In
The Wheel of Time, Rand al'Thor is
The Dragon Reborn. This means, among other rhings, that he can channel
saidin which means that every time he uses it, he will become little less sane (in the mind department) and little less composed (in the rotting flesh department). He can't stop channeling, so his fate is sort of sealed.
His fate is also sealed in other way; Dragon Reborn is prophecied person, created by some unknown algorithms of the Wheel to combat Dark One in Tarmon Gai'don (The Last Battle). There are several prophecies about him, many saying basically that he will bind the people of the world together to fight Dark One along with his Shadowspawn hordes, and destroy the world in process. People aren't exactly enthuastic to hear their world is going to be wrecked up, which is why some people act a little hostile towards him.
As a third note, Rand al'Thor is a ta'veren. That pretty much goes with being the Dragon Reborn obviously, but it's worth a notice as Rand is very strong ta'veren. He is accompanied in this by two other ta'veren, Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara; they are his childhood friends and they are supposed to be in aid to him with him saving the world and all, and so they seem to. The three are said to all depend on each other, like, a tripod: If one leg is cut, the tripod falls. It is unclear what this means exactly, but it might have something to do with all three needed to win the Tarmon Gai'don. Some say that Rand's job is to be the Destroyer, destroying Dark One and the world in the process, Mat's to preserve something of the world and Perrin's to build a new world on the ruins of the old.
Rand used to be a sheepfarmer, living a hundred miles from nowhere. Now, he is basically the ruler of world (well, close... 5 nations behind him and more coming). He is very stubborn by nature, and lately has shown some unpredicable behaviour.
He was raised in Andor, but his blood is that of Aiel. His mother was Shaiel and father an Aiel clan chief.
In the Wheel of Time, there are three women in love with Rand al'Thor:
(in order of appearance)
All these three have something in common, they treat Rand as a man, not Creator in flesh or like. Rand is also attracted to all three, at least judging by his dreams, in which he generally seems to be teaching those three to swim.
To be exact, actually, that list should include Lanfear.
However, she is actually in love with Lews Therin Telamon and has transferred that to Rand, who is believe to be LTT reborn. Also, while Lanfear is stunningly beautiful, the feeling still isn't quite mutual. Rand's dreams about Lanfear are generally either nightmares or something Lanfear has added to Rand's dreams herself.
Those three, actually, are suspected to be another of the infamous machinations of Algorithms of the Wheel. It is said that they are there to keep Rand sane, and indeed, sometimes only thing he can cling on is these three. Some say that there is three (which is certainly a bit more than the single-marital society he lives in would accept... well, discounting Aiel) instead of one to keep him sane. LTT proved that one might not be enough.