Why Not 'Nightside'?

[Nethseäar]

There's a funny sort of mismatch going on with the names for Taldain's hemispheres.

First there is the weirdness of having a concept of day on a tidally locked planet. There is no time-based difference in the presence of the sun. There is no such thing as sunset or sunrise (except by travel), no change in sunlight except when the moon passes overhead. How can there be day when there is no night? Yet they call the brighter side 'Dayside'. Sanderson is typically very conscious of these things (with minor exceptions, such as the moon reference in Mistborn, when Scadrial has no moon), so I am surprised to see 'day' appear so prominently.

But let's say we give that a miss -- maybe it wasn't always tidally locked, maybe there's something in the prose version that explains it, maybe 'day' is their word for light -- If they've got a concept of day, it follows that they should have a concept of night. So why isn't the other hemisphere called 'Nightside'?

I can see why Dayside isn't 'Lightside' -- because Star Wars -- but then a Dayside/Nightside dichotomy seems in order, pending justification for the concepts existing.

I suppose it comes down to what sounds better (Dayside/Darkside alliteration) and 'these are being translated into English, and Dayside works just fine for us.'

[Blightsong]

Generally, Sanderson works under the pretense that the books he writes are translated from whatever fantasy language to English. Dayside is just the most comprehensive translation for 'side of the planet where the sun is up'.

[manukos]

1 hour ago, Blightsong said:

Generally, Sanderson works under the pretense that the books he writes are translated from whatever fantasy language to English. Dayside is just the most comprehensive translation for 'side of the planet where the sun is up'.

this is the most cop-outish answer imaginable . 

I LOVE IT !!!

[BlackYeti]

Typically day can be considered to be the time when the area of the planet that you're on is facing the sun, hence Dayside makes perfect sense: it is always day there, so why not call it that. However it doesn't really make sense to call the the other half Nightside, it is after all, also facing a star.

In fact Brandon has described the light level on Darkside as being like twilight, and it sounds more like civil twilight than nautical or astronomical twilight, i.e. not much darker than daylight. So if we were to see it we probably wouldn't describe it as night from the light level either. 

Therefore, it's probably just called Darkside because it's darker than Dayside, and calling it Nightside wouldn't make sense.

[Jofwu]

@BlackYeti and @Blightsong are both right.

Brandon has explained that his books are "translated" from the world's language. So you can imagine that the word for "day" in the various languages on Taldain is perhaps closer to something more dry and descriptive (e.g. "cycle"). The people (at least in Lossand) DO apparently have an official time standard. It is presumably based on the moon. They've got years too. Maybe people travel towards Darkside every so often to catch a glimpse of the stars and make sure everything is calibrated. Anyways, it makes sense that Brandon wouldn't use some alternate, more accurate term because it would be awkward for us to read. It's not like he's writing hard sci-fi.

And for Darkside... Yeah, it's not night. Makes sense to call it "day" on Dayside, with the bright sun overhead. That's pretty much the definition of day. But Darkside isn't night. They've got a dim, diffuse source of light. AU essay spoiler:

Spoiler

Khriss describes it as something like twilight on a normal planet- just after the sun has set.

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by jofwu

[ROSHtaFARian2.0]

I always figured it might also have something to do with the fact that there's a popular series of books by Simon R. Green called the Nightside series. Green is a long time client of Brandon's agent, Joshua Bilmes, and while White Sand was written before Brandon signed with his agent, he's mentioned that it took him a few years worth of trying before Joshua actually signed him. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Brandon stayed away from calling it the Nightside, because he'd done his homework on Bilmes' other clients and the first advice anyone in the industry gives a querying writer is avoid potential conflicts of interest with agents.

(For instance, if you're a brand new writer just signed with an agent, and you and one of the agent's other long term clients both have manuscripts with specific plot points or place names or other sizable elements in common, you REALLY don't want your agent to have to make a choice between which of your manuscripts he pitches to editors first. Obviously this would not be an issue for Brandon now, lol, but at the time he was writing White Sand, I could see him having gone 'no, wait, there's already a series called the Nightside, let me call it Darkside instead'). 

[Knight Oblivion]

On 2/27/2017 at 2:05 AM, ROSHtaFARian2.0 said:

I always figured it might also have something to do with the fact that there's a popular series of books by Simon R. Green called the Nightside series. Green is a long time client of Brandon's agent, Joshua Bilmes, and while White Sand was written before Brandon signed with his agent, he's mentioned that it took him a few years worth of trying before Joshua actually signed him. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Brandon stayed away from calling it the Nightside, because he'd done his homework on Bilmes' other clients and the first advice anyone in the industry gives a querying writer is avoid potential conflicts of interest with agents.

(For instance, if you're a brand new writer just signed with an agent, and you and one of the agent's other long term clients both have manuscripts with specific plot points or place names or other sizable elements in common, you REALLY don't want your agent to have to make a choice between which of your manuscripts he pitches to editors first. Obviously this would not be an issue for Brandon now, lol, but at the time he was writing White Sand, I could see him having gone 'no, wait, there's already a series called the Nightside, let me call it Darkside instead'). 

This was my first idea about the question.

 

The other idea is that night is considered the absence of sun in the sky while Darkside has its own sun. Taldain is tidally locked between two stars. Darkside faces the dimmer one which is also obscured a fair bit by a particulate cloud. It's apparently has a light level around that of dusk. 

[Modal Seoul]

Rodel here. I think the reason why it's not called "Nightside" is because it's not truly night, as said above. Secondly, not to be racist, but on Darkside people tend to be darker skinned, vice versa on Dayside. Finally, I believe it may have something to do with the amount of Investiture on Dayside. In White Sand, the Daysiders call Praxton's family tainted because he married a woman from Darkside. People born in Darkside can't draw power like Mastrells can. And even Sand Masters can draw it in small amounts Autonomy, the Shard, has a part too, according to me. Two stars on different sides, maybe controlling the way Investiture can be used. Also, Darkside has some technological advantage over Dayside. Kenton never heard of a gun until Baon used one to blow a Kertzian's face off. The word autonomy means self-governing, shown through Bavadin's isolation policy, but that doesn't mean she can't control the people. Food for thought.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Captains Domon