The following is the background for those who haven't read the stories or have the RPG book. Note that this is all in Robert Jordan's own words, or a paraphrase of them, and not my own. I can also list the pregen characters I have available. I will also provide blank character sheets for those who wish to create their own.
The Wheel of Time
From The Breaking of the World, Author Unknown
“And the Shadow fell upon the Land, and the World was riven stone from stone. The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World. The moon was as blood, and the sun was as ashes. The seas boiled, and the living envied the dead. All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.
From The Cycle of the Dragon, Author Unknown
“And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come, Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.”
The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
Introduction:
Three thousand years ago and more, civilization covered the Earth. Technology and science based on tapping into the power that drove the universe and turned the Wheel of Time, the One Power, had conquered disease and poverty. Ordinary people could expect to live as much as three hundred years. They traveled in vehicles driven by the One Power and sailed the seas and perhaps even to other planets in vessels driven by the Power. Men and women who could tap directly into the Power and use it – channel it- by their will and ability created that very science and technology. These men and women were called Aes Sedai. In the Old Tongue, that means Servants of All, or Those Who Serve All. You call this time the Age of Legends when you think of it at all. It was a time of great wonders and marvels. Unless you are a scholar, you may not really believe in it at all. These are stories meant only for children, after all.
The One Power had, and has, two parts, saidin, the male half, and saidar, the female half. By a complex process called Linking, men and women working together could channel either saidin and saidar, or both, but without the link of a Circle, only men could touch saidin, and only women touch saidar. Some dreamed of finding a source of power that men and women alike could use, but in the attempt they drilled into the prison that held Shai’tan away from the world of humankind. The opening was only a small hole, but it allowed Shai’tan to touch the world with a finger – a finger of evil that touched everything, everywhere. Humanity quickly learned to call Shai’tan by other names, such as the Dark One or the Lord of the Grave or others, for to name him was to call his attention. Those who gained the Dark One’s attention often prayed for death.
With evil caressing the world and seeping into every crack and crevice, civilization began to break down. Order shattered into chaos. Streets that had been safe to walk became havens of crime and violence. A world where only scholars knew a word for war discovered war, The War of Power, The War of the Shadow, a war that covered the entire world and was fought with terrible weapons of immense destruction. A war that saw the creation of Trollocs, which are monstrous, murderous blendings of humans and animals, and even more deadly, the Myrddraal, which were the occasional offspring of Trollocs. Other Shadowspawn came into being, as well, and some of these still survive. Brave are those who face the Shadowspawn.
An Aes Sedai named Lewis Therin Telamon led the forces of the Light. This man, who was called The Dragon, was a brilliant leader and a brilliant general. However, other Aes Sedai went over to the Shadow for the promise of immortality. The leaders among them came to be known as The Forsaken, as they had forsaken the Light. After long years of war, it seemed that the Shadow was going to triumph. In an effort to win the war at one stroke, Lewis Therin proposed a daring attack to seal the hole, known as The Bore that had been drilled into the Dark One’s prison. To do this he needed a circle of the strongest of the male and female Aes Sedai on the side of the Light. Critics claimed that if the seals were not placed with exact precision, the resulting strains would rip the Bore open, freeing the Dark One. Their plan involved the use of two great devices called sa’angreal that allowed the channeling of more of the Power than anyone could safely do alone, to place a barrier around the hole. This plan also had its detractors. The Bore had grown larger since it was made. Surely it would continue to grow within the barrier. They believed the barrier would eventually fail as the rest of the prison’s walls eroded away.
The Hall of the Servants, the ruling body of the Aes Sedai, quickly divided into two camps, whose who supported one plan and opposed the other. The support for using the two great sa’angreal was led by a woman named Latra Posae Decume, who finally gathered every female Aes Sedai of significant strength to her side. This effectively killed Lewis’s plan to place seals, for Lewis’s plan required female Aes Sedai, or so it was thought. Everyone believed that a circle was required for precise placement of the seals and a circle could only be formed by women who could then join men into the circle.
Events quickly outran everyone’s plans, though. The forces of the Shadow overran the cities where the access keys for the two great sa’angreal were kept. Lewis argued for his plan anew, but Latra maintained her opposition. A great division arose between the male and female Aes Sedai. Eventually every female Aes Sedai backed Latra. The armies of the Shadow continued their seemingly inexorable advance, threatening the two great sa’angreal themselves. Latra and her followers refused to yield, perceiving the risks of placing the seals to be too great. Thus Lewis resolved to make his attempt without them. Without consulting the Hall he used a hundred male Aes Sedai and ten thousand soldiers he had been assembling in secret. The male Aes Sedai became known as the fabled Hundred Companions.
The result is known, at least to scholars, though everyone thinks they know something of what happened. Even the scholars know less than they believe, but they know enough for some truth to have survived. The seven Seals were placed, and the Bore closed off, trapping the Forsaken inside the Bore, for they had been conferring with their master when the attack came. But in the last instant the Dark One struck back, laying his taint on saidin. This was not detected for some time afterwards, however. All that was known for certain was that Lewis Therin and the sixty-eight survivors of the Hundred Companions went insane.
The War of the Shadow effectively ended with the sealing of the Bore, for the forces of the Shadow, decapitated of their leadership, fell to quarreling and struggling for power among themselves. But sixty-nine of the strongest male Aes Sedai was roaming the Earth, sixty-nine madmen who could channel the One Power. By the end of the day after the Bore was sealed, Lewis Therin Telamon earned a new name, Lewis Therin Kinslayer, and cities were burning. As other male Aes Sedai not of the Hundred Companions continued to channel they too began going mad, until every man in the world who could channel was insane and caused The Breaking of the World.
The worst of the War of the Shadow was as nothing compared to the Breaking. The destruction of cities and the entire population of the world dead or turned into ragged refugees fleeing for their lives paled in comparison to the changes those men wrought on the face of the Earth before they died. Entire mountain ranges were flattened and others rose. Dry land rose where oceans had been, and seas rushed in to cover once-dry land. Of what had been, nothing was left except perhaps a remnant of population struggling to find enough food to survive one more day. And thus began the formation of the world in which you were born. Worlds are always formed in fire, you see.
Unless you are a scholar, you know nothing about the War of the Shadow and only fables of the Breaking. Even scholars know only scattered fragments, but those two events have shaped this world as surely as hammer and anvil shape iron. Nations and even an empire have risen and fallen in the intervening millennia, and two immense wars, the Trolloc Wars and the War of a Hundred Years have smashed civilization nearly as badly as did the War of the Shadow. Much of the history of the known world before the War of a Hundred Years and the Trolloc Wars is a tattered patchwork known only to scholars and full of errors even then. You know nothing of the world beyond a part of one continent, and likely you know little of that continent very far beyond your own village or town, for you must travel by horse or by foot or on boats carried by rivers or ships carried by wind. Horse drawn plows till the earth and human hands harvest the crops. Men with swords and pikes and bows fight wars, and disease kills many. Famine is not unknown, nor are plagues. To the north lies the Blight, a land where even the trees are twisted by the Shadow, the haunt of Trollocs and Myrddraal. Few humans venture there and even less return. In your world no one thinks it remarkable if a woman is a magistrate, or merchant, or a wagon driver, or dockworker. Much has changed when men, and men alone, broke the world.
Yes, there are still Aes Sedai. For most of the thousands of years since the breaking there has been one constant: The White Tower, center of the Aes Sedai. Its power and influence over the world waxes and wanes – sometimes struggling to hold to existence, sometimes deciding who would gain or loose thrones. But only women hold the title of Aes Sedai, now, and the numbers of women who can learn to channel dwindle. Men who can channel are hunted down and gentled, which means they are cut off from saidin. Men who have been gentled eventually fall into depression and die. But they must be gentled, for the Dark One’s taint still lies on saidin. A man who channels will eventually go mad if he does not die of the rotting sickness that also comes from the taint. In his madness with his ability to channel the One Power, he will destroy.
And yet, there is a prophecy that has run through all the rise and fall of nations. It is known as the Prophecy of the Dragon. This prophecy states that the Dragon will be reborn, that the Dark One will break free, and that the Dragon Reborn will face him in the Last Battle, Tarmon Gaidon, and save humanity from the Shadow, or else break the world again.
From “The Shaping of a World: The World of the Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan
Child’s Lesson learned by rote: “The Dark One and all the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Gul, beyond the Great Blight, bound by the Creator at the moment of Creation, bound until the end of time. The hand of the Creator shelters the world, and the Light shines on us all.”
Class: Aes Sedai Initiate
Background: Tar Valon
You have passed the test of the three ter’angreal and been raised to Accepted. Promptly you marched over to the sitter for the Blue Ajah and expressed your interest in learning of their goals and requirements. She sat you down and explained that you needed to experience the potential of all the Ajahs prior to choosing one, and that the sisters would determine which Ajah you would be suited and steer you towards the one that best matches you. However, since you were so adamant about the blue, instead of sending you out to sister Sheriam, the Mistress of Novices, for some punishment for your eagerness, she instead assigned you a mentor and gave you the task of traveling to Caemlyn to wait for further instructions. You are to go to the Inn of the Golden Stag outside the city gates and wait for a note from your mentor directing you further. You were given a sign, secret to the Aes Sedai (though not blue Ajah necessarily) and the name Corianin to go by to tell if a note you receive is the correct one. As you arrive in Caemlyn you find that if you had not already a room reserved for you at this Inn, it would be difficult finding one. The city is full to capacity. You recall hearing that the Red Ajah finally caught that False Dragon in Ghealdan and are bringing him with all due ceremony through Caemlyn to Tar Valon to be “gentled.” Rumor around the tower was that he killed several sisters before he was caught and shielded. Once you located a suitable band of men to escort you to Baerlon you left after seeing that they purchased supplies for the journey
Class: Armsman
Background: Midlander, Caemlyn
You work as a bouncer for Master Ferrin the Innkeeper of the Golden Stag Inn and Tavern outside the city walls of Caemlyn. You are a loyal Andor man and support the good Queen Morgase. Caemlyn is the greatest city in the known world, the most beautiful. The glorious Inner City and the Palace of the Queen were crafted by Ogier (highly skilled non – human masons rarely seen in human lands anymore). Your employer, Master Ferrin is a kind but firm man. He allows his workers to eat from the kitchens and drink beer from the tap. But requires you be able to perform the work he hired to do. You replaced that fool of a bouncer Harrel when he was thrown out for having drunk too much and laying a hand on a lady’s maid who was staying at the Inn. You keep to yourself and mind your manners and have all the free eats and beer a body could want, as well as a room provided by your employer. Life is good… Except for those seditious fools who oppose the rule of Morgase, the ones who walk around like peacocks with their white peace knots on weapons and white sashes, cockades or bandanas. The guards should arrest them and not allow them to wander about the city flaunting their treason. Having found yourself in charge of a motely crew of men in escort to a lady from the northern city of Tar Valon, you wonder how it happened at least until you look back and spy her beauty again and then you recall your feeling the need to protect this lady on her needed journey to the far off town of Baerlon.
Class: Armsman
Background: Midlander, Two Rivers, Devon Ride
Your father was a bowyer, and his father before him. Your whole life was planned out for you. You would learn the art of bow making and take over your father’s business when you were older, making bows for the hunters of Devon Ride and perhaps even for those towns to the north, Edmond’s Field and Watch Hill. You had started already, making arrows for the business, and when you turned 16 this winter, your father promised to begin teaching you the art of bow making. Sadly your father succumbed to the wasting fever last fall, just before winter set in. You were left to fend for yourself, with the black yew bow your father made. For a while you managed, making arrows for the town’s folk and accepting gifts of food and clothing from the women’s circle of Devon Ride. But eventually you decided to travel north to Baerlon to seek your fortune. There you encountered a merchant who needed a skilled archer to help guard his caravan of ore from the mines in the Mountains of Mist on its way to the great city of Caemlyn, capitol of Andor. The trail was uneventful and the merchant’s other guards cracked jokes about the “Two Rivers Hay-Hair” and about your great club of a bow. You were startled at the size of Baerlon, but the size and beauty of Caemlyn, you are sure is beyond compare. You are stunned to learn that the Queen of Andor claims lordship over your home, The Two Rivers. You bet the men back home would be as equally stunned and too stubborn to agree, as no tax collector or patrol of Queen’s guards has been seen for several generations. Now you are at the Inn where the merchant left you after paying you what he promised. The Golden Stag is homey enough you suppose, though you miss your father’s hot cakes and mutton stew. There you come across one of the bouncers of the Inn seeking to locate others to escort a lady to the town of Baerlon. It has been a long while since you have been home. Perhaps not long enough, but there is a certain draw to at least go as far as that town. Perhaps you can find other work there, besides the lady appears to be paying well for bodyguards, more than the merchants did.
- an archer with a bow that looks more like a nasty big club and a youthful air of confidence.
Class: Noble
Background: Arad Doman
You are a Domani, proud and arrogant. You believe the people of Arad Doman to be the most civilized and refined people in the world. You come from a very wealthy family. Your father is an ambitious and clever merchant who has monopolized nearly all trade coming out of Andor through the passes of the Mountains of Mist. From his base of operations in the river town of Ostin Falls, he has eliminated his competition through superior and intelligent non-violent tactics. While he was not nobility, your father wishes his family to join the rank of the elite in Arad Doman. This is something you do not want. You like the camaraderie of your father’s drovers and stablehands. You have enjoyed gambling and skirt chasing with these youths over the years. This would all change should your father get his wish. You have just learned, to your dismay, that he has sought and obtained the hand of the daughter of a minor noble from the great city of Bandar Eban. You are only 18, not ready for settling down at all! You have many more skirts to chase. The last thing you want is to be saddled with a girl who likely thinks herself a princess, as most Domani girls of the nobility are treated. It is time to find a pleasant and exciting group of adventurers to hang with for a while. You have never really been outside of Arad Doman and are eager for a change. You found a group of travelling minstrels and joined them over the passes in the Mountains of Mist to the town of Baerlon. After they made free with your funds to supply them with rooms at a local inn, you discovered that they had made off with your remaining stash of money. The Innkeeper kicked you out and you ran as he began shouting for the guards. You snuck out of town in the middle of a group of disgruntled sheep’s wool farmers. You heard several of them curse the name of Caleb Nolan whom they named a cheat. As they headed towards the backwater place called the Two Rivers you decided to make your way to Camelyn, upon hearing this they gave you a few supplies. “It’s a powerful long way,” one of them said as the rest looked on you with varying degrees of sympathy or disgust.
Class: Wanderer
Background: Cairhien
You claim to be a Gleeman in training, and that might even be true, at least it is at the moment. This is how you live your life, moment to moment, ever since your family in Cairhien was disgraced and their wealth confiscated. With your father imprisoned and there being no family property left to inherit you had to make a choice, to fight against those who disgraced your family or make a living in some other way. Your older brothers chose the former and were all arrested and dropped in some pit of a prison no one ever leaves. Not shortly after soldiers came looking for you and you decided to beat a hasty retreat taking only what you could carry. You have had to live from hand to mouth ever since and you discovered a talent for tasks which make that easier. Now one doesn’t make it obvious that he is a thief or the guards of any new place will be keeping an eye on you before you can ever attempt a single theft. So you went back to the one possession of value you managed to take with you, the beautifully crafted silver flute your mother insisted you learn to play when you were a child. You made your way to Camelyn in Andor and have been making a relatively honest living playing the flute and telling stories with a historical bent in various Inns. You have begun to think that you could be a true Gleeman if you honed your skills further. Gleemen are respected among the commoners and they pay very well to be entertained.
Class: Woodsman
Background: Ogier of Steading Jongai in the Mountains of Mist
You are journeying far from the Steading where you were born and lived all your life. A young Ogier does not usually leave the Steading, but your elders decided they needed to send a few outside to see what was happening in the world around. The trees were whispering of the return of the Trollocs and the barrier which protects the Steading from the One Power cannot protect from an army of Trollocs moving south, if the borderlands of men have failed to keep the back. You have found yourself far south of the human town of Baerlon, where few folk remember Ogier. After an attempt to locate an Inn and being shown the door after a woman screamed about Trollocs, you decided to find a nice camp spot away from the humans. South of Baerlon you located tracks of Trollocs indeed and have been following them south for days.
- an Ogier, called by the informed humans the Builders, with skill in the woods and a tendency to dream overmuch under the boughs of trees.
Hey Dawn,
I'll be one of your players for the WoT game. I'm a fan of the series, so I know the background and I do down the d20 rulebook though I haven't spent time looking at it in quite awhile. Looking forward to the game.
Hey Dawn,
I'll be one of your players for the WoT game. I'm a fan of the series, so I know the background and I do down the d20 rulebook though I haven't spent time looking at it in quite awhile. Looking forward to the game.
Right on, hope you enjoy the game! Feel free to pick one of the above or use the ideas for a character of your own.
While at lunch today I spotted missing bits from the background of one of my pregen characters and some poor editing of the original write up from my home campaign (yes they began the game in Camelyn first). At any rate here is the corrected background for
Class: Aes Sedai Initiate
Background: Tar Valon
You have passed the test of the three ter’angreal and been raised to Accepted. Promptly you marched over to the sitter for the Blue Ajah and expressed your interest in learning of their goals and requirements. She sat you down and explained that you needed to experience the potential of all the Ajahs prior to choosing one, and that the sisters would determine which Ajah you would be suited and steer you towards the one that best matches you. However, since you were so adamant about the blue, instead of sending you out to sister Sheriam, the Mistress of Novices, for some punishment for your eagerness, she instead assigned you a mentor and gave you the task of traveling to Caemlyn to wait for further instructions. You are to go to the Inn of the Golden Stag outside the city gates and hire an escort to guard you on your trip to the Inn of The White Stallion in Baerlon and then wait for a note from your mentor directing you further. You were given a sign, secret to the Aes Sedai (though not blue Ajah necessarily) and the name Corianin to go by to tell if a note you receive is the correct one. As directed, you find a helpful and capable looking bouncer at the Inn and he assisted you in locating others who were interested in a trip to Baerlon and appeared trustworthy and capable enough for hire as bodyguards.
I, for one, am looking forward to this. It's been ages since I've played the Wheel of Time RPG :)
Welcome! Hope you enjoy this one, my home game group sure did.