Winter

'The White is west of the world, and Winter does not wait forever.'

- Travelling at Night, Volume 2

Winter is one of the Principles of the invisible arts. It is the silence that comes and the cold that ends, the aspect which presides over all that has been lost, and what may yet return.

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Themes and Imagery

'Certain knowledge, it is said, can be expressed only through the particular quality of a silence. It has been suggested that one can only read such knowledge with one's eyes closed, but only by mischievous commentators.'

- A Sexton's Secret

Winter is most often associated with the dying and the dead, as well as silence, cold, and the season of winter itself. It can be used to summon the dead,[1] fill enemies with dread and despair,[2] and bring about destruction.[3] Less malicious applications include warding against dangerous spirits and curses or resisting the effects of extreme cold.[4][5] It is also one of the aspects often connected to Nowhere, the realm of the dead and the lost, and is one of the aspects closest to Worms.[6]

The number nine is frequently referenced as a recurring number for Winter. It is the number and hour of the Elegiast, though nine also has significance to the Principle in general:

• The being known as Chione plunged Abydos into a silent winter for nine years.[7]
• The Rite of Beast’s Division requires the sacrifice to be divided into nine parts.[8]
• Followers of the Colonel swear the Nine Patient Oaths.[9]
• When recruiting followers to a Winter cult in Cultist Simulator, nine words are spoken in the initiation ritual.[10]
• The Palest Painting requires nine memories for its completion.[11]

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Ascension

'Being a Winter-long is more like a fixed-rate mortgage than a variable-rate mortgage: that is to say, the Winter-long have made an arrangement that defer their end, but they’ve also fixed the date of that end.'

- Inquisition to the Demiurge

Those who seek immortality through the powers of Winter usually follow the Sun-in-Rags.[12] While the exact process is unknown, it likely mirrors other “standard” ascensions which require the gathering of Marks and eventually culminating in a grand ritual of Winter. In Cultist Simulator, however, the Winter Ascension can be performed with the patronage of the Elegiast in the Ghoul Legacy, which involves collecting and consuming the memories of the dead to create the Palest Painting, a memorial to the Dead Hours.[13]

Winter-Long have a unique form of immortality compared to other Long. [14] As part of their Ascension, a specific date is set for their death which cannot be avoided. Until then, they cannot be killed or destroyed. This is apparently because they have been brought from death in Nowhere back into the House by their patron. Passing through the Tricuspid Gate, a requirement for most to achieve immortality, is largely ceremonial for Winter-Long.

Subversion

Patience defeats strength.'

All Things End

In Cultist Simulator, Winter subverts Edge,[15] in a process reminiscent of the Colonel in his struggle with the Lionsmith, of patience overcoming strength[16] (or possibly the Horned-Axe's opposition to the Edge Principle in general). It also reflects the inevitable conclusion of conflict – death.

Winter itself is subverted by Heart, and the two principles are often interpreted as opposites.[17] Winter is the aspect of death, silence, and stasis, while Heart embodies life, music, and motion. Though Winter may fall upon the earth, spring inevitably returns, as does life in the wake of death.

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The Hours

'When the Forge is cold and the Glory is dark and the Wood is dust, perhaps the Wolf Divided will rest, but only until it can devour itself. This Word almost expresses the Divided One's hatred....'

- The Wolf-Word

• The Sun-in-Rags: Most Winter-Long ascend under the Sun-in-Rags, the mournful fragment of the now departed Sun-in-Splendour. He is the sunset thrust into the role of the noonday sun and represents Winter as a mournful power of conclusions and beautiful endings.
• The Elegiast: While he is not the kindest of Hours, the Elegiast is never cruel, and preserves the memory of those who are gone, even the Hours dead in Nowhere. He represents Winter} as a power who commemorates and grieves, remembering what has been lost. It is through the Elegiast that the player may ascend in the Ghoul Legacy.
• The Madrugad: Another child of the Sun-in-Splendour, the Madrugad presides over death and passage into the House, as well as the Cindered Tally. She represents Winter as a power who quells and quiets, a psychopomp embodying a chilly winter dawn.
• The Colonel: One of the first gods-from-flesh, the scarred Colonel is an old and chilly power, charged with guarding the Worm Museum. He represents Winter as patience, experience, and cold practicality in causing death.
• The Horned-Axe: As the last of the gods-from-stone, the Horned Axe is the oldest living Hours in the Mansus and carries the memory of her lost siblings. She now represents Winter as an ancient power, one who separates and distinguishes, dividing the past from the future.
• The Wolf-Divided: Born from the agony of the Intercalate, the Wolf desires the end of all of existence, including itself. The Wolf represents Winter as a power of destruction, doom, and despair.
• Snow (?): While this Hour does not appear directly in Cultist Simulator, design documents and allusions imply that it is also an Hour of Winter, a power of stasis, silence, and forgetfulness.

Other Entities and Followers

'Wait in the white on the walls. Watch the sun slow. Chione walks the streets in silence. Her skirts are the wind. So white her surface. See what ceases in the storm.'

- The Nine-Year Vision

• Miss Naenia: The gentlest of the Elegiast’s Names, who can be encountered both in the Dancer legacy and, more prominently, in the Ghoul Legacy, where she inhabits a painting bearing her name and guides the player on their path of Remembrance. She is described as a “dark-skinned woman with snow-coloured eyes and close-cropped ivory-coloured hair.[18][19]
• Coelle: A flower-girl whose corpse washed up on the shores of Port Noon after she drowned herself. She is a Name of the Wolf-Divided, likely due to being consumed by despair and “unmaking” herself.[20]
• Chione: A mysterious spirit known for her nine years in Abydos, where she turned the city into “a place of slow death, frosty ecstasy and silent beauty”, before conspirators break the silence and let in a scarred man (almost certainly the Colonel) to drag Chione out and allow Summer to return.[7]
• Maids-in-the-Mirror: The dead who pass the test of the Ascent of Knives enter the service of the Sun-in-Rags. They are said to favor orchids and can assist in gathering Witnesses for the Apostle Entheate.[21][22][23][24]
• Voiceless Dead: Spirits of the dead who have entered the Mansus by the White Door and lost their voice forever. They can be summoned back to the Wake for a time as silent servants to the living.[25]
• Burgeoning Risen: A type of risen corpse who are renewed by the Ring-Yew and sustained by the growths of the Wood.[26]
• Shattered Risen: A type of undead animated for a time by a rending force, raised from a corpse by the Colonel.[27]
• Julian Coseley: A Winter-Long with no clear master, Julian Coseley was a seventeenth—century magus and member of the Obliviates, who opposes the rule of the Hours and the creation of more immortals, called a “Worm of Worms” by his former colleague Hersault.[28][29] His writings and influence on the invisible world can be encountered in various parts of Cultist Simulator,[30] and he may make an appearance as an enemy Long in any of the Apostle Legacies.[31]
• Dominykas: A baker implied to some manner of Ghoul - an individual who eats the flesh of dead things to experience the memories within them. He has several high-level contacts in the Association of the Iron Wolf's Kaunas branch, and can be recruited from there as an ally in the Exile Legacy.

Other Notes

• Winter is counted among the Apollonian Principles, meaning that it is an aspect tied to reason and the upper levels of the House, alongside Lantern, Forge, and Edge.
• Winter was the last aspect to be added during the development of Cultist Simulator, and retroactively applied to existing Hours such as the Sun-in-Rags. Another name considered for it was Bone.
• Winter is the only aspect in Cultist Simulator which has two cults associated with it. The Children of Silence serves as the “standard” cult which the player can found in any game and follows the Winter Hours in general. The Towers of the Dove is a variant cult exclusive to the Ghoul Legacy, focused on the Elegiast and the path of Remembrance. Functionally, the two are identical.[32][33]
• It is not known to who or what principle of the Winter owes its name. Winter may be akin to Knock in that regard, lacking a single leading Hour. It's commonly speculated though that Winter may actually be named after Snow, but, given how little we know about that Hour, the only link here is the name.

In-Game Sources

1. Summon one of the throng of the Dead? 2. Share a terribly mystery of the Ragged Lore 3. The End is Beautiful 4. We call upon the Elegiast, from whom nothing more can be taken 5. We call upon the Madrugad, who cannot be unbalanced 6. Read 'the Tantra of Worms' 7. Chione ay Abydos 8. Rite of the Beast's Division 9. A Consecration to the Colonel 10. Recruit an Acquaintance, by invoking Winter 11. Nine Colours Hinted 12. AMA 13. Temptation: Remembrance 14. Inquisitions for the Demiurge 15. All Things End 16. Respects the Colonel 17. The Life Beneath 18. The Elegiast's Name 19. 'Miss Naenia' 20. The Wolf's Name 21. Maid-in-the-Mirror 22. Mantra of Ascent 23. Read Poemander's 'On What is Contained by Silver' 24. Send a Maid-in-the-Mirror to lure a Witness 25. Voiceless Dead 26. Call on the Ring-Yew to raise a corpse to half-life 27. Call on the Cartographer of Scars to raise a corpse to half-life 28. The Six Letters on Necessity 29. Study Hersault's 'Introduction to Histories' 30. The White Library 31. J.C. 32. Children of Silence 33. Towers of the Dove

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