How does Kaladin deflect the Highstorm in Oathbringer

[delphinousy]

I want, to ask how is it that Kaladin 'defltects' the highstorm in Oathbringer chapter 31? Adhesion brings things together, and gravitation creates forces, but neither of these seem to actually work to deflect the highstorm. also, are the windspren there watching him deflect it, like gloryspren, or are they there because they are doing the work, and somehow Kaladin was able to command them. Finally, is this something that technically any windrunner could have done as part of their powers, or was this special to Kaladin because of something unique to him, to Syl and her connection to the stormfather, or something else?

[Honorless]

Adhesion has been described as the Surge of pressure and vacuum, which seems to be how the sticking mechanism of Adhesion functions in the Physical Realm. It's basically the same phenomenon by which one can make a cup stick to their face by placing it over their mouth and sucking in the air. The cup sticks to their face due to atmospheric pressure being higher. On a larger scale, low pressure areas is how you get cyclonic storms. In that scene Kaladin might've created a high pressure zone to part the Highstorm.

Their Order is called the Windrunners after all and Syl describes Windspren as cousins to Honorspren. Windspren gather around Kaladin quite often and Brandon has hinted that lesser spren make up a Radiant's Shardplate. For Windrunners, Windspren seem to be hinted as the ones to fulfill that role (recall the scene on the Honorspren ship where Kaladin draws Windspren around him in the Cognitive Realm)

Edited October 7, 2020 by Honorless

[Quantus]

Adhesion is defined as "The Surge of Pressure and Vacuum", so the implication is that this was a previously unseen application of that Power.

 

My far less supported (but more fun) Tinfoil hat theory is that Kaladin is part of a bloodline lineage that leads directly back to Tanavast himself, giving him a separate and relatively unique Connection to the Highstorm:

 

Quote

 

Winds Alight (paraphrased)

In SA the Stormfather refers to several people as "Child of Honor", but only Kaladin as "Child of Tanavast". Is there significance to that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, there is.

Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019)

 

 

[delphinousy]

i'll admit i was hoping for a more concrete answer, but thanks for all the answers provided. i suppose it does make the most sense that it was an application so the 'adhesion' power that we're not overly familiar with, but i'm also interesting in knowing about why it's significant that kaladin is 'child of tanavast', because that's super interesting to me

[Hoid the Former Drifter]

20 hours ago, delphinousy said:

Kaladin is 'child of tanavast'

what does this mean?

Edited October 8, 2020 by Hoid the Drifter

[ftl]

12 hours ago, Hoid the Drifter said:

what does this mean?

At some point the Stormfather calls Kaladin "Child of Tanavast".

...that's all we really know. It stuck out to people because a more natural phrasing would have been something like "Child of Honor" because he was Radiant, but the Stormfather  specifically said Tanavast. Someone asked Brandon whether that was significant and Brandon confirmed that it was, but did not give any details as to why or how it mattered.

[Hoid the Former Drifter]

tanavast is honor's vessel, yes?

[Ramona Tehradin]

 

Quote

 

TearablePuns

How do Lashings affect fluids like water or air?

Brandon Sanderson

Hard to Lash a fluid. It works poorly. How about that?

You can make it work best with the Reverse Lashing which would make sense I assume, but you can't Full Lash onto air or really a liquid. And a Gravitational Lashing, you could maybe do it on a liquid but it would disrupt real fast.

Starsight Release Party (Nov. 26, 2019)

 

I don't think Adhesion vacuum explains how he deflected it. 

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, Ramona Tehradin said:

I don't think Adhesion vacuum explains how he deflected it.

You do realize that the Lashings aren't the only powers of a Windrunner, right? They're just the ones that we know about and which have formal names. We have a WoB that a Windrunner could create a bubble around themselves and travel through space, so the WoB you cite isn't really as definitive as you think and this sort of pressure-manipulation is very much within the Windrunner skillset.

[Ramona Tehradin]

28 minutes ago, Weltall said:

You do realize that the Lashings aren't the only powers of a Windrunner, right? They're just the ones that we know about and which have formal names. We have a WoB that a Windrunner could create a bubble around themselves and travel through space, so the WoB you cite isn't really as definitive as you think and this sort of pressure-manipulation is very much within the Windrunner skillset.

I'm aware of the WoB you mentioned hence I posted this in first place. My aim was to make known that there is little we know about Radiant powers. In recent publication, it was mentioned that there are a lot of powers lying unused and secretive for Surges and none of past Radiants could make use of it because cycles of war rendered them inviolable to fight rather than discover. 

Also, we saw a character making rather unthinkable use of his 'Armor' which wasn't possible in past as recorded from Dalinar's vision. For all we know, these Surges were discovered in Ashyn and led to dangerous consequences. There is different explanation for deflecting highstorm. 

Here what happens in Oathbringer

Spoiler

Consumed by his pain and feelings of betrayal, Kaladin surged with Stormlight and flung his hand forward as if to try to push back the wind itself.

A hundred windspren spun in as lines of light, twisting around his arm, wrapping it like ribbons. They surged with Light, then exploded outward in a blinding sheet, sweeping to Kaladin’s sides and parting the winds around him.

 

Kaladin stood with his hand toward the tempest, and deflected it. Like a stone in a swift-moving river stopped the waters, he opened a pocket in the storm, creating a calm wake behind him.

The storm raged against him, but he held the point in a formation of windspren that spread from him like wings, diverting the storm. He managed to turn his head as the storm battered him. People huddled behindhim, soaked, confused—surrounded by calm.

“Go!” he shouted. “Go!”

They found their feet, the young father taking his son back from Kaladin’s leeward arm. Kaladin backed up with them, maintaining the windbreak. This group was only some of those trapped by the winds, yet it took everything Kaladin had to hold the tempest.

The winds seemed angry at him for his defiance. All it would take was one boulder.

A figure with glowing red eyes landed on the field before him. It advanced, but the people had finally reached the bunker. Kaladin sighed and released the winds, and the spren behind him scattered. 

Wow, Syl said in his mind. What did you just do? With the storm?

• The spren are circulating in constant motion, creating an opposing current to deflect the winds and later binding together to contain the winds.

Here what happens in RoW: 

Spoiler

Kaladin exploded through the darkness, surrounded by a thousand joyful windspren, swirling like a vortex. “Go!” he shouted. “Find him!”

Though it felt like he’d been falling for hours, he had spent most of that time in the place between moments. If he was still falling through the sky, mere seconds had passed, and his father was falling somewhere below him.

Still alive.

Kaladin pointed downward, reaching out, preparing himself as hundreds of windspren met the storm and blew it back, creating an open path. A tunnel of light leading toward a single figure tumbling in the air, distant.

 

Here what was seen: 

Spoiler

He opened his eyes and searched upward to find a column of radiant light stretching hundreds of feet in the air, holding back the storm. Windspren? Thousands upon thousands of them.

Lirin dangled from the gauntleted fist of a Shardbearer in resplendent Shardplate. Armor that seemed alive as it glowed a vibrant blue at the seams, Bridge Four glyphs emblazoned across the chest.

Kaladin is clearly commanding the windspren to bind together and form windbreak. It is more than single use of a Surge and perhaps some hybrid combination of proto-Commands we have not read about. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Ramona Tehradin

[Kingsdaughter613]

RAFO! (Seriously, Brandon is holding out on us here.)

[Stormgate]

Adhesion is pressure and vacuum, yes? Pressure vs pressure equals deflected storm