With the second season of The Wheel of Time just around the corner, the hype machine for this live-action adaptation of Robert Jordan’s best-selling and influential fantasy series is reaching an all-time high. But if, like so many people, you find yourself asking the fundamental question, “What even is The Wheel of Time?” Then we’ve got you covered.
After serving two tours in Vietnam, a very changed James Oliver Rigney Jr. — more recognized by his pen name of Robert Jordan — came back home to pick up his life where he left it off. Jordan studied physics and graduated with a degree in 1974, but his main career started in 1977 when he began writing and working on what would ultimately turn into The Wheel of Time.
The first book in the series — The Eye of the World — was published in 1990 and achieved critical and commercial success, compelling Jordan to continue weaving his ambitious saga together. From that year on, he kept to a steady rhythm and released a Wheel of Time book every year or every other year. The series almost immediately turned into a sensation for its plot, complex world-building, and deeply nuanced characterization – selling millions of copies and turning into a household name in the high fantasy genre.
People would refer to Jordan as the new J.R.R. Tolkien and The Wheel of Time’s enormous success within the community certainly warranted such a comparison. As of 2023, the series has sold close to a hundred million copies, turning it into one of the best-selling book series in history.
Alas, Robert himself would not live to see the end of this story. The author began to suffer from health problems in 2006, with a possible life expectancy of four years. Jordan died the year after in September 2007, but not before leaving many extensive notes and asking his wife and editor Harriet McDougal to find a replacement to finish The Wheel of Time. That responsibility ultimately fell on the shoulders of Brandon Sanderson – now an acclaimed and well-recognized novelist himself. Sanderson finished the last book in the series and released it in three volumes, with the last one — titled A Memory of Light — releasing in 2013.
That about gives you a general idea of The Wheel of Time’s publication history, but what is the story actually about, and why did it take 2 authors, 14 books, and more than 4 million words to tell?
What is the story about?
Like many other works of epic fantasy, The Wheel of Time takes place in a fictional world. There is no official name for that world, but fans have over the years have begun to call it Randland, named after the story’s main character Rand al’Thor.
But unlike many contemporary fantasy novels, The Wheel of Time doesn’t take place in the past. The period is certainly post-Medieval, mind you, yet this is actually a post-apocalyptic universe, tentatively taking its last breaths before the prophesied end-times event.
The prelude to this story takes us more than three thousand years back, to a utopian and highly advanced society that thrived on a magic known as the One Power. This mystical source of energy allowed “channelers” to perform incredible feats of power and miracle, pushing their civilization past every hurdle and surmounting almost every challenge. The society was governed by these channelers – who were known as Aes Sedai. The female channelers tapped into one half of the source, known as saidar, while the male channelers contended with its other half, saidin.
Disaster struck when some of these channelers — scholars by nature — found a new source of energy and interfered with it, unwittingly drilling a hole into the prison of an entity known as Shai’tan. (Shai’tan is the Arabic word for the devil.) It was much later that they realized this entity was the antithesis to the Creator, imprisoned at the moment of creation to rid the world of his influence. Shai’tan begins to touch the world again, slowly exploiting the weaknesses in that utopic society and initiating a war between his followers and the world.
Some of the most powerful channelers joined the Shadow, and became lieutenants in Shai’tan’s army. These came to be known as the Forsaken because of the crimes they committed against humanity, but the rest of the Aes Sedai resisted against them. The greatest of them ‚ a man who went by the name of Lews Therin Telamon, nicknamed the Dragon — led the armies of the Light in a protracted struggle known as the War of Power.
At the end of it, the Dragon led a company of male channelers to the heart of the Shadow and challenged Shai’tan directly. He managed to seal the bore and trap all thirteen Forsaken in it, but Shaitan’s counterstroke tainted saidin, compelling every male channeler to go mad and leave destruction in their wake. The male channelers in their thousands destroyed the world in an event history remembers as the Breaking. Lews Therin himself killed everyone he loved and committed suicide.
In the centuries following the Breaking, civilization slowly recovered from its near destruction. The armies of the Shadow were quelled, but not entirely destroyed, and numerous wars broke out between the Shadowspawn and the nations of the world over millennia. At the same time, seers began prophesying the return of Shai’tan, claiming that the Dragon would be reborn to fight him at the end of time. The concept of Tarmon Gai’don — translating to the Last Battle — began forming, and the universe sat in waiting for its inevitable doom, anticipating a hero who would be mad from the taint on saidin, destined to both save the world and destroy it.
That’s where The Eye of the World officially picks up the narrative, introducing us to our cast of characters in the Third Age, 3000 years after the Breaking.
Who is the Dragon Reborn, and what are the Ta’veren?
As seen in the first season of The Wheel of Time on Prime Video, the Dragon Reborn is none other than Rand al’Thor, who is among the youth that the Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred scoops up from a remote village near the Mountains of Mist. Rand has now passed his first challenge by facing one of the Forsaken, and when we see him in season 2, he’s already beginning to come to terms with his enormous burden, and not doing a great job of it.
Rand al’Thor is one of the three Ta’veren in the series, the other two being his childhood friends Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon. The two other Ta’veren will have a huge part to play in this tale as well, but they won’t be fraught with the same power as Rand. (Unless we’re counting Perrin, whose affinity with the wolves as a wolf-brother gives him certain physical and mental advantages.) And what is Ta’veren, you ask? Well, Ta’veren are certain individuals who can affect the dice of probability on a universal scale, influencing people and events to suit their own needs.
Other characters from the Two Rivers village include Nynaeve al’Meara and Egwene al’Vere, who also have the potential to tap into the One Power (through its female half, saidar) making them perfect candidates to become Aes Sedai. Speaking of…
Who are the Aes Sedai?
The Aes Sedai (pronunciation: “Eye Seh-die”) are an organization of female channelers in the Third Age, who — from their city of Tar Valon — watch over the world and influence countries to determine the turn of the tides. The Aes Sedai consists of seven different sects called Ajahs, with each Ajah taking upon itself a sacred mission. Blue Ajah works in political intrigue, while the Green Ajah (also called the Battle Ajah) is dedicated to preparing for Tarmon Gai’don. The Red Ajah finds male channelers and strips away their powers before they can go mad, helping to minimize the incidents involving their connection to saidin.
You begin to see why Rand al’Thor is in such a predicament. While all Aes Sedai know of the prophecies, many wouldn’t even hesitate to execute him if they knew who he really was. Ultimately, though, I think it’s safe to say that the Aes Sedai are a force for good, all the politicking notwithstanding.
What is the geography of The Wheel of Time?
The world of The Wheel of Time consists of more than a dozen nations. To the north of this world is the Blight, a barren land of untold dangers where Shai’tan’s influence was greatest. This is also where the remainder of his Shadowspawn live, and make raids into the nations of man. To the south of Blight are the four Borderlander countries, each tasked with serving as a wall against the Blight and keeping the Shadowspawn at bay.
To the south of the Borderlands is Tar Valon, where the seat of the Aes Sedai is located. And beyond that, we have nations like Arad Doman, Tarabon, Andor, Cairhien, Amadicia, Altara, and Tear. To the east, past the mountains known as the Spine of the World, are the lands of the Aiel. The Aiel (pronunciation: “Eye-eel”) live in a desert known as the Three-Fold Land, and the extreme inhabitability of that place has turned them into a tough warrior society.
What was the Aiel War?
Twenty years before the events of The Eye of the World, the Aiel left the Three-Fold Land and invaded Cairhien, seeking to kill their king Laman. Laman had insulted what the Aiel considered sacred, so the rest of the nations of the world paid that debt in blood. The Aiel ultimately found Laman and killed him, but not before making it all the way to the walls of Tar Valon. It was there that an Aiel warrior — a Maiden of the Spear — gave birth to Rand.
A soldier called Tam al’Thor found the baby and decided to bring him back home, raising him as his own. And now, that boy has learned a terrifying truth; that he may just be the prophesied reborn soul of Lews Therin Telamon – the kinslayer who doomed the world in his hubris.
Who are the Seanchan?
The final moments of The Wheel of Time season 1 ended with an armada of Seanchan (pronunciation: “SHAWN-chan”) making their way to the shores of Randland. The Seanchan are inhabitants of another continent to the far west, founded by the descendants of Arthur Hawkwing when the legendary king sent his armies to conquer the rest of the world. Now, many centuries after Hawkwing’s passing, the Seanchan are back to reclaim these lands as their own.
The key difference between the nations of the world and the Seanchan is that they don’t respect female channelers. Far from it, actually, as those born with the ability to channel are forced into slavery and servitude.
That’s about everything you need to know about The Wheel of Time before diving into the show when it premieres on September 1 on Prime Video, so make sure to stay tuned.