Usually, fan art or fiction in which characters from fantasy worlds are transplanted into the modern day would be labeled "AU" (meaning "Alternate Universe"). That's not exactly the case for The Wheel of Time, since Earth as we know it is both a past and future incarnation of the world of the Wheel.

So, who knows? Maybe, in a previous life, Rand was a hipster with a penchant for PBR and ramblings on Taoist philosophy. Or maybe he was a fantasy fan just like the rest of us, wasting many an afternoon browsing the Dragonmount forums instead of studying for his final exams, or getting the car fixed, or doing his laundry, or...

...or maybe not. But in the spirit of time-twisting silliness, here's a taste of what The Wheel of Time might look like today.

1. Mat's Inbox by sleepinghour:

Fortuona made Mat get an account in the hope it would help him get organized. She just hasn't figured out how to make him check it.

2. WoT-Pod... by RoseMuse:

Mat's "hip" friends can't understand his love for traditional Celtic jigs, or why he dances like a seventeenth-century yokel. They forgive him, though, because his fashion sense is to die for.

3. Wheel of Time Magazine by Dragonmount's own sus-b (using the e-book cover for The Shadow Rising by Sam Weber and the Wheel and the Great Serpent chapter icon):

The editor is going to wish he had a copy of Mat's ter'angreal when Siuan, Elaida, and Egwene get a hold of the poll results in this issue of Randland magazine.

4. Sea Folk Porcelain by minniearts:

Sales spiked when the merchants discovered the wonders of advertising.