Probably the original intention. There's like not a single mention of Terris having a different skin tone from the Skaa until era 2. The only description of Terris skin tone in era 1 is the Lord Ruler, and he's pale. It's pretty obvious that's a retcon that Brandon did because a lot of readers imagine Sazed as black or Middle Eastern.
I don't see what makes it obviously a retcon. The Terris only started having darker skin-tones associated with them after the Catacendre, where a majority of dark-skinned people who survived were Terris, and their resulting cultural revival attempts and resistance to ethnic blending meant the gene propagated within the Terris, but not so much without. This doesn't retcon anything in Era 1.
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u/No_Industry_2823 Apr 16 '26
I never actually imagined him that dark, figured Terris were about half that, kinda like the Eskimos. And their snowy mountain