She's nothing but a piece of intrigue placed in the books for the fans to be intrigued about. This is made clear by three things.
1. Her existence was not something RJ plotted for this book but something based on something Brandon found 'deep in the notes'. Which leads us to two.
2. Brandon has disavowed using the notes--rather, when he needs something, he goes and asks Maria, who does the research.
3. She didn't really do anything. Or rather, she did nothing that wouldn't have occurred just as easily without her presence.
Brandon needed something (a mystery for the fans, perhaps--one may note his likening of Nakomi's role to the fandom with Asmodean's), went to Maria who provided him with something he could use, and ultimately the entire thing had little to no plot relevance.
According to yesterday's twitter chat, the scene that includes Nakomi in AMOL was written by RJ:
@BrandSanderson would like to know how much of the last chapter was written by RJ and how much did you do? #TorChat
Brandon Sanderson
Verified
@BrandSanderson
@Mikecox20 I did Perrin and some of the in-between writing with Loial. RJ did Mat, Rand, scene exiting the mountain, and others. #torchat
ockquote>
So that seems to say that RJ did "plot" her for this book.lockquote>
No it doesn't and that response wasn't a complete answer. We know Brandon added a number of things. For instance the Cadsuane part of the epilogue was Brandon as well. Brandon has previously stated the character was his.
He did say "scene exiting the mountain". And as it is written, the old Aiel woman is not called Nakomi, and can barely be called a character. If he added her to the Aviendha scene, then he's the one who wrote her as a character, gave her a name, and worked in the small clues to who she is, so that her appearance again at the end is not a total surprise.
That seems to make sense, to me.
It makes perfect sense. RJ wrote that scene, BS read it, didn't know who the woman was, did some 'digging deep into the notes'. Found RJ's writings on who she actually was, introduced her himself, as RJ likely would have.
Who *are* you, Nakomi? (Full spoilers)
in Wheel of Time Books
Posted · Edited by PM3
It makes perfect sense. RJ wrote that scene, BS read it, didn't know who the woman was, did some 'digging deep into the notes'. Found RJ's writings on who she actually was, introduced her himself, as RJ likely would have.