Wintermute

[Wonderland Wanderer 3]

I waited for years, hesitating to ask.
Jeremiah, the old trapper, asked Will to retrieve a message to Atwood - a "Winter mute". The message, weirdly similar to same message of Gibson's "Neuromancer", which Yonderboy gave to Case. So, collapse, the Flare and other strange things, which mentioned in the world and events of "The Long Dark", is just some virtual simulation, which orchestrated by AI, which somehow connected to Atwood?
So, who is Atwood?...

[ThePancakeLady]

This has been speculated about for years. 

I often speculate  that the name is a nod toward Canadian Author, poet, inventor, and activist Margaret Atwood? A fairly famous quote of hers appears at the start if the game sometimes, so it seems she was an influence for @Raphael van Lierop or one of the other devs. 

And hopefully we will learn more about her than we already did in Wintermute Story Mode when Episode 5 is released. She seems like she is a significant character, directly or indirectly.

 

[Rusty]

Gibson and Atwood are probably the most prominent Canadian SF writers; I saw their names as an homage.