Book summary “The Eye of the World”: summary

Introduction

You often feel that your life is small and predictable until an unexpected crisis shatters your routine. When monumental events disrupt your world, you may feel entirely unprepared to face them or to shoulder a larger destiny. You might wonder how to survive when forces beyond your comprehension threaten everything you know and love. Robert Jordan addresses this exact challenge in The Eye of the World by exploring how ordinary people respond when thrust into a global conflict.

The central idea is that the Wheel of Time turns through ages, and certain individuals are bound to its turning to fight the Dark One. As the forces of darkness rise again, young villagers from the remote settlement of Emond's Field must leave their homes and cross a dangerous continent. You will discover a world recovering from past destruction, where ancient prophecies, political factions, and supernatural enemies collide. The book traces a desperate flight from rural isolation into the heart of a war that spans nations.

The narrative unfolds across twelve stages that follow the journey of the displaced villagers. You will witness the initial escape from monster attacks, treacherous river crossings, and refuge taken in cursed ruins. The story moves through perilous journeys down rivers, narrow escapes in bustling cities, and hostile encounters with religious zealots and dark creatures. You will travel through magical forests, ancient stone pathways, and fortified borderlands before reaching a final confrontation.

Several questions drive the narrative forward and shape your journey through the text.

• How do you survive when pursued by relentless supernatural monsters across unfamiliar lands?
• What happens when you discover that your entire life is bound to an ancient prophecy?
• Can ordinary villagers trust mysterious magic users who claim to protect them from the Shadow?
• How do you hold onto your identity when monumental destinies and dark forces demand your allegiance?

1. Winter Night and Flight

Peace shatters in the remote Two Rivers when monstrous raids strike Emond's Field. You find your quiet life upended as supernatural forces hunt you across unfamiliar lands.

Trouble in the Two Rivers

Your village remains largely isolated from external wars behind natural barriers like the Mountains of Mist and the White River. You experience a festival season disrupted by ominous rumors of a false Dragon raising his standard in Ghealdan. Several young men independently spot a mysterious stranger on a black horse near the forest edge.

• Padan Fain reports war and channeling conflicts in Ghealdan.
• The Village Council organizes patrols to maintain order.
• Nynaeve al'Meara watches the youth with strict medical authority.

The Burning of the Farm

When you return to your Westwood homestead, Trollocs ambush your home and destroy the interior. You flee into the dark forest with your wounded father, Tam.

Tam draws an unusual single-edged blade featuring a bronze heron on the hilt. You build a makeshift litter out of blankets and cart poles to drag him toward the village. Delirious with fever, Tam mutters about a snowy mountain battle during the Aiel War where he found an infant crying in the snow.

Departure with Moiraine

Emond's Field suffers heavy destruction from the Winternight raid. Moiraine and Lan fight off the attackers using the One Power and master swordsmanship. You discover that the Trolloc bands specifically targeted you and your friends.

You must flee your home because the Dark One and his Myrddraal are hunting you.

Moiraine uses an ivory figurine angreal from the Age of Legends to heal Tam's tainted wound. You prepare for a perilous journey to Tar Valon to protect your village from total destruction.

• Egwene joins the fleeing group to see the world.
• Thom Merrilin brings his flute and harp to escape.
• A flying Draghkar forces the travelers onto the North Road.

2. Across the Taren and into Baerlon

A Draghkar swoops low outside Watch Hill, screaming to mark your location before flying away to inform the Halfman. You face relentless aerial pursuit from this deadly winged creature that tracks fugitives for the shadow forces.

The fleeing travelers cross treacherous rivers and enter fortified regional towns while dodging relentless pursuit.

The Taren Ferry Crossing

Master Hightower and his six helpers operate the ferry across the Taren for gold coins and silver marks provided by Lan and Moiraine. Crossing the deep river requires using a heavy wooden barge guided by thick ropes.

Moiraine conjures a thick, icy fog that cloaks the Taren River for miles. This weather anomaly causes a whirlpool that destroys the ferry and prevents anyone else from crossing.

Magic and Fatigue

Moiraine places her hands on Cloud's and Bela's necks, instantly removing all signs of exhaustion. The horses become as energetic as if they had just rested.

She can use the One Power to completely wash away fatigue from horses and people. However, she cannot use this ability on herself and is left visibly weary.

By sitting by a small fire inside a hidden tree mound, Moiraine explains the True Source to Egwene. The magical force driving the Wheel of Time is divided into two halves:

• saidin is the male half and is fouled by the touch of the Dark One like a slick of oil;
• saidar is the female half and remains safe to use.

Egwene focuses on a small blue gem under Moiraine's instruction. She successfully produces an azure light pulse from the stone on her first attempt.

Arrival in Baerlon

After a week of travel, you catch your first sight of Baerlon's nearly twenty-foot-tall log wall and slate-roofed buildings. The fortified regional city serves as a hub for travelers and trade.

To avoid attention, Moiraine adopts the name Alys, and Lan swaps his color-shifting cloak for a standard brown one and goes by Andra.

The gatekeeper Avin warns the travelers about local dangers:

• the Children of the Light operate within Baerlon;
• whitecloaks oppose the influence of Aes Sedai;
• restriction limits their presence to ten or so inside the walls at one time.

Thom Merrilin explains prophecies from the Karaethon Cycle to you while walking through the streets. He notes that the unfallen fortress and stronghold of the Stone of Tear will fall only when the People of the Dragon arrive.

3. Shadows in the City

Inside Baerlon, the group faces religious zealots, mysterious nightmares, and the unsettling revelations of historical tragedy.

Master Pitch welcomes you to The Stag and Lion inn, an overcrowded refuge overflowing with miners fleeing winter hardships in the mountains. You receive private rooms equipped with copper tubs and hot water cauldrons.

Lan gathers news in the common room and learns about a major battle in Ghealdan where a man named Logain emerged victorious as a false Dragon. The Warder enforces strict operational security to avoid attracting dangerous entities. He angrily reprimands Mat for casually mentioning Trollocs in front of a bath attendant.

Nightmares of Ba'alzamon

Rand, Mat, and Perrin independently suffer from identical distressing nightmares featuring a malevolent entity and dead rats with broken backs. Ba'alzamon identifies himself as the Dark One and mocks Rand's heritage.

The antagonist boasts of having personally manipulated legendary historical figures into committing catastrophic atrocities:

• he drove Lews Therin Kinslayer to murder his family with the One Power;
• he whispered in Artur Hawkwing's ear to destroy the Aes Sedai;
• he caused empires to shatter.

Ba'alzamon points his finger at a rat on the table, snapping its back effortlessly before turning his focus to painfully arching Rand's body. Min possesses the ability to see fragmentary prophetic images when looking at people. She tells Rand she sees a sword that isn't a sword, a golden crown of laurel leaves, and lightning striking around him.

Confrontation at the Gates

Nynaeve successfully tracks the party to Baerlon using wilderness tracking skills taught by Tam al'Thor. She reveals to Rand that Tam mentioned during a fever that he found him as a baby outside the Two Rivers.

The Children of the Light roam the streets of Baerlon, stirring tension and hunting for those connected to the Shadow. Lord Bornhald and his white-cloaked companions interrogate strangers and display open hostility toward anyone suspected of harboring dark powers. When Mat triggers a barrel-rolling prank that splatters mud on the Whitecloaks, Lord Bornhald confronts Rand and threatens future encounters.

Rand is cornered by an eyeless Fade in the hallway of the inn before escaping with the help of Lan and the fleeing party. When Bornhald and the Whitecloaks attempt to detain the group at the Caemlyn Gate, Moiraine channels the One Power to make herself appear giant-sized and effortlessly melts Bornhald's sword into a right angle. Shortly after escaping Baerlon, you see massive flames and a red glow illuminating the clouds above the city as The Stag and Lion burns down.

4. Flight to Shadar Logoth

Pursued by massive forces of Trollocs, the party takes refuge in an ancient, cursed ruin governed by a deadly entity.

The Fists of Trollocs

Lan reports seeing at least three fists of Trollocs, and perhaps five hundred in total, closing the gap behind you. Each unit is led by a Halfman. They use horns to communicate across distances and deliberately herd their prey toward a predetermined location.

Cornered by a one-hundred-span gap of Trollocs, Moiraine pulls out a dark ivory angreal. She stabs her staff into the earth and creates a twenty-foot-high fountain of flame and a massive tectonic wave. She also uses her staff to create an invisible whirlwind pointing west so that Trolloc trackers follow a false scent.

Discovery of Aridhol

Seeking shelter from the pursuit, the group enters the gate of the ruined city of Aridhol, later known as Shadar Logoth. The sprawling city is fifty times as big as Baerlon. During the Trolloc Wars, Aridhol took counsel with Mordeth, who whispered poison to King Balwen Ironhand. The citizens became so paranoid that they gave birth to a deadly, consuming essence called Mashadar that wiped out the population.

Rand, Mat, and Perrin explore the vast, empty palaces, domes, and amphitheaters of the dead city. Even Trollocs refuse to enter its walls out of deep-seated fear.

The Trap of Mordeth

Mordeth is a sleek, shadowless man who survived the fall of Aridhol by becoming snared by Mashadar. He attempts to trap outsiders to consume their souls.

• Mordeth lures greedy individuals with promises of vast underground treasures.
• He tricks someone into accompanying him to the boundary of Mashadar's power.
• He consumes their soul and takes over their body to leave the city.

Mordeth tricks Mat, Rand, and Perrin into a subterranean treasure room filled with gold and jewels. He suddenly swells in size and tries to kill them after discovering they are traveling to Tar Valon.

Moiraine uses specialized protective wards around their shelter to keep the native evils of Shadar Logoth at bay. They do not protect against physical monsters like Trollocs. Well over a hundred Trollocs and their Myrddraal enter Shadar Logoth because they are driven by an even greater terror. Moiraine decides to head for the Arinelle river to put a natural water barrier between themselves and the pursuing Trollocs.

5. Down the Arinelle

Separated during the escape from Shadar Logoth, the travelers navigate rivers, encounters with Tinkers, and dark artifacts.

Mashadar is a mindless, lethal vapor born of Shadar Logoth's evil that moves through the city like a worm and instantly kills anyone it touches. When a Fade and several Trollocs pursue Rand, they are ambushed and dissolved by Mashadar's reaching arms. Perrin and Egwene become separated from the others during a chaotic flight from Trollocs, forcing Perrin to plunge down a steep bluff into the river.

Escape from Mashadar

Perrin accidentally rides his horse off a sheer cliff into the Arinelle River while trying to escape pursuing monsters, losing his heavy cloak in the current to stay afloat. You watch as Perrin swims across the cold river weighed down by wet clothes and his axe, eventually reaching the opposite bank alone. Trollocs use catchpoles and horns to coordinate hunts and panic their prey, though they can be outrun or deterred by disciplined fighters.

Aboard the Spray

Captain Bayle Domon operates a trader's vessel named the Spray, which transports desperate refugees downriver away from conflict zones. Domon is a cautious and pragmatic river captain who speaks rapidly, runs a tight ship, and charges passengers steep fares for passage and perceived damages. Rand, Mat, and Thom board Domon's ship after fighting off Trollocs in a riverbank clearing, paying for their passage to Whitebridge with silver coins. The eighty-foot trader boat travels three, four miles downriver during the night, moving south towards Whitebridge against contrary winds.

Mat secretly keeps a dangerous and ornate dagger that he took from the ruins of Shadar Logoth. Despite Moiraine's warnings against taking gifts or items from Shadar Logoth, Mat hides a gold-scabbarded dagger with a ruby-capped hilt and keeps it a secret from everyone except Rand.

The Traveling People

The Tuatha'an, known as Tinkers, travel in colorful wagons across the world searching for a lost song. Led by a Seeker who holds the title of Mahdi, the Traveling People believe that finding the song lost during the Breaking of the World will restore the paradise of the Age of Legends. Raen leads a band of Tinkers who welcome Elyas, Perrin, and Egwene to their camp and share their meals.

The Way of the Leaf is a strict pacifist philosophy adhered to by the Tuatha'an. Followers believe that no person should harm another under any circumstances, comparing violence to an axe that damages a tree while ultimately dulling and pitting itself. If attacked, they choose to run away or surrender rather than fight.

6. Whitebridge and the Sacrifice

Ancient relics from the Age of Legends remain sources of profound wonder and mystery across the world. The White Bridge of Whitebridge is an enormous, glowing, milky-white structure that spans a wide river and is impervious to weather, rain, and chisels, leading characters to attribute its creation to Aes Sedai work from the Age of Legends.

Mentors sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice to protect their charges from implacable supernatural pursuers.

Rand and Captain Bayle Domon examine the White Bridge, discussing its indestructible nature and legendary origins. Bartim the innkeeper explains that Logain was captured after a battle near Lugard while attempting to move his army between Ghealdan and Tear. Thousands of refugees flee northward while the Aes Sedai parade the false Dragon toward Tar Valon two years after the time since the last false Dragon was paraded through the countryside.

An Illianer proclamation has been brought to Whitebridge calling for men to swear their lives to find the Horn of Valere. The proclamation is framed as a necessary task before the last battle with the Dark One in a cycle of impending doom. Illian heralds read about the four hundred years since the last Hunt of the Horn and offer a hundred gold marks as the prize for the best telling of the Great Hunt of the Horn in Illian.

The White Bridge

An innkeeper reports that a weaselly madman and a terrifying figure in a black cloak have both been relentlessly asking for three country boys, a woman in silk, and a white-haired gleeman. The black-cloaked entity never passes through official city gates. Bartim describes the terrifying presence of the black-cloaked figure whose mere gaze feels like an icicle shoved into the spine a week ago when the weaselly man and subsequent black-cloaked visitor arrived asking questions.

Darkfriend Accusations

Floran Gelb, fired by Captain Domon, sits in the local inn and loudly denounces Rand, Mat, and Thom as Darkfriends while babbling wildly about Trollocs, risking exposure to anyone listening. Gelb tells the patrons at The Wayfarers' Rest about his time in the Borderlands and his false accusations regarding the travelers.

Thom's Stand

When cornered by a Myrddraal in the public square, Thom Merrilin engages the creature in combat using hidden daggers and magical flashes, sacrificing himself so Rand and Mat can escape. Thom thrusts his bundled cloak into Rand's hands, tells them to run to The Queen's Blessing inn in Caemlyn, and charges the Myrddraal.

7. The Stedding and the Whitecloaks

Perrin and Egwene find refuge in a magical stedding before being captured by the Children of the Light.

The Sanctuary of the Stedding

Traveling through hostile territory requires extreme stealth and meticulous cleanup of campsites to avoid leaving any traces of passage. Elyas enforces strict survival protocols:

• building small, hidden fires in pits under plugs of sod;
• burying coals;
• righting overturned rocks;
• straightening bent weeds.

Elyas goes over every campsite inch by inch before departure, ensuring not even a broken twig is left on a standing tree. Large flocks of ravens act as relentless spies for the Dark One, capable of destroying living creatures with coordinated violence. A large flock of ravens swarms and completely devours a wild fox near a copse of trees, leaving behind only torn fur.

A stedding provides an absolute sanctuary where the servants of the Dark One cannot enter and the One Power cannot be touched. Perrin feels a sudden chill and surge of relief upon crossing the invisible boundary of the stedding, realizing the pursuing ravens have stopped at the edge. A massive carved eye in the stedding is all that remains of an ambitious capital project commissioned for Artur Hawkwing. Egnene and Elyas identify the weathered rock formation stained with soot as Artur Hawkwing's eye, carved a hundred times bigger than life.

Encounter with the Whitecloaks

Perrin struggles deeply with his weapon, realizing that hating the act of killing is what keeps a man wise. Perrin turns the ashwood haft over in his hands by the pool near Artur Hawkwing's statue, wishing he could throw it away.

During the nighttime ambush by the Whitecloaks, the wolves attack the searchers' horses, and Hopper leaps out of the dark to kill the Whitecloak holding a lance at Perrin before being pinned to the earth. Hopper leaps like an eagle out of the night and closes his jaws on the throat of the man with his lance leveled at Perrin.

Hopper's Sacrifice

Lord Captain Geofram Bornhald captures Perrin and Egwene, questioning their connection to Darkfriends and wolves. Geofram Bornhald sits in a square tent with oil lamps in each corner, gently questioning Perrin and Egwene while Child Byar displays intense hatred toward them.

Child Byar tallies severe losses for the Whitecloaks following the nocturnal wolf and human skirmish. Child Byar stands rigid as an iron rod inside the tent, reporting nine men dead, twenty-three injured, seven seriously injured, and thirty horses put down.

8. Four Kings and the Road to Caemlyn

Four Kings is a rough, uninviting town whose economy is entirely driven by merchants, wagon trains, and mining traffic. The town features rutted streets filled with parked wagons and drab houses with rusted shutters.

Rand and Mat endure harsh conditions, hostile inns, and supernatural recruitment attempts on their way to the capital.

You find that Saml Hake maintains order in his establishment through intimidation, cruelty, and the brutal enforcement of his bouncers. When a serving maid speaks out, Hake casually backhands her across the face, causing her to fall and break a mug. Carrying a heron-mark sword openly draws unwanted attention and speculation from dangerous observers like Howal Gode.

The Dancing Cartman

Rand and Mat seek shelter in several noisy inns before ending up at The Dancing Cartman, a gaudy but struggling establishment.

• The streets feature deep ruts and parked wagons.
• Houses display drab walls and rusted shutters.
• Residents avoid eye contact and maintain deep hostility.

Howal Gode, an affluent merchant from Whitebridge, tracks Rand and Mat down to verify their identity as chosen servants of the Shadow. Gode arrives in a black-lacquered carriage and watches them closely with an expectant and satisfied smile.

Howal Gode's Temptation

Agents of the Shadow attempt to recruit potential channelers by promising them everlasting life and supreme power. Gode corners the youths in their room and urges them to surrender, claiming they are marked to become the new Dreadlords when the Great Lord of the Dark awakens.

Howal Gode shouts through the barricaded storeroom door, telling Rand and Mat that resisting is futile and offering protection against Tar Valon hags.

Lightning Strike

A miraculous environmental event destroys the physical barrier trapping the protagonists and neutralizes their pursuers. While Gode's men press against the storeroom door to force entry, a direct lightning strike hits the iron window bars, blasting the wall apart and killing the men waiting outside.

Rand and Mat survive the lightning blast in the storeroom rubble and find Gode's men lying dead with open eyes in the pouring rain, allowing them to flee. A detachment of thirty-two Queen's Guards passes Hyam Kinch's cart on the Caemlyn Road. A wagonwright tells of twenty Darkfriends holding a gathering in Market Sheran with twisted bodies and terrible cackles.

9. Arrival in Caemlyn

The youths reach the magnificent city of Caemlyn, where they encounter royal politics, false Dragons, and old friends.

As you approach Caemlyn, the roads are congested with travelers, merchants, and farmers streaming toward the capital. You notice a heavy traffic of young men heading to see the false Dragon. Almen Bunt gives Rand and Mat a ride into the city in his cart. He criticizes the excessive influence of Tar Valon and Aes Sedai while supporting Queen Morgase.

Caemlyn is an immense city built by the Ogier with towering stone walls fifty feet high. You will see bustling unwalled markets and towering stone walls. To blend in, Rand wraps his heron-mark sword in red cloth and white cord.

The Queen's Blessing

Rand and Mat find refuge at an inn called The Queen's Blessing. Master Basel Gill runs the establishment and recognizes Thom Merrilin's flute. He explains that Thom was once a court bard who fled due to a dispute with the Queen and Elaida.

Rand meets Loial, a ninety-year-old Ogier who left his homeland to explore human cities. Loial identifies Rand and his companions as ta'veren. The Wheel of Time bends life-threads around them, forcing surrounding threads to swirl in their presence.

Logain's Procession

The grand victory procession into Caemlyn celebrates the defeat of the false Dragon.

• Twenty ranks of trumpeters lead the parade.
• Sixteen horses pull a massive wagon in hitches of four.
• Contingents bear the banners of the Golden Bees of Illian, the three White Crescents of Tear, and the Rising Sun of Cairhien.

Logain stands tall inside the iron cage, maintaining the bearing of an unconquered king. Aes Sedai and Warders sit directly on the corners of the wagon bed to prevent him from touching the True Source. Amidst the chaos, a ragged beggar points straight at Rand, forcing him to flee.

In the Royal Gardens

Rand blacks out from the strain of telepathic contact and wakes up inside the royal gardens. He meets Elayne, the Daughter-Heir to the throne of Andor, who wears a velvet cloak and a pale blue silk dress smudged with bark stains.

Queen Morgase questions Rand directly while the Aes Sedai Elaida sits nearby knitting dark wool. Elaida touches Rand's heron-mark sword hilt and delivers a dark Foretelling. She warns Morgase that pain and division come to the whole world and that this man stands at the heart of it. Morgase grants Rand his freedom, and Tallanvor escorts him to the Palace sally-port.

10. The Ways and the Blight

To bypass armies of Trollocs, the group ventures into the decaying Ogier Ways and travels northward toward the Blight.

The separated members of the Emond's Field group finally reunite at The Queen's Blessing inn in Caemlyn. Master Gill welcomes the Aes Sedai as his guest, and Loial also joins the group for their upcoming journey. Meanwhile, carrying the ruby-hilted dagger out of Shadar Logoth infects Mat with a spreading evil that alters his mind and attracts dangerous pursuers. Moiraine uses her powers to temporarily cleanse the taint from Mat, but full healing requires the help of multiple Aes Sedai in Tar Valon.

Trollocs and Fades assemble in large numbers around Caemlyn, creating an imminent siege risk to capture the ta'veren youths. Moiraine decides to bypass Tar Valon and travel directly to the Blight via the Ogier Ways to stop the threat to the Eye of the World. Loial asks Moiraine whether the Dark One can truly blind the Eye of the World and kill time, prompting a realization of crisis.

Reunion at the Inn

You watch as Moiraine has a kitchen worker deliver a message to Rand and Mat, leading to an emotional reunion with Nynaeve, Egwene, and Perrin. Mat is confined to his bed, delirious, sweating, and aggressively lashing out at Moiraine with the ruby-hilted dagger. Moiraine uses her silk-shrouded angreal and touches Mat, causing him to convulse and fight off the contagion temporarily.

Entering the Ways

The Ways were created by male Aes Sedai as a gift of thanks to the Ogier who offered them sanctuary during the Breaking of the World. The Ways began to rot and become dangerous about a thousand years ago because they were constructed using Power tainted by the Dark One. Master Gill arranges supplies based on Nynaeve's precise list while Whitecloaks watch the front of the inn. The party successfully evades Whitecloak watchers in Caemlyn by using a hidden stable door that leads directly into the city's alleyways.

Moiraine finds the trefoil leaf key in the intricate stonework of the cellar wall, removes it, and inserts it a handspan lower to activate the mechanism, causing the stone doors to swing open. Loial decodes the broken cursive metal inlays on the Guidings to navigate the party across bridge networks from one Island to another.

The Black Wind

The Black Wind

Forces of the Dark One use the Ways to move armies undetected. Machin Shin is a destructive entity born from the corruption and decay of the Ways that whispers horrific promises and drives victims insane. The travelers hear the approaching Black Wind and narrowly escape through a Waygate as it screams promises of torture and destruction.

11. Fal Dara and the Borderlands

You notice that the Borderlands experience extreme winters so harsh that trees burst from the freezing sap and farms are left entirely abandoned. When you approach Shienar near the Blight, you observe frozen landscapes with trees split by the cold. Rand and the others notice an empty farmhouse near the road with an abandoned scythe that has barely been exposed to the air for a week, proving the residents left recently.

The party arrives in the fortified fortress of Fal Dara, preparing for the ultimate confrontation at the Eye of the World.

Shienaran Readiness

Fal Dara is heavily fortified and fully mobilized for war, with guards who refuse to hide their faces and prepare constantly for impending Trolloc attacks. By Shienaran law, no one may hide their face inside the town walls so that Halfmen cannot infiltrate unnoticed. When the party enters Fal Dara, guards and soldiers wave to Lan and welcome him as Dai Shan while their smithies clang continuously with horseshoe production. Shienar expects to be outnumbered ten to one at Tarwin's Gap.

Lan's Malkieri Heritage

Al'Lan Mandragoran is the uncrowned king and sole heir to the fallen kingdom of Malkier, bound by an ancient oath to fight the Shadow. Lord Agelmar recounts the tragic history of Malkier's fall caused by betrayal from within and overwhelming Trolloc invasions. Lan was consecrated in his cradle with the royal sword and sworn to an ancient oath to stand against the Shadow. Agelmar tells the story of how Lan's father al'Akir and mother el'Leanna died at Herot's Crossing while twenty guards were tasked with carrying the infant prince to safety. Shienar was not truly considered part of the Borderlands until fifty years ago because Malkier stood north of them, and five thousand Malkieri lances were lost in the Blasted Lands prior to the fall.

Padan Fain Captured

Moiraine reveals that Fain was summoned three years prior, taken to Shayol Ghul, and repeatedly altered so he could track the quarry. Despite hating his master and fearing the compulsion, Fain's mind was distilled and sharpened until he could sense the youths from miles away. Fain is captured in Shienar after scaling the wall and brought before Lord Agelmar, shifting between a pitiful whine and an arrogant demeanor before Moiraine.

12. The Eye of the World

Rand confronts the Forsaken and the Dark One at the Eye of the World, unlocking his destiny as a channeler.

The Green Man's Garden

You find the Eye of the World tended by the Green Man, an ancient immortal guardian charged during the Breaking of the World. He notes that the legendary Tree of Life, Avendesora, has not been seen by him in two thousand years. The Green Man causes thorns to move out of the way of his fingers and makes a tiny seed instantly sprout roots through rock. The pool contains the pure, untainted essence of the male half of the True Source, created at the cost of the lives of a hundred male and female Aes Sedai three thousand years ago. Two of the Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel, soon break free to serve the Great Lord of the Dark at Shayol Ghul. Balthamel and the Green Man grapple until the Green Man triggers an explosion of forest growth, reducing Balthamel to a mound of debris and dying to become a large oak tree.

Battle with the Forsaken

Aginor advances as Moiraine tries to destroy him by opening a fiery chasm beneath his feet. Moiraine stands pale with strain as she creates a red-streaked yellow jelly of pure heat, but Aginor takes deliberate steps across the air to escape it. Driven by terror, Rand channels massive lightning and fire to decimate a Trolloc army at a mountain pass. Aginor tries to absorb the power running through a luminous white cord, but the influx overwhelms him until flame erupts from his mouth and eyes. Rand then enters a surreal chamber to face Ba'alzamon in a mental duel. Rand forms a sword of pure light and cuts through Ba'alzamon's massive black cord, causing the chamber to collapse.

Victory and Departure

You discover that Rand unwittingly channeled the male half of the One Power, saidin, during these trials. Among the remains of the Eye, the party uncovers ancient artifacts of absolute durability:

• shattered fragments of cuendillar or heartstone;
• the legendary golden Horn of Valere;
• a magnificent white banner of the Dragon featuring a scarlet and gold serpent-like dragon.

Loial reads the Old Tongue script on the horn, translating to "The grave is no bar to my call." Loial performs a treesong over the Green Man's grave to protect the sanctuary from creeping corruption. A miraculous victory occurs at Tarwin's Gap as the Trolloc army is completely destroyed by the earth and mountains. Fearing the inevitable madness of channeling saidin, Rand resolves to abandon his friends and walk a lonely path.

10 Key Ideas

1. The Wheel of Time turns through ages, and certain individuals are bound to its turning to fight the Dark One.
2. The magical force driving the Wheel of Time is divided into the male half saidin, which is fouled by the touch of the Dark One, and the female half saidar.
3. Ba'alzamon identifies himself as the Dark One and mocks Rand's heritage while boasting of having personally manipulated legendary historical figures into committing catastrophic atrocities.
4. The Wheel of Time bends life-threads around the ta'veren youths, forcing surrounding threads to swirl in their presence.
5. During the Trolloc Wars, Aridhol took counsel with Mordeth, and the citizens became so paranoid that they gave birth to a deadly, consuming essence called Mashadar that wiped out the population.
6. The Ways began to rot and become dangerous about a thousand years ago because they were constructed using Power tainted by the Dark One.
7. Al'Lan Mandragoran is the uncrowned king and sole heir to the fallen kingdom of Malkier, bound by an ancient oath to fight the Shadow.
8. The unfallen fortress and stronghold of the Stone of Tear will fall only when the People of the Dragon arrive.
9. Rand confronts the Forsaken and the Dark One at the Eye of the World, unlocking his destiny as a channeler.
10. Fearing the inevitable madness of channeling saidin, Rand resolves to abandon his friends and walk a lonely path.