Exactly. The way Jordan phrases it, there are more Aes Sedai in the 21 level list than there would be if the 21 levels were evenly spread out over the whole strength scale (1-100 or 45-85784, makes no difference, they're randomly assigned values). Which is why I'm arguing that it makes no sense to have the 21 levels as the X-axis of the bell curve. Not only is it not a steady progression, its a bunch of discrete values, so a normal distribution over it is not possible.


Exactly what I'm saying RPA. The way I see it, the Aes Sedai have a fairly small range of strength (because they exclude people below a certain strength scale, and also because they haven't had many strong channelers come to them), where quite a few of the 21 levels are represented because the AS seem a lot more prone to look at strength differences. The levels occupied by the Aes Sedai might differe by no more that 2-.2.5 units in a 1-100 scale, yet at the upper levels, the jumps might be around 5 units. Thus, LTT and Ishy at 100, Aginor at 99 and Demandred at 98 can all be considered more or less the same strength. No one up there really cares, because that one unit of strength doesn't matter at all. Frankly, I think if one takes into account skills and Talents, anyone from 70-100 should be able to challenge each other, and the battle wouldn't be a write off.

Well, exactly. Which is why I'm so hesitant to place Aes Sedai so low on the strength scale. Previous lists out them from 8-25. Which means 37.5% of the population that cannot be Aes Sedai is ranging in strength from 1-8, which is fairly senseless.