I was reading LoC again today. The Forsaken chapters, at least. There certainly are a lot of them.

Anyway, I was reading them through the perspective of the ToM Prologue scene, where Graendal had overcome Arangar and Delana together with some ease.

This has of course opened up the debate over Graendal's standing in the direct One Power confrontation rankings. Some have leaped to the conclusion that Graendal must be one of the most formidable One Power opponents that one can face in direct battle.

Others have been more cautious. I'm one of the latter.

In particular, the 2nd Graendal/Sammael scene gives me great trouble if Graendal is to be seen as more dangerous in a One Power duel than the top male Forsaken. It just does not tie up.

This scene of course contains a reference to Rahvin. Graendal is thinking privately that she would never confront Rand directly.

She says that if Ishamael and Rahvin had fallen to his strength, she was definitely not going to challenge him head on. For the sake of argument I tried to replace Rahvin's name with Balthamel's, and asked myself the question:

Would Graendal have felt the same way if Rand had defeated Balthamel in battle instead of Rahvin? Would it have inspired the same fear in Graendal? I cannot see that being the case. Which tells me that Rand's defeat of Rahvin inspired respect in Graendal because Rahvin was a particularly powerful and dangerous channeler.

What this leads me to believe is that Graendal might be able to defeat Arangar - and I acknowledge that the exact circumstances remain in great doubt - but someone like Rahvin would be a completely different kettle of fish for her.

In the same way, Sammael is said to be as powerful as Rand in CoS. If Graendal fears facing someone who defeated Rahvin, how would she feel facing someone as powerful as Rand himself?

Graendal says if she attacked Sammael if he already held the Source, she would DEFINITELY die. Would she feel the same way if she was facing Arangar? I doubt it.

Some refer to Moridin's thoughts in CoS that if Graendal tried to kill Sammael, one of them would die, and try to use that as an argument that Graendal and Sammael are pretty much equal in "power".

I disagree, and see it merely as Moridin acknowledging that battle is full of uncertainties, misfortune and random factors. Balefire is also a great equaliser.

Usually the aggressor has the advantage of surprise, and to me the fact that Moridin believes that her attempt to kill Sammael might not be as successful as she makes it out to be, indicates that he is indirectly suggesting that she would be biting off more than she could chew in a confrontation with Sammael. Certainly if Sammael is in the Rahvin category of power, which is generally acknowledged to be the case.

Anyway, my point in this post is that Graendal overcoming Blathamel is not as big a deal as some might think, and that the respect Graendal displayed towards Rahvin and Ishamael's power put them in a totally different league to the lowly Arangar.

Most likely Graendal is of similar stature to Balthamel in One Power battle ability, but still somewhat short of the most powerful males.

Rahvin could not have been so idiotic as to be sure that he could overwhelm Lanfear herself face to face in FoH, if in fact he would struggle to overcome Graendal, who is at least two levels below Lanfear's strength. If he is that stupid, it is utterly surprising that he has survived for so long.

Basically, my One Power confrontation rankings remain with Ishamael, Demandred, Lanfear, Sammael and Rahvin at the top, and Graendal and Semirhage slightly below them, with the rest probably following behind these 7.

As for the infamous top 6 Forsaken - well - their positions combined great political and great physical ability, and Lews Therin himself has freely stated that Graendal's manipulative abilities are supposedly unmatched among the Forsaken, so that would surely compensate for her lesser face to face "Battle strength" among the strongest males.

She is strong enough to make the result of a contest at least contain a small element of doubt. But she would be more likely than not to lose, if the battle was against the most formiddable Forsaken channelers:

Ishamael, Demandred, Lanfear, Sammael and Rahvin.