Do you know I used to think about being your Warder? How is that for foolish? [...] Not me, surely. Galad, I think. Though you'll have to beat away other Aes Sedai with a stick. Aes Sedai, serving girls, queens, chambermaids, merchants, farmwives. ... I've seen them all look at him.

Gawyn Trakand is the son of Taringail Damodred and Queen Morgase Trakand of Andor, brother of Elayne, the daughter-heir, and half brother of Galad. He is over six feet tall, taller than his sister, reddish gold hair that curls around his ears. When his sister ascends the throne he is to be her First Prince of the Sword. When he was younger Galad saved his life twice, a debt he has never forgotten.

When Elayne went to Tar Valon to become an Aes Sedai, Gawyn and Galad go with her to train with the Warders. There he meets Egwene al'Vere, a woman he falls in love with. However, his brother has an obvious attraction to her, and because of the debt he feels he owes Galad he will not allow himself to display interest in Egwene. His love for her was so great that when she was dreamwalking one night she was pulled into his dream and couldn't leave it. Yet even in his dreams he told himself he had no right to speak to her while his brother was interested.

Still at the White Tower, he is there when Elaida deposes Siuan Sanche as the Amrylin Seat. Believing that Siuan is to blame for the danger Elayne and Egwene are in, Gawyn rallys the fellow students in support of his mother's former advisor, killing men that had instructed him during his time there and were now fighting to defend Siuan. After all that, he still was honorable enough to help Min, Siuan, and Leane escape the Tower so that Siuan and Leane wouldn't be killed, even though doing so carried considerable risk to him.

Gawyn remained at the Tower, leading the group of young men known as the 'Younglings' as they fought in defense of Tar Valon and against the Whitecloaks in the surrounding area. Elaida sends them with the Aes Sedai embassy to Rand, not telling him of their plots against Rand. His hatred of Rand begins, or rather grows, when he hears rumors that Rand killed his mother and sister.

While there he runs into Egwene while in Cairhien, and during their time visiting she tells him that she loves him and that she wants him to be her Warder. He offers to help her however he could, and had she asked him to betray Elaida's Aes Sedai he most likely would have, though it would have given him great pain. But her only request was that he not tell the Aes Sedai of her presence, or raise a hand to harm Rand until she had a chance to prove his innocence.

"When you wish for so long that you could hear something," he said slowly, "and suddenly, with no warning, you do, it is like a lightning strike and rain on parched ground at the same time. You are stunned, but you cannot hear it enough."

Even afterwards, when the Aes Sedai are returning to Tar Valon with Rand and Min captive, Gawyn's selfless attempts to do what is right do not stop. He decides to do what is necessary to free Min, even considering the consequences he is likely to face. Before he is able to do so Aiel attack, and he finds himself fighting to keep alive not only Aes Sedai and Younglings, but Rand al'Thor as well. During this battle Rand saves his life, something that Gawyn meets with hatred and a promise to see Rand dead.

Gawyn and his Younglings return to Tar Valon but are denied access to the city, as apparently his usefulness to Elaida has ended. They remain some distance from the city until he receives new orders from her. His sister, having arrived in Andor and claiming her throne, had sent several letters to Gawyn at the Tower requesting he come to her, but apparently they were never delivered to him.

That is the last we have heard of Gawyn so far, though there is another book set to be released in Fall 2005. Based on Min's viewings and Egwene's dreams, it is likely that Egwene's fate will be dependant on Gawyn.

Gawyn stands out in the books as a honorable character, caught up in attempts to do his duty while he is constantly being told and believing lies about what was happening in the world. Yet, even with his desperate desire to avenge what he was under the impression Rand al'Thor had done to his family and his home, he still managed to keep his promise to the woman he loved, that he would not raise a hand to harm Rand.