Aginor

[Ko´bal]

In the book most call BWB but I call SBB(small black book, I have the pocket version...) It says that the second most powerful male Forsaken was Aginor. In several discussions and also on the place called wotmania he is counted less dangerous than guys like Demandred or Sammael. How can this be? Which is true? At least wotmania says that Aginor has 90 in strength and Demandred 95.

 

When he returns to life was he as strong as before? If that´s the case how did he act infront of Rand and the others? If you follow the info from SBB it would seem quite mysterious when a new guy is coming close to rivaling Rand. Or was he masking a part of his ability/strength? Which for me seems quite strange if even possible...

[lou]

in the BWB, it does give aginor kudos for being the second strongest male forsaken, but lanfear the second strngest forsaken in general. lanfear's strngth in the power was just below ishmaels.

[RobertAlexWillis]

As RJ has repeatedly demonstrated, raw strength is not everything.  Aginor apparently was the second strongest in terms of raw power among the males (I'll take the BWB over wotmania hands down).  But his talents lay in scientific research, etc.  He was not, apparently, an exceptionally skilled fighter with the Power, and certainly not with weapons, nor was he a particularly good tactician or strategist.

 

Be'lal was far stronger than Moiraine ... but who came out on the short end?

 

As to his strength upon returning as Osan'gar ... it was apparently unchanged.  Rand comments to himself more than once on Dashiva's strength being pretty high ... and it is much more difficult for men to guage one another's raw strength in the Power anyway.  Dashiva would have had no need to conceal his strength in the same way that, say, Mesaana has to.

[The Dragon Reborn]

The way men judge strength in the power is by getting the other to seize the power and to basically hold as much as they possibly can. The other can then judge how much they hold fairly easily, but they can also sense how much 'strain' the other man is experiencing by holding so much of the power.

 

In Osan'gar's case, when Rand was judging how much he could hold, I remember that Rand thought to himself that he didn't feel 'Dashiva' 'straining' at all. Basically Osan'gar could hide his true strength in the power by not holding the maximum amount he is capable of holding. I can't remember if Rand ever truly found out how much 'Dashiva' could hold. I think he would have been far more careful of the man if he knew that 'Dashiva' could hold nearly as much as himself.

[balefireruinssteaks]

I guess that begets the question "can female channelers hide a portion of their strength?"

 

Mesaana is hiding in the Tower posing as a sister, but if any sister near her felt her strength they would be shocked because of how powerful Mesaana is.  Alviarin even says it when she recalls how Lanfear, Mesaana and Graendal show up in the Tower "proving easily how much more powerful they were than she, how insignigicant she was".  I think if there was a sister in the Tower that had Mesaana's strength it would be remarked upon more.

 

So...is she hiding only a portion of her ability?

[Davian93]

So...is she hiding only a portion of her ability?

 

Alviarin comments that she feels nothing when Mesaana channels (i.e. she is hiding her ability and reversing all the weaves).

 

I would guess that she is hiding all her ability but if you can hide all of it you would logically think you can hide some of it.  She must be doing one of the two.

[Luckers]

Just to throw in, but RJ stated that it is indeed possible to coneal a part of your strength, though he conceeded it was not well known even in the Age of Legends.

 

It seems essentially certain that Mesaana is disguising how strong she is.