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I'm trying to make a fantasy world with a longer night cycle than day.

With the advice of Renan, 12 hours of proper night, 4 hours of near/partial dark and 8 hours of good light. Similar to earth the cycle allows for entire planet to get moon and sun light in a day, but within the parameters of 12:4:8.

With this in mind the culture of the planet would be a night culture with sleep mostly occurring during the day. The main religion will be that of a lunar system with the moon being the main symbol of god, and the sun being a lesser 'evil' god and the right hand of the moon god similar to Hades.

Therefore the fauna and flora would need to be night based due to the lack of sunlight throughout the day. With a few large trees and other plants covering much of the forests in shade during day, and would be pitch black during night except for a small variety of luminescent fungus, bugs and sea life (such as reefs and some fish). Animals will be mostly nocturnal foraging and hunting during the night and sleeping during the day. Sea and river life will be less lively than on earth but in some areas more dangerous due to the longer nights, and less quantity of life to consume.

But how would the people survive in darkness and be affected by the short periods of sunlight?

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  • $\begingroup$ If you talk about anatomically identical humans, we have good vision (twilight vision too) and poorly adapted to the night. People would never turn nocturnal unless there is something dangerous to them during the day. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Aug 30 '18 at 22:36
  • $\begingroup$ I once read a story where the plant life on one world evolved to use bioluminescence instead of flowers as a way to attract pollinating insects. Bioluminescent plants would give you a way to light up the dark, and explain why people live in the forests and avoid deserts, maybe. $\endgroup$
    – workerjoe
    Aug 31 '18 at 17:25
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They would be adapted to it

If you were asking about humans from Earth being put into this system, there might be something there. But otherwise, if these people developed on this planet, then they would be adapted to it.

Their vision would be optimized for the night, the way that countless nocturnal animal are evolved on Earth. During the daylight they would find (possibly dark, possibly in trees) places to hide themselves and sleep. Eventually, as thy developed civilization, they would build structures that allowed them to live their optimal lifestyle (for example, houses without windows to sleep in during the day).

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  • $\begingroup$ The people would be adapted to it yes. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – Celgiek
    Aug 30 '18 at 22:31
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Most likely we would be a fishing species, relying on fish for our vitamin D.

If Salmon runs are annual on a given river those are good places, otherwise we may be mostly ocean going. If there are few predators for humans, some may simply develop dark skin (practical in day and night) and sleep under the sun, which lessen our dependency on fatty fish.

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  • $\begingroup$ For the most part disregarding a few areas the peoples and races would be a fishing based society. and most would have darker skin, the only main predators would come out during the day. and there would be only a couple per region. $\endgroup$
    – Celgiek
    Aug 30 '18 at 22:40
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low sunlight normally leads to a pale complexion as dark skin is an adaption to deal with solar radiation the colour of part of the eye would probably change as well to absorb more light in their low light enviroment or some other sense would compensate

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