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Nynaeve Al'mearaNynaeve al'Meara is one of the main characters of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. Nynaeve al'Meara, formerly Wisdom of Edmond's Field (a wise woman who knows healing herbs), now Aes Sedai of the Yellow Ajah, is one of the strongest female channellers in the world, surpassed only by Alivia- an ex-damane- and perhaps some of the female Forsaken. Her strengths in the Power have to do with Healing, so she is especially strong in Spirit. Unfortunately Nynaeve is virtually untrained in some aspects of the One Power; she is a self-taught "wilder" and came to the Tower as a novice at the same age that some women promoted to full Aes Sedai. She also suffered a mental block that kept her from channeling unless she was violently angry, although this is now broken. When Moiraine left the Two Rivers with Rand, Mat, Perrin and Egwene in tow, foul play was suspected and Nynaeve was dispatched to retrieve the youngsters. Instead, she found herself drawn into the adventures, despite her intense dislike of Moiraine Sedai--a dislike that was only amplified when Moiraine offered Nynaeve a chance to go to the White Tower and train her abilities in the One Power. At the Eye of the World, Nynaeve and Egwene discovered Rand could channel; perhaps because of this, and also because of the seductive call of saidar, Nynaeve agreed to go to the Tower, where she was immediately promoted from novice to Accepted, by virtue of her sheer strength in the Power. She went with Egwene to Falme and the Stone of Tear; she was also the first in the series to 'rediscover' balefire, a weave so potent it was banned during the War of Power. After Rand had consolidated his holdings at the Stone, Egwene abandoned the Black Ajah chase to learn about Dreaming in the Aiel Waste; Nynaeve and Elayne continued the quest along with Juilin Sandar (a friend Mat had made in Tear) and Thom Merillin. The clues the Black Ajah left in the Stone of Tear all pointed to the city of Tanchico; Nynave and Elayne went, hoping that, if it was a trap, they'd have enough warning to escape it. The Darkfriends had taken possession of Panarch Amathera of Tarabon, one of the city's two rulers; Nynaeve and Elayne went in to rescue her, and also to retrieve some ter'angreal they had learned were in the palace. While hunting for those artifacts, Nynaeve happened upon the true driving force behind the Black sisters: Moghedien, one of the dreaded Forsaken. The two dueled, Nynaeve expecting unstoppable death at any moment... Until she realized that Moghedien was just as scared. The two were equally matched in terms of strength. By using one of the artifacts as a distraction, Nynaeve managed to shield and bind Moghedien, but a Black Sister soon intervened and Moghedien disappeared. The two have developed an immense emnity of each other, possibly because they see a little too much of themselves in each other. With chaos reigning in Tanchico, Nynaeve and Elayne set out for the White Tower--only to receive news that it had broken, that Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, a Red sister (and former advisor to Queen Morgase), had deposed reigning Blue Siuan Sanche, and the Tower had split in opposition. The group changed course to Salidar. When Egwene was made Amyrlin despite not actually being a full Aes Sedai (instead, she was a lowly Accepted), she immediately decreed that Nynaeve and Elayne be similarly promoted--ostensibly to make Egwene herself less of an oddity, but really because she needed all the dependable faces she could get. In the meanwhile, Nynaeve spent time with Suian Sanche, the deposed and stilled former Amyrlin ('stilled' being a term to describe a woman who has been permanently severed from the Source), as well as her similarly-treated Keeper of the Chronicles, Leane Sharif. Stilling had been previously considered impossible to heal, but Nynaeve managed it, making her (at least for a moment) the pride of the Yellows. 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 (along with Tom and Juilin) to Ebou Dar for the Bowl of the Winds, an 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 her with intent to kill, resulting in Nynaeve almost drowning; in order to save herself, she had to surrender to saidar completely, and when Lan suddenly appeared to help her out of the water, her block was gone. 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 (organized into a group called the Kin), Nynaeve and Elayne led an expedition into the Rahad, a dangerous 'downtown' area of Ebou Dar, to retrieve the Bowlof the Winds. They succeeded, capturing a member of the Black Ajah they had been sent after in Book 3 as an added bonus, and then used the Bowl to change the weather to the end-of-year-appropriate winter (which, unfortunately, the Dark One immediately turned to his advantage by keeping it sustained unnaturally). After the coalition of channelers fleeing to Caemlyn to avoid the Seanchan invasion, Nynaeve was recruited by Rand for a major project: he had discovered a way to cleanse the male half of the True Source. To do it, he would need the strongest female channeler he knew of--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. Nynaeve possesses a violent temper and finds it hard to admit her mistakes; her stubborn ways are a source of exasperation to some readers, and just about the only character more disliked is Perrin's wife Faile. Her marriage to Lan appears to have calmed her down a bit, however, and she has not been so much of the focus of recent novels. The el' in "el'Nynaeve" is a Malkieri honorific given to the Queens of Malkier. As wife to al'Lan Mandragoran, the exiled last King of Malkier, Nynaeve is entitled to the honorific.
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