We’re introduced to the world of a Wheel of Time by casting our eyes around the aftermath of a battle. Or something like a battle. From the narration I get the sense that this was pretty one sided. Especially when the narration mentions the dead women and children. The inhabitants were not given the chance to flee, or to find a safe place for their loved ones.
A name is then written, a full name, Lews Therin Telamon.
A survivor?
The narrator takes care to focus on a woman, a golden-haired beauty. She is mentioned several times in the prologue’s initial paragraphs.
Many colours are mentioned, gold, gray, black, red. We’re given descriptions of the people caught up in events, shown their reactions to events and their movements.
“Behind him the air rippled, shimmered, solidified into a man who looked around, his mouth twisting briefly with distaste. Not so tall as Lews Therin, he was clothed all in black, save for the snow-white lace at his throat and the silverwork on the turned-down tops of his thigh-high boots. He stepped carefully, handling his cloak fastidiously to avoid brushing the dead.” The introduction of Elan Morin.
We see his immediate reaction to events that have happened and the scene he has arrived into. A brief but detailed description of his appearance, a neat looking man who takes care to what he looks like.
Elan gives Lews a moment of clarity. It is painful to receive:
“The out flowing seemed to take a thousand years and left him twitching weakly, sucking breath through a raw throat.”
It’s during this clarity that Lews and the reader finally learn the golden-haired beauty’s name: Ilyena. His wife. And surrounding them, the bodies of everyone Lews knew and loved.
Elan, perhaps thinking Lews is at a venerable point, attempts his coercion, taunting Lews with a nickname of Kinslayer and tempting him with Ileyna’s return through the Great Dark Lord. There’s a back and forth between the two men and we are given snippets of lore that we can begin to piece together what the world is like within the pages.
Lews has been battling against a Great Dark Lord, for what he says is ten years. Elan retorts that this battle has been raging since the beginning of time;
“Ten years!, You pitiful fool! This war has not lasted ten years, but since the beginning of time. You and I have fought a thousand battles with the turning of the Wheel, a thousand times a thousand, and we will fight until time dies and the Shadow is triumphant!” – Elan Morin Tedronai, The Betrayer.
Various names of things and concepts are mentioned. The male half of the One Power, the True Source is saidin. Not written with a capital letter. Light and Shadow are also mentioned, with Lews asking the Light to forgive him and the Shadow tainting saidin. Lews blames himself for this Shadow, however much of this is true remains to be read.
Reaching the point of no return, his family and friends dead at his own hands, and the clarity he was gifted running out, Lews pulls on the One Power and creates the mountain around him. Rock and lava spewing from the ground as the mountain groans into existence. Splitting the river around it and forming an island in the centre.
Perhaps this mountain and island will be important to the story?
Elan mutters one last vow to the newly formed mountain;
“You cannot escape so easily, Dragon. It is not done between us. It will not be done until the end of time.” – The Betrayer.
And the prologue ends.
A fascinating look at world building as we get glimpses of lore and names. Nothing is handed to us on a platter as Robert Jordan writes. He plonks us straight into the aftermath of the action and has us take a look at the consequences. We watch as two men who, perhaps were allies at one point, know each other well and we see what their relationship has become. Elan embracing the Great Dark Lord and tempting Lews to his side. We see the reaction to events, how far Lews has stumbled into madness and how Elan still has some pity left for the Dragon.
A prologue has one job, to draw the reader into the story, to bring elements of the world that may not been seen for a while and present them as interesting snippets of information to be held in mind for later.
