Nynaeve's Talent

[bjclinton]

As i'm rereading the series for the upmteenth time, (as always) i'm finding something a bit new. By new, I mean something that i've never put much thought into, as well as something that i've never seen a post on.

 

Its nothing completely earth-shattering, but its intriguing enough to bring up.

 

Nynaeve has the ability to sense when dangerous things are about to happen. Its in her ability to read the "weather." Or at least that what she thinks she's doing. Rather, she's reading something ominous thats about to happen.

 

Yes, she used to literally be able to read the weather as a Village Wisdom (and still can), however, since the weather has been all screwed up, her ability to read it has always been manifested in her interpreting impending war, strife, battles, or danger as a "coming storm" or some such.

 

Anyway, it actually seems quite obvious, but i'm surprised that noone in Randland has picked up on it yet.

[balefireruinssteaks]

i think Nyneave's ability to "read" kind of transcends one specific thing.

 

she can read the weather.

 

she can read the atmosphere in the sense that she knows when something dangerous is about to happen.

 

and when she touched a couple of the ter'angreal she "read" them in a very shallow way compared to what Aviendha can do.  There were a couple that Nyneave touched that she said felt such and such way, and Aviendha expanded on that when she used her "reading" Talent.

[trakand_01]

Nynaeve reads the atmospheric pressure in order to have a 'feeling' of what is going to happen - high pressure, low pressure etc. Everyone to some extent has a 'sixth sense' of the surrounding atmosphere - if you walk into a room full of people who dislike each other, you will sense the tension even if everyone is sat quietly reading a book. Nynaeve does that, just on a bigger scale.

[Luckers]

Firstly they do notice--Off the top of my head Nynaeve, Verin, Egwene and Elayne know of it.

 

 

[aussie_ashaman123]

Nynaeve had it before the weather went to the Pit of Doom. I think it was in TDR she first had it. And some of the things shes picked up, like the Seanchan Invasion of Ebou Dar. Bit hard to sense the tension of a surprise attack by sea. I think she has a slight foretelling that works the way her weather sense does.

[Luckers]

She first mentions it in tGH, though she doesn't realise what it means. She is confused over the lack of clouds given what she feels.

 

 

[Guest Dreadlord]

Its more insight than Foretelling, a Foretelling gives more detail about whats going to happen-look at Nicola for example, or Elaida-but all Nynaeve knows is that SOMETHING is about to happen, with no clue what. Iv wondered about this myself. I would have thought that she herself would have thought to se this in some way. If she stayed close to Rand, maybe she could feel it if anything was going to happen and give him warning? Imagine it, Min giving Rand info on individuals via her viewings, Nynaeve letting know when something is looming in the air...

[icspots]

Nynaeve does eventually realize that her weather sense has changed.  Just prior to Traveling from Ebou Dar to the "Farm" to gather the Kin they run into Teslyn in the hallways of the Tarisan Palace.  Nynaeve warns her that something is about to happen and that it may be a Talent she has.  Later in KoD while in Tear Ny. says something to Rand like, "There's a huge storm coming, and you know I don't mean rain"...... something like that.

 

So obviously Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha, Teslyn, Rand, Cadsuane, etc. know about it even if they haven't figured out all of it's facets yet.

[bronnt]

Nynaeve has a lot of rather diverse abilities, it's a shame she spends almost all her time on healing.  She could probably reason a lot of different things if she ever had the chance to settle down and focus on various things she does.

 

I don't know whether to classify this as one ability or several.  Her ability to sense what's going to happen with the weather, and her sense of impendig big events.  I wonder sometimes if it's specific to where she is, or if she can sense big things about to happen in Shara or Seanchan.  It does seem to be specific to wherever she happens to be, but Traveling around a lot must confuse her a bit.

 

What's interesting is how the many of the Wisdoms in the Two Rivers-at least the ones who can channel-are supposed to have developed some kind of weather sense.  Abilities with the weather are supposed to be rare among Aes Sedai-I imagine Nynaeve and Elayne can outstrip most of them.  It's probably partially due to some kind of common kinship in the Two Rivers-many of them are related to some channeler who in the past was adept with the weather.  The other part is just a personal connection to the land and farming that would make all those women more sensitive to it than Moiraine, for example, who grew up in an affluent House in Cairhien.

 

Honestly, though, I think Nynaeve's sense of the weather has always been more connected to sensing the future than it has been about feeling out weather patterns.  Future weather, sure, but that's just her abilities being extremely focused.  It's almost like she can sense the timing of crucial turning points in the Pattern.  Or maybe just those that she's attuned to, like weather, and other events.  Unfortunately, it's far too vague to be really useful.  She can't tell you what's coming, and she can't tell you when it's coming, only that it IS coming, and that it's big.  It's never really a surprise to Rand since there's a lot of different powers in play, and he knwos that TG is really close.