chapotraphouse

The biggest thing I remember is that the entire gang goes into the Blight to find the Eye of the World, not just Rand and Moiraine, and their journey has some focus on just how evil a place it is, with every plant and animal corrupted by Satan to try to kill everything. IIRC it's revealed that Lan's entire home kingdom was taken by the Blight within his lifetime. They meet with the last treeman who isguarding the Eye, and due to his influence, a small area around it is still kept as pure nature not corrupted by The Dark One, then battle two of the Forsaken, who had been driven mostly mad. Both are defeated, but in the process the treeman is killed. The Eye of the World is a big pool of man magic that more or less awakens Rand's ability to channel Saidin which he uses to (somehow) teleport many miles to Tarwin's Gap and then magically nuke the trollocs and Ba'azamon. It's also where they get the Horn of Valere and the dragon banner.