https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecloaks/comments/rgewm2/this_means_that_wot_has_made_herstory_tvs_heir/
I really need to stop browsing WoT subs, I've been feeling liquified bits of my brain leaking out through my nose and ears for the past few days, it's like staring directly into highly-radioactive material and just feeling your body start falling apart on the molecular level.
Even in that context weren't Egwene, Nynaeve, and the other girl whose name escapes me among the most powerful channelers in history, with Nynaeve in particular being on par with the likes of Lanfear and so probably being in the top single or low double digits of all channelers ever? Or am I misremembering the vague, unitless relative power rankings?
That sounds vaguely familiar, was that a recurring nightmare from the books/some prophetic vision that haunted him throughout them?
Nynaeve was the most powerful of the protagonists, though IIRC weaker than Lanfear. I think Nynaeve doesn't rank in the top 10 channellers, just because there were so many more Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends that statistically there would be many more at her strength or higher. In the book time period, there are at least 2 other woman stronger than Nynaeve IIRC: some 70-year-old woman who got recruited in Salidar and a former damane. I think some of the sea people were supposed to be similarly strong as well. As you point out, the power rankings are mostly irrelevant; I think there's a number system on the wiki but it's never mentioned in-universe.
The other girl you're thinking of might be Elayne, who was pretty strong and shown to be able to develop new weaves better than almost anyone.
spoiler
Note also a lot of the "new weaves" that Nynaeve and Egwene took credit for were actually extracted from Moghedian via torture.
Nah, it's a replacement of when he axes the Whitecloaks in the first book and then vows to never pick up the axe again.
It's kind of like power levels in Dragonball, except instead of just like standing there screaming for a hundred pages straight to power up they're just like "aha, this random cowbell I found is actually a ten thousand year old magical crazy straw that allows me to triple my raw power when I drink magic through it!" (ok so it's usually a ring or statuette or something, but the point stands).
That sounds right. It's been like oh fuck 18 years or so since I read any of the books, so the names are all a bit foggy even though I remember a lot of the worldbuilding and the broad strokes of the plot.
KILL HIM KILL HIM NOW