Lashings and protection from friction

[DoctaDajman]

So lashings are able to be stacked to magnify multiples of gravity. For a radiant I assume this doesn't mean anything because the shardplate or stormlight will protect / heal them from air resistance and said friction...

But what about for someone the surgebinder chooses to inflict lashings onto?  

Could a windrunner throw 300 lashings on a person and make them accelerate some 2700meters per second per second and basically kill them that way?  Or would the Lashing itself protect the subject from those forces that would try to kill them?  

We see many many lashing dumped into things to accelerate them faster... or to try to rip stones out of their places in walls and such. 

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

1 hour ago, DoctaDajman said:

So lashings are able to be stacked to magnify multiples of gravity. For a radiant I assume this doesn't mean anything because the shardplate or stormlight will protect / heal them from air resistance and said friction...

But what about for someone the surgebinder chooses to inflict lashings onto?  

Could a windrunner throw 300 lashings on a person and make them accelerate some 2700meters per second per second and basically kill them that way?  Or would the Lashing itself protect the subject from those forces that would try to kill them?  

We see many many lashing dumped into things to accelerate them faster... or to try to rip stones out of their places in walls and such. 

I don't know if its mentioned anywhere, it probably is, but lashings can only stack three times.

[DoctaDajman]

47 minutes ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I don't know if its mentioned anywhere, it probably is, but lashings can only stack three times.

Oh really?  That is really interesting. How does that work with terminal velocity?  

I always figured that with the ability to stack lashings windrunners could accelerate basically as fast as they wanted. Not only that but that they could turn anything pebble into a death machine even at close range. 

Being a tried and true mistborn fan I was disappointed that windrunners could do everything a coinshot could do but better with minimal effort. But this makes it sound like there is a hard limit on acceleration due to lashings... something I would be delighted to see. 

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

1 minute ago, DoctaDajman said:

Oh really?  That is really interesting. How does that work with terminal velocity?  

I always figured that with the ability to stack lashings windrunners could accelerate basically as fast as they wanted. Not only that but that they could turn anything pebble into a death machine even at close range. 

Being a tried and true mistborn fan I was disappointed that windrunners could do everything a coinshot could do but better with minimal effort. But this makes it sound like there is a hard limit on acceleration due to lashings... something I would be delighted to see. 

Lashings work a lot closer to F-steel than A-steel. There is a reason why they have a capped speed, because they will burn up because of air friction if they go to fast.

[DoctaDajman]

4 minutes ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

Lashings work a lot closer to F-steel than A-steel. There is a reason why they have a capped speed, because they will burn up because of air friction if they go to fast.

But there is a difference in capping it between the two. 

If you go too fast with feruchemy and are not a full feruchemist you are cooked. But a fullborn could simply heal themselves through traveling mach X (x being the point where they can nolonger keep metalminds touching them.)

A big difference here is that radiants already have a built in healing factor to offset any damage they may deal. Radiants also have shardplate at later stages that is designed to be nearly impervious to all heat attacks. 

There is a big difference on a cap imposed by the system and a theoretical point where any user would say ouch and stop playing. 

[alder24]

2 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

So lashings are able to be stacked to magnify multiples of gravity. For a radiant I assume this doesn't mean anything because the shardplate or stormlight will protect / heal them from air resistance and said friction...

But what about for someone the surgebinder chooses to inflict lashings onto?  

Could a windrunner throw 300 lashings on a person and make them accelerate some 2700meters per second per second and basically kill them that way?  Or would the Lashing itself protect the subject from those forces that would try to kill them?  

We see many many lashing dumped into things to accelerate them faster... or to try to rip stones out of their places in walls and such. 

Lashings don't protect against friction or air resistance. Yes, you can kill somebody this way. Moreover, Lashing causes G-forces, but realistically they shouldn't do it, so you can kill someone just by G-forces alone. But this will burn your Stormlight very, very fast and if you're fighting Radiant or a Fused, their healing will aid them resisting G-forces and friction so it's really not an efficient way of killing somebody (too much healing and it will drain your entire investiture so you can't rely on it too much). Plus, the more invested someone is, the more they will resist being Lashed with Stormlight and that leaves this tactic to be only applicable against non-invested people - but for those just Lash them up once, let them fall down and the ground will do its job.

 

1 hour ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

I don't know if its mentioned anywhere, it probably is, but lashings can only stack three times.

No. WoK prologue:

Quote

Szeth screamed, kneeling, infusing Stormlight into the wooden balcony, Lashing it downward. The air frosted around him. The tempest roared, traveling down his arms into the wood. He Lashed it downward, then did it again. He Lashed a fourth time as Gavilar stepped onto the balcony. It lurched under the extra weight. The wood cracked, straining.
The Shardbearer hesitated.
Szeth Lashed the balcony downward a fifth time.

 

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, DoctaDajman said:

Could a windrunner throw 300 lashings on a person

Each lashing takes time:
 - It's not one lashing at value 300 - it would have to be 300 individual lashings  with each one being more difficult and using more Stormlight

I do not think anybody alive would be able to hold an object or person in-place even after Lashing 10, much less up to lashing 300. Szeth likely only got to lashing 5 in WoK because it was a balcony and couldn't accelerate away until the broke off of the building. 

[Nitpicking]

20 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Each lashing takes time:
 - It's not one lashing at value 300 - it would have to be 300 individual lashings  with each one being more difficult and using more Stormlight

I do not think anybody alive would be able to hold an object or person in-place even after Lashing 10, much less up to lashing 300. Szeth likely only got to lashing 5 in WoK because it was a balcony and couldn't accelerate away until the broke off of the building. 

Presumably a Mistborn or nicrosil Misting could let a Windrunner flare her Stormlight ....

[QuantumAce]

On 7/18/2025 at 3:47 PM, Nitpicking said:

Presumably a Mistborn or nicrosil Misting could let a Windrunner flare her Stormlight ....

Which would dump all of the Windrunners stormlight into a single lashing, preventing them from adding multiple lashings. That might increase the duration of the lashing, but not the acceleration. 

[DoctaDajman]

7 hours ago, QuantumAce said:

Which would dump all of the Windrunners stormlight into a single lashing, preventing them from adding multiple lashings. That might increase the duration of the lashing, but not the acceleration. 

This is a legitimate tactical option in the future. Nice catch.