[RoW] Kaladin and his Terrifying Use of Lashings

[Myst He/Him]

I’m not sure if I’m trying to start conversation, or just express how glad I am Windrunners have the Immortal Words they do.

Needless to Say: Rhythm of War Spoilers. 
*I don’t think I need to put the following in a spoiler box because the Title makes it pretty clear, but if not someone tell me and I’ll fix it

The specific scene I’m talking about is in the Tower, while Kaladin is breaking after seeing Teft dead. Right after that, the Pursuer tries to kill him, and Kaladin ends up Lashing his head to the floor

Kaladin uses a reverse lashing to attract only his head, ripping it off and killing the Pursuer. I find this absolutely terrifying. We have people able to, with only a small amount of Stormlight, kill just about everyone a 100 ft radius(do we know the actual limit for this? I just chose a random measurement) 

If a Windrunner wanted too, they could use stormlight to massacre people so easily. The literal only thing holding them back is the Ideals…

No wonder Ashyn burned..

Basically, I’m very glad Windrunners have the oaths they do. If they had the Skybreakers oaths… we’d be screwed 

[Shadow of Electrum he/him]

I think a major component of this was the fact that the pursuer was stuck to the wall by another lashing, and the fact that Kaladin was very close.

It's been said that reverse lashings don't work as well on things that are on the ground and I think the Pursuer being elevated somewhat helps with this. I don't think you could tear the head off everyone in a 100ft radius easily. I think it would first take them being otherwise stuck so that the rest of their body doesn't get pulled, and I think it might in reality take more stormlight depending on how hard you want the lashing to pull.

The head pulling move is still terrifying, but I don't think it's really practical, Kaladin was just very mad.

9 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

Basically, I’m very glad Windrunners have the oaths they do. If they had the Skybreakers oaths… we’d be screwed 

I'm not so sure really. I think division is way more dangerous on its own than either gravitation, adhesion, or the two combined. It was division that literally burned the air, which the Skybreakers have free access to. Gravitation and Adhesion may be powerful and have their applications, but neither of them are as inherently destructive, especially considering division is literally just directly controlled destruction.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that Skybreakers oathes are probably doing more than you would think as far as preventing disaster goes.

[Frustration]

15 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

I’m not sure if I’m trying to start conversation, or just express how glad I am Windrunners have the Immortal Words they do.

Needless to Say: Rhythm of War Spoilers. 
*I don’t think I need to put the following in a spoiler box because the Title makes it pretty clear, but if not someone tell me and I’ll fix it

The specific scene I’m talking about is in the Tower, while Kaladin is breaking after seeing Teft dead. Right after that, the Pursuer tries to kill him, and Kaladin ends up Lashing his head to the floor

Kaladin uses a reverse lashing to attract only his head, ripping it off and killing the Pursuer. I find this absolutely terrifying. We have people able to, with only a small amount of Stormlight, kill just about everyone a 100 ft radius(do we know the actual limit for this? I just chose a random measurement) 

If a Windrunner wanted too, they could use stormlight to massacre people so easily. The literal only thing holding them back is the Ideals…

No wonder Ashyn burned..

Basically, I’m very glad Windrunners have the oaths they do. If they had the Skybreakers oaths… we’d be screwed 

Hey don't be dunking on my Skybreakers like that. They have perhaps an even greater level of self-restraint than Windrunners.

While using a reverse lashing to rip someone's head off is brutal, I think that you are forgetting that shards allow anyone to do that. Reverse lashings when it comes to destruction are pretty tame compared to the other surges.

[Myst He/Him]

8 hours ago, Shadow of Electrum said:

I think a major component of this was the fact that the pursuer was stuck to the wall by another lashing, and the fact that Kaladin was very close.

It's been said that reverse lashings don't work as well on things that are on the ground and I think the Pursuer being elevated somewhat helps with this. I don't think you could tear the head off everyone in a 100ft radius easily. I think it would first take them being otherwise stuck so that the rest of their body doesn't get pulled, and I think it might in reality take more stormlight depending on how hard you want the lashing to pull.

The head pulling move is still terrifying, but I don't think it's really practical, Kaladin was just very mad.

I'm not so sure really. I think division is way more dangerous on its own than either gravitation, adhesion, or the two combined. It was division that literally burned the air, which the Skybreakers have free access to. Gravitation and Adhesion may be powerful and have their applications, but neither of them are as inherently destructive, especially considering division is literally just directly controlled destruction.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that Skybreakers oathes are probably doing more than you would think as far as preventing disaster goes.

They do have a lot of restraint, but considering Skybreakers will throw that out the window if they decide you’re guilty(Nales at least), that’s what I’m terrified of.
And yeah, Division is a pretty destructive art, though I feel like

WaT spoilers 

Spoiler

During his battle with his sister, I got the impression that Division couldn’t hurt him unless she touched him or the ground he was standing on 

I know Ashyn was destroyed by division but I just haven’t seen that destructive power in-book yet

 

[Nitpicking]

33 minutes ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

And yeah, Division is a pretty destructive art, though I feel like

WaT spoilers 

  Hide contents

During his battle with his sister, I got the impression that Division couldn’t hurt him unless she touched him or the ground he was standing on 

I know Ashyn was destroyed by division but I just haven’t seen that destructive power in-book yet

 

Ashyn was a apparently destroyed by microkinesis. The unrestrained Surges are enormously more than what Radiants are permitted to do.

[Frustration]

2 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

They do have a lot of restraint, but considering Skybreakers will throw that out the window if they decide you’re guilty(Nales at least), that’s what I’m terrified of.
And yeah, Division is a pretty destructive art, though I feel like

WaT spoilers 

  Reveal hidden contents

During his battle with his sister, I got the impression that Division couldn’t hurt him unless she touched him or the ground he was standing on 

I know Ashyn was destroyed by division but I just haven’t seen that destructive power in-book yet

 

She couldn't burn the air itself, but she could use sawdust or other things to burn him at a distance, and if you touch the ground you can burn stuff from quite far away.

1 hour ago, Nitpicking said:

Ashyn was a apparently destroyed by microkinesis. The unrestrained Surges are enormously more than what Radiants are permitted to do.

It wasn't Ashyn that had problems with microkenisis, that was Yolen. Ashyn had issues because of Dawnshards.

[Qianweilian He/him]

On 1/26/2026 at 11:47 AM, Mistfallen Soldier said:

During his battle with his sister, I got the impression that Division couldn’t hurt him unless she touched him or the ground he was standing on

Division can be used ranged according to the Cosmere RPG. Although regular use of division requires touch, there is a specific talent that allows you to perform division on each target in an area. It’s not an incredibly large area, but it is possible.

 

[earthexile]

It makes sense to me, magic of unraveling and dissolution is probably a hard thing to launch very far before it comes apart. 

[Nitpicking]

On 1/26/2026 at 2:55 PM, Frustration said:

It wasn't Ashyn that had problems with microkenisis, that was Yolen. Ashyn had issues because of Dawnshards.

"Surges" were basically anything, before Ishar talked Tanavast into limiting them. Ashyn was destroyed by nuclear reactions caused by Investiture--microkinesis.

[Frustration]

17 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

"Surges" were basically anything, before Ishar talked Tanavast into limiting them. Ashyn was destroyed by nuclear reactions caused by Investiture--microkinesis.

There are several assumptions here

1. The destruction of Ashyn was caused by nuclear explosions
2. Any magic that causes nuclear explosions are microkenisis
3. I'm not sure how you are conflating Dawnshards with Surgbinding.

Addressing them:

1. The destruction of Ashyn was not nuclear. The planet is still burning thousands of years later. Simply forcing fission on normally occurring elements would not cause this.
2. Microkenisis is a Yolish based magic system that focuses on the manipulation of axi. The powers possessed by Ashynites were similar enough to what they have on Roshar as to be called: Elsecalling, Bondsmithing etc.
3. In Oathbringer chapter 113 it's said that Dawnshards were used to destroy Ashyn, not just surgebinding, but Dawnshards.

[Nitpicking]

5 hours ago, Frustration said:

There are several assumptions here

1. The destruction of Ashyn was caused by nuclear explosions
2. Any magic that causes nuclear explosions are microkenisis
3. I'm not sure how you are conflating Dawnshards with Surgbinding.

Addressing them:

1. The destruction of Ashyn was not nuclear. The planet is still burning thousands of years later. Simply forcing fission on normally occurring elements would not cause this.
2. Microkenisis is a Yolish based magic system that focuses on the manipulation of axi. The powers possessed by Ashynites were similar enough to what they have on Roshar as to be called: Elsecalling, Bondsmithing etc.
3. In Oathbringer chapter 113 it's said that Dawnshards were used to destroy Ashyn, not just surgebinding, but Dawnshards.

I am vaguely remembering WoBs, and I do not have time tonight to trawl the Arcanum, so ... I yield the field.