A matter of strength

[Fiera Taishar]

Okay, so far I'm in the middle of CoT, and I've noticed that RJ bounces around a lot about who's the strongest in the OP and who is the best at healing, etc. so I basically get confused. This is our list:

 

Egwene

Elayne

Aviendha

Nynaeve

Sharina

Alivia

Talaan

Another Windfinder apprentice

Nicola

Sumeko

 

I think I got most of them. So at first, Nynaeve was supposedly the stongest and whatever, but was bumped down by Sharina and then Alivia. Okay, but then all of a sudden Talaan, who was supposed to equal her in strength, now has a higher potential because she is still young, according to Nynaeve. However, Nynaeve finds out that Talaan isn't actually as young as she looks, so would that lower her potential. This is because Nynaeve was supposing Talaan would end up stronger than her becuase she was still young (due to the fact she hadn't learned how to tell a woman's potential). So if it turned out Talaan was quite a bit older than Nynaeve had originally imagined, would that lower her estimation of her potential, making Nynaeve's higher? Confusing stuff. Elayne, Aviendha, the other WF apprentice, and Egwene are basically the same. Then it says that Nicola will become very powerful, but I assumed that meant more along the line of Cadsuane powerful, nothing more. So then my list ends up looking like this, from strongest to weakest:

 

Alivia

Sharina

Nynaeve

Talaan

Egwene

Elayne

Aviendha

WF Apprentice

Nicola

 

Then there is the strength in healing. Nynaeve was always superior in that, but then RJ began saying vaguely that others in the Kintting Circle/Kin had begun outstripping her skill. Is that true? It specifically said that Sumeko had begun to outstrip her by far, or something like that. So all of a sudden, Nynaeve isn't our healing extrodinaire anymore and falls below the ranks of the Kin?

 

So did I get all that stuff right or am I vexing my brain with too many silly details and screwing it all up?

 

 

 

Another thing

[Mat Cauthon]

I think you have the strongest to weakest list right and then for the healing it is about what you were saying. Nynaeve is the best Aes Sedai in the new way but could be she doesn't have all the experience in it as others do and she isn't as strong in other areas as the other Aes Sedai are. When the White Tower Aes Sedai learn about the new 5 power healing there is a good possibility some would be better than her.

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

This is a good link with a chart of strength for female channelers:

 

http://www.wotmania.com/faqtopic.asp?ID=75

 

I haven't seen one for male channelers, but I would dearly love to if anyone has the link.

[SBoydW]

I haven't seen one for male channelers, but I would dearly love to if anyone has the link.

 

I looked around for a few days after I found the same page you posted. I don't think that there is one yet.

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

I looked around for a few days after I found the same page you posted. I don't think that there is one yet.

 

Well? Get crackin' on it!!

[icspots]

I don't think you should be worried about Talaan's age and her amount of slowing affecting Nynaeve gauging her power ceiling with the OP. Female channelers can sense not only the ability to channel in other women, but also what their channeling potential is, so regardless of her age Ny is sensing her eventual potential.

 

Just like Moiraine knew how powerful Egwene and Nynaeve would be when she met them, or how everyone knew that Moiraine would one day be quite powerful (at least at the time).

 

Men are different in that when not channeling they can only sense the ability to channel when in close proximity to each other (See when Rand, a couple Ash'aman, and Sulin et. al. go to Caemlyn), and can only gauge the current strength of each other. They don't know what their eventual power level will be until they've stopped gaining.

[Thor]

Good luck on the male strengths order though, it is pretty much a nightmare.

[SBoydW]

This post is merely my opinion and not backed up by anything but my own feeble research. So it may not be exactly what it should be but whatever

 

Level 1

Ishamael- Is the most powerful of the forsaken, and is believed to be eqaul in strength in the one power to Lews Therin.

 

Rand- Is the Dragon Reborn and probably has the same amount of strength as Lews Therin, but is lacking the knoqledge that Lew Therin had.

 

Level 2

 

Aginor- He is the second most powerful male channeler. He is given credit for creating the Trollocs.

 

Demandred- Said to have been second only to Lews therin in the amount of fame that he had in the AoL. I'll put him at equal strength with Aginor

 

Level 3

 

Be'lal- The BWB says that he combined and surpassed the strengths of Sammael and Rahvin.

 

Level 4

 

Balthamel- The BWB says that he is quite strong in the power, and the only reason that he didn't gain the coveted third name in the AoL, was because of his temper and his lust for the "working girls."

 

Level 5

 

Sammael- He was acclaimed as the premeir sportsman of his age. Since the power played an integral part in the AoL, I would guess that the One Power was used in some if not most sports. This would mean that Sammael would have to be fairly strong in the One Power to be the best at whatever sport he competed in.

 

Level 6

 

Rahvin- We don't have to much insight into Rahvin, other than that he was skilled at the art of Compulsion, which we see in the example of Morgase. We know that he and Rand had a One Power duel which he held his own in, even though he lost in the end. Probably very strong for the Third Age, Middle Upper-Class in the AoL

 

Level 7

 

Asmodean- Not much is said in the way of how much of the one power Asmodean could channel. He appeared to be knowledgable about the one power because he taught Rand. Granted Rand knew very little about the Power at that time. Though since he was taken as one of the Forsaken, he must have had adequate strength for his day which transaltes into fairly powerful in the third age.

 

Level 8

 

Damer Flinn- One of the best healers in the third age. Definatlety the best Male healer and probably only second to Nynave over all.(Save Semirhage but she doesn't heal much these days. she's more into the makeing people need healing field now.) Again the amount of power that he can channel is relativley unknown, but I belive that he is in the upper middle class of the channelers.

 

Level 9

 

Jonan Adley/Jur Grady/Eben Hopwill/Fedwin Morr

 

These are some of the ones listed as being strong enough to make the Traveling Gateways. This alone requires an adequate amount of the One Power.

 

Level 10-?

 

I'll place all the other male channeler here, mainly because we know very little of what they can do.

 

----------------------

 

Now if I have left anyone out, or offended someone by not including there favorite male channeler, I'm sorry. I did this in a bit of a hurry and admit that it probably isn't perfect. I just sort of did it willy nilly.

 

If anyone disagrees with this list please post one of your own and if it is better,which it may very well be, I'll go along with it.

 

My Main sources were:

The BWB and http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/

 

......Think that's all. Enjoy the read

[Thor]

You left out Narishma. He should be stronger than Asmodean at least.

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

This post is merely my opinion and not backed up by anything but my own feeble research. So it may not be exactly what it should be but whatever

 

I would probably put Balthamel' date=' Sammael, and Rahvin all on the same level. Balthamel was strong, but they don't compare him to the other Forsaken (that I recall), and his lack of 3rd name seemed to be more over a lack of doing anything worth getting a third name over than not being the strongest EVAR.

 

I would put Asmodean on the level with the other prominent, gateway-making Asha'man, just because I don't recall how much comparison was written between the Asha'man themselves. Some would be stronger than others. Asmodean must definitely be the weakest of the male Forsaken, and only considered Forsaken due to strength in the Power (certainly not due to miltary genius or really accomplishing anything important for the DO)... that strength would have put him above the majority of average channelers of his age, and there's no reason to think that all the channelers of the Third Age are all stronger and would be thus stronger than him.

 

Just as a side note, I don't think that strength in the Power is necessarily a key factor to being a good Healer. What I mean is... just because Flinn is an excellent Healer, doesn't mean he's the strongest of the Asha'man.

 

I haven't really thought about the comparative strength of the male channelers, but I think I'll take some notes as I re-read...[/color']

[RobertAlexWillis]

You left out both Logain and Taim! Sloppy, sloppy ...

 

 

They both go on Level 2, I think ... Rand has commented about both that they don't fall far short of what he can hold.

[Guest Wynne Jessal]

You left out both Logain and Taim! Sloppy' date=' sloppy ...

 

 

They both go on Level 2, I think ... Rand has commented about both that they don't fall far short of what he can hold.[/quote']

 

That sounds funny.

 

##User Taim - has Entered the Game## (8:26:17 PM)

TehCreator (8:27:44 PM): proceed to lvl 2

[SBoydW]

Yeah, I know. That was actually the second time that I typed that out.. and all the people that you all just listed I origianly had listed. The first one got wiped our when for some odd reason my browser went kaputz. the version there I typed out in like 10 minutes before I went to work.

 

The other one was much better. :(

 

I did have Taim on level 2 and logain I think three.. Narshima was 5 I think.

 

The original post I had had 7 more levels and many more references... I just didn't have the time to re do it.

[Fiera Taishar]

I don't think you should be worried about Talaan's age and her amount of slowing affecting Nynaeve gauging her power ceiling with the OP. Female channelers can sense not only the ability to channel in other women' date=' but also what their channeling potential is, so regardless of her age Ny is sensing her eventual potential.

 

Just like Moiraine knew how powerful Egwene and Nynaeve would be when she met them, or how everyone knew that Moiraine would one day be quite powerful (at least at the time).

 

Men are different in that when not channeling they can only sense the ability to channel when in close proximity to each other (See when Rand, a couple Ash'aman, and Sulin et. al. go to Caemlyn), and can only gauge the current strength of each other. They don't know what their eventual power level will be until they've stopped gaining.[/quote']

 

That's what I thought too, but Nynaeve specifically says that she can't sense the other woman's potential, but she's supposed to be as strong as her and has a higher potential judging by her (misjudged) age. That's what confused me, because then is Talaan's potential still higher, or are they the same? But that list was really nice. Making one for the males would be something of a challenge, so say the least!

[RobertAlexWillis]

That's what confused me, because then is Talaan's potential still higher, or are they the same?

 

And that is one of the most confusing, difficult to untangle parts about this question ... many of the people involved have not yet reached their full potential, and even for those who have, measuring strength is not a precise science.

[Mat Cauthon]

I don't think that they can sense the total potential of someone, but we know that the women progress in a linear slope rather than the men who just progress randomly in strength gains. This lets them estimate their eventual strength if they keep working

[Thor]

I differ on that, females are supposed to be able to tell exactly their relative strengths.

[Mat is the Boss]

I agree with Thor, Egwene clearly states that Sharina`s potential is greater then Nynaeve`s.

And doesn`t the Guide say something about this? Unfortunately I don`t have my books here....