There are multiple indications that there is a significant gap between Nynaeve and the most powerful female channeler.
Alivia is twice referred to as being "considerably" and then "significantly" stronger than Nynaeve.
ON Linda's list on 13th depository - which I sometimes disagree with, but not in this case - she has about 3 levels above Nynaeve, backed by solid evidence.
And this is confirmed by the fact that Semirhage has at least three levels of female Forsaken above her as well - Graendal then Cyndane and then Lanfear.
The gap is real. And as we've said before - there are many factors influencing "who would win in a fight", some of them random.
But this gap does give a clear advantage to the stronger members of the Forsaken. Whether that advantage is driven home or not would of course depend on the particular set of circumstances.
Alivia is twice referred to as being "considerably" and then "significantly" stronger than Nynaeve.
ON Linda's list on 13th depository - which I sometimes disagree with, but not in this case - she has about 3 levels above Nynaeve, backed by solid evidence.
And this is confirmed by the fact that Semirhage has at least three levels of female Forsaken above her as well - Graendal then Cyndane and then Lanfear.
The gap is real. And as we've said before - there are many factors influencing "who would win in a fight", some of them random.
But this gap does give a clear advantage to the stronger members of the Forsaken. Whether that advantage is driven home or not would of course depend on the particular set of circumstances.
I'm pretty sure there are a few levels above Nynaeve, but the relevance of it remains dubious. If Alivia is 5 points stronger than Nynaeve, and Reanne only has a strength of 15 then she will consider Alivia to have a third of her whole strength as a greater potential than Nynaeve. This will obviously look enormous to her, and she will describe Alivia as 'considerably stronger'. If Graendal measures this difference it will constitute about 5% of her own strength and she'll consider Nynaeve to be very close to her. It's all a matter of perspective.
You only need to have Nynaeve 90, Alivia 93, Cyndane 96, Lanfear 100 to see that it completely fulfills every quote in the series, and still gives Lanfear only 10% greater strength than Nynaeve, which could be akin to the difference between Rand and Rahvin, and no one believes that Rand would easily defeat Rahvin.
As I said, you can't offer real examples of a pecking order among the Forsaken, except for the sole example of Moghedien's genuine weakness and her avoidance of the other Chosen. They do not defer to each other's power and never have. Lanfear is as strong as possible, and has no lack of skill, and I've never seen one of the Chosen defer to her. Quite the contrary, and she's not obviously going to defeat the others if they stand up to her.
I remain of the opinion that any of the Chosen (except Moghedien) can openly and directly challenge the others and stand an excellent chance of winning, as long as they fight intelligently. True, I wouldn't easily bet on Mesaana defeating Demandred in an open duel, but I think he'd have to fight his ass off and would be hard-pressed to win.
You continuously ignore the one true fact about the Chosen... if any of them was truly weak they'd be dead. Its actively encouraged in the Shadow. Demandred wouldn't ally with two obviously weak allies. He obviously recognizes that their strength approaches his and he's keeping them at bay until he can go for them invidually. Mesaana spoke about overwhelming Semirhage in the most recent book. It's obvious that twelve of the thirteen Forsaken are so close in power and skill that they won't easily go for one another unless they really have a large advantage. Even they know that they could lose. If Ishamael or Lanfear was significantly more powerful than any of those twelve, they would have destroyed them. Clearly they can't. You speak about Semirhage hating Lanfear but not being able to kill her, but then why hasn't Lanfear gone for Semirhage? Lanfear knows it will be a huge duel.
I think Brandon's answers have clearly shown that Nynaeve is very close to the top tier in strength. That makes her close to Rand and the other Forsaken. With training she could challenge any of them. Moghedien said as much when she suggested Nynaeve should meet Rahvin unblocked one day.
Wheel of Time board admin
Fan of Lanfear
Fan of Lanfear
Proof that Asmodean's effective One Power strength is greater than Moghedien's...
03/02/2011 03:22:42 PM
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Huh?
03/02/2011 04:08:29 PM
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Why do you deliberately misquote the text?
03/02/2011 04:12:50 PM
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You're deliberately being obtuse... as usual...
03/02/2011 10:07:09 PM
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Right. So Egwene can shield someone of Egwene's own strength, plus Elayne, AND weave a dozen flows..
03/02/2011 10:26:27 PM
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03/02/2011 10:46:40 PM
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No. Egwene is very close to her full potential at the time...
03/02/2011 11:44:20 PM
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Don't agree
04/02/2011 08:30:02 AM
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Fair comment, but my question then is:
04/02/2011 11:26:25 AM
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I think the WO and Moiraine also Force Egwene as they know what's coming and need her
04/02/2011 03:55:46 PM
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It is specifically stated that Egwene was forced by the rigours of the damane training...
04/02/2011 05:15:20 PM
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Egwene has been continually forced...
04/02/2011 06:02:08 PM
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The direct quotes contradict you...
04/02/2011 06:23:03 PM
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actually the quote substantiates that Egwene is only slightly stronger than Moiraine in TSR
04/02/2011 07:51:10 PM
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I think you may have misused the term - RJ meant 'effective' to mean something a bit different.
03/02/2011 04:40:41 PM
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Re: I think you are mistaking what RJ meant effective to mean.
03/02/2011 05:30:15 PM
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Re: I think you are mistaking what RJ meant effective to mean.
03/02/2011 05:45:30 PM
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Re: I think you are mistaking what RJ meant effective to mean.
03/02/2011 06:31:34 PM
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We still don't know who is effectively stronger, and not sure if Asmo was equal to Rand by the end.
03/02/2011 06:58:14 PM
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See my post above, I would say Asmo is Weaker than Moggy... *NM*
03/02/2011 07:10:07 PM
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I'm not certain either way. I think it all depends on the terms being used.
03/02/2011 07:22:01 PM
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Effective strength means who can make the bigger fireball, the stronger shield, the thicker balefire
03/02/2011 07:42:17 PM
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My impression of your view, in general, is that...
03/02/2011 07:33:37 PM
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How...
03/02/2011 10:15:34 PM
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If Nynaeve could do to Egwene and Elayne what Rand did to them, then I rest my case...
03/02/2011 10:36:46 PM
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Re: If Nynaeve could do to Egwene and Elayne what Rand did to them, then I rest my case...
03/02/2011 10:50:57 PM
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Got you now...
03/02/2011 11:32:49 PM
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You're clearly delusional...
04/02/2011 12:59:26 AM
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You sound ridiculous
04/02/2011 02:05:18 AM
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Where on earth does it say Nynaeve could do to Egwene and Elayne what Rand did?
04/02/2011 08:06:48 PM
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Re: How...
04/02/2011 08:34:21 AM
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They're very close now...
04/02/2011 05:46:48 PM
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That is unfortunately not true...
04/02/2011 06:02:34 PM
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It is...
04/02/2011 06:05:05 PM
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Re: It is...
04/02/2011 06:31:32 PM
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Yup...
04/02/2011 08:20:33 PM
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Semirhage hated Lanfear, but dared not act against her strength...
04/02/2011 08:29:24 PM
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yet Graendal showed a lot of respect for Semirhage ... even assumed she was the most
04/02/2011 08:53:05 PM
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Graendal on Semirhage and Demandred...
04/02/2011 09:23:50 PM
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No
04/02/2011 11:10:00 PM
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We will just have to disagree on this one...
05/02/2011 06:57:36 AM
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Indeed
05/02/2011 07:38:10 AM
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I agree with you here
04/02/2011 08:19:35 PM
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I don't think that's true..
04/02/2011 08:21:38 PM
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the evidence is that Aginor burnt out trying to channel the Eye and Rand didn't
04/02/2011 08:23:50 PM
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I think this is a no brainer
04/02/2011 08:22:00 AM
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The nice fact which is proven is the magnitude of the gap between Moghedien and Semirhage...
04/02/2011 11:32:00 AM
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Nynaeve could be at 90% or 80% when she faced Moghedien we have no way of measuring that
04/02/2011 08:42:03 PM
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Disagree...
04/02/2011 08:51:55 PM
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spin it all you like... I'm tired of this arument and your creative quoting.
04/02/2011 08:56:14 PM
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The creative quoter is Fionwe, not me. You quote correctly, but your interpretations are way off...
04/02/2011 09:05:43 PM
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Nynaeve has grown in strength, but she started nearly as strong as Moiraine!
05/02/2011 05:35:05 AM
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Starting out at Moiraine's strength meant starting out at barely 30% of her full potential...
05/02/2011 07:05:46 AM
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Nynaeve's strength
05/02/2011 07:49:07 AM
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Agree, Egwene has never been as strong as Nynaeve at any stage. *NM*
05/02/2011 03:03:25 PM
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I disagree that Moiraine is 30% of Nynaeve. Much closer to 50% of Nynaeve. EDIT
05/02/2011 03:02:06 PM
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Minor quibbles aside...
05/02/2011 04:05:30 PM
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Agreed, the exact numbers are arbitrary, I place Egwene a tad higher than you ... EDIT
05/02/2011 04:30:00 PM
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Re: Agreed, the exact numbers are arbitrary, I place Egwene a tad higher than you ... EDIT
05/02/2011 06:09:41 PM
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shrugs
05/02/2011 06:46:02 PM
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Re: shrugs
05/02/2011 08:03:37 PM
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I don't recall the Merise quote you are refering too and they have not been together in the series
05/02/2011 09:20:56 PM
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I'm sorry, I meant the glossary entry...
05/02/2011 10:29:46 PM
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Thanks for clarifying
05/02/2011 11:12:19 PM
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Re: Thanks for clarifying
06/02/2011 12:42:51 AM
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fair enough ... I can agree to Cadsuane and Bode both being 70 with Egwene and co at 80 *NM*
06/02/2011 04:29:49 AM
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Sorry, but here your entire Bell Curve goes up in smoke...
06/02/2011 01:13:15 PM
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In fact, Moiraine is even STRONGER than I postulated in the above post...
06/02/2011 01:22:11 PM
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well...
06/02/2011 02:11:02 PM
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Only a separate Bell Curve for the Age of Legends - when the average strength was higher - will work
06/02/2011 03:29:49 PM
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Or, you know, the Aes Sedai aren't a representative sample... *NM*
06/02/2011 04:19:22 PM
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I don't think Strength was higher in the AOL I think there were just more channelers
06/02/2011 04:50:42 PM
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Uhhh... no...
06/02/2011 04:18:19 PM
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Read these facts slowly, maybe you will grasp the implication then...
06/02/2011 04:41:02 PM
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you are missing the fact that women like Sharina have no interest in the Tower
06/02/2011 05:05:10 PM
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You equate random exclusions with the deliberate block exclusion of 37.5% weakest women...
06/02/2011 05:41:47 PM
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wrong
06/02/2011 06:08:20 PM
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That is weak logic in the extreme...
06/02/2011 06:16:46 PM
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what I'm saying is that a representative sample of the entire population
06/02/2011 06:40:51 PM
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But you don't prove that the undiscovered women are stronger. They may well be weaker...
06/02/2011 07:26:27 PM
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The only implication I grasped is that you don't grasp math...
06/02/2011 06:21:12 PM
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Circular reasoning...
06/02/2011 07:03:53 PM
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No, reasoning based on facts and what RJ said, both of which you ignore...
06/02/2011 07:34:21 PM
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If you're going to ignore direct quotes, then we may as well stop right now...
06/02/2011 08:42:40 PM
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off tangent question: Has Nynaeve yet to reach full potential or did she already after being ...
04/02/2011 08:39:29 PM
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I think the general concensus is that after the CK she was forced to her full potential
05/02/2011 03:44:29 PM
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