Can Windrunners make shockwaves?

[Smidge]

In the moment Kaladin says The Words™, this happens:

A burst of whiteness washed out from him, a wave of white smoke. Stormlight. The force of it slammed into the first rank of Parshendi, tossing them backward, and Teft had to hold his hand up against the vibrancy of the light.

Note that the parshendi are actually thrown back by a shockwave of stormlight. When Kaladin falls a distance while holding stormlight (as he does moments before this quote) a ring of stormlight is released and his impact is absorbed as well. It only happens twice (to Kaladin) afaik so I'll quote those for convenience as well:

Kaladin hit the rocky ledge, legs suddenly strong, mind, body, and blood alive with energy. He fell into a crouch, spear under his arm, a small ring of Stormlight expanding from him in a wave, pushed down to the stones by his fall. Stunned, the Parshendi shied away, eyes widening, song faltering.

His emotions calmed in a heartbeat. Somehow, he knew what to do. He twisted in the air, dropping the rope and hitting the ground with both feet down. He came to a crouch, resting one hand on the stone, a jolt of coldness shooting through him. His remaining Stormlight came out in a single burst, flung from his body in a luminescent smoke ring that crashed against the ground before spreading out, vanishing.

It's hard to be sure if the ring of stormlight released from falling is different from what Teft describes in the first quote, which might be a side effect of Kaladin saying The Words™. They sound pretty similar though, so I'm guessing they are.

It could also be that this isn't a special power of the windrunners and is just an effect of taking an impact while holding stormlight which could work for anyone - stormlight seems to puff out whenever people in shardplate fall a distance which may support this idea.

On the other hand, here's my theory: The Windrunner surges are Pressure and Gravitation. Gravitation has the basic lashing and reverse lashing, which to borrow terms from Mistborn are like pushing and pulling gravity. Pressure just has the full lashing, which creates a vacuum (ie. pull) to bind things together. What's missing imo is a push for pressure, and shockwaves fit this nicely and we've got some examples that could be this. There's also a plausible reason it's not described alongside the lashings - you couldn't really describe a shockwave of stormlight as any sort of 'lashing' unlike the other powers, so it's not one of the 'three lashings' even if it is a Windrunner power. It also makes pressure a bit more interesting as a surge which I think is needed since full lashings are very mundane when compared with the combination of reverse and basic lashings.

If Windrunners can also make these shockwaves whenever and not purely from falling it'd be a neat power that could certainly be quite useful - unlike lashings it doesn't require touching people or things, and it'd be handy if they got surrounded.

[makromag]

I would guess once Kaladin has full access to all the powers of a Windrunner it would certainly be possible. Besides it is definitely an awesome ablity to have and, as you have said, he already seems to have that ability to a certain extend. Guess we will have to wait and see where Mr. Sanderson is leading with this.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Makromag

[Uduak]

In the moment Kaladin says The Words™, this happens:

Note that the parshendi are actually thrown back by a shockwave of stormlight. When Kaladin falls a distance while holding stormlight (as he does moments before this quote) a ring of stormlight is released and his impact is absorbed as well. It only happens twice (to Kaladin) afaik so I'll quote those for convenience as well:

It's hard to be sure if the ring of stormlight released from falling is different from what Teft describes in the first quote, which might be a side effect of Kaladin saying The Words™. They sound pretty similar though, so I'm guessing they are.

It could also be that this isn't a special power of the windrunners and is just an effect of taking an impact while holding stormlight which could work for anyone - stormlight seems to puff out whenever people in shardplate fall a distance which may support this idea.

On the other hand, here's my theory: The Windrunner surges are Pressure and Gravitation. Gravitation has the basic lashing and reverse lashing, which to borrow terms from Mistborn are like pushing and pulling gravity. Pressure just has the full lashing, which creates a vacuum (ie. pull) to bind things together. What's missing imo is a push for pressure, and shockwaves fit this nicely and we've got some examples that could be this. There's also a plausible reason it's not described alongside the lashings - you couldn't really describe a shockwave of stormlight as any sort of 'lashing' unlike the other powers, so it's not one of the 'three lashings' even if it is a Windrunner power. It also makes pressure a bit more interesting as a surge which I think is needed since full lashings are very mundane when compared with the combination of reverse and basic lashings.

If Windrunners can also make these shockwaves whenever and not purely from falling it'd be a neat power that could certainly be quite useful - unlike lashings it doesn't require touching people or things, and it'd be handy if they got surrounded.

If i can say my theory, personally i don't think that surgebinders can create shockwaves but i can't prove it so let's just leave this out, now my opinion is:

1 That Wave released when Kaladin make the Oath could be motivated by the fact that after the Oath the benefits you gain from the StormLight increase and so maybe as a side effect they provoke that and because is really cool and badass

2 Regarding your quotes about kaladin falling i think it's unrelated, because to me this is the proof that with the stormlight you can survive falling up from high and support the fact that KR fall from the sky like meteors and don't die as we have seen in the dalinar's visions, i don't know how they go up there, maybe using Surgebind powers and changing the gravity so that they fall... up in the sky. Just a theory, and there's the problem of the other orders, how they go up there? Oviously using balloons....

Edited July 18, 2012 by Tel'Aral

[Smidge]

If i can say my theory, personally i don't think that surgebinders can create shockwaves but i can't prove it so let's just leave this out, now my opinion is:

1 That Wave released when Kaladin make the Oath could be motivated by the fact that after the Oath the benefits you gain from the StormLight increase and so maybe as a side effect they provoke that and because is really cool and badass

2 Regarding your quotes about kaladin falling i think it's unrelated, because to me this is the proof that with the stormlight you can survive falling up from high and support the fact that KR fall from the sky like meteors and don't die as we have seen in the dalinar's visions, i don't know how they go up there, maybe using Surgebind powers and changing the gravity so that they fall... up in the sky. Just a theory, and there's the problem of the other orders, how they go up there? Oviously using balloons....

1. That's definitely a possibility. Since we only have one example where we know the stormlight actually knocks people back we can't know for sure yet whether it's any sort of power they have or just a one off.

2. The radiants in the vision were windrunners and stonewards. The ones that fell from the sky were all windrunners so we don't know yet if other orders can survive falls like that, though shardplate can let anyone fall a fair distance but it takes damage from the impact. They could fly by just basic lashing themselves in the direction of the sky like Szeth does to a rock at one point.

[Uduak]

1. That's definitely a possibility. Since we only have one example where we know the stormlight actually knocks people back we can't know for sure yet whether it's any sort of power they have or just a one off.

2. The radiants in the vision were windrunners and stonewards. The ones that fell from the sky were all windrunners so we don't know yet if other orders can survive falls like that, though shardplate can let anyone fall a fair distance but it takes damage from the impact. They could fly by just basic lashing themselves in the direction of the sky like Szeth does to a rock at one point.

Yes, Lashing was the word is was searching for when i talked about changing gravity, sorry if i was confusing. It's that i'm italian and of course i readed Twok in my mother language, and if i culd be OT a second i'd like to ask something: i succedeed in reading Warbreaker and Elantris in english and so i'd lik to ask if you think i could read Twok and sequels too(don't wanna wait 1 year) or it's to complicated?

1 About the shockwaves i think Szeth would have used it or at least knew about it, It seems he's been trained very well(or maybe alone, or from his spren if he ever had one), Otherwise it's a privilege of those who maked the Oath, maybe as other said in ther topics the next Oaths will grant some new ability.

If i remember correctly two orders used Lashing, am i right? Stonewarden are one? Although i don't really know what the other orders do except Soulcasting (two orders too right?).

[ReaderAt2046]

If i remember correctly two orders used Lashing, am i right? Stonewarden are one? Although i don't really know what the other orders do except Soulcasting (two orders too right?).

No. There are tens surges and ten orders. Each order gets two surges, and each surge is used twice. The Windrunners are Order 1. They have the Surges of Gravity and Pressure. The lashings are how they manipulate those two surges.

The Stonewards are the Eighth Order, and we don't know what surges they have, but they can't have Gravity or Pressure because Surges are only shared between adjacent orders.