Breaking of the World

The Breaking of the World, also called the Time of Madness, is the period that ends the Age of Legends and opens the Third Age. Male Aes Sedai, driven mad by the taint on saidin, use the One Power without restraint: they throw down mountains and raise new ones, drain seas and drown dry land, until cities are gone and civilization survives only in a primitive form. Historians argue over its length, though most hold that it ran no less than 239 years and no more than 344, so its effects span roughly three centuries. Language keeps much of its cohesion through the chaos because writings in the Old Tongue continue to be printed throughout. The women who remain gather in the aftermath to found the White Tower.