he Origins of Machin Shin
by mattmcl: 2003-07-16 | Not yet rated
I'm sure that most people who've read Robert Jordan's WOT series would
agree that the darkening of the Ways is due to their flawed construction using tainted Saidin.
But what about Machin Shin? Did the Black Wind originate from the tainted Ways? Many people have argued that Machin Shin is somehow related to Mashadar and Aridhol's waygate. Others have suggested that the Black Wind might be some creature that gained access to the Ways from the Blight (ie: Malkier's Waygate or other nations that have since been swallowed by the Blight). This theory presents another possibility.
We all know that the Waygates were a gift from male Aes Sedai who sought refuge in steddings during the breaking of the world. It was through theWaygates that Ogier could travel between steddings, regardless of the actual distances between them. When the last of the male Aes Sedai left the steddings in the hope that the taint of saidin had diminished, they left behind the "Talisman of Growing" - a ter'angreal - as a way for the Ogier to create new Waygates.
Sadly, the gift of the Ways was made with tainted Saidin. Slowly, over the course of 2000 years, the Ways began to slowly change and grow increasingly dark. Many did not notice these changes until the darkness began enveloping the bridges during the War of the Hundred Years.
Travelers who went into the Ways were never heard from again. And others came out going mad, rambling about something watching them from the dark.
According to the WOT guide: "The Ways themselves are alive in some manner that even the Ogier do not understand and Aes Sedai have forgotten. They exist outside the normal confines of time and space through the One Power... Normal physical rules do not apply to the network of the Ways." Also mentioned in Ogier journals were accounts of "...the Ways were originally well lighted, so that a traveler could see the myriad islands suspended in the vast openness. Day and night had no meaning for it was always day within the Ways." Plants and fruit trees covered the floating islands and provided food for passing travelers.
So, where does Machin Shin fit into this picture? According to the Ogier, the Black Wind haunts the now darkened Ways, howling with crazed voices and stealing the minds and souls of those it finds. Some Ogiers believe it to be a creature that hid in the Ways to escape the War of the Shadows. Others believe it to be a parasite, born from the taint of Saidin that created the Ways.
Here's my theory: Due to strange nature of the Ways, it is an actual living thing. Because the Ways were created with saidin, the taint has gradually manifested itself like a cancer in a living creature to the presently darkened Ways. But I don't believe Machin Shin is a parasite or an external creature that made the Ways its home. The Black Wind is actually the souls of the original male Aes Sedai who created the Ways.
Huh? Think about it: Rand's body is the host for the soul of LTT - a crazy male Aes Sedai who was reborn into the Pattern as a part of Rand. To the reader, he is a disembodied voice in the back of Rand's head, screaming for revenge and blood. Sound familiar?
In TEOTW, pg 686 "As if from a great distance, the wind howled at them, hidden voices filled with an unquenchable thirst for living things, filled with a hunger and pain, filled with frustration. The voices seemed to whisper in Rand's ear, right at the brink of understanding and within it. "Flesh so fine, so fine to tear, to gash the skin; skin to strip, to plait, so nice to plait the strips, so nice, so red the drops that fall; blood so red, so red, so sweet; sweet screams, pretty screams, singing screams, scream your song, sing your screams..." I think these voices are the souls of mad men, the Aes Sedai that originally created the Ways. After they died, they were re-spun into the pattern, but rather than in the bodies of men, they were reborn within the living Ways. Thus through their own creation, using tainted saidin, the threads of the Aes Sedai become tied to the Ways.
Now, a lot of people have said that Machin Shin is part of Mashadar and escaped from Aridhol through the Waygate there. To that I say, why hasn't it spread through other waygates to the rest of Randland?
Another common theory that tied Machin Shin to Mashadar is Padan Fain. When Fain followed Rand and company in the Ways to Fal Dara, he was caught by the Black Wind and "...he claimed to understand the voices. Some greeted him as like to them; others feared him. No sooner had the Wind enveloped Fain than it fled." I would argue that the reason some of the voices feared Fain is because they could sense Mashadar and the ties to the Dark One within him. I think that the voices that feared Fain were the souls of the male Aes Sedai. Perhaps those who greeted Fain were the souls of Trollics or Dark Friends that had been caught using the Ways? Whatever the case, Machin Shin is a collection of souls that lives within the Ways, devouring the minds and souls of travelers who still dare to travel there. Perhaps the souls of those Machin Shin has caught are added to babbling voices? That's my guess, anyway.
You cannot rate theories without first logging in. Please
log in.
1
Tamyrlin: 2003-07-24
You make an interesting combination here between the madness the "personality" of LTT exhibits compared to the voices that are heard in the Black Wind, which you could almost connect to the voices in male channeler's head, after the taint has taken affect, that, as Cadsuane says, tells them what to do. I don't know if I agree with the idea that the souls are reborn into the Wind, but I would say, from what you have posted, that I agree that the Taint is the cause of the Black Wind, and that this living creature has been tainted, almost like a brain, tainted, and a portion of the brain is now full of tainted voices, that are created by the disease. That would be my guess, more of a large living creature, the Ways, contracting the disease from the taint, and I agree it doesn't come from Mashadar.
2
WinespringBrother: 2003-07-24
RJ is quoted in an interview somewhere saying that Machin Shin left Fain alone due to "professional courtesy", i.e. one evil being to another. Or one crazy being to another as the case may be.
I like the part about the wind being an actual living thing and part of the ways originally.
Interesting theory, that the wind is comprised of souls of mad channelers, but I'm not sure of the delivery mechanism of those souls. Perhaps they were trapped there in some other means? Why wouldn't they be reborn into a human, like LTT, the maddest of them all?
3
Rand-althor: 2003-07-24
What if Machin Shin has always existed since the creation of the ways. It could have originally been like the rest of the ways, nice, peaceful, but as with the ways, it was tainted and began to go mad. Another thought is maybe the talisman of growing was in a way "flawed" so that the more it was used, the more the taint affected the ways.
4
Priest: 2003-07-24
I like how you tied this theory together! I would like to branch off of Rand-althor's post though:
Since the ways were a "living thing" what if Machin Shin is just the soul and/or mind of the ways? This soul/mind was created with tainted saiden thus resulting in a slow spiral towards madness. Basically the DO's masterful counterstroke of tainting saiden resulted in damage caused basically only to those of the Light, so in effect, he doomed all male channelers to serve him in some fashion. This is just another result of the DO's counterstroke turning something that was good into evil. Since The Ways had no body, only a mind/soul there was no way for it to go mad and die as the male AS did, it just went mad and turned evil.
Food for thought!
5
scion2: 2003-07-25
That is an excellant theory. Another possible explanation that I thought of was that the "Black Wind" was originally a defence mechanism to defend against the Dark One's creatures as they are just afraid of it as everyone else. Perhaps the taint "drove it mad" and now it does not distinguish between the "good guys" and "bad guys"
6
Aramina: 2003-07-26
Cool theory...I like it. I'm not sure if I believe that's what happened, but it's still a good theory and it's original(a lot of people seem to be having problems coming up with original stuff lately; so many looney theories have already been made). I definitely like your theory, mattmd.
7
juitzhead: 2003-07-27
Excellent insight. The Ways are a living thing and living things require a soul. We even know that creatures such as Myr and Nym have souls. So why not a taint maddened Ways soul.
I will join this if it becomes a faction.
8
Pendragon: 2003-07-28
Forgive me if this is a blatant 'should have read closer' situation, but I know what a Nym is. What is a Myr?
9
juitzhead: 2003-07-28
for those of us who can't be bothered writting out the whole word or just cant get the spelling right, a Myr is a Myrddraal. :-)
10
Shadow Bane: 2003-07-29
ive been thinking and ive come upwith this-
Machin Shin is a physical manifestation of the taint that exists in a world created by saidin, that when it touches a soul instantly induces the effects of the taint. All souls that already have tainted saidin are added to machin shin.
One more thought why the h*** hasnt rand balefired the thing?
11
Jiana: 2003-07-29
Rand hasn't been inside the Ways since he learned balefire. Also, he's pretty reluctant to use it consciously, because of what Moiraine said and also the way Lews Therin natters on in his head when Rand thinks about balefire. Besides, if Machin Shin is a living creature of the Ways itself, then what in the world kind of effect would balefire have on the Ways???
12
mattmcl: 2003-07-30
That's a very interesting comment Shadow Bane. If you think back to "The Great Hunt", when Rand tried to use the Waygate in Cairhien at Barthane's Manor, Machin Shin is waiting for him.
TGH, P.474 "The pitch-blackness oozed out between the still moving gate. Rand leaped back with a shout, dropping the Avendesora leaf in his haste, and Lioal cried out, 'Machin Shin. The Black Wind'... a thousand insane voices seemed to cry, ten thousand, overlapping, drowning each other. Rand could make out some of them, though he tried not to."
" '...blood so sweet, so sweet to drink the blood, the blood that drips, drops so red; pretty eyes, fine eyes, I have no eyes, pluck the eyes from out of your head; grind your bones, split your bones inside your flesh, suck the marrow while you scream; scream, scream, singing screams, sing your screams...' And worst of all, a whispering thread through all the rest. 'Al'Thor. Al'Thor. Al'Thor.' "
It's interesting to note here that Rand embraces the Void and realizes that, "Greatest of all the dangers along the Ways was the Black Wind that took the souls of those it killed, and drove mad those it let live, but Machin Shin was a part of the Ways; it could not leave them. Only it was flowing into the night, and the Black Wind called his name."
Rand channels without thinking, probably LTT's memory of a weave: "He did not know what it was that he hurled, or how, but in the heart of darkness bloomed a coruscating fountain of light." Balefire?
"The Back Wind shrieked, ten thousand wordless howls of agony. Slowly, giving way inch by reluctant inch, the bulge lessened; slowly the oozing reversed, back into the still open Waygate."
I'm sure many people would argue that this was not balefire, because Machin Shin survived this encounter with Rand. I always read this passage and the "...coruscating fountain of light" as sounding very much like balefire. But why didn't Machin Shin die? Maybe it wasn't balefire, just a really intense weave using Fire? Or maybe it was balefire and when it touched the black ooze, it only burned the threads of the voices that were near where the balefire struck? If the Black Wind is made up of thousands of voices, perhaps only a few were burned from the pattern, while the rest of the voices survived?
Also in The Great Hunt, when Rand goes to Stedding Tsofu, he finds Machin Shin waiting for him there as well. Both Verin and Rand wonder if it might be following Rand somehow. Probably because he's ta'veren, as Perrin and company get chased by it to the Two Rivers in The Shadow Rising. But maybe the Black Wind simply stumbled onto Perrin and could sense Rand because of Saidin? Or maybe it has something to do with Machin Shin's encounter with Fain and his ability to track Al'Thor?
13
Shadow Bane: 2003-07-30
mattmcl-
You raise alot of interesting questions, ill have to think on it awhile. I especially like that last part about only the voices close to the beam being destroyed. That would mean machin shin would be very hard to completely kill- an explaination why someone hasnt attempted to destroy it before.
14
Callandor: 2003-07-30
Balefire is a solid line of white light, what Rand threw is closer to what he did at the end of TSR to stop Lanfear from killing Asmodean in Rhuidean.
15
juitzhead: 2003-07-30
I'm not saying that Rand did balefire Maichin Shin. However, Rand did balefire Mashadar and he didn't kill it. I'm assuming that Mashadar and MS work along the same principle (soul eating fog thing), so perhaps if MS was balefired then you would get the same effect.
16
brother of Battles: 2004-04-08
Here you go, try this. What if, Machin Shin started out being those who died in the ways before they grew dark. Then when the taint on saidin caused the ways to go dark, the people who died in the ways became a being that became insane due to the taint. Then with every mind and/or soul that Machin Shin consumed after coming into being, it was just added to the mix. Just my thought but makes since to me.
17
Oatman: 2004-04-08
Every Living thing has a soul, so if the ways are considered living, than Mashadar would be the soul of the ways. However, due to a flaw in the design, every time a new door to the ways was open, a new consiousness or voice was added to the soul, like a huge multiple personality disorder. This made mashadar go mad, and grow jealous of what he saw walking through the ways, flesh and blood, so he decided to start killing them to claim the flesh for himself, which is why he kills indiscriminantly. When it touched Fain, some of the personalities were welcoming of him, and some of them scared of him, because of a taint in his flesh caused by the DO. Because of this flaw, they left him alone, wanting no part of what Fain was.
18
Anubis: 2004-04-08
mashadar doesnt have a thread for balefire to.... balefire. or maybe he doesnt have a single thread. the second is more likely seeing as he fled. so mashadar could be killed by balefire but who cares cus the thing is dead.
19
Grady: 2004-04-08
I thought of something along those lines too brother of battles. Remember when Rand is skimming with the Aiel on his way to fight Rahvin and one of the Aiel falls off? Rand wondered if the man would go nuts from falling endlessly before he died. I've thought that the Ways and the place where you skim were similar, and that people who had died in the ways(from falling)went nuts, and these poor souls who are forever falling were somehow affected by the Taint to become Machin Shin. Adding thousands of twisted Trolloc souls to it after the gates in the Blight fell probably didn't help either.
20
brother of Battles: 2004-04-28
Exactly what I was thinking Grady. But here is one more thing, Does anyone know what happens to a Ogier mind when it goes insane? There where plenty of ogier lost in the ways before they were closed down and plus they are noted for thier fierceness in battle. That could be yet another place where Machin Shin gets its need for blood.
21
Grady: 2004-04-28
It also makes me think of when the Ogier Elders brought out the Ogier who Verin said was empty. I thought that maybe Machin Shin takes the mind to become part of it and destroys the body. Makes me wonder if the trollocs that Rand and co. saw dead in the Ways would have been empty shells also if they had managed to get out.
