Autonomy and Taldain

[Chinsukolo]

So I re-read White Sands 1 in prep for vol 2 in a week or so.  I remember people talking about how darksiders have dark skin and daysiders have light skin contrary to what one would expect.

We also have this WoB: 

Spoiler

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

So I asked Brandon at the LA signing if he could tell us about a shard that we don't know anything about (including the survival shard) and he said that there was a shard that isn't on a planet. Now I think this means that the shard is either on an asteroid, or a star. It could also be floating in space or on a moon and influencing from a distance. I will repeat it is not any shard we already know about.

This was 2014, and the earliest I can find "Autonomy" mentioned is 2015 (though the search function is poor on the WoB DB).

We know from AU that Taldain has a white dwarf on the dark-side.

We also know (suspect?) from V1 of Whitesand that it's investiture comes form the light itself on dayside.

So my theory is the White dwarf on the dark side is a real star, the skin of darksides is darker because white dwarf create significantly more UV radiation that a main sequence star (real white dwarfs do make move UV).  The light side star isn't actually a Star but Autonomy (Bavadin) herself.  This means no UV radiation (hence light skin) Investiture that rains down in photons and would also be an "off planet" shard.  This would also make it far more difficult to travel to and from the planet (except through Sand Mastery perhaps?  Maybe that's why Kriss was looking for them?).

Since Lightweaving was also a Yolish thing, it would make sense that Bavadin knows of it, and so could perhaps influence people through religions by light weaving her photons of Investiture so people can see what she wants them to see without her physically on the planet. (Faces in the Sky?)

 

Summary - The dayside "star" is the actual shard of Autonomy, located in space.  Thus produces no UV (only photons and heat) so light skin people, while Darkside have massive UV dose from white dwarf and their skin darkens just like earthers.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Chinsukolo
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[+Extesian he/him]

It's some nice thinking, I had some similar theorizing at one point about skin color. However this thread discussed that and a WoB recently was a problem as Brandon said that the skin color differences was due to random genetic variation. 

Quote

Q: Why don't Daysiders have darker skin? 
A: 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.

As for the sun being invested by Autonomy rather than the planet, I speculatively agree. My theory was that the atmosphere is directly but we also know this

Quote

Q: Would someone with enough knowledge be able to use Autonomy’s investiture if Taldain could be seen from his world?

A: Ok so I’m on a world and I see Taldain’s star, are you asking if someone could use the investiture? Oh ok I see. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. That’s good! You stumped me. I haven’t gotten that question before. I would say yes, if the light particles are reaching you. I mean technically you could use the light from one of those stars to power a solar sail so…

So I'm a believer

Edited July 4, 2017 by Extesian

[Ari he/him]

I think you may be right, which is totally cheating on Brandon's part as he had already referred to Bavadin at that point even if he hadn't confirmed the name Autonomy yet, lol.

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom he/him]

That's a really good connection. I especially like the idea of lightweaving to manipulate from a distance. Now what I'm wondering is if that means that Autonomy is less invested into the Taldain system than others shards would be? Or is she more invested? That would probably depend on whether there actually is a star at Bavadin's location and she just merged with it, or if she is simulating a star, or if she turned herself into a star.