Sitzkrieg

A temporary period of unofficial armistice, as all sides of the Great War prepare for final confrontation... while desperately trying to reorganize themselves internally to avoid collapsing.

Sitzkrieg (ger. Sitting War) was a year long pause in the war on the European soil caused by the sudden emergence of thaumaturgy and the Outsiders. To say that it surprised everyone would be an understatement of the century. It was the end of the world as all of its inhabitant knew it.   The German Empire retreated from the battlefield around the Marne river and began digging trenches again. The war came to a full-stop both on the Western and Eastern Fronts. There were regular skirmishes and local offensives, but it was done mostly to test new equipment, as nobody was really ready for major offensive moves.   What's more, there were very intense talks of peace during this period. No country was really planning to continue the war for eternity. People wanted to end the hostilities, but in the end, peace settlement wasn't reached. Countries couldn't agree about the exact terms.   The French Republic was on the very border of collapse. It was bled almost to death, lost a lot of ground (with up to 60% of its pre-war industry), and suffered from increased activity of various subversive elements. The situation was better than in 1917, when a wave of mutinies threatened the actual cohesiveness of the French Army... but situation was, nevertheless, very bad.   The United Kingdom was in better shape, but the casualties it suffered weakened its position in its colonies, and overall morale and support for the war was beginning to fade. Hundred thousands of volunteers were massacred, Lettow-Vorbeck was still humiliating the British Army in every major engagement and even damned Turks did that several times - the war kept being a long streak of disasters for Britannia.   The German Empire still had a motivated army and its citizens fared much better than those of France (after all, they had an upper hand thus far), however the naval blockade was taking its toll, slowly weakening the country. It was slowly changing for the better due to influx of resources hailing from the Outsiders that managed to at least slightly put imperial industry back in game, but it wasn't enough. What's more, the society was increasingly tired of the offensives that were bound to end the war.   The Austro-Hungarian Empire, at the same time, was busy undergoing intense internal reforms and, frankly, barely cared about further military engagements. It was limiting itself to defense - Italy was almost out of the war after the twelfth battle of Isonzo, Balkans were mostly pacified (only Greece fought, but mountain trails barely allowed for an offensive maneouvers) and only Russia and remains of Romania could be a threat. Any major offensive made by Austro-Hungarian army was bound to lead to collapse, especially if the Empire lose.   Russian Republic in the same time barely held its ground against its own population, with the general incompetence of Alexander Kerensky slowly wastng his authority he gained after succesful offensive. He was slowly preparing for an another attack that might give him back his popularity.

Almost all participating countries began the process of reinforcing their internal stability with thaumaturgy-infused radio transmissions. However, the successes on that field varied. It was merely the infancy of such technology - it was still heavily flawed. There were also political problems to consider...   The Russian Republic refused to use it at all, mostly due to Bolshevik threat - they kept growing stronger and stronger in the meantime, and threatened open rebellion if "the bourgeoisie tried to brainwash the working masses". It also failed to work when The Central Powers attempted to use it on Poles - as the transmissions had to be tuned to an attachment of the targeted populace and as such, the frequency did not succeed.   The broadcasts worked fairly well in Austria-Hungary, mostly due to a preexisting attachment to the new emperor. This led to stabilization of the Austro-Hungary, and at least partially managed to improve its army. Over the course of a year, the country was more or less stabilized.