The Eye of the World

The Eye of the World opens with a prologue set at the end of the Age of Legends: Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon, driven mad by the taint on saidin, has killed everyone he loves. When the Betrayer of Hope restores his sanity, Lews Therin's grief is so overwhelming that he draws enough of the One Power to destroy himself, raising Dragonmount in the process.

Three thousand years later, Rand al'Thor lives a quiet life in the isolated Two Rivers. When the Aes Sedai Moiraine and her Warder Lan arrive in Emond's Field, Trollocs attack. Moiraine reveals that the Shadow is hunting three young men—Rand, Mat Cauthon, and Perrin Aybara—and they must flee or see their village destroyed. During the escape, Tam lies wounded with fever and speaks of finding an infant on the slopes of Dragonmount—born to an Aiel maiden who died in childbirth. Rand refuses to believe it. The group is joined by the gleeman Thom Merrilin, Egwene al'Vere, and later the Wisdom Nynaeve al'Meara.

The journey is harrowing. Ba'alzamon haunts their dreams, claiming to be the Dark One himself. In the cursed city of Shadar Logoth, the group is scattered and Mat takes a ruby-hilted dagger tainted by ancient evil—a corruption that begins eating at him. Perrin discovers he can communicate with wolves, a gift he fears and tries to deny.

In Caemlyn, Rand befriends the Ogier Loial and stumbles into the Royal Palace, where he meets the Daughter-Heir Elayne, her brother Gawyn, and Queen Morgase. He glimpses the captive false Dragon Logain being paraded through the streets.

Reunited, the group travels through the Ways to Fal Dara in the Borderlands, then north into the Blight to find the Eye of the World. There they confront two of the Forsaken. Rand channels the pure saidin stored in the Eye, destroying Aginor and seemingly killing Ba'alzamon.

Beneath the emptied pool they discover the Horn of Valere, the Dragon Banner, and one of the seals on the Dark One's prison—now broken. Moiraine declares that the Dragon has been Reborn.