Hero Profile: Rand al'Thor

And so, our adventure begins. 

Alright, so we covered the universe, the magic, history, and monsters of the Wheel of Time series. Now that we’ve gotten those out of the way, we should probably get to the actual heroes of the story. And the most logical one to go with is Rand al’Thor. Once again, I should give ya a spoiler warning. If you want to go into this series more or less blind, you should stop reading now and come back after you’ve seen the show. I’m only going to cover the story of the first book, so I’m not going to spoil the whole thing, but there are a few big revelations in those early stories. Just so you know. We good? Ya, we’re good, let’s get to it.

 

Before his hero’s journey, Rand was a simple farmer growing up in the isolated rural district of the Two Rivers in the far west of the nation of Andor. He lived on his family farm with his parents, Tam and Kari al’Thor. That was until his mother’s untimely death when he was around five. After that first tragedy, the next decade and a half was uneventful. He did chores, occasionally went into town to see his friends Mat and Perrin, and occasionally went on adventures with them. The highlight being traveling to the mysterious Mountains of Mist a few miles from their town of Emond’s Field. This changed on Winternight when he was 20.

 

He has no idea what is coming for him. 

The winter had been long that year, so even though Winternight and the follow celebration of Bel Tine are celebrating the start of spring, there is still snow on the ground. On the walk into town from their farm, Rand saw a mysterious man in black on the road looking at him with absolute hatred before vanishing without a trace when he looks away. In town, he hears Mat and Perrin have also seen the man in black, and a peddler named Padan Fain came into town bringing rumors of war with a self-proclaimed Dragon Reborn, Logain Ablar, in the nearby country of Ghealdan. They also meet Moiraine and Lan, a mysterious woman and her bodyguard that had come to town. Moiraine was nice to them, even giving the boys silver coins as a pre-payment for a task she may have for them. Shortly after Fain is pulled away, Mat tells the boys about a story he heard from a wagon guard that told him a story that the Dragon would be reborn in the world’s greatest time of need. This causes Nynaeve the town Wisdom, a combination hedge doctor, weather predictor and spokesperson for the Women’s Circle, to come up and call him an idiot. She is both a bit abrasive and also the neighborhood big sister, so this isn’t the first time she’s done so. When she goes in to also interview Fain, she leaves behind Egwene. Egwene is Rand’s kind of girlfriend. They’re extremely awkward around each other, though, as Egwene just hit marriageable age, which is scary for Rand, but is also considering becoming Wisdom for another town, which is also scary. Their chat is interrupted by Thom Merralin, a traveling entertainer called a Gleeman, coming out to show off a bit. After, Tam comes out and the al’Thor’s return to their house. He’d heard enough stories from the other Village Council members of their son’s seeing a man in black that he doesn’t want the house left alone for a full day.

 

Toasting to the future with old friends.
The fools.

They have the start of a quite night at home, aside from Tam bring out a sword Rand didn’t know he owned, that is interrupted by an attacked by Trollocs. They escape, but Tam gets a scratch that quickly turns septic. Rand is forced to drag Tam to town, as their horse Bella also ran off. Rand grabs supplies, but has to kill a Trolloc that waited for him back in the house with Tam’s sword. Rand drags his father back to town. During the drag, Tam tells Rand in a fever induced hallucination that he actually found Rand after a battle on the famous Dragonmount mountain. Rand is forced to process this information while also worrying his dad is going to die. They make it to town, but things aren’t good there either. Trollocs also attacked, killing dozens and burning homes in the village. To make matters worse, Tam is too far gone for Nynaeve to help him. Hearing how Moiraine and Lan saved the town with their powers, she’s an Aes Sedai, a magic user, and he’s a Warder, a magically enhanced warrior, Rand goes to her and begs for his father’s life. She agrees to help, despite her own weariness, but warns Rand that the Trollocs might attack again t o get him and or his friends Mat and Perrin. She offers to take them to the Aes Sedai capital of Tar Valon to protect them. Rand agrees to go with. A barely recovered Tam gives his blessing, and his sword to Rand, and promises that he’ll follow once he’s recovered.

 

Rand, Mat and Perrin all agree to go. There’s a brief hiccup when a group of anxious towns folk try to drive Lan and Moiraine out, but Moiraine mesmerizes them with local ancient history. Apparently the Two Rivers are the last remnant of the ancient kingdom of Manetheran. In the stable, they’re joined by Thom Merrilin, who thinks the town won’t need his services and he’d like to travel in a group, and Egwene who’ll be damned if her friends leave without her.

 

The group ride out and spend the entire night riding, Moiraine using her powers to take away the fatigue from the riders and all but one of the horses, Rand’s family’s stout mare Bella that Egwene is riding. Weirdly, Bella is the least exhausted of all the horses. They make it across the river Taren, with Moiraine sinking the ferry to try to buy them more time. Trollocs and their Myrddraal leaders (the man in black from earlier) can’t swim. The group spend the next few days traveling cross country. The boys get training with their weapons, Rand with Tam’s sword, Perrin with an Axe his blacksmith Master gave him, and Mat’s bow, from Lan. And Egwene is given beginning training on how to be an Aes Sedai by Moiraine. They make it to Baerlon, the first “big city” any of the young people have ever seen and get set up at an inn called the Stag and Lion. They get settled, but in the night, Rand has a nightmare where he’s confronted by a man in black with burning eyes and mouth who calls himself Ba’alzamon. Ba’alzamon is one of the nicknames for the Dark One, this universe’s Satan. He offers Rand power and glory if he serves, and warns the White Tower will use him as a False Dragon if he doesn’t. To show his power, Ba’alzamon kills a rat by breaking its spine and the next day, Rand hears about dozens of dead rats being found. He also finds out that Perrin had similar nightmares all night, and is feeling ill because of them. On the way out, he meets a slim woman who dresses in men’s clothes named Min who gives him cryptic comments about his future, implying she can see some of it, and that he and his friends will be part of a battle to save the world. He runs off, thinking she’s crazy.

Shadows hunting Ta'Veren.

 

He explores the city, looking for Mat, but instead runs into the peddler, Padan Fain. Everyone back home thought he was dead, and he looks like he’d been run ragged since the attack. Fain makes Rand promise to not tell Moiraine where he is, but also to tell him what inn he’s at before running off. He runs into Mat, and the two look for Fain for a bit, but get distracted by Children of the Light, aka Whitecloaks. They’re a foreign private army that tries to force people to follow their strict adherence to “the Light” whether they have the legal authority to do so or otherwise. Mat, wanting to take them down a peg, hits a barrel with a sling shot, causing mud to hit the Whitecloaks. Rand starts laughing hysterically, drawing their attention. A fight almost breaks out when they see Rand’s sword has heron on it. It’s the sign of a Blademaster, and pretty much anyone who notices wants to fight this kid who clearly shouldn’t have one. Thankfully, the city watch shows up and the Whitecloaks leave. Mat and Rand find Thom, tell him their story and he advices them to keep the nightmare under their hats for now. Back at the inn, they find out Nynaeve just showed but from Perrin.

 

They go to see Nynaeve and Moiraine, but Min pulls Rand to the side and warns him that Nynaeve I part of her vision of great importance before he goes in. They try to convince Nynaeve they need to keep going, but she doesn’t see the urgency or believe Moiraine. She plans to take them back to the Two Rivers the next day. Nynaeve has a private meeting with Moiraine, which Rand asks about after. She claims that Moiraine was just trying to justify her claims that something is after the boys, asking if any of them were born outside of the Two Rivers. She does confirm when Rand asks that, yes, he was born outside of the Two Rivers, but insists that Kari al’Thor looked at that baby with all the love she only associates with biological mothers. This doesn’t comfort Rand. They have a nice night dancing, Rand spinning Moiraine and Nynaeve around at one point or another, but it’s ruined when a Myrddraal appears and tries to kill Rand. Lan scares it off, but they have to bid a hasty retreat. The group, plus Nynaeve, leave town, but are briefly held up by the same Whitecloaks. Moiraine scares them off by using her powers to appear to grow giant. They ride for a while, but end up being chased by an impossibly huge army of Trollocs. Like, Lan is certain there’s no way that many could leave the Blight in the north without the four Borderland nations raising an alarm. With few options and after they’re nearly killed by a group of outriders, Moiraine leads them to an abandoned city called Aridhol.

 

While Moiraine recovers from using her powers to distract the Myrddraal for a bit, and Egwene Lan, Thom, and Nynaeve are also distracted, the boys run off to explore. They meet a man in the supposedly abandoned city named Mordeth that wants their help getting some treasure to his horses. Being idiots, they follow him. He does lead them to a treasure, but freaks out when they mention traveling with Aes Sedai. And by that, I mean he grows huge before disappearing in a wall screaming, they’re dead!!!! They return to the group, and Nynaeve brow beats them for leaving and Moiraine gives them important context. Namely, the city was Aridhol, and it was an ally of Manetheran, until a man named Mordeth came and convinced the king to start using the tactics of the Shadow to fight said shadow. Aridhol drew in on itself, becoming crazier and more xenophobic until, one day, everyone was just… gone. Later, a Trolloc army camped in the ruins but disappeared the next day, leaving only prayers written in blood to the Dark One to save them. After that, the city became known as Shadar Logoth, Shadow’s Waiting in the old tongue. They’re interrupted by Lan’s return, he’d left to look for them, telling them Trollocs are in the city. Apparently, they want the boys badly enough to risk death. The group run, but get separated by Mashadar, a killing mist that rises in the night in Shadar Logoth. Moiraine had wards to drive it off, which was the only reason she felt comfortable camping there.

 

He rarely looks this happy.

Rand, Mat and Thom end up by the river Arinelle, and are picked up by a passing boat called the Spray. The boat takes them to Whitebridge. The boys do work for the Captain, Bayle Doman, and get Gleeman lessons from Thom, it’s part of their cover story. On the way, Rand learns that Mat stole a dagger from the horde. He thinks it’s fine, despite Moiraine’s warnings about taking stuff from Shadar Logoth, because he stole it, it wasn’t given to him by Mordeth. Again, idiot. Rand acts strangely for a bit, again, this time doing a dangerous acrobatic trick from the crow’s nest, but otherwise the trip to Whitebridge is uneventful. Once there, an innkeeper fills them in on local gossip, that Logain had been captured, he’s being brought to the Tower for trial via the Andor capital of Camelyn, and the nation of Illian has called the Great Hunt for the Horn. It’s a sort of contest where people gather to get a blessing before heading out to find the legendary Horn of Valere, a magic horn that is said to bring dead heroes back from beyond the grave. They also learn a homeless man came through begging for information about people that match their description and the description off their friends. They decide to leave town. Oh, and we learn part of why Thom is helping the boys. He’d had a nephew named Owyn who could channel. He kept it hidden for a few years, but the Red Ajah, a group of Aes Sedai that specialize in hunting Male Channelers, found him, gentled (cut him off from his powers) him, and he committed suicide in the resulting depression. He’s helping the boys so much to try to make up for not helping Owyn. On the way out, they’re cornered by a Myrddraal. Thom gives the boys his instruments, tells them to run and he’ll meet them on the road or at an inn called the Queens Blessing in Camelyn. He then rushes the Myrddraal, hurling knives at it as they run.

 

Rand and Mat spend the next several weeks on the road. They have a hard time of it, not having much money, Rand occasionally getting sick, and Mat having ever increasing bouts of Paranoia. They try earning their way by performing at inns, which works for a while, until they end up at an inn called the Four Kings. A darkfriend, a human servant of the Dark One, named Gode followed them and used a greedy innkeeper named Hake to try to trap them. Rand and Mat end up stuck in a storeroom where they were going to sleep before things got suspicious. They try to escape out the barred window, but only draw Gode’s attention. He tries to get them to come to his master willingly, and warns them they’ll die and serve him from beyond the grave if they don’t. Desperate for Escape, Rand mentally frantic for a way out, an improbably lightning strike hits the bars, blowing the wall open, and killing Gode. They beat a hasty retreat. They run into several Darkfriends as they go, including one kid that just walks up to them and tries to talk to them about our lord and master, Shaitan. Super weird. Oh, and Rand is continually hunted in his dreams by Ba’alzamon, who keeps demanding Rand serve him, warn that the White Tower will use him, and scoffing at the idea that the titular Eye of the World will serve him.  Oh, and he claims that every major historical event, the Trolloc Wars 2000 years ago, the fall of Artur Hawkwing’s empire 1000 years ago, and all the other major calamities of their age were his doing. These dreams obviously make the long days walking on the road with little to no food and an obviously sick friend worse.

 

This one image says a lot and it breaks my damn
heart.

They eventually make it to Camelyn, though. The city seems to be going through some kind of protest, with citizens wearing white or red cord or hats to show support. Rand buys some white cord because its’ cheapest and uses it to cover his swords Herons. They make it to the Queen’s Blessing and meet the innkeeper, Master Basil Gil. He’s a friend of Thoms and owed him a favor so he’s willing to put the boys up for a bit while they figure things out. He advises against going to see Queen Morgase’s Aes Sedai advisor, Elida a’Roihan, as she’s Red Ajah and not particularly well liked. Rand also meets Loial, an Ogier that is staying at the inn. Ogier are large humanoid creatures with long tuffed ears and an immense love of nature. They’re famous for their stonework, as their masons build the most beautiful cities in the world. Loial is a young Ogier, 90 but that’s like 17 for his people, who left his Stedding to see the Ogier Groves. They’re large forests planted to help the Ogier feel at home and not feel the “longing” while they worked on cities. He’s disappointed that most of the Groves he’d heard of were cut down centuries ago. He and Rand become fast friends and they often hang out at the inn’s library together.

 

A few days later, Rand goes alone to see Logain be brought through the city. Mat’s paranoia and depression has left him bedridden and Loial is tired of being called a Trolloc when he’s outside. Rand gets chased through town by a beggar and almost misses Logain. He ends up climbing a wall and perching on the top to see the False Dragon brought in. He sees Logain laugh hysterically as he’s brought into the palace. He wonders aloud why so many Aes Sedai were watching him, and a girl’s voice tells him that “it’s to keep him from touching the True Source, silly.” Surprised, Rand falls backward into a garden, where he meets three of the four members of the Andoran Royal Family. The girl that climbed up and spoke to him is Elayne, Daughter-Heir of Andor (Princess), and on the ground he meets her full older brother Gawyn, and their eldest half-brother Galad. Elayne tries to fix Rand up from the cuts and bruises he got falling and sending him on his way, but Galad is a rule lover and tattletale so he gets the guards. And just like that, Rand is brought before the freaking Queen of Andor.

 

In the presence of Queen Morgase Trakand, her advisor Elida do Avriny a’Roihan and her Captain General Garyth Bryn, Rand seems pretty screwed. Elayne goes to bat for him, saying that he fell into the garden by accident and by speaking to him, he helped her learn about her people more than by reading a book. Morgase isn’t buying it, though, as The Two Rivers is so far removed from the rest of Andor most people don’t know it is part of Andor. They also don’t quite believe that he could be a shepherd from the Two Rivers, with a Heron Marked sword, his coloring and height. And they also don’t buy that he’s a queen’s man just because he wrapped his Heron marked sword in white. Bryne and Elida both advice holding him at least until the royal kids leave town with the Aes Sedai for Tar Valon.  Tradition in Andor has the Daughter-Heir train at the White Tower and the princes to train under Warders. Elida also has a Foretelling, a prediction of the future, claiming that Andor will be headed towards division and strife from this day forward and Rand is at the heart of it. Morgase does agree to let Rand go, though, reasoning that a six-six man with the red hair and color of an Aiel warrior wouldn’t claim to be from the Two Rivers if it wasn’t true. It’s too insane to believe as a lie. And she can’t hold someone for what they haven’t done yet. Elida demands to know where Rand is staying, and he thinks quickly and lies telling her to go to the other side of the city. Elayne and Gawyn show Rand out, with guards. Rand thanks them for their help, and admits he didn’t think he was helping Elayne learn about the Two Rivers when talking to her. She admits that was BS and that if her mother actually knew she helped him because she has a thing for tall gingers, he’d have been arrested on the spot. Gawyn also says goodbye, and asks just one more time if Rand is sure he’s not Aiel. Apparently, all he’d need would be to wear one off their black head scarves, a shoufa, and he’d be a dead ringer for one. Rand says no, and once again has to deal with the memory that his father DID say he found a baby on a mountain beside the corpse of his Aiel warrior woman mother. Kid has got issues.

 

He returns to The Queens Blessing, but before he can act about getting away before Elida gets there, he’s told a “lady” is looking for him in the kitchen. He’s scared at first, but then intuits the truth, he runs and meets his friends. They’re travel weary, sore, and Perrin doesn’t look people in the eye anymore, his eyes have turned gold, but otherwise fine.  He tells Moiraine about Mat, and she rushes to help him. Using her own powers and an Angreal, an object that lets her draw more of the power than she could safely, Moiraine is able to restore Mat to normal, but it’s only a temporary fix until she can get enough sisters to sever the connection he has to the evil infected dagger. When they regroup, Loial, Perrin, Mat and Rand all ask about the Eye of the World. Loial had heard a rumor from another stedding about an injured man being brought into the Ogier home saying the Darkone is going to destroy it, the boys all had dream of Ba’alzamon saying the same thing, and Perrin also heard from a group of Traveling People who heard it from a group of Aiel warrior women. Multiple sources, plus confirmation from Loial that Rand, Mat and Perrin are “Ta’Veren” make Moiraine take this warning very seriously. Ta’Veren are focal points in the Pattern, their mere presence can throw chance out the window and make weird things happen. In this case, give them constant warnings that an artifact of great power is in danger. Moiraine decides they need to get to the Eye, but it’s up in the Blight, so they’ll need Loial.

 

Threads of the pattern twist and snare him.

Brief history lesson. 3000 years ago, during the Breaking, the Ogier gave sanctuary and shelter to Male Channelers, men who were being driven mad by the Dark One’s corruption on their power source Saidin. In the Stedding, you see, the Source vanishes. It’s not like when a person is Shielded, where they can still feel the power but not touch it, it’s just gone. And in the Stedding, the men didn’t go mad. Eventually, they left, in the vain hope the corruption was temporary, and because channelers get antsy if they’re kept from their Source indefinitely. In thanks for their help, they created the Ways, an extradimensional highway that let the Ogier travel quickly from one gate entrance to another. This was useful as during the heigh of the Breaking, Maps were redrawn daily. The Ogier used a tool the Aes Sedai gave them to grow gates at each Stedding they found and to their groves.  Unfortunately, the Ways were made with corrupted Saidin, so they grew corrupted too, and are haunted by an evil soul eating wind, so no one with sense uses them. But, lacking options, they go.

 

They find a Waygate in a cellar, the Grove was chopped down ages ago, travel through the Ways. The place is a pitch-dark labyrinth of impossibly suspended bridges, but it’s largely an uneventful trip. The three exceptions being when they discover Trolloc writing on the guide posts, confirming the Shadow used Waygates to move massive amounts of troops undetected, they detect someone following them at a distance, and when the Black Wind, Machin Shin, the soul eating wind, arrives at the very end. They escape and arrive in Fal Dara in the Borderland country of Shienar. A several hundred-mile-trip covered in two days. Neat. They go to Fal Dara keep and meet Lord Agelmar, the keeps commander, nephew to the King of Shienar and Moiraine and Lan’s friend. He hoped their arrival meant that the Tower was sending backup to fight off a massive Trolloc offensive forming in Tarwin’s Gap, a mountain pass, but no such luck. And Moiraine can’t help, because, ya know, Eye. They also learn that the soldiers caught the man who’d been following them, and it’s Fain again. Moiraine agrees to stay a night for them to recuperate and for her to interrogate him. Turns out, Fain had been a darkfriend for years, and he’d had spent the last three years looking for the boys. After each trip through the Two Rivers, he had something done to him, black rites that let him seek his target more and more precisely until he could follow the boys anywhere. He was used as a tracking animal by multiple Myrddraal and treated like garbage, and even when he got away, he was compelled to keep searching. Agelmar agrees to hold him, and the group sets out.

 

They cross into the Blight, it is an awful place, with bugs that can kill you with a bite, carnivorous trees, Trollocs, and God Damned Dune Sandworms. Okay, maybe not that sized sandworms, but the comparison feels valid. They’re called Worms and they scare Fades. They travel through the Blight for a few days, resting in the ruins of Malkier. It used to be a lovely place, but it’s seven towers are broken, and their glittering lakes have a… kraken in them. In the night, Rand while pretending to sleep sees Nynaeve try to express her feelings to Lan, but the big Warder claims that he has nothing to offer her as his war with the Shadow and vengeance is all that matters to him. 

 

They travel a few more days until they enter a pass and enter the Green Man’s grove. The Grove travels around outside of normal reality, usually, and the only way to find it is to have great need. The Green Man, a colossal man made of foliage, greets them. The Green Man’s grove is a lush forest in the heart of the deadest land in all the world. Trees grow tall, flowers bloom beautifully, and the Green Man helps them along the whole way. He leads them to a cave where the Eye is stored. Inside is the Eye of the World, and it turns out to be a container full of what appears to be water, but is in fact untainted Saidin. Moiraine explains that during the breaking, a group of Aes Sedai got together and worked themselves to death to make this patch of sealed off, untainted power, in the hopes that the Dragon Reborn in the next age could use it to repair the seals on the Dark One’s prison. It unfortunately could also break him out, which is why the Shadow wants it. The group leave the cave to prepare some kind of defense but are almost immediately attacked by a pair of walking corpses.

 

All roads lead to Shayol Ghul.

They aren’t corpses, they’re much worse. They are two of the Dark One’s most powerful minions, the Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel. Aginor looks like he’s a mummy without bandages and Balthamel probably looks worse but he hides his face behind a black mask. It’s explained that when the Dragon Lews Therin sealed them in the Dark One’s prison, Aginor and Balthamel were somehow closest to the edge of the seal. They existed in a dreamless sleep like their fellows, but their bodies were close enough to reality to wither and decay but not die. They want the Eye and will kill to get it. The Green Man tries to help but is grievously wounded by them, his body being badly burned. But, the Green Man takes out Balthamel first, by using his power to seed the corpse man with spores and seeds of plants that love the dark and decayed things and turn him into a pile of greenery. The Green Man dies, and an oak magically grows up and from his corpse.

 

Moiraine tries to fight Aginor but the power difference is too great. She tells the kids to run, and they do. Rand ends up on a hillside looking down, and Aginor chases after him. Aginor has orders to take Rand back to Shayol Ghul, but has decided to ignore them and kill Rand. Rand sees a glowing line coming from Aginor back toward the Eye’s cave, and Aginor starts to regenerate, growing healthier and fleshier with each moment. Suddenly, a strand of the line breaks from Aginor and connects to Rand. They have a struggle of wills, with Rand coming up the victor and Aginor burning up. Rand wants be away from the hill, and somehow ends up on a mountain pass. This is Tarwin’s Gap, and the Shienar Forces are about to be overwhelmed by Shadow Spawn. Rand unleashes his power, obliterating a large number of Trollocs, Fades and Draghkar before being called forward. He’s taken to Ba’alzamon’s chamber and confronts the being that claims to be the Dark One. The two battle, with the Dark One claiming he has other forces hunting Rand, The Black Ajah, a group of evil Aes Sedai, minions in the dark, and tries to use illusionary cries of a tortured Nynaeve, Egwene and Kari al’Thor to break Rand. Rand summons a sword of pure light and stabs Ba’alzamon. Ba’alzamon and the chamber around them blackens and burns to ash and Rand gets knocked out.

 

He awakens on the hill. It takes him a few minutes to remember who he is, where he is and who he’s supposed to be with before he gets up and regroups with the others. Everyone is alive, thank the Light, except the Green Man. Nynaeve is in not great shape but Moiraine is healing her. Rand tells the women how he battled and defeated Ba’alzamon, only realizing after the fact that he admitted to channeling.  Egwene reflexively backs away at hearing he can channel but hugs him tight after a moment. A few moments later, Lan and the others come out of the cavern. In the Eye was a chest, and inside the chest were fragments of a seal of the Dark One’s prison, a flag with an Eastern style dragon on it, and the Horn of Freaking Valere! The flag is also the personal banner of Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon.

 

The group spend the night in the grove, and on the morrow see that forest is already dying. Loial, not one to let the Blight claim this place in full, Treesings to the Oak that marks the Green Man’s grave. Ogier have strong connection to nature, and some like Loial can sing to trees to make them stronger and grow faster. The song Loial sings makes the oak heartier and he claims will keep the Blight from corrupting it and some of the plants around it. The group returns to Fal Dara, where they learn that “something” caused a great explosion that weakened the Shadowspawns forces and drove them back. It was a great victory for the Shienarans. At the keep, Moiraine makes sure Fain is kept under guard and shows Lord Agelmar the Horn of Valere, asking for escort to take it to Tar Valon.

 

A few days later, Rand finishes practicing the sword with Lan. He has a conversation with Egwene. She asks him to come to Tar Valon with her. He refuses, saying he won’t go there, won’t go home, and that he’ll never channel again. He claims he’ll leave soon and find somewhere where he won’t harm anyone. Moiraine, who is using her powers to eavesdrop, announces that the prophecies will be fulfilled and that the Dragon is indeed reborn.

 

Rand al’Thor is, during the first story, more or less just an unusually tall farm boy. He’s got bright red hair and fairer skin that most Two Rivers Folk, with grey-blue eyes. He’s got a natural talent for the sword, but needs a lot of work before he can claim the Heron mark blade he received from his father as his own. His father taught him a mediation technique, the flame and the void, that lets him fight in near perfect calm, greatly improving his precision and grace. You imagine a flame in your head and fill it with all of your emotions, burning them away until you’re in a perfect calm. Unfortunately for Rand, he’s also a Channeler. He has “the spark” which means that unlike men who have the potential to channel but won’t without a guide, he’ll eventually channel regardless. The book has Moiraine foreshadow this by having Moiraine explain how channeling manifests in girls and women, I cut it for time but will explain further in Egwene’s profile, and infer from what Rand does that it’s happening to him. The first time a person channels, it’s instinctive, usually to get something that they want or need. Rand’s first time? He unconsciously took Egwene’s mount Bella’s fatigue from her. After that, about a week later, he had a bout of giddiness which is part of what drew the Whitecloaks to him in Baerlon. He kept having these little coincidences happen, some subtle, some not so, like the lightning strike, which were then followed a few days later by the giddiness and impulsive behavior. That’s how channeling first manifests, action, then giddiness, closer and closer until they happen simultaneously. Rand’s power is great, but unfortunately, he’s on a ticking clock. Male channelers from the first time they draw on the power onwards are constantly exposing themselves to the Dark One’s Taint on Saidin. It causes mental health problems, including auditory hallucinations, extreme paranoia, brain damage, psychosis and intense bouts of extreme anger. It also acts as a wasting sickness on his body, if he lasts long enough his toes, fingers, ears and so on will start to rot and break off. So… not good. Rand is also the Dragon Reborn, the one hero in all the ages of man whose rebirth is foretold before it occurs. As such, he’s going to be a massively powerful channeler, once he gets the hang of it, and he will need to face against the Dark One at Tarmon Gai’den, the Last Battle, if the human race is to survive annihilation. The prophecies don’t say he WILL win, but that the Light WILL lose if he’s not there. So… no pressure.

 

Rand al’Thor is set to appear on Amazon’s Wheel of Time adaptation that will premier November 19, 2021, played by Dutch actor Josha Stradowki. He’s obviously a Dutch actor, having appeared Just Friends, Caged, and I Can Fly, amongst other films.

 

Rand al’Thor is one of my favorite literary characters of all time. He’s a tragic figure, a young man that dreamed of adventures, but was wholly unprepared for this one. He in very short order learns that his parents aren’t his biological parents, that he has to leave home and possibly never see it again, and by the end that he’s destined to go mad and die. Also, he is SUPER resistant to the idea of being the Dragon Reborn, for some reason trusting the word for that dude who haunted his nightmares for far longer than he should. As the story progresses, he begins to accept his destiny, but resigns himself to his fate. He often quotes a line from Lan, that “Death is lighter than a feather, duty is heavier than a mountain.” It’s a line that drives him, far more than it probably should. As his story progresses, though, he’ll meet people that help him shoulder his burden. He’ll fight against impossible odds, fulfill prophecy and be there at the last Battle to face off against the Dark One. It’s a hell of a ride, and I can’t wait to see it played out visually. I’ve got high hopes for the Amazon Adaptation, and I hope my gushing about it for nine pages got you hyped too. FYI, the original draft was going to be about 12, so I did reign myself in. I’ll talk about Perrin next, and hopefully his section will be more manageable. Have a good night, everyone. 

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