Nandera

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Author: Magdalenna t'Zai

General

An older Maiden of the Spear, she is sinewy and handsome. She has green eyes and more gray in her hair than yellow (LoC, Ch. 21).

Nandera is a hard woman. When she gives her word, she always keeps it, no matter the price. She is very concerned with the Car'a'carn's safety and is just as thorough and cautious as Sulin when putting together guards for him. "Nandera was as adamant as Sulin had been when it came to him saying who specifically was to do what." (LoC, Ch. 41).

Timeline

  • She is part of the party that escorts Rand when he goes to watch Davram Bashere's men drill near Caemlyn. After an attack at him while riding through the city, he tells Nandera to see to the family of a woman passerby who had died in the crossfire. She is angry with Rand for getting back to the palace without waiting for the Aiel guard. She chooses herself as one of Rand's bodyguards for the evening (LoC, Ch. 26).
  • Nandera chooses a guard and accompanies Rand on a trip to Cairhien. On their return to Caemlyn, she and Jalani search Rand's room and promise Aviendha that they will tell her where and when Rand is going anywhere so she may accompany him. She becomes ashamed and abashed after failing to see or stop a Gray Man assassin getting to Rand, and is relieved when Rand chooses not to spread word of her failure. (LoC, Ch. 28)
  • Nandera organizes scores of Far Dareis Mai for Rand when seven Aes Sedai come to the palace in Caemlyn without warning to meet him. Later, she gathers five hundred Maidens to escort Rand to Cairhien (LoC, Ch. 49) .
  • She sends a runner to fetch Wise Ones when Rand collapses after channeling a gateway to Cairhien. Nandera and Enaila teach Min how to fight with her hands and feet (LoC, Ch. 50).
  • Nandera comes to Perrin and Faile's rooms in Cairhien when Sulin, who has decided that her toh is met, orders her to. She brings her cadin'sor (LoC, Ch. 53).
  • She is part of the group of Aiel Rhuarc brings to retrieve Rand form the Tower Aes Sedai. She promises Rhuarc that none of the Maidens will breathe a word of Rand being held by Aes Sedai, and is embarrassed that she let the Maidens know of it in the first place. Sulin and Nandera fight on the second day out of Cairhien, with Sulin winning (LoC, Ch. 54).
  • Nandera follows Rand about the battlefield after Dumai's Wells, sometimes arguing with him, as he picks out every Maiden, even Shaido Maidens, to remember their names and faces (ACoS, Ch. 2).
  • Nandera leads the Maidens back to Cairhien with Rand (ACoS, Ch. 3).
  • Nandera is the only one allowed into Rand's chambers in Cairhien, and brings him his meals and messages. She worries that Rand isn't eating. She is delighted that Min is able to snap him out of his depression and washes his hair for him when he has a bath (ACoS, Ch. 33).
  • Nandera, along with Nesair and Somara, confront and rough Rand up for running off to battle Sammael without them and thus bringing dishonor to the Maidens. Later, she escorts him to Cadsuane's chambers (TPoD, Ch. 27).
  • Nandera leads Rand's bodyguard when he takes the Maiden guard back (KoD, Ch. 20).

Relationships

Nandera is upset with Sulin for speaking to gai'shain as Far Dareis Mai, but agrees that the dispute will be settled after the Maidens protect Rand in Shadar Logoth (LoC, Ch. 21). Nandera finds a way Sulin may meet her toh toward the Maidens for the indiscretion of using Maiden handtalk to speak to gai'shain by becoming a servant in the palace of Caemlyn (LoC, Ch. 28). Nandera chides Sulin when she finally decides her toh is met, saying that even gai'shain think her pride is too great (LoC, Ch. 53). She fights Sulin the second day out of Cairhien and loses, beaten into unconsciousness. Afterward, she is still the one who answers Rhuarc when he addresses the Maidens, and when she tells Sulin to do something, Sulin does it without question (LoC, Ch. 54).

Nandera thinks of Rand as a first-brother.

Miscellaneous

  • Nandera and Sulin have a strange relationship between them, something made very clear by their fighting on the journey to Dumai's Wells and the resulting changes in Sulin's behavior. While Robert Jordan tends to explain most intricacies of Aiel society, he leaves this relationship confusing.

Quotes

"Young men can be impetuous, young men can be rash, young men can be fools, but the Car'a'carn cannot let himself be a young man." (Lord of Chaos, Chapter 26)

"If you (Aviendha) stopped dreaming about his eyebrows, you would teach him better." (Lord of Chaos, Chapter 28)

"First," Nandera said, "Sulin and I went to the kitchens. She thought scrubbing pots and the like would be suitable. But a fellow there said he had all the scullions he needed; he seemed to think Sulin would always be fighting the others. He was not very tall," she marked just under Rand's chin, "but just as wide, and I think he would have offered to dance the spears with us if we had not gone away. Then we went to the woman Reene Harfor, since she seems to be roofmistress here." A slight grimace passed over her face; a woman should be roofmistress or not - Aiel thinking held no place for a First Maid. "She did not understand, but at last she agreed. I almost thought Sulin would change her mind when she realized Reene Harfor meant her to put on a dress, but of course she did not. Sulin has more courage than I. I would rather be made gai'shain by a new Seia Doon." (Lord of Chaos, Chapter 28).

"Young men and fools sometimes bear pain they do not have to as a badge of their pride. And their foolishness." (A Crown of Swords, Chapter 2)