[NikitaDarkstar]

Aptorian, on 29 August 2010 - 03:28 PM, said:

I would like to see a page reference to this. It sounds absurd.

I second this, page reference please. Heck you don't even need to quote it, just give us a page number.. cause that really sounds... strange. O.o

[worry]

You crazy kids and your ways.

[HoosierDaddy]

It's on page 236 of Garden of the Deadhouse Chains Gale of Tides.

[ansible]

Alright, I'm a bit of a pedant, so I can't let this little discussion go. Here are a few quotes:

House of Chains, Tor MMPB, p.973-974 said:

Outside stole the first light of dawn.

And Sha'ik reached for her helm.

[...]

There were desert warriors huddled here and there, wrapped in their ochre telabas, spears thrust upright, iron points glistening with dew as the sun's fire broke on the east horizon.

House of Chains, Tor MMPB, p.995 said:

It was past midday. Almost seven bells since the Adjunct cut down Sha'ik.

So Sha'ik confronts Tavore right at dawn. On Seven Cities, that has to be around 06:00, 07:00 our time. We know they use midday and midnight as divisors, so I think noon is a safe approximation for midday. If a bell is around an hour, this puts the time about 14:00, just past midday. If a bell is a half-hour, this is only three and a half hours of time total, which would put the time well before noon, making no sense. So unless the sun doesn't rise until ten o' clock, a bell has to be closer to an hour than a half-hour.

I've found other references to "bells tolling" to announce the time, as well, making the derivation pretty clear.

[anothevilbadguy]

Quote

So Sha'ik confronts Tavore right at dawn. On Seven Cities, that has to be around 06:00, 07:00 our time. We know they use midday and midnight as divisors, so I think noon is a safe approximation for midday. If a bell is around an hour, this puts the time about 14:00, just past midday. If a bell is a half-hour, this is only three and a half hours of time total, which would put the time well before noon, making no sense. So unless the sun doesn't rise until ten o' clock, a bell has to be closer to an hour than a half-hour.

I've found other references to "bells tolling" to announce the time, as well, making the derivation pretty clear.

The first bit does seem to strongly indicate that a bell is an hour, but the second bit just relates to the fact that the term for the unit of time is derived from a bell ringing, i.e. clock tower/church. I mean it is highly likely a bell means an hour, but the fact the term derives from a bell ringing doesn't really relate to the length of time, as obviously if a bell was only half an hour then it just would mean the bells would be designed to ring every half hour instead.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that a real Wu would have the exact same length of day as Earth, or that a 24hr clock would evolve to be dominant. But as it is a fictional world, we can assume SE & ICE decided not to be weird and create a different form of dividing time (and also keep it secret), and instead just created a new colloquial term for an hour to add flavour.

But maybe time in Wu is just inherently weird, so there are in fact no problems with the time line. But again this isn't mentioned.

[ansible]

Sorry if I was misleading; I mentioned that part about the tolling because earlier in the thread I mentioned I found a reference in the text to an actual bell sounding to announce the time. I only meant that since then I've found several more references which confirm that. The length of a bell is unrelated.

[worry]

It's good to hear some pretty strong textual evidence.

[Illuyankas]

BUT WHAT IF DAWN IS 5 AM IN SEVEN CITIES EH EH