We all know the Forsaken are dangerous because of their strength in the Power—but which of them was actually the best strategist over the course of the series? Was it Ishamael, manipulating the world for three thousand years? Graendal, with her psychological webs? Demandred, playing an entirely separate war? Or someone else quietly pulling strings while the others grabbed headlines? Do you have a special ranking list, who would outperform all the others?

While reading the Wheel of Time series, I created a digital 'dictionary' to catalog all 2,444 characters systematically and, whenever one of these characters was mentioned again—provided they were not among the main characters—promptly recall their most important details. Creating this 57-page list (written in very small fonts) required years of painstaking work

Children of the Wheel: Are Heroes Born or Created? The Pattern gives us Heroes—men and women reborn again and again to fight the Shadow when the turning demands it. Names like Birgitte and Gaidal Cain shine through centuries, woven back into the world whenever balance falters. But that raises a question far older than any prophecy: Are Heroes born, marked by destiny from their first breath… or are they created by the lives they lead? Some argue the Wheel chooses them before birth, spinning souls with a brilliance that cannot help but shape the world. Others believe it is the choices they make—the courage, sacrifice, stubborn refusal to yield—that forge a soul worthy of the Horn of Valere. Maybe both are true. Perhaps the Wheel chooses potential, not certainty. A soul woven to a purpose, but still free to rise or fall. After all, even Heroes can die before fulfilling their part… and even the most ordinary person can change the course of the Age with a single unexpected act. If the Pattern is shaped by our decisions, not merely our destinies, then any one of us might become more than we seem. Maybe being a “Hero of the Wheel” isn’t just a title—it’s a possibility.

Can the Shadow Create? In the stories we tell—and the histories we half remember—the Shadow is often described as a force of destruction, not creation. Yet the world is filled with things born of the Shadow’s touch: Trollocs, Myrddraal, Draghkar, Grey Men… beings that did not exist before the Age of Legends shattered itself. So it raises a troubling question: Is the Shadow truly incapable of creation, or does it simply create through corruption? Trollocs were made by blending humans with animals, a twisting of what already was. Myrddraal are born from the “failures” of that process. Even the Blight spreads by warping what it touches—never building from nothing, always reshaping what the Light once formed. Perhaps that is the key distinction: Creation brings something new into the Pattern. Corruption reshapes what the Pattern already provides. If so, the Shadow can mimic creation, echo it, mock it—but not originate it. Everything it makes is ultimately reliant on something the Wheel spun first. Still… the result is no less real, and no less dangerous.