by Bev Vincent
He acquired a number of war machines—tanks, lasers and robots—that belonged to the Old People and needs the oil produced in Mejis to power them for a surprise offensive against the Affiliation in the Shavéd Mountains northwest of Gilead. He is also in possession of the pink Bend o’ the Rainbow, which allows him to see the Affiliation’s plans in advance, giving him a strategic advantage. The gunslingers consider Farson “small cheese” and think him mad for putting his trust in the Old People’s machinery, because they are the way of death. Roland thinks the game is apt to be over before his father’s people consider him a serious threat.
Walter is his “underliner,” who emphasizes the importance of certain details with distant supporters. Farson’s sigul is the eye of the Crimson King. His troops clasp their hands to the chest, left above right, then hold out both to the person being greeted. His more subdued supporters point at the centers of their foreheads, as if at an invisible eye.
After the battle of Jericho Hill, Roland moved away from him. Farson wanted Roland’s head on a pole because he and his friends were responsible for the deaths of many of his people and because Roland stole the pink Bend o’ the Rainbow from him in Mejis. He was insane with rage, according to Roland. Though he is ultimately victorious against the Affiliation, nothing is known about what happens to him afterwards.
In the synopsis at the beginning of Wolves of the Calla, King implies that Marten is also John Farson, but he states that this is not the case in the interview found in this book.
FEEMALO (7)
The guise of Brass, one of Rando Thoughtful’s aides. He claims to represent Stephen King’s ego. Susannah calls him Goodmouth. Roland shot him.
FELDON, AMY (1)
A whore from Tull.
FIMALO (7)
The guise of Rando Thoughtful, the Crimson King’s Minister of State. He claims to represent Stephen King’s superego. Susannah calls him Referee King.
FLAGG, RANDALL (2, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
Another guise of Walter o’Dim, Marten Broadcloak and the man in black. The Dark Man or, rather, a demon pretending to be a man. Roland encountered him in the final years of Gilead when Flagg had been fleeing from Dennis and Thomas. Roland saw him change a man who had irritated him into a howling dog. He doesn’t laugh—he titters. He uses the name Richard Fannin when he comes to Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man, in Lud. He appears to the ka-tet in the Green Palace, where Roland recognizes him as Marten, and tries to convince them to cry off their quest. Mid-World guns don’t work against him—they only misfire. His initials are affixed to the message the ka-tet finds outside the Green Palace, and also to the note Tim Ross finds at the North Forest Kinnock Dogan (along with those of MB, Martin Broadcloak), which confirms him as being the Covenant Man.
Crossovers to Other Works: Flagg was chief adviser to King Roland of Delain in The Eyes of the Dragon. He is also the leader of the evil faction in Las Vegas in The Stand. He appears in various guises throughout King’s works, often as a character with the initials RF (Raymond Fiegler in Hearts in Atlantis, for example).
FORTUNA (4.5)
Real name: Annie Clay. A tiny woman, one of the sisters at the Serenity retreat in Debaria. She was attacked by the skin-man, who clawed off half her face.
FRANE, BOBBY (4.5)
One of the miners from Little Debaria who did time in Beelie Stockade.
FRANK (3, 5)
A member of the Pube faction in Lud. His frizzy red hair reminds Eddie of Ronald McDonald and Susannah of Clarabell the Clown. He is armed with a homemade spear. Eddie shoots him in the chest. Before he dies, upon learning that they are gunslingers, he cries their pardon.
FREEBORN, CHAS. (L, M)
A cattle thief in Eluria. He was to be tried on 12/Fe/99. However, the slow mutants probably killed him in his cell.
FRYE, KELLIN (4.5)
The good deputy in Debaria. His son is Vikka.
FRYE, VIKKA (4.5)
Son of Kellin, the best deputy in Debaria. Roland uses him to spread the news that there was a witness to the skin-man’s attack at the Jefferson Ranch.
FUMALO (7)
The guise of Compson, one of Rando Thoughtful’s aides. He claims to represent Stephen King’s id. Susannah calls him Badmouth. She shot him.
GAN (4.5, 6, 7, M)
The god of Mid-World and its creator. Gan the Maker and Evil-taker. The creative overforce, personified in the Dark Tower. He rose from the Prim and gave birth to the universe from his navel. The Manni say that “fin-Gan” (hile) was the first word, and it set the world spinning. Roland believes that he tipped the world with his finger, thus creating time. Gan denies the can toi, the Crimson King and Discordia. Writers and artists are prophets or singers of Gan. The Beam of the Elephant and the Wolf is called Gan’s Beam and Stephen King is its mortal Guardian. According to King, Gan is the creative overforce in Hindu mythology, served by a great turtle that bears the universe on its shell. The hands of Gan are the hands of ka, and they know no mercy.
GARBERS (4)
Former owners of the Bar K Ranch in Hambry. After it burned, they moved on.
GARMA (7)
A Child of Roderick who lives near Algul Siento. Haylis of Chayven’s friend (with benefits).
GASHER (GASHERMAN) (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)
One of Tick-Tock Man’s Grays. Dressed like a pirate: a yellow headscarf, hoop earrings and a white silk eye patch. His face is covered with sores and he’s dying of syphilis. His skull is bald, except for a few straggling tufts of black hair like porcupine quills, and deeply dented above the left temple. Talks in a thick accent. He takes Jake captive, using a hand grenade to keep the gunslingers at bay. Not smart enough to remember a simple password. He isn’t afraid of dying but is afraid of being humiliated, an observation Jake uses to his advantage. Killed by Roland. Eddie has a dream in which he is driving a bulldozer in the vacant lot in Manhattan.
GRAY DICK (5, M)
A famous outlaw prince who murdered Lord Grenfall, Lady Oriza’s father. She decapitated him with the first Oriza during what was supposed to be a reconciliation dinner at her castle by the River Send.
GRAYS (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
One of two factions that have been fighting in Lud for many years. So called because they were, on average, older than their adversaries. They were harriers led at one time by David Quick and later by Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man. They used some of the surviving technology in Lud to terrify their opponents, the Pubes, into killing themselves.
GREAT OLD ONES, AKA OLD PEOPLE (1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
Legendary people who aspired to be gods from the time before the world started moving on. The stories about them are unclear. There may have been Old People and Really Old People. When the world’s natural magic seemed to be receding, they panicked and replaced it with scientific analogs. They formed North Central Positronics to conduct experiments that wedded magic with science or replaced magic with science. This loss of faith in magic that might have supported the Tower forever created a system doomed to progressively deteriorate with time.
They built modern cities run by computers and even put a man on the moon. They have satellites in orbit around the Earth and constructed Dogans as experimental or monitoring stations. They built Asimov robots that resemble humans (these robots refer to them as “Makers”) to perform domestic duties. Almost everything they built has some form of artificial intelligence. Even the handcar Roland and Jake find beneath the mountain can talk.
They also built mechanical doorways so they could visit other worlds. Their preferred destinations often involved tragedies. This taste for violence is reflected in the weapons of war they built.
The end of their Imperium was a conflict called the Old War, the Great Fire, the Cataclysm or the Great Poisoning, though no one knows who they fought. It may have been a civil war or an accident involving their weapons that poisoned the world. Some say that the Old People went to other worlds after they left Mid-World.
They’ve been gon
e for at least two thousand years but their leavings are found everywhere. The Manni are said to be a sect of the Old People. Many relics are deadly, but the earthen pot Roland carries in his gunna for brewing tea is one of their artifacts and he believes the jawbone he found beneath the Way Station belonged to one of them.
Some of their Dogans are at least partly operational. The one Bix visited is radioactive. Some people believe Maerlyn turned evil after discovering some of their artifacts. John Farson used their war machines against the Affiliation after figuring out how to make them run.
The hieroglyphics on the Unfound Door are the scratchings of the Old People.
GRENFALL, LORD (5)
Lady Oriza’s father, the wiliest lord in the River Baronies. His castle Waydon was on the banks of the River Send. Gray Dick murdered him, but his daughter avenged him.
GRISSOM, GENERAL (5, M)
Leader of the horde of blue-faced barbarians who attack Roland and his friends at Jericho Hill. Either he or his son killed Jamie DeCurry.
GUNSLINGERS (THROUGHOUT)
Knights, squires, peacemakers and Barons. They make up an elite group, the Council of Eld, that is the political head of the Affiliation. Gunslingers are generally descendants of the line of Eld, though there are exceptions. Boys are trained in the arts of war until they feel prepared to challenge their teacher in hand-to-hand conflict. Those who fail are sent west into exile. They are skilled in diplomacy as well as in battle. In the time of Steven Deschain, their primary concern is the decline of the Dark Tower, which means they ignore some of the more imminent troubles, such as the fragile state of the Affiliation and the threat posed by John Farson.
When someone wants gunslingers to help him, he is asked three questions. 1) Will you open to us if we open to you? 2) Do you see us for what we are and accept what we do? 3) Do you seek aid and succor? A gunslinger never asks the final question until he knows what the answer will be. The gunslingers may take no reward for their services and the supplicant must not offer any. Once the gunslingers decide to act, after ascertaining that the supplicant is on the side of the White, the opinion of the supplicants no longer matters.
HABER (6, 7)
A low man with bulldog jowls, a heavy, sloping gut and curly gray hair. Part of the entourage that takes Mia from the Dixie Pig to the Fedic Dogan. Susannah considers him the most dangerous of the group.
HAGGERTY THE NAIL (4.5)
A carpenter in Tree Village.
HARRIERS (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
Outlaws and highwaymen.
HAVERTY, JOHN (4)
Olive Thorin’s father, a fisherman.
HAX (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, M)
Cook in the west kitchen in Gilead who is hanged after Roland and Cuthbert discover that he’s working for John Farson.
HAYCOX, LOUIS (5)
A smallhold farmer whose place is west of Tian Jaffords’s, near the edge of Calla Bryn Sturgis. Though he speaks passionately against Tian’s proposal during the first town meeting, he ultimately decides Tian is right and that he will stand and fight the Wolves.
HAYLIS OF CHAYVEN (7)
A Roderick who lives near Algul Siento. Dinky calls him Chucky because his chubby freckled cheeks and blue eyes remind him of the doll in the horror movie. Oy befriends him after Roland enlists his help in the battle of Algul Siento, getting him to plant sneetches to start fires in the dorms. Haylis regards Roland as a god. He’s smart enough to keep Finli o’Tego from being suspicious of his presence on campus.
HEADMAN AND TALLMAN (4.5)
Tim Ross’s nicknames for the tallest of the mutants who assist him in Fagonard Swamp. He is bald and toothless, and his legs are severely deformed. Tim believes he is the leader.
HEATH, ARTHUR (4, 7, M)
Cuthbert’s alias in Mejis. He is a stockline breeder’s son.
HEDRON (6)
One of the Manni of Calla Redpath.
HELMSMAN (4.5)
Tim Ross’s nickname for one of the mutants who assists him in Fagonard Swamp. He is the group’s best communicator. He wears a black silk top hat decorated with a red ribbon that trails down over one bare shoulder. Broad shouldered and sturdily built, with bright, intelligent eyes. Had he not grown up in the Fagonard, he might have been considered handsome.
HENCHICK (5, 6, 7)
Leader of the Manni Redpath clan. He discovered Father Callahan after the former priest came through the Unfound Door. He has three wives, though he can have relations with only one at a time, depending on the stars. His granddaughter, Margaret Eisenhart, is one of the forgetful who abandoned the Manni ways. His blue eyes have grown watery with age, and he has a waist-length thick, white beard that he tugs on when embarrassed. He is generally dour and appears to be eighty years old. Reverend Earl Harrigan is his twin. Roland believes Henchick will know the freed Breakers are telling the truth and stand up for them if they reach Calla Bryn Sturgis.
HENDRICKS, RODNEY (4)
The leader of one of George Latigo’s companies. Latigo considers him a good man. Killed by the thinny in Eyebolt Canyon.
HENRY THE TALL (4.5)
Steven Deschain’s father.
HODIAK (4.5)
The Barony buyer at the Tree Sawmill.
HODJI, WALTER (7)
Walter o’Dim’s name when he was in Garlan. The last name means both “dim” and “hood.”
HOLLIS, DAVE (4, M)
One of Sheriff Avery’s deputies in Mejis. Though only eighteen, he’s mostly bald with the remaining bits of hair slicked back with grease. When he’s nervous, he nibbles on the brass edging of the monocle hanging around his neck on a ribbon. He works as a server at the Mayor’s House on formal occasions. He’s not very smart, and no match for Eldred in a game of Castles, but thinks he will make a better sheriff when Avery retires. He has serious questions about what Roland and the others might or might not have done, but he dutifully goes for Susan Delgado’s gun when she breaks them out of jail. Susan, who grew up with him and kissed him once behind the door of the livery, shoots him in the chest.
HOLLIS, JUDY (4)
Wife to Deputy Dave Hollis of Mejis. Maiden name Wertner, which makes her related to Henry Wertner, the Barony’s stockliner. She makes white iced tea with honey—her mother’s recipe. She used to nag Dave about nibbling on his monocle but gave up, even though she was used to getting her own way.
HOOKEY, BRIAN (4)
Owner and operator of Hookey’s Stable and Fancy Livery. A blacksmith, he makes horseshoes in a forge behind his barn. One of Pat Delgado’s best friends. He also made wheels and rims for the oil tankers at Citgo, for which he was well paid, which accounts for the good upkeep on his business. A levelheaded man, he is put in charge of the team guarding Citgo after Eldred Jonas discovers Roland knows about it. Roland shoots him in the chest during their ambush of Eldred Jonas’s men.
HOOKEY, RUFUS (4)
Brian Hookey’s eldest son. He takes care of the livery when his father is guarding Citgo and spies on Susan for the Big Coffin Hunters.
HOOTERMAN “HOOTS” (3, 4, 5, 6)
One of Tick-Tock Man’s Grays. A tall, skinny man in a black suit whose face is covered with a rash. He gives Gasherman the password to the inner sanctum on a piece of paper. Shot in the back by Roland.
JAFFORDS, JAMIE (5, 7)
Tian Jaffords’s grandfather, known as Gran-pere. A toothless old man with flyaway hair and grizzled sideburns. He claims to be the oldest person in Calla Bryn Sturgis. He’s senile, but has his good days. He hasn’t spoken a civil word to Tian since Tian’s father, Luke, was killed digging a well in a spot chosen by Tian. He gets along well with Tian’s wife, Zalia, though. His twin, who was closer to the road, was taken while the two of them played jacks. When he was nineteen, he stood with three others against the Wolves and saw Molly Doolin kill one of them. He never told anyone else because Luke told him the story might make him a target for the Wolves. This information is vital in the ka-tet’s battle with the Wolves.
&nb
sp; JAFFORDS, LUKE (5)
Tian Jaffords’s father. He died when a well collapsed and buried him alive. Luke’s father, Jamie, is mad at Tian because he picked the spot to dig. Luke is the only person Jamie told about Molly Doolin killing one of the Wolves. Luke didn’t believe him and thought the story might make his father a target for the Wolves if it got around.
JAFFORDS, TIAN (5, 6)
A farmer from Calla Bryn Sturgis who is about thirty years old. After Andy tells him the Wolves are coming in a month, Tian decides to fight instead of allowing their children to be taken, standing up to the wealthier ranchers. He has three patches of land and is smarter than the average smallholder. He can read and write a little. He was nine when the Wolves came the last time, taking his sister Tia, whom he now uses as a burro to plow the rockiest of his fields. When Tian was seventeen, his father, Luke, died digging a well at a site Tian found with his dowsing rod. He and his wife, Zalia, have two sets of twins (Heddon and Hedda, ten years old; Lyman and Lia, five years old) and a rare singleton child (two-year-old Aaron). He and Eddie take care of Andy the Messenger Robot the night before the Wolves come.
JAFFORDS, ZALIA (5, 6)
Tian Jaffords’s wife, whom he calls Zee. Maiden name Hoonik. A tall, handsome woman as dark-skinned as Susannah. Her twin brother, Zalman, is one of the roont. She is the best thrower among the Sisters of Oriza. She gets along well with Tian’s father.
JAKLI (7)
A raven-headed taheen who works in the telemetry center in Damli House at Algul Siento. He dies on Main Street in Pleasantville.
JAVIER, BUCKY (5)
A smallholder with eighty acres in Calla Bryn Sturgis. His twin, Bully, was taken by the Wolves and died four years before the ka-tet arrives. He has bright little blue eyes in a small head that seems to slope back from his goateed chin. His wife, Annabelle, is put in charge of one of the wagons taking the twins out of town.
JAVIER, ROBERTA (5)
Bucky Javier’s younger sister. She and her twin brother were only a year old the last time the Wolves came, so they were passed over. Bucky gave her half his farm when she married.
JEEVES THE BUTLER (3, 4)