Why do people in the day-side of Taldain have light skin?

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Taldain is a tidally locked planet in a binary system where one of the suns is a weak white dwarf enclosed in a ring while the other a shiny blue-white supergiant. As a result in one hemisphere is always night-time and the other lives a perpetual day.

The star that faces the darkside emits lots of UV light, and the dark-side life has evolved to make use of this light: plants do photosynthesys with that light and it seems the inhabitants are mostly black skinned to get protection from that light and have fluorescent teeth and nails.

However, the day side should also receive lots of UV light and it seems only logical that the same environment pressure should make for a similar adaptation in life. I can see why the fluorescent nails are of no use, but why dark skin is not predominant in the day-side too? Would specially appreciate WOB (Word of Brandon).

por Carneiro 17.07.2019 / 01:36

1 resposta

Because Brandon decided.

Strumienpola (paraphrased): Why don't Daysiders have darker skin?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased): It's just how genetics on Taldain have played out. They should be darker-skinned, but there's always some randomness to genetics, so this is just how they played out in this case.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/120-warsaw-signing/#e1900

17.07.2019 / 18:23