The Wheel Of Time, by Robert Jordan, is an ongoing series that already has 9 volumes of thick books and at least 3 more are on their way, his universe here is gigantic and very complex to explain
(I give the barest synopsis here, forgetting much important background)
but more complex are the plotlines and how the hundreds of detailed characters relate to each other.
The books are called:
(1) The Eye Of The World
(2) The Great Hunt
(3) The Dragon Reborn
(4) The Shadow Rising
(5) The Fires Of Heaven
(6) Lord Of Chaos
(7) Crown Of Swords
(8) The Path Of Daggers
(9) Winter's Heart
and (10) Crossroads Of Twilight, which will be released ths November.
Now all time is a wheel, the spokes of the wheel are the different ages, in which good and evil balance each other, the threads of the Wheel are people's lives, and the way the Wheel weaves the threads is called the Pattern.
A great Power drives the Wheel, it is the True Source, one or so percent of all people are able to harness the Source, or "channel".
The portion of the Source people can use is called the One Power, and it is divided into male and female halves, Saidin, the male, and Saidar, the female.
In the previous age, the Age Of Legends, male and female used the Power together to help make the world a paradise, but an accident opened a hole "the Bore" that allowed the master of evil, the
"Dark One" (who was imprisoned at the beginning of time by the Creator),
to touch the world, and so people did evil, and followed the Dark One, the most powerful of them, the "Chosen" or "Forsaken"
(channelers, all of them) fought against the Aes Sedai
(the main body of good channelers) and it seemed that the Shadow would eventually win, even to the point that 2 generals on the side of good turned to the Shadow, Lews Therin Telamon, the leader of the Aes Sedai, made a plan that seemed to be the only way to win; he and his men the "Hundred Companions" went to Shayol Ghul
(the place where the Bore was weakest, in the far north)
and use the Power to seal the Bore, and seal the Forsaken as well, it worked.
But the Dark One made a counterstrike, the Saidin of all male channelers, but the Companions first, would be filled with a dark taint, that would make all men become mad and eventually die a slow rotting death.
They did become mad and devastated the world, killing most everyone, making most topography change
(oceans into mountains, land into sea)
, and the people who remained lived a primitive life, as the utopia was gone.
The new Aes Sedai emerged later, and they were all women, they had as one of their missions to take male channelers and "gentle" them, or cut off all ties to the Source to them before they could cause another "Breaking"
(as their destruction was called).
The Aes Sedai would from then on meddle with the affairs of kingdoms, and rule kings, often kings would have one for an advisor.
However certain prophecies spoke of a man who would be the reincarnation of Lews Therin (aka the Dragon) and they would call him the Dragon Reborn, other lands had similar prophecies, the problem was some male channelers thought they were that man and so they felt they had to raise armies and conquer the world (which the D.R. would do) but were captured in the end, they were called "false dragons".
When civilization came back, Trollocs (geneticaly altered beast-men)
killed many in a a lot of wars, after that, a man named Artur Hawkwing conquered most of the world, but his empire crumbled after he died.
A thousand years after that is when the story begins, Rand, Mat and Perrin were three farmboy friends that were dragged into adventure by an Aes Sedai and some trollocs trying to kill them, it happened they were Ta'veren, threads that other threads would weave around, to shake the world.
But Rand would find out that he could channel, and he was the Dragon Reborn, but the Power was making him go insane already, and the Forsaken broke out of the seals for them, so Rand and his friends had to worry about them, as well as the imperial Seanchan, who collar and control channelers like pets, and the (seemingly) savage Aiel.
Rand's friends include Egwene, who has skill in the World of Dreams, and whose leadership will come in handy, Nynaeve, a healer with a bad temper, Min the pretty psychic, Aviendha the Aiel woman, Lan the Warder blademaster, Loial the giant yet gentle Ogier, Birgitte the mythical heroine, Thom the bard with secrets, Elayne the Daughter-Heir of Andor, and of course Mat, who has some brushes with luck, and Perrin, who can speak with wolves, among others.
Theoryland of the Wheel Of Time
Blacktower, all around info site
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