Nynaeve's Weather Sense

[trashbird1240]

I am starting to re-read Lord of Chaos and I have an unanswered question after reading everything up to TGS: what is meant when we hear that Nynaeve's weather sense is telling her something? For example, in the Prologue to LoC, while Nynaeve is probing Siuan and Leane, and has "Marigan" linked through the a'dam, we read that her weather sense is telling her that a huge storm is coming, even though a drought covers the world?

 

I remember passages like this even after she resolves her block, all the way up to TGS. We know that she truly can listen to the wind, so is her "weather sense" something broader that should allow her to predict conflict?

[Corlock]

I've always seen her "weather sense" as a very vague sort of Foretelling. I mean, we've known forever that the Last Battle is coming. Nynaeve has simply had a sense of the future through what she typically calls her "weather sense" that something bad is on the way. It's far more vague than true Foretelling, in that it only gives a sense of something, rather than images or words, but it can at least be done on command. Probably in the AoL this ability of hers would have been recognized and trained into something far more useful, perhaps even true Foretelling.

[xgibbyx]

In my opinion her "weather sense" has to do with the way her body developed the one power. Her abilities with herbs and weather were how the One Power was developed within her and therefore is sort of her own innate reasoning for sensing disturbances - weather and mind/body. The large storm brewing she senses is both figurative of the last battle and most likely subjective to what the actual weather will be like...I imagine the oppressive heat and drought is a prelude to a massive deluge of rain, wind, and everything in between. So, in my opinion, her weather sense is actually that, even though it portends the Last Battle.

[Corlock]

Except xgibbyx, that Nynaeve has had moments where her "weather sense" was telling her it should be storming right then, as it a torrential downpour, and the sky was perfectly clear. Her "weather sense" can at times be very much figurative, and when she's talking about sensing a storm that doesn't seem to be in the making, it should be taken at a figurative level, so one should not necessarily expect a deluge during the Last Battle.

[xgibbyx]

Except xgibbyx, that Nynaeve has had moments where her "weather sense" was telling her it should be storming right then, as it a torrential downpour, and the sky was perfectly clear. Her "weather sense" can at times be very much figurative, and when she's talking about sensing a storm that doesn't seem to be in the making, it should be taken at a figurative level, so one should not necessarily expect a deluge during the Last Battle.

 

Ah yes! Great point! I actually forgot about those instances, now I remember how perplexed she was when that would happen. That would definitely make your explanation more accurate.

[Demiandre]

It is a sense of violence and danger I guess. The main way the Dark One impacted on the World, it has been through the weather. I suppose she sensed something through this fact. We see her sensed evil things a lot. The Sad Bracelet, the ter'angreal that causes Pain. She feels the violence.

 

But indeed, I think her sense of the weather shifted from one purpose to another. It seems she sense what it will be like, as Min see what it will be. So yeah some kind of Foretelling is cool.

[Pinzarn]

I think one should look at her point of reference.

 

Originally, Nynaeve was in the Edmond's Field. A "big" deal was how the weather would impact the crops or if a bad winter would affect the people and livestock. From her point of view, those events were what led it to be a "weather sense".

 

As she has moved out into the "real world", she is still sensing the bad things, but they are much larger and different than just the weather. I see her "weather sense" more as a "bad things are coming" sense.

[eqshadimar]

I have actually been thinking about this very thing myself. The way that I see it is that when she senses that it should be raining or whatever that she is sensing what Pattern is trying to do but the DO one is preventing it. The Pattern is saying hey I am going to make it rain and the DO is saying nope I am not going to let you do that. I forget which books it is in exactly but the Foresaken have mentioned many times that the odd weather is the DO effect on the Pattern and they were suprised when it began to right itself via the Bowl of Winds.

 

Laters,

Jeff

[trashbird1240]

Interesting, all these responses so far make sense to me, they are all about Nynaeve's innate sense of wrongness. I do agree that her development of the OP as a wilder is probably why she interprets it as "weather sense." A tower-trained AS would probably pinpoint a disturbance in the pattern and attribute it to unravelling.

[HighLordXanthus]

I always felt that Nynaeves weather sense had grown to include the storms and turbulance of greater world, not the least of these being of men and the war against the Dark One. Now maybe I saw confirmation where there was none, but I thought there often were battles and conflicts often after one of her "foreshadowing" of weather. I know she had one in Falme right before Rand and Co. showed up and rescued the horn and dagger.

[CTKShadow]

Am I the only one who thought that her weather sense was predicting the weather that was supposed to be rather than the weather imposed by the dark one? This is what I always assumed it was. So when she says "It should be raining right now" I thought that that meant that it should be raining, however, the dark one is blocking all the rain.

 

I thought those references were just there to illustrate and reinforce that the weather is in fact unnatural, and Nynaeve is sensing the "natural" weather. Maybe I'm not thinking deep enough

[Corlock]

Usually speaking she always gets this sense of something being wrong with the weather before a major event takes place. A battle, and attack. After the event, her "weather sense" turns off again. It's not meant to mean what the weather is supposed to be, but rather this idea that trouble is brewing.

[Seazo]

Nyneave did say there is a storm coming multiple times in ebou dar as well right before they left the city. Shortly there after the Seanchan Return began in earnest in Ebou Dar. I have always taken her "weather sense" as more of a trouble brewing and more of a world scope.

[GB]

i always assumed her weather sense is like the dice in mat head and kind of predicts trouble and bad times ahead and the Last Battle getting closer.

[Dead Guy]

Am I the only one who thought that her weather sense was predicting the weather that was supposed to be rather than the weather imposed by the dark one? This is what I always assumed it was. So when she says "It should be raining right now" I thought that that meant that it should be raining, however, the dark one is blocking all the rain.

 

I thought those references were just there to illustrate and reinforce that the weather is in fact unnatural, and Nynaeve is sensing the "natural" weather. Maybe I'm not thinking deep enough

 

I took it as that as well, at least in that particular instance.

[Elend]

I honestly think its just a talent. I don't think many (if any) other Aes Sedai can do this and I have to wonder if its related to Ishamael's ability to track ta'veren early in the series.

[Ava]

in the first book her weather sense tells her something is wrong and that spring should have arrived. later emonds field is attacked by trollocs