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Krail t1_ity5a0r wrote

It's not like the story was written in the ancient past. The authors were well aware of solar eclipses.

The main idea was that it never gets dark on this planet. The darkest it ever gets is still significantly brighter than a full moon. Enough that before the eclipse event no one on this world had ever seen "the stars". Darkness is so alien to the people of the story that things like mining in dark caves are highly specialized and require a ton of psychological training.

Personally, I think the resulting madness when people see darkness and the stars is a little played up for drama, but I think it's not hard to imagine how terrifying darkness could be if you've never actually experienced it.

(The people in the story were also completely unaware that there was a universe beyond their solar system, and had no idea what to make of the stars)

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