You are beginning to look at the bigger picture. I like that.

The problem is that individual quotes are often shown to contradict one another, because of various reasons:

1. RJ refined the One Power system as he went along
2. RJ changed his mind as he went along
3. RJ apparently didn't always do these kind of calculations each time he wrote a scene
4. If RJ only wrote down his list, and not the actual magnitude of strength, as well as the detailed rules of how strengths combine to produce a shield, then it is HIGHLY likely that Brandon Sanderson does NOT know the exact proporational difference in strength between channelers, and is relying only on the 21 level list. That means that he would not know whether two or three sisters would be needed to shield a channeler.

Heck RJ contradicted himself on Amys's strength, therefore we don't know how strong Egwene actually is compared to Moiraine.

But we do know the general picture.

The bonfire vs. Candle comparison, no matter how you interpret it, indicates that there is a very large gap between Egwene and Nynaeve.

RJ's broad comment about the "one step up from modern Aes Sedai to Egwene, and another step up from Egwene to Forsaken" indicates quite clearly the general strength relationship he had in mind.


What we DO know, is that Rand can break free from 3 Aes Sedai. It seems likely from the Logain shielding example that if Rand was not in a physically weakened state after his torture and confinement in the box, that he could most likely break free from 5 Aes Sedai.

And to break free from a shield held by 3, he has to be MUCH stronger than 3 Aes Sedai. And I'm talking about EFFECTIVE strength, here.

Meaning that if Rand is able to break free from 3, then Lanfear should be able to come close to duplicating the feat, seeing as the strongest possible woman should be able to duplicate pretty much anything that the strongest possible man can do.

So Lanfear's EFFECTIVE strength must exceed that of 3 Aes Sedai by a significant margin. Since we are talking an all female situation here, it means dexterity can be ignored. Therefore, Lanfear's BRUTE strength must significantly exceed that of 3 Aes Sedai.

Which ties in perfectly with my comment that Lanfear should be as strong as 4 strong Aes Sedai, and therefore close to twice as strong as Egwene.