Member Spotlight: Nymala Ingasy

Author: Taelinn Dolivras, December 2014

This month, we'll be wrapping up the series of Member Spotlights about Junior Member Administrators with an interview of our current Mistress of Novices!

Nymala Ingasy has been the Mistress of Novices since August 9th, and describes herself as a "Cairhienan Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah with a bacon-loving ninja wizard cyborg T-rex for a Warder. Don't judge. " We won't. Too much. In Real Life, she is Hilary, a 38 year old expatriate New Yorker originally from Illinois living in Florida, married to a Kiwi and living with him and a neurotic cat with issues. She is a self-proclaimed book nerd who enjoys traveling, crocheting, cooking, video games, writing, and annoying her husband.

We began by discussing how she discovered the Wheel of Time series, and it all began with weekly chats with her now-husband. "When I was dating Ghorum, he used to call me every week from NZ on Friday nights at 9 PM," she told me. "We'd talk about our weeks, our lives, and what we hoped for the future. He and his best friend had been reading the books since they came out, and he introduced me to the series. I got EoTW from Barnes and Noble and was instantly transfixed, so much so that when it came to be time to get book 2, all they had was a paperback set. I may or may not have slit the set open to get the book out and take it home." Sneaky! I also inquired about her feelings after the release of the final book in the series, and she answered, as many have done, that it was a bittersweet moment for her. "Many of my questions don't have answers and I may never get them, but I can always do a re-read for more insights!" she said.

I then asked Nymala about her favorite book and character in the series. "My favorite book in the series is New Spring," she revealed. "I know it's a prequel but I really like seeing the relationship and the camaraderie grow between Moiraine and Lan. Plus we learn more about Malkier, see an Accepted raised to Aes Sedai, and see the beginning of a life's work for Moiraine and Siuan. To that end, my favorite character is Siuan. She's smart, fearless, has awesome Tourette's, plays pranks, put Gareth Bryne firmly in his place and got to be Amyrlin. What's not to like?" I also asked her if she had a favorite nation. "Hmm...That's a good question. I always claim to be a Cairhienan because I'm short with dark hair, but the Game of Houses is a bit much for me," she admitted. "I like the loyalty of the Two Rivers and the culture of Andor, the fearlessness of the Borderlands and the culture of the Aiel. I'm conflicted."

Next, we began discussing Nymala's time on TarValon.net. When I asked her what made her join the site and what made her stick around, she told me that it was due to two Aes Sedai. "Elandria Sedai of the Brown and Nyarin Sedai of the Blue play in my IRC D&D rpg on another server," she told me. "They found out that both Ghorum and I read Wheel of Time and offered to sponsor us both. I walked in with two sponsors to the Tower. Then I got into the Tower, met some amazing people and decided to stay." I inquired about her Tower Name, and she told me that Nymala was her roleplaying character in the D&D game that she mentioned previously. "I picked it so Dria and Nyarin could find me [on TV.net]. Little did I know it would stay and so would I," she mused. I also asked her about finding her home in Blue. "My amazing Blue Shendar, Aavyn, gave me the best advice ever," she revealed. "She said 'when you get outside of an ajah, and something happens to you and you say 'crap, I can't tell the ladies in X ajah that,' then that's your home.' It happened to me when I finally gave up Blue and couldn't tell them what had happened to me. I realized then that it was my home. I try and pass that advice forward to all of my serenlas and my amazing mentee, Alora."

We continued the interview with talk about some of her favorite things on TarValon.net. When I asked her about her overall favorite thing, she worried that her answer would seem cheesy. "[It's] the camaraderie," she admitted. "I have met some amazing friends and sisters through this site and I'd never give any of them up." Personally, I don't think it's cheesy at all, especially since it seems to be a universal answer to this question.

I also asked her about her favorite memory of all her time on the site. "My favorite site memory is of being raised," she revealed. "It happened on hubby's birthday and I was so pleased and proud. I took a screenshot of the page to keep. Well, it's a toss up between that and lynching Kaldam whenever he's Mafia." Cheeky! As for her favorite Real Life Event, she ended up not being able to pick one. "They're all my favorites for different reasons!" she said. "Anni 2012 was when I first met the Blues as an aspirant, Fall Ball 2013 was when I bonded Vendri, and Fall Ball 2014 is when everyone came to Florida and spent 2 days on the beach, having fun, eating fish and chips and watching Doctor Who!" I also inquired about her favorite RL Event memory, and that one was a bit easier for her to choose. "I think [it's] the time I stole Mama White at FB 2013. My Warder got taken hostage, tied up and I had to have an exchange with Keisha to get Vendri back!" she laughed.

To wrap up our interview, I asked her about her time so far as Mistress of Novices. "I am loving being Mistress of Novices, and seeing the process from start to finish!" she told me. "I am so thrilled to work in conjunction with Morri, Atreyu and Vendri, and even more excited now that integration is finally here! I have many ideas which I'll try to implement in my term... to make the Junior Member experience more enjoyable overall! I'm remembering how much Novices rock and it's fun to be that enthusiastic again.

I also asked her if she wanted to add anything else, and this is what she said: "I am humble and grateful for the opportunity to be Mistress of Novices and thank all my Novices for being as amazingly awesome as they are!"

I'm sure her Novices think she is amazingly awesome too.