One of the series' most important female protagonists, Egwene begins as a village girl from Emond's Field who discovers she can channel the One Power and ends as the Amyrlin Seat - effectively the leader of all Aes Sedai. Her rise from novice to the most powerful position in the White Tower is one of the series' central narrative achievements, driven entirely by her intelligence, political acumen, and force of will rather than raw power. Egwene's arc is a sustained study in the nature of authority and legitimacy - how it is earned, how it is maintained, and what it costs. She is also a Dreamer, able to prophesy through her dreams and enter Tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams, with unusual skill.

One of the three central male protagonists, Mat begins the series as a mischievous, dice-rolling farmer from Emond's Field and ends it as one of the greatest military commanders in the history of the world - a fact he resents deeply and tries to avoid at every turn. Mat is a ta'veren, one of three people around whom the Pattern of the Wheel weaves especially tightly, and he is infused with the memories and skills of thousands of soldiers and generals from past ages, giving him an instinctive tactical genius he neither asked for nor wanted. He carries a spear called Ashandarei and wears a medallion that blocks the One Power. His relationship with Tuon, the Seanchan Daughter of the Nine Moons, is one of the series' most entertaining and complex dynamics. Mat provides most of the series' comic relief without ever being less than fully capable when it matters.

The Wisdom of Emond's Field - the village healer and advisor - and one of the most powerful channellers in the series. Nynaeve's defining characteristic for most of the series is her block: she can only channel when angry, a limitation that both limits and defines her for many books. When she finally breaks through it she becomes one of the strongest channellers alive. She is fiercely protective of the people she considers her responsibility, particularly the other Emond's Field characters, and her arc involves learning that protection sometimes means letting people face their own dangers. She eventually marries Lan Mandragoran, a match that says something about both of them. Her skill at Healing, the most demanding of the One Power's applications, is unmatched.

The third of the central male protagonists, Perrin is a blacksmith's apprentice from Emond's Field who discovers he is a Wolfbrother - able to communicate with wolves and access their senses, sharing a primal connection to the ancient bond between wolves and humans. He has enormous physical strength, enhanced further by his wolf nature, and golden eyes that mark him as something other than ordinary. Perrin is the most grounded and emotionally steady of the three boys - serious, methodical, and deeply uncomfortable with the violence his abilities push him toward. His arc across the series involves both his external struggle to protect the Two Rivers and his internal struggle to accept what he is, culminating in his mastery of the World of Dreams in the final books.

The central protagonist of the Wheel of Time and the prophesied Dragon Reborn - the promised champion of the Light foretold to face the Dark One at the Last Battle, and the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon, the channeller whose sealing of the Dark One's prison three thousand years ago tainted the male half of the One Power and doomed every male channeller of his age to madness. Rand begins the series as a sheepherder from Emond's Field with no knowledge of his heritage, and the fourteen books follow his transformation as prophecy, power, and the weight of being necessary reshape him. He can channel saidin, the male half of the One Power, making him simultaneously the world's greatest hope and its greatest danger.

A Forsaken who was an ascetic in the Age of Legends and became the opposite - surrounded by Compelled servants, living in deliberate excess as a kind of ongoing self-parody. Graendal is the subtlest of the Forsaken and the most dangerous precisely because she never fights directly when manipulation will serve. She outlasts almost all of her peers.

The most powerful of the Forsaken and the closest to the Dark One. Ishamael was the leader of those who turned to the Shadow in the Age of Legends; unlike the others, he was never fully sealed, and he is the primary antagonist of the early books, in his guise as Ba'alzamon. The particular nihilism of his vision - that the Dark One's victory is both inevitable and desirable - is one of the things the books take their time to set out.

The most powerful female Forsaken and arguably the most dangerous individual in the series other than the Dark One himself. Lanfear's obsession with Rand is rooted in his identity as the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon, her lover in the Age of Legends, and it drives her to pursue him across the series with a possessiveness that is indistinguishable from predation.

A false Dragon - a man who could channel - captured before the events of the series and later released by Rand to help run the Black Tower. Taim is brilliant, ruthless, and contemptuous of almost everyone. His loyalties are opaque for most of the series before being definitively resolved in the final books.

A Forsaken who was a general of the Light in the Age of Legends before turning to the Shadow, driven largely by jealousy of Lews Therin Telamon. One of the more straightforwardly aggressive of the Forsaken - a soldier's mind rather than a schemer's, whose particular position in the world after his return the middle books of the series take careful, unhurried time to disclose.

An Asha'man with a Talent for making gateways far beyond his channelling strength. Bonded to Pevara.

A Maiden of the Spear - one of the Aiel warrior societies composed entirely of women - who becomes a Wise One in training when her ability to channel is discovered. Aviendha is assigned by the Wise Ones to watch over Rand and teach him Aiel ways, a task she resents and he finds baffling, in a dynamic that gradually becomes one of the series' most interesting relationships. She is fiercely proud, quick to anger, and bound by ji'e'toh in ways that repeatedly create conflict - she feels she has shamed herself by her feelings for Rand, which under Aiel custom creates obligations she takes absolutely seriously. She eventually becomes first-sisters with Elayne through an Aiel bonding ritual.

A Hero of the Horn ripped from Tel'aran'rhiod and bonded as Elayne's Warder. Captain-General of the Queen's Guard.

The oldest living Aes Sedai and perhaps the most formidable, Cadsuane spent decades in retirement before emerging to deal with the Dragon Reborn. She is abrasive, manipulative, and possessed of a moral clarity that most Aes Sedai lack - she intends to ensure Rand reaches Tarmon Gai'don able to both win and survive. Her methods of achieving this are not gentle.

Marshal-General of Saldaea and Faile's father, one of Rand's most trusted military commanders.

One of the Forsaken - a powerful channeller whose particular movements through the world during the years leading up to A Memory of Light are one of the long mysteries the late series turns its attention to.

An Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah whose deposition of Siuan Sanche as Amyrlin Seat leads the White Tower into the long division that shapes most of the middle series.

The Daughter-Heir of Andor and one of Rand's three loves, Elayne is a powerful channeller and the legitimate heir to the Lion Throne, which she spends several books fighting to claim. She is the most politically sophisticated of the young female protagonists - raised at court, aware of how power works, and capable of playing the game. She also has a talent for making ter'angreal, the magical artefacts of the One Power, which becomes increasingly important as the series approaches the Last Battle. Her arc involves balancing her personal relationships - with Rand, with Aviendha (who becomes her first-sister in Aiel tradition), with Birgitte her Warder - against the demands of securing a throne in a world at war.

A noblewoman from Saldaea who disguises herself as a hunter for the Horn before becoming Perrin's wife. Faile is proud, fierce, and intensely political in a way that Perrin is not - their marriage is a sustained negotiation between two people who love each other but fundamentally misread each other's cultural assumptions about strength and vulnerability. Her captivity among the Shaido Aiel drives Perrin's most divisive arc.

Moiraine's half-nephew and Elayne's half-brother, a blademaster of extraordinary skill and possibly the most beautiful man in the world. Galad does what he believes is right without exception or compromise - a trait that makes him simultaneously admirable and maddening. He joins the Children of the Light despite their fanaticism because he genuinely believes in their mission, eventually rising to Lord Captain Commander and leading them with considerably more honour than his predecessors.