. Each detail. Each second. In minute detail. When two people claim something incompatible happened, this doesn't mean that one remembered something wrong - one of them willingly lies. There is no other option

• Stabilization of Psyche - Winter freezes everything. Even human minds. When one is Frozen by it (by its indirect effects in a metaphysical way, rather than 'simply' being frozen solid), ones psyche undergoes similar process. It stops being as flexible and refuses to undergo sudden changes.
  There are no sudden mental breakthroughs, shocking conversions, murderers becoming saints and saints becoming murderers under the Winter. Even changes between political parties are extremely rare. Societies built under Winter become almost 'weirdly' calm and stable.

• Purification of Matter - All matter that is charged with enough Winter 'radiation' or light undergoes a process that is often called either Freezing or Purification. All materials become both frozen in their current state - which doesn't mean that Frozen cannon won't fire as all mechanisms will work - and are purified into their 'improved' version.
  According to bits of knowledge from the Rasputin, the Winter changes everything into its improved state. Including matter. It is used to produce much improved body and vehicle armours, melee weapons, ammunition and so on. They are simply good. Supernaturally good in a way that makes even Outsiders shocked.

• Dilation of Time - Winter, it seems, doesn't favour the concept of time. If anything, it seems foreign to it. It is, however one of the last things that fall in battle when Winter grows stronger, and only very high amount of it can succesfully take down the time itself.
  When it finally happens, time slows down very fast very quickly (if the word can truly be used). The stronger, experimental time dilation achieved by the Ministry of Winter was one hour inside for a minute outside. The effect - for now - cannot be militarized, as it's something more easily accesible in the lab than on the battlefields, but in especially fierce battles time disturbances does happen.

Theories on Winter

That there is no conclusive evidence for the nature of the Winter, doesn't mean that there are no theories on what exactly it might be. They are inconclusive and opposite to each other, but regardless of that, they still exist.
First theory... is that Winter is simply an undefined thaumaturgical power. Thaumaturgy is a new type of 'science', with even erithians merely dabbling with powers of the universe. There was enough things to discover, as proofed by sudden discovery of several other types of thaumaturgy that the erithians knew nothing about. All of them seem to barely make sense according to their definitions.
So a new definition is needed. And until it comes around, trying to make the Winter look like something unrelated to elemental thaumaturgy is irrational. Maybe it's a form of Absolute Ice element, and there are also an absolute forms of other elements but people are yet to stumble upon it?
Second theory... is outside influence. Some erithian (especially from among Forbidden) writings indicate an existence of powers not from this world that in ancient times sometimes granted mortal sorcerer power - beings different from Ascendants. Very little is known about this period. And very little is known about both that being and their powers.
Something, however, granted the power to the Rasputin and by extension to the Russian Whites. But what exactly was it? That is something that only Rasputin himself knows. There is also an independent subtheory that the being was, in fact, God that armed Mother Russia and the Orthodox Church for a holy war against the Reds.
Third is the alternative dimension theory that suggests that Winter is in fact an alternative universe. One vastly different than ours in a way that makes a human unable to truly comprehend it. After all we talk of the world where time and heat seem to be alien concepts, and the 'logic' itself is one-value so only truths exist.
Because of that, when an artillery round filled with Winter explodes, world around it comes close (in a metaphysic way) to a place where the temperature is at an absolute zero - thus freezing everything around. The other effects are similar to this, and are a by-product of laws of the Winter taking over.
There is also an alternative, religious interpretation of this theory that sees the world of the Winter as a Purgatory/intermediary place where souls await the Final Judgment (depending on religious group). Rasputin denies answer - he doesn't say no, he simply not answers question at all.

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Chinovnik