The Wheel of Time is a series of high fantasy novels by American author Robert Jordan, which began with The Eye of the World in 1990. Jordan wrote the first 11 novels of the series, and the prequel novel New Spring (2004), before his death in 2007. The final three novels—The Gathering Storm (2009), Towers of Midnight (2010), and A Memory of Light (2013)—were co-written by American author Brandon Sanderson. The series features 2787 distinctly named characters.

The Wheel of Time follows the characters Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere and Nynaeve al'Meara, teens from a remote village whose important destinies are recognized by Moiraine Damodred, a powerful member of the Aes Sedai. In this world, the pattern of human existence is determined and maintained by the cosmic Wheel of Time, which is rotated by a magical force called the One Power. Rand and his friends are among those, like the Aes Sedai, who possess the ability to channel, the term for accessing and wielding the One Power. As the series progresses, new characters join the ongoing struggle against the malevolent Dark One and his minions.

From 2021 to 2025, the first five novels were adapted into an Amazon Prime Video series, The Wheel of Time.

Introduced in The Eye of the World (1990), Rand al'Thor is a sheep herder whose remote village Emond's Field, in the Two Rivers, is attacked by a horde of monstrous Trollocs. Rand and his friends flee with Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah who believes that one of them is the prophesied Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon, a hero of the Age of Legends. The group is pursued by agents of a malevolent figure known as the Dark One, who seeks to seduce the Dragon to the Shadow, or destroy him. At the Eye of the World, Rand is exposed to a well of pure, uncorrupted saidin, the male half of the One Power. He finds himself able to channel it, and faces off against Aginor, one of the Dark One's most powerful servants, the Forsaken. Rand thus proves himself to be the Dragon Reborn, and is drawn into the millennia-long struggle against the forces of the Dark One.

The Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche, leader of the Aes Sedai, confirms Rand is the Dragon Reborn in The Great Hunt (1990), and Moiraine's Warder, Lan Mandragoran trains Rand in swordplay. During the hunt for the stolen Horn of Valere, Rand is transported to a distorted world where he meets the mysterious Selene, who helps him get back to the real world. Rand later defeats the High Lord Turak, leader of the Seanchan forces invading Falme, in single combat. In The Dragon Reborn (1991), Rand travels to the Stone of Tear and claims the crystal sword Callandor, a powerful sa'angreal, an artifact which amplifies the One Power. He learns that he is the son of Shaiel, an Aiel Maiden of the Spear, and Janduin, chief of the Taardad Aiel, in The Shadow Rising (1992). Selene reveals herself to be the Forsaken Lanfear, who was in love with Lews, and shares her plans to help him become all-powerful. In The Fires of Heaven (1993), however, the news that Rand has slept with the Aiel warrior Aviendha sends Lanfear into a murderous rage. She finally decides to kill Rand when he swears he will never love a woman sworn to the Shadow, but Moiraine intervenes. Rand's mother, Shaiel, is later revealed to be Tigraine Mantear, daughter of the then-Queen of Andor. In Lord of Chaos (1994), Rand founds the Asha'man, male counterparts to the Aes Sedai who are trained at the Black Tower, a converted farmhouse near Caemlyn. In A Crown of Swords (1996), Rand defeats the Forsaken Sammael and takes the crown of Illian.

In Towers of Midnight (2010), Rand conceives a controversial plan to shatter the remaining seals on the Dark One's prison in order to recreate a strong and uncorrupted one. Rand confronts the Dark One in A Memory of Light (2013), and they realize they must coexist because the Pattern requires them both. Logain Ablar breaks open the Dark One's prison, and Rand uses a unique weave of saidin, saidar and the Dark One's True Power combined, to first capture the Dark One, and then recreate his prison without flaw.

Rand is portrayed by Josha Stradowski in the Wheel of Time television adaptation.

Matrim "Mat" Cauthon is a mischievous farm boy who, as a possible reincarnation of the Dragon, flees Emond's Field with Rand and his other friends in The Eye of the World. Chased by emissaries of the Dark One, the group takes shelter in the cursed city of Shadar Logoth, from which Mat takes a ruby dagger. The weapon, corrupted by the malevolent entity that has taken hold of the city, begins to taint Mat, debilitating his body and infusing him with hostility and paranoia. Mat joins the hunt for the stolen Horn of Valere in The Great Hunt, and eventually blows it to summon a group of legendary heroes from the dead to defeat the Seanchan forces invading Falme. Near death in The Dragon Reborn, Mat is freed from the taint of the dagger by the Aes Sedai at the White Tower in Tar Valon. In The Shadow Rising, the snakelike Aelfinn foretell that Mat will marry "the Daughter of the Nine Moons", and the foxlike Eelfinn grant him memories of his past lives before hanging him from the Tree of Life, leaving his neck forever scarred. He later founds Shen an Calhar, the Band of the Red Hand, and leads as its Marshal General. Mat escapes from Seanchan-occupied city of Ebou Dar in Winter's Heart (2000), kidnapping the High Lady Tuon, heir to the Seanchan Crystal Throne, when he learns she is known as the Daughter of the Nine Moons. He courts her in Crossroads of Twilight (2003) and they marry in Knife of Dreams (2005), with Mat gaining the title "Prince of the Ravens".