Machin Shin

Machin Shin is a mysterious wind in Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time.

Origins of Machin Shin

Machin Shin, meaning 'black wind' in the Old Tongue, haunts the Ways. Not much is known about Machin Shin, except that it wanders the Ways consuming whatever it finds.

How Machin Shin came about is unknown, but at sometime between the Breaking and current day, the Ways began to grow dark, and people started to disappear. Whether Machin Shin is some mutated shadowfiend, or a product of the taint on Saidin that was used to grow the Ways is unknown, but it has made travelling very dangerous.

In "The Eye of the World" we are told by Moiraine Damodred that whoever passes into the Ways is never seen again, or else comes out the other side mad. Machin Shin is encountered again later in the series when it tries to escape via the Waygate outside an Ogier "stedding."