Nynaeve al'Meara
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Nynaeve al'Meara (pronounced NIGH-neev al-MEER-ah) (formally and currently el'Nynaeve ti al'Meara Mandragoran) is one of the main characters of The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan.
Personality
Nynaeve's personality often runs a gamut of emotions, meek at times before more experienced women but also able to stand up and run down others. While she will deny it, Nynaeve is incredibly strong and proud to the point of being self-centered but fails to see it. A running theme throughout the books is how Nynaeve will complain about someone being too stubborn or proud or leaping into things without thinking, oblivious to how she exhibits the exact same behavior. Surprisingly, no one calls her on this hypocrisy, although many will stare in disbelief after such statements. Despite her difficulty in accepting things that are different from what she is used to, Nynaeve is able to adapt at times and see what others do not. Nyneave is also shown to have quite a temper, with her pulling her braid to vent her anger. She is fiercely devoted to Lan, who is the one person able to melt her tempered exterior.
Appearance
Nynaeve is typically described as having dark eyes and a long, dark braid, which she often yanks in times of exasperation. She is also described as being relatively short and slim. She is pretty, as noted by Rand at the beginning of The Great Hunt.
In the beginning of the series, Nyneave vocally expresses her liking of "stout" Two Rivers wool clothing, but along the course of the books she has expressed a finer sense of fashion, wearing fine silks, usually in the colors of blue or green, which are Lan's favourite colors. In traditional Aes Sedai fashion, she wears yellow to formally show that she is in the Yellow Ajah. At the moment she wears her bracelet and ring angreal as well as several ter'angreal (including a Well) on her person- even while she sleeps.
Name
The el' in "el'Nynaeve" is a Malkieri honorific given to the Queens of Malkier. As wife to al'Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned last king of Malkier, Nynaeve is entitled to the honorific.
Skills and abilities
Nynaeve al'Meara is one of the most powerful female channelers in this age. She has been known to match the forsaken Moghedien in raw strength of the One Power in The Shadow Rising. Of the channelers of the light, she is matched by few, save Alivia the former damane, Sharina the newly arrived grandmother novice, and Talaan of the Seafolk Windfinders.
As a wilder, she learned how to channel by instinct. However, her fear of channeling and need to be in control caused a block that prevented her from channeling consciously most of the time, unless she was angry. This block has been removed, and Nynaeve is currently one of the best female channelers.
Nynaeve is an exceptional Healer, being the first person to ever Heal Severing/Stilling/Gentling, among other discoveries though surpassed in some areas by a few Yellow sisters and some of the Kin. She has much raw, natural talent, giving her the potential to be one of the most skilled Healers in the world. She has no preconceived ideas about weaves, like Elayne, Egwene and the Kin, which help them all innovate and develop new techniques outside of current Aes Sedai knowledge (channelers seem to develop blocks easily, and several examples have been shown where if a channeler thinks that something is impossible, he/she will be unable to perform this task). She also has some favorable skill in battle: whenever threatened in the early books she would call down lightning and spew fireballs with an ease most Accepted (and even Aes Sedai) would have trouble matching, once even using balefire which only a few living Aes Sedai even have knowledge about. She also has the ability to Listen to the Wind, which she had used as a Wisdom to predict the weather, but has now become a form of Foretelling: it always tells her when a great conflict is about to arrive. Based on the intensity of the storm she feels coming, she can tell how great the conflict will be. She is also able to feel intense emotions such as pain when handling certain ter'angreal.
In the series she is able to channel the five powers of Air, Fire, Earth, Water, and Spirit with equal proficiency, a feat that is incredibly rare amongst channelers, with most only being strong in one or two. Egwene, just like Nynaeve, also has great skill in the Five Powers.
Nynaeve also has knowledge of herbal remedies.
Character Progression through the Series
Wisdom of Emond's Field
Nynaeve's father thought of her as the son he never had and taught her to track, hunt, and fish. Unlike fellow tomboy Min, however, Nynaeve later integrated femininity in her adulthood. Older than the rest of the Emond's Fielders who left after Winternight, Nynaeve was the village Wisdom (healer), by the time Moiraine Sedai and her warder Lan Mandragoran arrived. She had been the youngest Wisdom the Two Rivers had ever had, partially due to her forceful personality.
Pursuit of Emond's Fielders
When Moiraine absconded with several Two Rivers youths—specifically Rand al'Thor, his friends Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara, and Rand's childhood sweetheart (and Nynaeve's apprentice) Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve volunteered to track them down and bring them back. She seemed to think that she could face down an Aes Sedai and bring them home; she was wrong, and ended up getting swept up into the adventure with the rest. This set the tone for her relationship with Moiraine, and to some extent with Aes Sedai in particular—not only was Moiraine consistently riding rough-shod over Nynaeve, but she'd managed to ensnare Lan as well, whom Nynaeve was starting to fall in love with, an attraction that was strongly returned. Even worse, Moiraine identified Nynaeve as a wilder—someone who had independently learned to wield the One Power without training. Egwene was also identified as having ability to channel (although she had not channeled yet), but Moiraine wished to take her to Tar Valon for training and safety; not all who must learn to channel on their own survive the experience. For Nynaeve, it was too late; she'd already learned how to integrate the ability into her skill as a healer, but due to her fears, she developed a mental block against the concept. Nynaeve was totally unable to channel unless extremely angry, something which later caused her no end of trouble.
Events At the Eye of the World
At the Eye of the World, Rand discovered he could channel, and Moiraine claimed he was in fact the Dragon Reborn; perhaps because of this, and to avenge herself of the perceived injustices wrought on her by Moiraine, Nynaeve eventually agreed to go to the Tower. Once there, she was immediately inducted as Accepted, skipping the normal period a girl spends as a Novice, by virtue of her sheer strength in the Power. She is, at this point in the books, considered to have the highest power potential of female channelers on the side of the Light. Like Egwene, Elayne Trakand, and Min, she was tricked into going to Falme, ostensibly to help Rand, but really as part of a trap by Ishamael and the Seanchan. At Falme, Egwene was collared by the a'dam and held until rescued by Nyneave. Later, she, Egwene, and Elayne were assigned the task of hunting down the Black Ajah, a journey which took her far from the White Tower and her ostensible training as a future Yellow Ajah Aes Sedai. It also took her farther and farther away from Lan, who she had started to develop frustrating feelings for, feelings he tried not to reciprocate due to his loyal service to Moiraine.
Encountering the Black Ajah in Tanchico
After Rand drew Callandor from the Heart of the Stone, in fulfillment of prophecy, Nynaeve and Elayne continued the quest for the Black Ajah along with Juilin Sandar and Thom Merrilin. The clues the Black Ajah left in the Stone of Tear all pointed to the city of Tanchico; Nynaeve and Elayne went, hoping that, if it were a trap, they'd have enough warning to escape it. Egwene had instead decided to learn about Dreaming from the Aiel. While hunting for the Black sisters, Nynaeve happened upon Moghedien, one of the dreaded Forsaken. The two dueled, Nynaeve expecting inevitable death at any moment... until she realized that Moghedien was just as scared. The two were equally matched in terms of strength. Nynaeve managed to shield and bind Moghedien eventually, but a Black Sister soon accidentally intervened and Moghedien disappeared in the intervening time. The enmity between the two was to later bear bitter fruit.
Healing of stilling and gentling
With chaos reigning in Tanchico, Nynaeve and Elayne set out for the White Tower—only to receive news that it had been broken, that Elaida Sedai, a Red sitter (and former advisor to Elayne's mother Queen Morgase Trakand), had deposed and replaced the Amyrlin Seat, a former Blue named Siuan Sanche. With the Tower split over this turn of events, the group changed course and joined the rebel Aes Sedai in Salidar in Altara, near Amador. As an Accepted, she studied Siuan Sanche, who had been stilled as part of the deposition, as well as her former Keeper of the Chronicles, Leane Sharif and the False Dragon Logain. Stilling had been previously considered impossible to heal, but Nynaeve managed to, much to her own surprise, while experimenting on the False Dragon Logain Ablar. The technique worked for the two women as well, though they did not regain their full strength, for reasons as yet unknown to the characters (Jordan has confirmed that severing can be healed fully only by a healer of opposite gender to the patient). Nynaeve has also developed a form of Healing which uses all five elements, instead of just Spirit, Air, and Water, as is usual for Aes Sedai-style Healing. When Egwene was raised Amyrlin for the rebels, she immediately decreed that Theodrin, Faolain, Nynaeve and Elayne be similarly promoted to Aes Sedai(though they never swore the Three Oaths on the Oath Rod). Nynaeve joined the Yellow Ajah as expected, and learned as much as she could of Healing with the One Power.
Breaking the Dark One's control over the weather
When Rand dispatched Mat to return Egwene and Elayne to him, Egwene instead assigned him as an escort to Nynaeve, Elayne and Aviendha, and sent them to Ebou Dar for the Bowl of the Winds, a ter'angreal that could change the weather and possibly break the unnatural summer the Dark One had imposed on the world. While in Ebou Dar, Moghedien struck at Nynaeve's boat with balefire, nearly succeeding in drowning her; as Nynaeve sank into the river, unable to open herself up to the source and convinced she would die, forced her to surrender to saidar completely for the first time, removing her block. Lan suddenly appeared to help her out of the water, even though at first Nyneave thought he was a shark and kicked him. He told her that he was unable to be Bonded to become her Warder since his Bond had been passed onto another. Nynaeve predictably vowed to make sure that the Bond would be passed onto her from the Aes Sedai who holds it (a Green named Myrelle). It was the first time Nynaeve and Lan had been in each other's company since before Moiraine's death; Nynaeve had no intention of wasting time. They were married later that day.
After forming a coalition of Aes Sedai, Sea Folk Windfinders and Tower expulsees (a previously unknown group called the Kin), Nynaeve and Elayne led an expedition into the Rahad, a dangerous 'downtown' area of Ebou Dar, to retrieve the Bowl of the Winds. They succeeded, capturing a member of the Black Ajah, and recovered the cache of ter'angreal, including the Bowl of the Winds. The 13 most powerful women in the group then used the Bowl to break the Dark One's unnatural summer. The coalition then fled to Andor to avoid a Seanchan invasion.
Cleansing of saidin
At the Royal Palace in Caemlyn, Rand approached Nynaeve for help with a major task: he believed he had discovered a way to cleanse the male half of the True Source. To do it he required the strongest female channeler he knew and trusted—Nynaeve—and likewise the strongest male—himself. They succeeded, though both required some time to recover from the intense experience of channeling huge amounts of Power for hours on end, and their companions, which included Cadsuane, managed to stave off desperate attacks from Forsaken trying to kill Rand.
Travels with Rand and campaigning for Lan
Currently Nynaeve is one of the most powerful channelers alive, male or female, and the most powerful among the Aes Sedai, although recently at least two female channelers have been discovered with even greater strength, the two being Sharina (a novice) and Alivia ( a Seanchan).
Though these two may be stronger then Nynaeve at the moment, they are also older, which may or may not account for their power. Alivia herself is over 300 years old. On the other hand, channelers seem to hit their peak strength relatively quickly, so there is no evidence that a channeler that had reached peak strength after 20 years would grow any stronger after 100 years. That being said, Nynaeve still has a lot to learn, and her strength will increase with age and experience.
She has also left her husband near the Blight so he may fulfill his vow to fight the Shadow along its borders, but has visited towns asking the men there to fight with Lan, telling them that Malkier's last King is preparing for the Last Battle.
Nynaeve remains with Rand's army as the Dragon Reborn attempts to bring order to various kingdoms, make peace with the Seanchan and prepare the world for the Last Battle. She attempts to replace Cadsuane as his advisor after Rand banishes Cadsuane from his sight. Rand appreciates that Nynaeve legitimately cares for his well-being (as opposed to the other woman who merely sees him as a tool to win the Last Battle), which gives her some leverage over Cadsuane, but she is still off-put by Rand's increasingly cold demeanor. She is horrified when Rand uses balefire to destroy the fortress where Graendal and hundreds of her mentally-enslaved courtesans are situated. Eventually she reluctantly conspires with Cadsuane to use Rand's foster father Tam as a pawn to appeal toward's Rand's more human, softer nature. She is disappointed when this plan fails.