- This article is about the Wheel as an entity. For the Wheel of Time series, see The Wheel of Time.
The Wheel of Time is the great seven-spoked cosmic loom that weaves the Great Pattern, using the lives of people as threads. It is believed to encompass all worlds and realities into a Pattern of the Ages.
The Wheel
Think of a great cosmic loom in the shape of a seven spoked wheel; each spoke is representative of an Age, one passing, one always receding, one approaching. Put in place by the Creator, it uses the lives of people as threads to weave the Great Pattern. The Wheel gains its energy from the True Source, saidin and saidar working against and with each other. No one knows how long a full turning of the Wheel actually takes, and it very well may not be the same amount of time each turning. Reincarnation is a fact, as well as prophecies.
The Pattern
The lives of humans, Ogier and Shadowspawn and anything else that can affect the pattern help make the weave of it. Everything is taken into account in the weave, events spanning hundreds if not thousands of years for the proper events to occur. Each Age has a separate pattern, that makes the basis for the reality of that Age. This Pattern of the Age has been predetermined by the Wheel and it is only able to be partially changed.
Web of Destiny and Ta'veren
At the centre of every Web of Destiny, or ta'maral'ailen in the Old Tongue there is a ta'veren. Since ta'veren are made to influence life threads to create change, the only people who can affect the pattern in any significant ways are ta'veren; hence, the destinies of ta'veren are more strictly controlled by the Wheel of Time itself. These people are used by the Wheel to correct itself when the weave begins to drift from the pattern. The great changes caused by a ta'veren form a Web of Destiny. These Webs of Destiny are almost always arduous for those that live through that Age but are an unfortunate necessity for the Wheel. The more change required, the more ta'veren that are born.
Influences and Present Day
Ta'veren appear to affect the Pattern based on their own personalities and skills. Perrin Aybara's ta'veren nature tends strongly to manifest in people, causing people to do or say things they otherwise would not. By contrast, Mat Cauthon's twisting of the Pattern manifests as a warping of the laws of chance, and tends to be limited to a fairly local area. It most often manifests as extreme good luck for Mat, as well as apparently warning him of important events to come.
By far the most powerful ta'veren in the present-day world, and possibly the most powerful in history, is Rand al'Thor. His presence in an area causes any number of completely unpredictable and improbable occurrences, from throwing the laws of chance completely askew to two young people who can't stand each other suddenly marrying. This effect is uncontrollable and can extend to cover a wide area, influencing an entire village or a large part of a major city.
In recent times, the three ta'veren have been experiencing momentary disorientation and visions of flashing colors whenever they think of the other ta'veren. These colors are unexplained as yet, but the effect appears to be growing; most recently, the visions have been replaced with actual momentary glimpses of the other ta'veren. It is unknown what these visions are caused by, but it is overwhelmingly likely that it is yet another sign of the impending Last Battle.