Machin Shin

**Machin Shin** (Old Tongue: the Black Wind) is an entity in *The Wheel of Time*. It is a swarm of small flying creatures in the Ways that speaks dark things to people in their minds, driving them insane.

## History

### Season 1

While Moiraine and the group travel the Ways, they are attacked by a trolloc, and one of the group channels to repel it. The use of the One Power attracts Machin Shin, and the group runs to the nearest Waygate which is to Fal Dara. As they get to the Waygate, Machin Shin catches them and speaks to them. Nynaeve channels to repel it as Moiraine opens the Waygate, and they escape.

### Season 2

Lanfear channels in the Ways to open a Waygate along the coast of Toman Head, pushing out Moiraine and Lan while she and Rand remain in the Ways. Rand notes that she will attract Machin Shin, but Lanfear tells him that there are even faster ways to Falme than the Ways. She uses an unknown ability to escape the Ways and immediately bring Rand to Falme.

## Quotes

Machin Shin speaks to people it catches. Here's what it's said the characters:

* Moiraine - "You're wrong about everything. You'll murder these children and call it heroism."
* Egwene al'Vere - "You're nothing, an imposter, a fraud."
* Rand al'Thor "Egwene will never love you as much as you love her. She left you once, and she'll leave you again." "It's you. You've always known it's you, deep down. No matter how fast or how far you run, you cannot escape your fate. You are the Dragon Reborn. You are the Dragon Reborn."
* Perrin Aybara - "You wanted Laila dead, out of the way. That's why you killed her, because you loved another woman more than your wife."
* Lan - "You can't protect her. You'll watch her die."
* Nynaeve al'Meara - "You'll hear their screams as they die, just like you heard your parents, and you'll do nothing to save them. You lost Mat, and now you'll lose the others one by one, till you have nothing and no one. You can't protect them. You can't."

## Appearances

Machin Shin appears in the following episodes:

## Changes from the book series

Machin Shin is an adaptation of the entity of the same name  (*book spoilers!*) from the book series. Changes:

* Wind - In the books, Machin Shin is a singular wind-like entity, and it doesn't seem to have any appearance. In the television series, it's a swarm of indistinct small flying creatures.
* Whispers - In the books, what Machin Shin says is not personal to the individual, it's more generally tormenting and frightening.
* Severity - In the books, Machin Shin never directly contacts the main characters. The implication is that Machin Shin catching someone has immediate consequences, although that's not directly confirmed. In the television series, Machin Shin catches the group and torments them, but the effects are not immediate, allowing them to escape.
* Old Tongue translation - In the TV series, Loial states that Machin Shin means "the Black Wind" in the Old Tongue. Based on the Old Tongue from the books, the literal translation is "Journey of Destruction" ("machin" means destruction; "shin" means journey). Since the Old Tongue in the television series is otherwise keeping close to the Old Tongue from the book series, this may be an error rather than an intended change to the vocabulary.

## See also

* Mashadar, the evil entity in Shadar Logoth.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 *The Wheel of Time*, season 1 episode 7: *The Dark Along the Ways*.
2. ↑ *The Wheel of Time*, season 2 episode 8: *What Was Meant to Be*.
3. ↑ Described as "flying creatures" (plural) in the official audio description in *The Wheel of Time*, season 1 episode 7: *The Dark Along the Ways*.