Re: Hmmm... - Edit 1
Before modification by Sidious at 27/11/2009 04:24:52 PM
Metaara I think is the name you are looking for.
Thanks
So in approximately 12,000-15,000 women who can channel (6k WO, 2k Kin, 2k AS and Novices etc and anywhere from 2-5k WF and Damane) we now have 4 women (Egwene, Elayne, Avi, Metaara) at this level plus 7 (Alivia, Sharina, Sommeryn, Nynaeve, Talaan, Tamela, Viendre) higher and the 5 FS. Even if there are another 10-100 women at this level it's clear that Egwene level is extremely rare.
I'll go for 100. That's still a lot of Egwene's in the world.
And as an aside, we don't actually know that Pamela and Vienre are in fact stronger than Elayne in total potential. We know that they are currently stronger than she and Aviendha, but neither of them have hit their full potential so they may only have been stronger than them at that moment. In fact we don't even have conclusive proof that Someryn is stronger, only that she's never met a WO who has more strength than her. We have no evidence that she's even met T&V!
Heh... Pamela. My main problem is that we don't have conclusive proof of anything, but the fact that there are even a few women of Egwene's strength imply that there are others out there.
I think that's a weak point. Cadsuane's reputation is about ego - she basically admits it when she compares herself to Semirhage. Semirhage is enormously powerful but she spends more time nurturing her reputation as the Lady of Pain.
But we also know from Elayne's POV that she is close enough to Nynaeve to be willing to disobey her, if Nynaeve was dramatically stronger she would have never even considered that! We've also seen that Nynaeve wasn't enough stronger to cut Elayne off from the source once she had embraced it. If she was vastly stronger a poorly woven shield wouldn't make that much difference.
The disobedience had nothing to do with strength - the three women have never deferred to one another. Elayne was saying that she'd disobey Nynaeve no matter what she said. As for the shielding question, it's a theory out there that Nynaeve wasn't concentrating and hurled an unprepared weave at Elayne. Without her block, and with some decent weaving, she would have easily succeeded. It's true I can't refute your point, but then we've seen that Nynaeve can cut off Moghedien and Talaan with her ability, and they are verifiably stronger than Elayne.
And aside from Aliva, Nynaeve and Sommeryn no FS has ever even noted the strength of any female channeler aside from Elayne (or another FS level woman), seems to me that they'd need considerable strength for Moghedien to make something of it for no reason. Clearly (IMO) Elayne's level is much closer to the FS level than the rest of the field. I'd say at full strength they no more than 10% below the FS.
But Moghedien was addressing both her and Nynaeve. It's unlikely the comments were reserved for Elayne. I think they have about 2/3 of the Forsaken's power i.e. 40 vs 60 out of 100.
But we know neither angreal was particularly strong, and linked sisters are slightly weaker than the combined strength of each AS.
Which is irrelevant when you see how powerful even small angreal can be. With an angreal of no remarkable strength, Elayne could draw twice what Nynaeve could.
I think that quote from Moiraine is mostly hyperbole. If you look at the context it has more to do with the political ramifications within the Tower than with their actual strength potentials. Not to mention how often Moiraine's estimations were dead wrong.
It's easy to say that Moiraine is wrong, but on the other hand, it's almost the only quote we've got on their relative strengths. Moiraine might not know dung about the Forsaken and their power, but even she can measure the girl's different potentials.