The Shadow Rising recap

Rand leads a small company into the Aiel Waste to claim a prophesied place among its fierce warrior clans. Passing through the ancient glass columns of the city of Rhuidean, he learns the buried truth of the Aiel's origins and emerges marked as the Car'a'carn, the chief of chiefs foretold to unite them and to break them. Mat, drawn through a strange doorway, comes away with old battle memories, a black-hafted spear, and a talisman that turns aside the Power. Perrin, fearing for his home, returns to the Two Rivers with Faile, rallies the villagers against Trolloc raids and Whitecloak meddling stirred up by Padan Fain, wins the fight, marries Faile, and is hailed as their lord. Elayne and Nynaeve track the Black Ajah to the city of Tanchico and thwart their scheme to seize a device that could enslave the Dragon Reborn, while Nynaeve barely survives a duel with the Forsaken Moghedien. Far away, the White Tower tears itself apart as Elaida deposes and stills the Amyrlin Siuan Sanche and seizes power for herself.

Rand al'Thor, a shepherd of the Two Rivers, was carried away with his friends Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara by the Aes Sedai Moiraine when Trollocs came hunting them. Through flight, scattering, and the perils of the cursed city of Shadar Logoth, they reached the Eye of the World, where Rand first channeled the One Power and Moiraine named him the Dragon Reborn: the prophesied champion fated to fight the Dark One and, because he wields the tainted male Power, to go mad. In the second book Rand fought the fiery-eyed Ba'alzamon in the sky above Falme before a host of witnesses, was proclaimed the Dragon Reborn for all the world to hear, and first met the Seanchan, ocean-crossing invaders who leash women who can channel. In the third book Rand, fleeing his fate, went to the fortress-city of Tear and drew the crystal sword Callandor from the Stone, an act only the true Dragon could perform, as Aiel warriors stormed the fortress that legend said could never fall. There Moiraine destroyed one waiting Forsaken and Rand killed his fiery-eyed tormentor, learning that the enemy was the Forsaken Ishamael, not the Dark One himself. Meanwhile Mat was freed of his tainted dagger, Perrin bonded ever closer to the wolves and to Faile, and Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne trained at the White Tower and struck at the Black Ajah, Aes Sedai secretly sworn to the Shadow. As this book opens Rand holds Tear and Callandor, and must choose how to use the power he has claimed while the Forsaken move against him.

Each of the friends is transformed. In the Aiel Waste, Rand passes through the glass columns of Rhuidean, learns that his people were once oath-bound pacifists in service to the Aes Sedai, and comes out bearing a second Dragon mark and the title of Car'a'carn, He Who Comes With the Dawn. Some clans follow him; others, sickened by the truth he has exposed, will not. He also gains a bound teacher: the Forsaken Asmodean, shielded to a trickle of the Power, is forced to instruct Rand in how to wield saidin and survive it. Mat emerges from an ancient doorway changed, carrying the memories of dead men's wars, a spear, and a medallion that defends against the One Power. In the Two Rivers, Perrin throws back a great Trolloc assault and the interfering Children of the Light, marries Faile, and is acclaimed lord of his homeland. In Tanchico, Elayne and Nynaeve foil the Black Ajah's plot to seize an object that might have leashed Rand, and Nynaeve survives a harrowing clash with the Forsaken Moghedien. And in the White Tower, the Aes Sedai split apart as Elaida seizes the Amyrlin Seat, stills and imprisons Siuan Sanche, and drives loyal sisters into exile. The world is shifting fast around the Dragon Reborn, and old certainties are breaking on every side.