The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy created by Robert Jordan. The best way to learn the world of this epic is to read the novels of The Wheel of Time. This page is merely a short summary, so that anyone can play the game, even if they have not read the books.
The universe of the Wheel of Time has a Creator, which set everything in motion, and a Dark One, the enemy of the Creator, who wishes to break the Wheel and remake the world in his own image. The Wheel is the force of Time itself, spinning the lives of men and women to form history. It is described as having seven spokes, one for each Age of the world. These are not single events: each Age will come again and again, played out differently each time, but always in the same pattern. There is a Power that drives the Wheel, that keeps the universe running; this is the True Source, from which gifted men and women can channel the One Power. Although there is only one True Source, it has two halves, one male and one female, that work together and yet at the same time oppose each other.
At the end of the last Age, called the Age of Legends or the Second Age, the male half of the One Power, Saidin, was tainted by the Dark One, so that only the female half, Saidar, is still safe to use. For all of the present Age, any male who can channel has been doomed to go mad and then die from a rotting disease.
The Second Age ended in the Breaking of the World; the Breaking was caused by male channelers going mad from the taint on Saidin. Prior to this, however, the One Power was involved in every aspect of life, and the glories of that Age were amazing. Disease and injury were corrected by the One Power, transportation and communication were easy and quick, and war was unknown. All of this changed when the men and women who could channel, called Aes Sedai (which means "Servant of All"), in an attempt to find a shared source of the One Power, nearly freed the Dark One from the prison the Creator had placed him in. The world rediscovered war very quickly, the One Power was used with devastating effect, and the world seemed doomed.
The leader of the Aes Sedai during this War of the Shadow was Lews Therin Telamon, called the Dragon. As it became clear that the Shadow would eventually win the War, Lews Therin led approximately 100 male Aes Sedai (the 100 Companions) on a strike at Shayol Ghul, the base of the Shadow. The strike managed to seal the hole in the Dark One's prison, incidentally trapping the most powerful of the Shadow's generals (the Forsaken) on the other side. The war was over, ended in one stroke... or so it seemed.
Even as Lews Therin sealed the Dark One away from the world again, the Dark One struck back, somehow tainting saidin, like rancid oil floating on the surface of pure water. Lews Therin and the surviving Companions immediatly went mad and began the Breaking of the World. Lews Therin, in his madness, killed everyone he loved, every family member and friend, earning himself the name "Kinslayer". It is said that when he realized what he had done, he destroyed himself, in the process creating Dragonmount. But even as the Companions died, other men all around the world were likewise going mad. The world changed, all of its wonders destroyed, and the very land altered, so that mountains rose where there had been plains, and seas where there had been mountains.
After the Breaking finally ended, humanity began to rebuild. The female Aes Sedai built a great city, Tar Valon, near Dragonmount, and dedicated themselves to two things: protecting humanity from the Dark One, and ensuring that male channelers could never Break the World again. For the last three thousand years, the Aes Sedai have hunted down and gentled all men who could channel. They have also fought the Shadowspawn, manipulated nations, and tried to preserve the memory of the end of the Age of Legends. They have known, for all of this time, that the Dark One would touch the world again, that the patch placed over the Bore into the Dark One's prison would eventually fail, and that he will have to be fought again. All of these things are foretold by prophecy.
Something else is foretold too, something that causes even Aes Sedai to shudder and curse, something to strike fear into every person who has read The Karaethon Cycle, which foretells Tarmon Gai'don, the last battle. The Karaethon Cycle has another name: The Prophecies of the Dragon. They state that the Dragon will be Reborn to fight the Dark One again, that he will be born on Dragonmount, where he died, and that he will herald a new Breaking of the World--but that he is mankind's only salvation from the Shadow.
And now the Wheel is weaving a vast pattern, an Age Lace, weaving towards Tarmon Gai'don. Somewhere, the Dragon has been Reborn. Already the search is on for him. The Pattern demands a Dragon, so false Dragons have abounded over the past few years. One of them will not be false; he will fulfill prophecy, and the world will fall toward darkness. It has already begun...all that is left is to learn how it will end.
A Note on Dates
When humanity finally began to recover from the Breaking of the World, a new calendar was begun, which is now identified by "A.B." (for "After Breaking"). The White Tower in Tar Valon was begun circa 100 A.B.
After nearly 1000 years, hordes of trollocs poured from the Blight, destroying much of what had been rebuilt. After the Trolloc Wars, another calendar was proposed, this one to be Free Years (F.Y.). Again, this system was in use for approximately 1000 years.
In 944 F.Y., Artur Hawkwing became High King of nearly the entire land from the Spine of the World to the Aryth Ocean, from the Blight to the Sea of Storms. With his death, however, the world plunged into a devastating war that left scholars baffled as to the year. To cope with this problem, a calendar system was devised that was referred to as the "New Era" (N.E.). This system has been used ever since.
When campaigns begin, it is 997 N.E.