Season one of The Wheel of Time introduces the Aes Sedai, a group of women able to channel the
One Power, which grants them various magical abilities. Years ago, the One Power drove its
male channelers mad, leading to a powerful male channeler named Lews Telamon, the mythical Dragon,
to tear the world apart. Now, many members of the Aes Sedai wish to destroy all male channelers to
prevent another world breaking event. Aes Sedai channeler Moiraine believes that the Dragon
has been reborn, and travels with her loyal companion Lan to seek out what she believes
is the key to saving the world from the evil incarnate Dark One. Moiraine and Lan discover
four possible candidates for the Dragon Reborn in a small village known as Two Rivers: Rand,
Mat, Perrin, and Egwene. Rand has long harbored a love for Egwene, who wishes instead to become the
Town’s Wisdom, or lead healer, who are forbidden to marry. When the Dark One sends his beasts the
Trollocs to attack Two Rivers and kill the candidates, Moiraine helps them fight back.
Moiraine successfully saves the village and defeats the Trollocs, but during the battle,
Perrin accidentally kills his wife, Laila, and the village Wisdom, Nynaeve, is captured.
The Two Rivers villagers flee with Moiraine and Lan,
heading for the Aes Sedai’s home in the White Tower. To evade the pursuing trollocs,
the group enters the cursed ruins of Shadar Logoth. While inside the ruins, the group are
separated. Mat finds a mysterious dark dagger and steals it while fleeing with Rand. Perrin
and Egwene escape together, while Lan flees with an injured Moiraine before running into Nynaeve,
who killed her trolloc captors and is wanting to reunite with her Two Rivers friends.
As Rand and Mat continue their journey, the stolen dagger begins to corrupt Mat with its darkness,
while Rand discovers that he has inhuman strength. When Rand and Mat are attacked
by a Fade, a monstrous follower of the Dark One, they are saved by a powerful
and mysterious stranger named Thom, who battles the Fade and allows the two friends to escape.
Perrin and Egwene encounter a non-violent group known as Tinkers on their journey,
where Perrin discovers that his fits of rage may connect him to wolves,
while Egwene discovers that she is a channeler. The duo are captured by the Whitecloaks,
who want to end all magic, and violently torture Egwene to reveal her connection to the One Power.
Egwene and Perrin use their newfound abilities to fight back against the Whitecloaks and escape.
Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve join a group of Aes Sedai who have captured Logain, a male
channeler claiming to be the Dragon Reborn. Logain escapes his magical binds and attacks the group,
injuring them all and mortally wounding Lan. Nynaeve manages to channel a massive amount
of magic from the One Power, healing everyone, including the nearly dead Lan. The Aes Sedai then
combine their strength to permanently sever Logain from the One Power. Moiraine, Lan,
Nynaeve and the Aes Sedai then take Logain to the city of Tar Valon to stand trial. Siuan Sanche,
the leader of the Aes Sedai, and Moiraine’s secret lover, sentences Logain to lifetime
imprisonment. Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve are then reunited with the other Two Rivers villagers,
who have all successfully made their way to Tar Valon. Moiraine helps remove the darkness from Mat
and store it once more inside the dagger. With the allies now all healed and reunited, even making a
new Ogier ally named Loial, the group heads off to a magical Waygate, which could lead them to
the Eye of the World, where they will confront the imprisoned Dark One and discover the true
Dragon Reborn. As the group enters the Waygate, Mat chooses to stay behind to forge his own path.
The group exit the Waygate in the city of Fal Dara, where they take rest before their journey
through an evil wasteland known as the Blight to reach the Eye of the World. Throughout their night
of rest, Lan and Nynaeve confess their love for each other, and Lan reveals himself to be the heir
of a kingdom destroyed by the Blight. Moiraine speaks to a seer named Min Farshaw who reveals
that all of the candidates are somehow connected, and Moiraine confesses to them that only the true
Dragon Reborn would survive the journey to the Eye. Thinking back on his past and his journeys,
Rand realizes that he is a channeler and the son of a powerful Maiden that died in battle and gave
him to a fellow soldier to raise as his own. Rand determines that he must be the Dragon Reborn, and
joins Moiraine to leave for the Eye without his friends, sparing them from an inevitable death.
As Moiraine and Rand attempt to defeat the Dark One, the villain sends an army of
trollocs to attack Fal Dara. The trollocs greatly outnumber the Fal Dara army,
killing the city’s leader, Lord Agelmar. Before the city is completely overrun,
Nynaeve and Egwene join a small group of channelers to combine their powers and destroy
the trolloc army. The exertion of power kills every channeler except for Nynaeve and Egwene.
Although the city is saved, it is left in chaos. Perrin finds the Horn of Valere, which can summon
the greatest warriors from throughout history, but he is betrayed by a man named Padan Fain,
who reveals himself to be a Darkfriend, killing Loial and stealing the Horn for himself.
Moiraine gives Rand a sa’angreal, an ancient object with the absorbed power of past male
channelers, and the two enter the Eye to confront the Dark One. Inside the Eye,
the Dark One easily overpowers Moiraine and severs her from the One Power, then tries to manipulate
Rand into releasing him from his imprisonment by promising a happy future family with Egwene. Rand
sees through the trick and uses the sa’angreal to further imprison the Dark One. Fearing he would go
mad like past male channelers, Rand asks Moiraine to tell his friends that he died, before leaving
on his own. When Lan finds the powerless Moiraine, she warns him that they had not
yet fought the Last Battle against the Dark One, and that the battle was actually just beginning.
As the season comes to a close, a fleet of channelers arrive on the western shores,
using their powers to generate a tsunami that engulfs everything in its path.