The Dark Tower Companion

by Bev Vincent

  BARONY COVENANTER (4.5)

  See Covenant Man.

  BEECH, MRS. (4)

  Her mailbox marks the edge of Hambry in Mejis.

  BEEMAN (7)

  A can toi security guard at Algul Siento.

  BERNARDO (5)

  The town drunk in Calla Bryn Sturgis.

  BIG COFFIN HUNTERS (1, 4, 5, M)

  A trio of regulators hired by George Latigo to act on his behalf in Mejis. So called because of the coffin-shaped tattoos they each have on the webbing of their right hands, acquired in the town of Wind. Some of the low men have the same coffin tattoo. Their cover story is that they are private bodyguards for Mayor Thorin, though no one knows why he needs guards. They’ve been in Hambry for a month by the time Roland, Alain and Cuthbert arrive, staying at the watchman’s house five miles out of town. They brought the pink Wizard’s Glass to Mejis for safekeeping and are overseeing the transfer of livestock and oil tankers west to John Farson. Eldred Jonas, a failed gunslinger, leads them. He hasn’t yet shared the huge cash advance paid by Latigo with his partners, Clay Reynolds and Roy Depape. One of their previous jobs involved helping the Vi Castis Company regulate freeholders out of the mines west of Hambry. They know a lot of old gunslinger tricks. Jake thinks of his father as a Big Coffin Hunter in TV Land.

  BIX (4.5)

  Elderly operator of the raft that crosses the western branch of the River Whye. He warns the ka-tet about a forthcoming starkblast and tells them to take cover in Gook. He wears a straw hat and suffers from arthritis. He has worked at the river crossing for ninety years and is well over 120 years old. He once visited Lud and is curious to hear how things are there now. He also visited an underground Dogan, which is where he got the crank for his ferry. However, he also lost all his hair and teeth from radiation. He’s familiar with the Callas and Andy the robot.

  BLACK, SUSAN (M)

  Susan Delgado’s double. She works at the Travellers’ Rest in Kingstown. Roland rescues her from not-men plaguing that town and spends the night with her before continuing on his way.

  BLAINE THE MONO (2, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)

  One of two monorails that ran from Lud. Pink, with a nose like a bullet and two triangular windows that look like eyes with wipers that look like drooping eyelids. The full train is more than two wheels long, operates on a slo-trans engine and travels faster than the speed of sound, averaging over eight hundred miles per hour during the eight-thousand-mile run from Lud southeast to Topeka, a trip he last made nearly ten years before the ka-tet boards. He can make himself appear invisible to his riders, giving them a sense of flying. Blaine claims that the Beam holds up his track. According to Jack Andolini in Eddie’s dream, Blaine travels through every world (he knows about John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, for example) and he makes frequent references to the many levels of the Tower.

  Little Blaine is the train’s original voice. His dominant personality comes from the memory banks beneath Lud that ran the machinery of the Great Old Ones until it failed. Lud’s computers have been brooding and becoming more insane since then. Blaine is the last working machine in which their personality can manifest. The side effects of the world moving on caused a spiritual malaise that makes Blaine want to commit suicide. He abetted Patricia the Mono in her suicide by erasing the circuits that controlled her nonvoluntary actions. He behaves like a spoiled and petulant child and is destroyed by the illogic of Eddie’s inane jokes.

  BRANDON (3)

  One of Tick-Tock Man’s Grays. Bowlegged. Stabbed by Gasher. Stabbed Oy. Killed by Roland.

  BRASS (7)

  Rando Thoughtful’s aide, who appears to Roland and Susannah as Feemalo, Stephen King’s ego.

  BREAKERS (5, 6, 7, M)

  People with psychic powers sought by the Crimson King to hasten the natural decline of the Beams supporting the Dark Tower. Also known as “morks.” Most come from Keystone Earth, where they’re outsiders—selfish introverts who are painfully aware that they’re different from others in a way that people don’t like. Some are sociopaths.

  After the low men capture them or trick them into signing up, they’re kept prisoner in Algul Siento in Thunderclap and unknowingly fed extracts from the brains of the twins of the Callas to boost their powers. They are treated well and, more important, they’re given a sense of purpose. Breaking is an intensely pleasurable sensation, even though they don’t know exactly what they’re doing. Their philosophy is: go along to get along.

  There are more than three hundred Breakers in Algul Siento. They are forbidden from using their psychic powers outside of the Study in Damli House. While they work, they generate something called “good mind” that opens perceptual doorways among others in the vicinity. Ted Brautigan is a super-Breaker in that his talent is to boost the psychic output of the others. Roland’s primary goal is to stop the Breakers, whether that means freeing them from Algul Siento or killing them. Many are mad at Roland for killing the people who looked after them.

  BRIANNA (4.5)

  One of the sisters at Serenity near Debaria.

  BRIDGER, TODD (4)

  One of the deputies in Hambry. He finds the bodies of Sheriff Avery and Deputy Hollis.

  BROADCLOAK, MARTEN (1, 2, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 7, M)

  A man of many names and one of the Crimson King’s minions, though far from his greatest, according to Maerlyn, who says that little magic and long life are all he’s capable of. Lies are his hobby.

  He was the Barony Covenanter long before the time of Steven Deschain, though he probably lost that job after overstepping his bounds and leading Tim Ross to the place where Maerlyn was trapped. He’s too valuable to kill, but he can be hurt and punished. Later, he was chief adviser and court sorcerer in Gilead. Roland remembers him as a glutton behind his grave ascetic’s exterior. He taught Roland how to hypnotize people.

  He was Gabrielle Deschain’s lover and goaded Roland into taking his challenge against Cort at the age of fourteen, thinking the boy would be sent west. He also convinced Gabrielle to kill her husband, though that plot failed. After Roland was sent to Mejis to keep him out of Marten’s way, Marten fled west alone to join up with John Farson in Cressia. Roland saw him again in the final days of Gilead, being pursued by Dennis and Thomas from Delain.

  Walter admits that he is Marten during the palaver on the golgotha. See also Walter o’Dim, the man in black, Randall Flagg, the Ageless Stranger and the Covenant Man.

  BROWN (1, 6, M)

  A hermit who lives in a hut between Tull and the Mohaine Desert. His wife was of the Manni. He owns a raven named Zoltan.

  BURKE, DAVID (7)

  A former guard at Algul Siento caught throwing peanut shells at the Breakers from the balcony surrounding the Study in Damli House. As an example to the others, Pimli Prentiss had him lobotomized. Afterward, he wandered around the campus with a puzzled look on his face.

  CAGNEY, JAMES (7)

  A red-haired can toi from Algul Siento who favors Western-style shirts and boots that add three inches to his five-foot-five height. His friends call him Cag. He is shot and killed near the movie theater in Pleasantville.

  CALLAHAN, BARKIE (4)

  Bouncer at the Travellers’ Rest in Hambry. He is assigned to guard the tankers at Citgo with Hiram Quint.

  CAMERON (7)

  A low man who raped a Breaker. He claimed it was part of his becoming and that the Crimson King told him to do it in a dream. Humma o’Tego executed him in the middle of Pleasantville’s Main Street by shooting him in the head in front of the Breakers.

  CANDOR THE TALL (7)

  Gabrielle Deschain’s father.

  CANFIELD, BILL (4.5)

  A former pokie (cowpoke or wandering cowboy) who became a proddie (hired hand) at the Jefferson Ranch in Debaria. He is out rounding up strays with Skip and Arn when the skin-man attacks. He calls Sheriff Peavy to report the slaughter at the ranch and accompanies Jamie DeCurry and the sheriff to the salt mines to bring back likely candidates for the skin-man.

>   CANTAB (5, 6)

  A young Manni from Henchick’s kra in Calla Bryn Sturgis. Popular with children, to whom he likes to sing. He is one of the most powerful senders in Calla Redpath. His wife, Ara, is one of Henchick’s granddaughters.

  CASH, BENITO (5)

  A landowner in Calla Bryn Sturgis.

  CASTNER (1)

  Owner of the dry goods emporium in Tull.

  CAVERRA, REUBEN (5)

  A rancher in Calla Bryn Sturgis, husband of Diane. The last time the Wolves came, they took his twin sister, Ruth. A hulk of a man who impresses Roland as not knowing much about fear and probably nothing at all about cowardice. Before the Wolves come, his appendix ruptures, which, in the Callas, is usually fatal.

  CHAMPIGNON, ARRA (M)

  Gunslinger Charles Champignon’s wife. She insists on returning to her Manni home to give birth to her son, who will have the special sight of the Manni. John Farson raped her and ripped her fetus from the womb to terrorize Charles into becoming a traitor but also to prevent the birth of such a fearsome gunslinger.

  CHAMPIGNON, CHARLES (M)

  One of the gunslingers in the court of Gilead. He throws himself on a hand grenade to save his dinh, Steven Deschain, when Justus leads them into a trap. He is forced into becoming a traitor, though, when Farson captures his family, rapes his wife and kills his unborn child.

  CHARLES, SON OF CHARLES (1, M)

  A young gunslinger in the court of Steven Deschain. Hax’s executioner.

  CHEF WARTHOG (7)

  Jake’s name for the tusked pig-headed low man in the Dixie Pig’s kitchen. The chef sends his pot washers after Jake while continuing to cook a pig. Jake cuts his head off with an Oriza.

  CHEVIN OF CHAYVEN (7)

  A Roderick whom Roland and Eddie encounter as a walk-in in Lovell, Maine. Son of Hamil, minstrel of the South Plains. Roland sends him to the clearing at the end of the path.

  CLAY, ANNIE (4.5)

  Original name of Sister Fortuna of Serenity in Debaria.

  CLAYPOOL, FRANK (4)

  A deputy in Hambry. He “fell out of a boat” and broke his leg, thus leaving a vacancy filled by Eldred Jonas.

  CLEMMIE (4.5)

  One of the sisters at Serenity near Debaria.

  COLLINS, JOE (7)

  The only resident of Westring, at the edge of Empathica and the beginning of Tower Road. He lives in a house on Odd Lane. Son of Henry and Flora. He has a photograph of the Dark Tower pinned to his wall. He claims to be a former stand-up comic who was beaten in Cleveland and woke up in a deserted town named Stone’s Warp about seventeen years ago. Most of what he says is a lie. He is actually Dandelo, a vampire that feeds on emotions instead of blood. He has been preying on passersby for years and draining Patrick Danville in the interim. When he tells a joke, he raps his knuckles on his head and pops his eyes impossibly far from his head. At first, he’s scrawny, has long, fine white hair, a cataract over one eye and a bad leg. After he feeds on Roland’s laughter, his hair turns black and he looks thirty years younger. When confronted, he changes into something resembling a psychotic clown and then into a buglike creature with human features printed on the surface. Susannah shoots him.

  COMPSON (7)

  Rando Thoughtful’s aide. He appears to Roland and Susannah as Fumalo, Stephen King’s id.

  CONROY (7)

  A can toi technician who works in Damli House in Algul Siento.

  COPPERHEAD (3)

  One of the Tick-Tock Man’s Grays. He runs the machine that sounds the drums in Lud. Roland shoots him in the back.

  COQUINA (L, M)

  One of the Little Sisters of Eluria. When she learns of Sister Jenna’s treachery and threatens to tell, Jenna summons the can tam to make her part of the medicine.

  CORT (THROUGHOUT)

  Full name: Cortland Andrus, son of Fardo. The drill instructor from hell. Roland often hears his voice chiding him or instructing him on how to behave. He taught apprentice gunslingers how to fight and how to kill if they had to, clouting them in the head if they were slow or contrary. He instructed them in celestial navigation, archery, gunnery, falconry and how to keep time in their heads. He usually won the largest goose in the Barony for a prize at the riddling contests at Fair-Days and may have known about other worlds and held palaver with the Manni who lived outside Gilead.

  Besting him in battle was the normal way in which students became gunslingers. He was disappointed when Roland challenged him at a very early age, but he underestimated Roland and his weapon. Afterward, he counseled Roland to delay seeking vengeance against Marten because he knew the boy was no match for the wizard. He was so badly injured that Roland spent most of his time feeding and cleaning him after he returned from Mejis. He suffered from rheumatism during his final year and was poisoned two years before the civil war began. In the Marvel comics, the poison is administered via the pages of a book that belonged to Farson’s nephew.

  COSINGTON, ADA (4.5)

  Peter Cosington’s wife. She helps look after Nell Ross after she is struck blind.

  COSINGTON, “SQUARE” PETER (4.5)

  A woodcutter in Tree Village, partnered with Ernest Marchly. A falling tree injures him before Jack Ross dies, which is why he doesn’t return to his stake in the Endless Forest where Ross’s body is hidden.

  COVENANT MAN, THE (4.5)

  Also known as the Barony Covenanter. Tax collecting is one of his hobbies. He travels the countryside levying and collecting excises on behalf of Gilead, but he is also adviser to the Council of Eld. His saddle is decorated with arcane symbols.

  Among his gunna is a silver washbasin that came from Garlan. Nell Ross says he hasn’t aged a day in the last twenty years. Little magic and long life is all he’s capable of, according to Maerlyn. Wanting to know people’s secrets is his “besetting vice,” one that might be the death of him someday. He uses the truth to hurt people and bait traps for them. He reveals Bern Kells’s crimes to Tim Ross, arms him with his father’s hand ax, and sends him back to Tree, hoping the boy will commit murder. He also shows Tim a false vision of Maerlyn’s house in the Endless Forest and sends him Armaneeta, the sighe, as a “guide,” to lure him to his death. He probably hopes Tim will kill the caged tyger if he reaches the North Forest Kinnock Dogan, but that ploy fails. Maerlyn believes he will be punished for his foolishness, which was not authorized by the Crimson King. See also: Marten Broadcloak, Walter o’Dim and Randall Flagg.

  CRIMSON KING, THE (1, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

  Also known as Ram Abbalah, the Lord of the Spiders, Los’ the Red and the Red King. Maerlyn calls him the Great One. He’s from the line of Eld, therefore related to Roland Deschain, and Mordred Deschain’s Red Father.

  He wants to rule the Dark Tower, but in his insanity he destroyed the mark of Eld that would have allowed him to enter it. He backed John Farson’s insurrection against Gilead because he relishes chaos. Also, by destroying all the living descendants of Arthur Eld, he eliminates any competition for the Tower.

  He has a sense of the future and does his best to neutralize enemies in advance. He knows Stephen King will write Roland’s story, so he repeatedly tries to kill the author, starting when he was just a boy. When Roland begins his journey to find the Dark Tower, the Crimson King sends minions like Walter o’Dim to thwart him. The Crimson King is conflicted between wanting to destroy the Tower and getting there ahead of Roland to rule it, which may be the cause of his insanity, in addition to living so close to the Tower and thinking upon it so deeply.

  His domain is Le Casse Roi Russe in Discordia, the black wasteland southeast of Fedic that he poisoned and consigned to darkness on a lark. He wants reality to return to the chaos from which it arose, which is why he wants to bring down the Tower. He believes he will rule the chaos that ensues after the Fall. When Roland overcomes the challenges the Crimson King puts in his way, Los’ the Red goes mad, murders just about everyone in his court, smashes the six Wizard’s Glasses he had, and kills himself by swallow
ing a spoon. The advantage to being dead is that Roland’s guns of Eld can’t kill him. Then he rides off to the Dark Tower on a horse.

  He ends up trapped on one of the Tower’s balconies. Exactly when he arrived is a matter of some confusion. According to “The Wind Through the Keyhole,” he’s been trapped since before the time of Tim Ross. However, Rando Thoughtful claims he left his castle a short time before Roland and Susannah get there, and Dandelo remembers him riding past in his own portable storm. Maybe he’s dual natured—one facet was trapped in the Tower a long time ago and another has been wreaking havoc on Mid-World and conscripting Breakers to destroy the Beams. His two facets may have reunited after he killed himself and rode to the Tower.

  Mordred Deschain is his son and Roland’s son at the same time. How his genetic material became part of the equation is unclear. He may have come as himself to Mia after she was impregnated, or his minions may have added his sperm to the mix at the Fedic Dogan. This isn’t the first time he’s tried to father a child. Sylvia Pittston of Tull believed she was pregnant with the Crimson King’s son, though this might be another of Walter’s lies.

  His sigul is the open red eye, and the low men are his soldiers. He is seen in person only twice. Once in Insomnia, which may be more of a coded message than a “true” story, and when Roland arrives at the Dark Tower. He’s an old man with a snowy-white beard growing down to his chest, waist-length hair, a long, greedy, flushed face with deep creases, an enormous nose and burning red eyes. His red robe is covered with kabbalistic symbols, making him look like an insane Father Christmas.

  He’s a magical creature but in the end he relies on the weapons of the Old People. He’s no match for Patrick Danville, though, who has the power of uncreation. All that remains of him after Patrick is finished with his eraser is a pair of eyes with the optic nerves intact. The rest of him is banished to oblivion.

  According to the Marvel series, he is the son of Arthur Eld and one of the Great Old Ones of the Prim, which makes him Roland’s cousin (many times removed) and the rightful heir to All-World.