Ogier (Wheel of Time) - The Ways

As a gift to the Ogier for their help during the Breaking of the World, the male Aes Sedai grew a strange network of portals called the Ways using the One Power. Waygates stand just outside every stedding (since neither the male or female Aes Sedai could channel inside a stedding) and every Ogier grove in any Ogier-designed city. They allow rapid transit to other Waygates, shortening to several days journeys that would otherwise take months. However, in recent centuries, Machin Shin, the Black Wind, has appeared within the Ways. This hungry, irrational presence devours anyone or anything it encounters, posing a danger to both men of the Light and creatures of the Shadow alike. Furthermore, the Ways themselves are deteriorating: well-maintained stone paths and gardens, once spiraling majestically into warmth and light, now crumble into bottomless darkness and pitted bare stone. Because some of the northern stedding have been consumed by the Blight, the Shadow's forces now have access to the Ways, and they are sometimes used to quickly move troops across vast distances (although the presence of Machin Shin has made this a risky maneuver).