Winter's Heart characters

Appears from the start

A young man from the isolated Two Rivers who has been proclaimed the Dragon Reborn, the prophesied champion fated to face the Dark One at the Last Battle and to break the world in the doing. He wields the male half of the One Power, saidin, which carries the Dark One's taint and slowly maddens any man who touches it. Hunted, used, and feared, he has bound the Aiel to him as their foretold leader, seized thrones across the land, killed several of the Forsaken, and raised an army of male channelers, all while trusting almost no one and hardening himself against the losses around him.

Appears from the start

A former gambler and rogue from the Two Rivers, quick with dice, luck, and excuses, and reluctantly one of the most important men alive. Ta'veren like his boyhood friend Rand, he carries the memories of long-dead generals in his head, wears a foxhead medallion that turns aside the One Power, and once sounded the legendary Horn of Valere. He commands the Band of the Red Hand, a growing army, though he would rather be anywhere but at the center of great events. He was last caught in the chaos of a Seanchan assault on the city of Ebou Dar.

Appears from the start

A broad-shouldered blacksmith from the Two Rivers who can speak with wolves and see through their eyes, a gift he distrusts and tries to hide. Steady, deliberate, and quietly powerful, he has become a battle leader almost against his will, given a lordship and a following. He is devoted to his wife, Faile, and as this book opens he is consumed by a single purpose: to recover her after she was seized by the renegade Shaido Aiel.

Appears from the start

An innkeeper's daughter from the Two Rivers who has risen with astonishing speed to become a powerful channeler and the chosen Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai who broke with the White Tower. Young for the role and underestimated by the sisters who raised her thinking to control her, she is disciplined, clever, and far more formidable than she appears. She leads the rebel army besieging the city of Tar Valon, determined to unseat the usurping Amyrlin and heal the Tower's division.

Appears from the start

The former Wisdom of Emond's Field, fierce, stubborn, and protective of the young people she once looked after in the Two Rivers. A gifted Healer whose power long depended on her temper, she has become an Aes Sedai and married Lan, the Dragon Reborn's onetime protector. Blunt to the point of rudeness and impatient with fools, she stands among the few willing to challenge Rand to his face.

Appears from the start

The Daughter-Heir of Andor and a newly raised Aes Sedai, trained in the One Power and determined to claim her late mother's Lion Throne. Proud, principled, and politically astute, she is one of the women Rand loves and is bound to him. She works with the female channelers gathered around her to secure Caemlyn and the crown that is hers by right.

Appears from the start

A sharp-tongued young woman who sees images and auras around people that reveal glimpses of their futures, a talent she cannot control but has never known to fail. Practical and loyal, she has attached herself to Rand as one of the three women fated to love him, and she stays close as adviser and companion, reading the dangers gathering around him.

Appears from the start

A fierce young Aiel woman training to become a Wise One, one of the channelers among her people. Raised as a warrior before setting her spears aside, she is proud, honest to a fault, and bound by the strict customs of the Aiel. She is one of the three women tied to Rand by love and prophecy, though duty and her people's ways complicate what lies between them.

Appears from the start

A legendary Aes Sedai of fearsome reputation, thought long dead, who has come out of retirement to involve herself in the Dragon Reborn's affairs. Famous for handling men who can channel, she is imperious, secretive, and utterly certain of her own judgement, intent on teaching Rand and the male channelers around him something she believes they must learn before the Last Battle.

Appears from the start

Perrin's wife, a small, sharp-featured noblewoman of Saldaea with a hunter's boldness and a temper to match. Proud and strong-willed, she meets her husband's steadiness with fire. As this book begins she is a captive of the Shaido Aiel, held far from Perrin, who will stop at nothing to find her.

First appears in chapter 3

A small, imperious young woman of the Seanchan, the empire whose forces have invaded the mainland from across the ocean. Heir to the Crystal Throne and known by the title Daughter of the Nine Moons, she is composed, watchful, and dangerous, schooled from birth in a ruthless court where those who channel are collared as slaves. Prophecy has long foretold that Mat Cauthon would meet and marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons.