The Dark Tower Companion

by Bev Vincent

  HATTIGAN’S (4)

  One of six barrooms in Ritzy.

  HEMPHILL (4)

  A rural village forty wheels west of Gilead. Roland, in his guise as Will Dearborn, says that’s where he’s from when he’s in Mejis.

  HENDRICKSON (1, M)

  An In-World town. Minions of John Farson killed livestock there.

  HIDE CAMP (7)

  The camp where Susannah and Roland tan the hides of the deer they kill in Empathica.

  HIGH PURE (4.5)

  The foothills north of Debaria.

  HOOKEY’S STABLES AND FANCY LIVERY (4)

  The business in Hambry owned by Brian Hookey. He has a forge behind the hostelry where he makes horseshoes. The fact that the business is in such good repair makes Susan Delgado suspicious of Hookey’s allegiances.

  IL BOSQUE (4)

  A forest west of Mejis.

  INDRIE (4, M)

  Capital of the western Barony of Cressia. John Farson burned Indrie to the ground and slaughtered hundreds of its residents, including the governor of Cressia, the mayor of Indrie and the high sheriff, whose heads ended up on the wall guarding the town’s entrance.

  IN-WORLD (1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

  Also known as the Inner Baronies and the Great World. Roland considers New Canaan and Gilead to be the “most inner” of the Inner Baronies.

  IRONWOOD TRAIL (4.5)

  A narrow road that extends from Tree Road a short way into the Endless Forest, used by lumbermen who hew the great ironwood trees. Anyone foolish enough to wander off this road into the forest would be quickly lost in a maze of trees or killed by the dangerous creatures that live within.

  JERICHO HILL (1, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

  The site of the final battle between the survivors of Gilead and the remnants of John Farson’s army, blue-faced barbarians led by General Grissom, five hundred miles north of Mejis. At the base of the hill is a sloping field filled with statues of gray-black stone faces. To the east is the great body of water called the Salt, which farther to the south becomes the Clean Sea.

  JIMTOWN (3)

  A city forty wheels from River Crossing.

  KAMBERO (L)

  A western village.

  KASHMIN [KASHAMIN] (3, 4)

  A Barony known for producing fine Persian-like rugs. There’s one on the floor of Gabrielle Deschain’s quarters in Gilead.

  KING’S TOWN (1, M)

  A place Roland visited during the early days of his quest for the man in black. He left a girl there. In the Marvel comics it’s called Kingstown.

  KUNA (4.5)

  Location of oil fields that Roland knew of from pictures in a book as a boy.

  LAKE CAWN (4.5)

  Site of a great battle where Tim Ross received the name Tim Stoutheart.

  LAKE SARONI (4)

  A resort in the northern part of New Canaan with sandy beaches. Roland went there on vacation with his parents when he was very small, during happier times.

  LEXINGWORTH (L)

  A city near Eluria where convicted felons were taken to hang.

  LITTLE DEBARIA (4.5)

  A mining village in the foothills north of Debaria.

  LOW PURE (4.5)

  The foothill meadows north of Debaria below the salt houses.

  LUD (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)

  A great city located at the edge of the kingdom known as Mid-World on the Send River. Until the ka-tet reaches it, Roland believed it was mythic. It dates back to the days of the Great Old Ones, though much of the machinery has failed and no one knows how to operate anything that still works. The green glass from the Wizard’s Rainbow was supposed to be located here.

  Four or five generations earlier, it was heavily populated and reasonably civilized. The city dwellers were artisans and manufacturers and conducted brisk trade in the region. Bix, the ferry operator at the River Whye, remembers Lud as a marvelous city. Crumbling and growing strange, but still marvelous.

  A great civil war that erupted in the west centuries earlier spread into Mid-World. Trade faltered and travel became dangerous, so Lud turned itself into the last fortress-refuge of the latter world. Communications with the city ceased more than a century earlier. A war broke out between harriers—called Grays because they were older—and the people of Lud, who came to be known as Pubes. The residents used the weapons of the Great Old Ones to keep the harriers at bay, and the best and the brightest and people with usable skills from the region snuck past the outlaws to take up residence in the city. Every large park was turned into a garden to feed the city. A massive army of Grays led by David Quick attacked the city ninety years ago via a pontoon bridge. The descendants of these combatants continue to fight. Blaine the Mono poisons the remnants of both armies before leaving for Topeka. In America, it corresponds geographically to St. Louis but visually to New York City.

  Crossovers to Other Works: Lud is mention by Dorcas in Rose Madder. She tells Rosie McClendon that she has seen bodies on fire and heads impaled on poles along the city’s streets. In the coda to Song of Susannah, Stephen King ponders writing the novel and wonders whether it is Mid-World that Rosie falls into when she goes through the painting.

  LUDWEG (7)

  The city or town north of Lud that Jochabim comes from.

  MALL, THE (7)

  The park in the middle of Algul Siento.

  MAYOR’S HOUSE

  See Seafront.

  MEJIS (L, 1, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

  A Barony more than five hundred miles east of Gilead, with the Clean Sea on one side and a desert on the other. Its capital is Hambry. The two dominant industries here are fishing and horse breeding, but it is also the site of oil fields long thought to be dormant. When he was fourteen, Roland was sent here by his father to keep him out of harm’s way. Instead, he discovers that most of the big men in town are working for John Farson. He meets and falls in love with Susan Delgado, encounters the witch Rhea and discovers a part of Maerlyn’s Rainbow. The Barony has a Mexican flavor, both in the family names and in some of their language. King identifies it as an analog of Mexico in the coda of Song of Susannah.

  MID-WORLD (L, 1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

  Roland believed this was a fantasyland, but eventually reaches its borders. Following the Path of the Beam, it is defined by Lud on one end and Topeka on the other. Roland calls it one of the large kingdoms that dominated his world a long time ago, a place of hope, knowledge and light. Eventually, the term becomes synonymous with all of Roland’s universe, though technically it refers to only a specific region. Once the ka-tet reaches the Borderlands and Calla Bryn Sturgis, Roland believes he has left Mid-World.

  MILLBANK (4)

  A place to eat in Hambry.

  MOHAINE DESERT (1, 4.5, 7, M)

  A desert located a thousand wheels west of Gilead. The Western Line of the railroad used to run this far, but in the days before the fall of Gilead, the tracks were either destroyed by nature or taken over by outlaws.

  NA’AR (1, 4.5, 5, 7, M)

  The Mid-World equivalent to hell. Also known as coffah.

  NEW CANAAN (1, 4, 4.5, M)

  Gilead’s Barony, the innermost of the Inner Baronies.

  NIS (4.5, 5, 7)

  The land of sleep and dreams. Sometimes the word also refers to hell. It’s also the name of the Crimson King’s horse.

  NORTH FIELD (5)

  The place in Gilead where the gunslingers in training practiced archery.

  NORTH FOREST KINNOCK (4.5)

  Also known as the Northern Aerie. Once known as the Gateway of Out-World. Location of the low-security North Forest Kinnock Dogan, Outpost 9, in Bend Quadrant of the Endless Forest, on the edge of the Great Canyon. The Dogan is a round, metal-roofed building next to a tall tower made of metal girders with a red light blinking at the top. Though it has existed for a thousand years, according to Daria, the Dogan is offline, possibly because of magic. A starkblast destroys the tower but leaves the Dogan untouched.

  NORTHERN AERIE (4
.5)

  See North Forest Kinnock.

  NORTH’RD BARONY (4, 4.5)

  The section of Mid-World far north of New Canaan. Tree is located at the farthest edge of this Barony. It’s thousands of miles from Mejis, according to Susan Delgado. Said to be in flames because of John Farson.

  OAKLEY (4)

  One of the towns where Clay Reynolds and his gang tried to rob a bank a year after Roland left Hambry. Six of the ten people in his gang were shot dead by the sheriff and his deputies. Coral Thorin was among those killed. Clay Reynolds and the other three survivors were hanged.

  ODD LANE (Odd’s Lane) (7)

  A lane in Westring that intersects with Tower Road. Joe Collins lives about three-quarters of the way down the northeastern arm of the lane.

  OLD QUARTER (4)

  Part of Gilead where vendors sold their wares.

  ONNIE’S FORD (4)

  The rural farming community where Maria Tomas, the maid at Mayor House in Mejis, came from.

  OUR LADY OF SERENITY (5)

  Father Callahan’s church in Calla Bryn Sturgis. A low, simple log building with a cross over the door. It has narrow windows of plain glass and an ironwood cross at the front of the sanctuary, which consists of pews on either side of the main aisle. It has never been consecrated.

  OUTER ARC (L, 4)

  Also known as the Outers, the Outer Baronies and the Outer Crescent. The group of eastern Baronies that includes Mejis. Said to be less sophisticated than the Inner Arc, which includes Gilead. In addition to horse breeding and fishing, they were also the source of coffee for the Inner Baronies.

  OUT-WORLD (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 7)

  Territories far west of Gilead, domain of John Farson and other outlaws. Shardik originated from there. Sometimes used to refer to any Barony, like Mejis, that isn’t part of the Inner Baronies.

  PASS O’ THE RIVER (4)

  A town near Hambry.

  PENNILTON (4)

  A town in New Canaan. Alain Johns, in his guise as Richard Stockworth, says he’s from there.

  PLAZA OF THE CRADLE (3)

  A large city square in Lud. The Cradle of Lud, home to Blaine the Mono, sits in the middle.

  PLEASANTVILLE (7)

  The town built at the south end of Algul Siento for the benefit of the Breakers. It has one main street containing the Gem Theater, Henry Graham’s Drug Store & Soda Fountain, Clover Tavern, Pleasantville Bake Shoppe, Pleasantville Book Store, Pleasantville Shoes, Gay Paree Fashions, Hair Today, and other shops. Pleasantville Hardware Company is a front for Fire-Response Team Bravo.

  PORLA (3)

  A land beyond Garlan. The great civil war that reached Lud may have started here.

  PORTAL OF THE BEAR (3, 6)

  The beginning point for the Beam of the Bear. Home of Shardik. Located in the Great West Woods. Brooklyn is its analog in Eddie Dean’s world.

  PRICETOWN (1, 3, M)

  A town northwest of Tull. Roland bought a mule here while pursuing the man in black.

  RACEY’S CAFÉ (4.5)

  The better of two places to eat in Debaria.

  REDBIRD TWO (5)

  A garnet mine at the end of a spur from the arroyo that leads to the Gloria Mine outside Calla Bryn Sturgis.

  REDPATH (5)

  The village two hours north of Calla Bryn Sturgis where Henchick’s Manni clan lives. Known as Calla Redpath and Calla Manni. Former home of Margaret Eisenhart.

  RILEA (3, 4)

  The second stop on Blaine the Mono’s route from Lud.

  RIMROCKS (5, M)

  The site of one of the final battles before the fall of Gilead. Alain Johns reported that DeMullet’s column was ambushed and slaughtered there.

  RITZY (4, M)

  A miserable little mining village with one unpaved street, located on the eastern slope of the Vi Castis Mountains four hundred miles west of Mejis. It looks like an ugly lowered head between a pair of huge shrugged shoulders—the foothills. It has a mercantile store and a company store, a combined jailhouse and gathering hall and six bars. Roy Depape found out that the Affiliation Brats were possibly apprentice gunslingers here. It’s also where Eldred Jonas planned to rendezvous with Coral Thorin while they were taking the oil tankers west.

  RIVER BARONY (3)

  A Barony encompassing the region around the Send River, which includes Lud and River Crossing.

  RIVER CROSSING (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

  A town 160 wheels northwest of Lud and 40 wheels from Jimtown on the Great Road, and the last point of trade on the river before the great city. Nominally a part of the River Barony. Except on the outskirts, the town seems dusty but intact. A dozen rickety buildings stand on either side of the road. Led by Aunt Talitha Unwin, its residents are all ancient. It used to take six days to reach Lud by road from there, or three days by river.

  RIVER ROAD (3)

  A section of the Great Road that leads from Jimtown past River Crossing to Lud.

  ROCKING B RANCH (4)

  Ranch owned by Francis Lengyll in Mejis. It has a working Honda generator.

  ROCKING B RANCH (5)

  Ranch on the East Road in Calla Bryn Sturgis owned by Vaughn Eisenhart. Benjamin Slightman is the foreman.

  ROCKING H RANCH (4)

  A small ranch south of Hambry owned by Laslo Rimer. It has oxen.

  ROTUNDA (7)

  The part of the Fedic Dogan that contains multiple floors ringed with doorways to many different places and times. Nigel says that five hundred and ninety-five of these doors are currently operational. The place reminds Susannah both of the Cradle of Lud and Grand Central Station. The rotunda features prominently in the Discordia interactive game.

  SALLYWOOD (4.5)

  The southern limit of the railroad’s run from Debaria.

  SALT, THE (5, M)

  A large body of water east of Jericho Hill. The southern part is known as the Clean Sea.

  SALT ROCKS (4.5)

  The foothills north of Debaria.

  SALT VILLAGE (4.5)

  The makeshift community south of Little Debaria where the salt miners live.

  SEA ROAD (4, M)

  Also known as the Seacoast Road. It runs north from Mejis. Olive Thorin takes Susan Delgado on this road after she frees her because she is sure their pursuers will assume they went west toward Gilead.

  SEAFRONT (4)

  Also known as Mayor’s House. A sprawling, many-winged adobe hacienda, the residence of the mayor of Hambry. An adobe arch with the words “Come in Peace” forms the entrance to the estate and gives way to a cobblestone courtyard. Its reception hall is circular, with paneled walls decorated with bad paintings of previous mayors.

  SEND BRIDGE (3)

  The bridge that spans the Send River west of Lud. It reminds the New Yorkers of the George Washington Bridge. It is at least three-quarters of a mile long and may be a thousand years old. The bridge is supported by two four-hundred-foot cable towers at the center. The distance between the deck and the water is at least three hundred feet at the center. The steel used for the bridge came from the LaMerk Foundry.

  SEND RIVER (3, 4, 5)

  A major river that flows past Lud. It is approximately two miles wide. Lady Oriza’s castle, Waydon, was on the river.

  SEND RIVER NUCLEAR PLANT (3)

  A power station on the banks of the Send River in Lud.

  SERENITY (4.5)

  The retreat run by Prioress Everlynne, ten or twelve wheels from Debaria, where Gabrielle Deschain cloistered herself while Roland was in Mejis. It is a white hacienda the size of a Barony estate. The walls are topped with broken glass. Behind it is a grape arbor, a garden and a narrow creek. Steven Deschain thinks the place is run by black ammies (lesbians). In the Marvel series, the retreat is called Our Lady of the Rose and the sisters worship Gan, the god of the Dark Tower.

  SEVEN MILE FARM (5)

  Wayne Overholser’s ranch in Calla Bryn Sturgis.

  SEVEN MILE ORCHARD (4)

  A fruit orchard north of Hamb
ry.

  SHAPLEIGH HOUSE (4)

  Pimli Prentiss’s home at the Pleasantville end of the Mall in Algul Siento. A tidy Cape Cod painted electric blue with white trim, called Shit House by the Breakers. It has gingerbread scalloping around the eaves.

  SHAVÉD MOUNTAINS (4, M)

  Mountains northwest of Gilead where Farson plans to ambush the Affiliation using the machinery of the Great Old Ones.

  SILK RANCH ROAD (4, 5)

  A road that merges with the Great Road east of Hambry. Rhea brought Susan Delgado back to town on this road after her failed escape attempt with Olive Thorin.

  SON OF A BITCH (5)

  The northern field on Tian Jaffords’s farm, a thankless tract that grows rocks, blisters and busted hopes. For generations, the family has been trying to find something of value that will grow here other than devil-weed. It sits on “loose ground” and consists mostly of holes and rocks, plus one cave that puffs out fetid air. It’s too dangerous for a mule to plow, so Tian uses his roont sister Tia instead.

  SOUTH ISLANDS (1)

  A nearly forgotten region of Mid-World. Hax, the west kitchen’s cook, came from there.

  SOUTH PLAINS (7)

  The part of Mid-World that Chevin of Chayven once called home.

  SOUTH SEAS (5)

  The body of water at the end of the River Whye.

  SOUTHWEST EDGE (4)

  The region of Mid-World that John Farson is said to control when Roland is in Mejis.

  STAPE BROOK (4.5)

  A creek created by a clear spring between the Ross cottage and barn in Tree Village.

  STONE’S WARP (7)

  The deserted town where Joe Collins claims he woke up after being beaten in Cleveland. It looks like the set of a Western movie after all the actors have gone home.

  STREET OF THE TURTLE (3)

  One of Lud’s main roads. A large stone turtle guards its entrance and it ends at the Cradle of Lud.

  STUDY, THE (7)

  A long, high room in the center of Damli House in Algul Siento where the Breakers go, thirty-three at a time, to do their work. They are forbidden from using their psychic abilities outside this room. It is oak-paneled and rises three stories to a glass roof that lets the artificial sunlight in. The Breakers, who are mostly misfits and loners, feel in touch with themselves here.