From the introduction: The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. So it had been for countless ages, so it would have continued had someone not sent things in an unexpected direction. Welcome to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time universe. Most of the action takes place in a land called the Westlands which is a mix of cultures and small kingdoms sharing the same language. To the north of the Westlands is a tainted land of monsters and corruption. While everyone knows the Blighted land exists, a fair amount of people in the south of the Westlands either don’t believe in shadowspawn or consider them safely contained and thus not their problem, leaving the north to fight an ‘unending’ war against the corrupted land. To the east of the Westlands lie the dry Aiel Wastes, inhabited by the nomadic Aiel.