The Dark One, the embodiment of cosmic evil, once imprisoned by the Creator in the mountain prison of Shayol Ghul, had already managed to corrupt the world. Those who could wield the One Power and accomplish great deeds inadvertently plunged the world into a catastrophe known as the Breaking of the World. Thus ended the Age of Legends, leaving only myths in human memory. Could Rand, Perrin, or Mat — three inseparable friends from a remote, forest-hidden village — have imagined that these myths would soon come to life? That they themselves would find themselves at the very center of events upon which the fate of all humankind would depend?