Ashfalls

[Qarlin]

Wait though; if the people exist on the axial pole of the planet, then we'd still get Alaskan weather with almost eternal days in the summer, and unending nights in the winter, with the sun staying mostly around the horizon.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Our planet only has such drastic daylight length changes near the poles because of the axial tilt. If you have a planet with much less axial tilt, the daylight hour difference is much less. You're right about the sun not getting as high in the sky though.

[SarahG]

All the planets in the solar system revolve around the Sun in the same direction. ... If you find a solar system whose planets go the other way around the sun, that's when you flip your spaceship upside-down and call up "north."

Would it be possible for a solar system to have planets that don't all revolve in the same direction?  What then?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Only if the planet didn't form along with the other ones. Planets form from a spinning disc of matter extending from the star, and a disc can spin only one direction.

If the star later captures a planet from another passing system then it's possible to get something that revolves the other way, but it's extremely unlikely and the likelihood of collisions shoots way up.

Some comets do have retrograde revolution, but most of those just shoot through once and then escape. Halley's comet is the only major periodic comet that is retrograde. Also, some of the outer planets' smaller moons are captured asteroids or comets, and some of them follow retrograde revolution about their planet.

[Comatose]

And one of those hopes is that Vin will somehow bring the sun and plants back to the way they once were. I don't hit the visuals on the world as hard in this book as I did in the last one. Hopefully, it's present enough in the setting to make you remember that the sun is red because of the haze in the upper atmosphere. Plants are brown, not green, and there are no flowers. The prophesy that Vin will restore these things is new, relating to some of the things that Kelsier used to talk about.

There you have it, the sun is red because of the haze in the upper atmosphere, we don't know why it's there, but it's one mystery down, I guess.

[Qarlin]

Should note that the quote is from the Chapter 36 annotation of Well of Ascension.

The haze, from all the ashmounts, I think is creating a barrier that is actually protecting the area from becoming a desert wasteland. Tindwyl mentions that Sazed should be out by the Wastelands, and not in Luthadel. Maybe the sun became a Red Giant and without the atmospheric interference, they'd all burn up.

[Reaves]

you have to choose one or the other: the sun can't be both red from the ash and red because its a giant 

[Qarlin]

Why not? Our sun is yellow, but that's not so noticeable at noon, nor on a cloudy day, where the light has a more bluish hue. Ash works more like smog, which does make the moon and the sun more red. A red giant would still be a very bright sun, but the ash clouds would dim it, not only making its color more visible, but more pronounced than it would normally be. A total lunar eclipse seen through smog would just be more red than normal.

[Reaves]

I guess what I am saying is that, yes, it is scientifically possible for it to be both red naturally and red through the fog, but do you really think an author is going to provide 2 different reasons for the same effect in his book?
Although your theory that the ash is protecting the planet from burning up is pretty good, would explain the desert.

[Andrew the Great]

Don't they mention somewhere when they're talking about the plants being green that the sun should also be yellow? I don't remember exactly...Anyway, I'm inclined to believe it's just atmospheric haze, though the other would work.

[darxbane]

There is one thing you are missing.  If the sun became a red giant, it would be much larger than before.  So, not only would history note that the sun used to be yellow, but that it also was much smaller than it is now.   As intriguing as it is, the Red Giant theory just doesn't make sense in this book.

[SarahG]

It's interesting to me in fantasy novels, which elements of our universe the author chooses to keep, and which to change - and how those choices interact with reader expectations.  For instance, in Mistborn none of us object to (or try to analyze scientifically) the concept of burning metals in one's stomach.  At least, I haven't seen any discussions on what biological process allows an Allomancer to consciously control combustion within the digestive tract - nor of what physical process allows that combustion to affect other people or objects.  Nor have I heard of attempts by Mistborn readers to actually ingest metal flakes to experiment with Allomancy.  (Frankly, I'd be worried if I did.)  Yet we talk at length about planets, Red Giants, and volcanos with the assumption that the physical universe of Mistborn is identical to our own.

Why is this?  How do we as readers decide which elements of the fantasy world are like our own, and which are utterly different?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Unless something is specifically mentioned as different, it's natural to assume it's the same as what we're familiar with. We're likely to assume every planet has one moon and one sun, unless the text specifically tells us something else. (Though there is never any moon mentioned in the Mistborn books, how many readers are conscious of that fact?)

Anyway, Brandon is known as a hard fantasy writer. While the definition of hard fantasy mainly deals with how the magic works, I don't think it's a stretch to include that the physical laws as we know them also apply in hard fantasy unless we're specifically told otherwise.

[SarahG]

Unless something is specifically mentioned as different, it's natural to assume it's the same as what we're familiar with.

But that's just it.  We're told that the sun is different (red, not yellow), yet we still try to find reasons for that difference that would work in our universe.  Yet when we're told that Allomancers' bodies are different (able to burn metals), we don't try to find a rational explanation, we just buy it.

[Chaos]

The answer: its magic. That's usually good enough to explain how it works.

However, in Mistborn, while "how" it happens is glossed over entirely, the effects are very clear. Very Newtonian. Every strange thing with the magic system has an explanation.

In that light, we must get on task. This talk about red giants in Mistborn is completely ludicrous. The Lord Ruler made the sun red. Well, if we think about it in terms of the magic system, what is more likely: the Lord Ruler created the Ashmounts, and the haze from that made the sun red, or that he physically changed the very nature of a star?

...One could make the argument that the Well of Ascension gave him tons of power, possibly enough to do that, but seriously. You really think that turning the star into a red giant is the easiest explanation?

It is infinitely more likely that its just the ash/haze thing, so let's get off of astronomy, because it has almost no relevance...