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 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 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.

An Aes Sedai who deposes Siuan Sanche as Amyrlin Seat, leading the White Tower into division. Eventually captured by the Seanchan.

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.

Former Captain-General of the Queen's Guard of Andor who commands the rebel Aes Sedai's army. Bonded to Siuan.

A false Dragon who could channel - one of the rare men born with the ability - who was captured by Aes Sedai and gentled before the series begins. His arc is one of the most quietly impressive in the sequence: stripped of his power, broken, and rebuilt into something harder and more purposeful as events refuse to leave him in the past.

Meriadoc Brandybuck - Merry - is one of Frodo's closest friends and a member of the Fellowship. Intelligent, practical, and braver than he knows, Merry grows from a carefree young hobbit into a warrior who plays a pivotal role in the War of the Ring. Separated from the Fellowship after the breaking at Amon Hen, Merry is taken in by the Riders of Rohan and rides to battle at the Pelennor Fields, where he helps Éowyn defeat the Witch-king of Angmar - a feat no Man could accomplish. Merry's journey is one of finding courage and purpose far beyond the borders of the Shire.

A young woman from Baerlon with an innate and involuntary ability to see auras and images around people that reveal aspects of their future - she cannot control it, cannot turn it off, and the viewings always come true. Min is grounded, direct, and practical in a way that contrasts with both Elayne's political sophistication and Aviendha's warrior culture, and she becomes the closest to Rand emotionally in many ways precisely because she stays with him when the others cannot. She dresses in men's clothes, has no interest in feminine convention, and is entirely without the kind of ambition that defines most characters around Rand. Her viewings provide crucial foreshadowing throughout the series.

Satellite communications operator at NASA.

One of the Forsaken, known as the Spider. A master of Tel'aran'rhiod who operates through manipulation rather than direct confrontation.

An Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah who has spent twenty years searching for the Dragon Reborn, Moiraine is the catalyst who sets the entire story in motion by arriving in Emond's Field at the start of The Eye of the World. She is among the most capable and subtle political operators in the series - small, controlled, and apparently serene in a way that conceals both her considerable power and the personal cost of two decades of single-minded purpose. Her relationship with Rand is the series' central mentor dynamic, though it is never simple - she manipulates as much as she guides, and her view of the Dragon Reborn is shaped by two decades of treating the role as more important than the person.

Queen of Andor and Elayne's mother, Compelled by Rahvin and later believed dead. Travels incognito as Maighdin.

A former peddler corrupted by the Dark One and merged with the evil of Shadar Logoth, becoming an independent force of malice pursuing Rand.

A fisherman's daughter from Tear who rose to become Amyrlin Seat - the leader of all Aes Sedai. Siuan is extraordinarily strong in the Power and a formidable political operator. Her twenty-year friendship with Moiraine, forged when they were novices together, is one of the driving forces behind the search for the Dragon Reborn.

A gleeman - a travelling entertainer of stories, songs, and juggling - who accompanies the group from Emond's Field and becomes one of their most reliable allies. Thom's apparent profession conceals a past as a court bard and political operative of considerable sophistication; he has navigated the highest levels of Andoran and Cairhienin politics and understands power in ways the Two Rivers characters take years to learn. He is older than the others, scarred, and carries a personal grief - his nephew Owyn was a male channeller who was gentled and died, and Thom blames himself and the Aes Sedai equally.

A Tairen noblewoman who schemes for power.