by Robin Furth
See WARRIORS OF THE SCARLET EYE: DEVAR-TOI CHARACTERS: HUMANS
SOO LINES
Once upon a time, the Soo Line trains ran to the DEVAR-TOI. By the time our tet reaches THUNDERCLAP, the line no longer runs. However, one of their boxcars is still stalled on the tracks just southwest of the Devar’s fence. Roland, JAKE, and EDDIE hide behind this stalled car (as well as some of the others) while they are waiting to attack the Devar.
VII:340
SOOBIE
See TULL CHARACTERS: KENNERLY, JUBAL
SOPHIA (SISTER BLUE)
See DEAN, SUSANNAH: ODETTA HOLMES’S ASSOCIATES
SOUTH AMERICAN SEABEES
According to FRANK ARMITAGE, one of the humes who recruits BREAKERS to work in END-WORLD, back in 1946 a consortium of wealthy South American businessmen hired U.S. engineers, construction workers, and roughnecks to work for them. These workers were known as the South American Seabees. The consortium gave the North Americans four-year contracts. The workers were extremely well paid, but were not allowed to go home during their term of employment. Like the South American Seabees, Armitage explains, the workers that he hires also have to remain in their place of employment until their contracts expire. However, what this servant of the CRIMSON KING neglects to tell TED BRAUTIGAN and the other recruits is that their term of service in the DEVAR-TOI will not expire until the (literal) end of the world.
VII:284
SOUTH STAR
See GODS OF MID-WORLD: OLD MOTHER
SOYCHAK, MR.
See KING, STEPHEN
SPALTER
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
SPEAKING-RING DEMON
See DEMON ELEMENTALS
SPICS OF SUPREMACY
See DEAN, SUSANNAH: DETTA WALKER’S ASSOCIATES
SPIDERS, LORD OF THE
See CRIMSON KING
SPIER, JOHN T.
See KING, STEPHEN: FAN MAIL/HATE MAIL
SPINELLI, FRANK
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S HOME SHELTER ASSOCIATES
SPIRIT OF THE SNOW COUNTRY
See NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS
SPIRIT OF TOPEKA
See NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS
SPLINTER HARRY
See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS
SPOT HUNTER
See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS
STARKBLAST
A starkblast is a type of powerful, fast-moving storm which is unique to Mid-World. Its features include steep and sudden drops in temperature accompanied by strong winds. It has been known to cause great destruction and loss of life in civilized portions of the world. In primitive areas, entire tribes are often wiped out by it. When Roland was a boy, starkblasts used to come down on the GREAT WOODS north of NEW CANAAN once or twice a year, though luckily for the people living in GILEAD, the storms usually rose into the air and dispersed before reaching the city. Unfortunately, those living farther north were not so lucky. Roland remembers seeing cartloads of frozen bodies being drawn down GILEAD ROAD soon after a starkblast. He assumed that the corpses were those of farming families that didn’t have BILLY-BUMBLERS to warn them about the coming storm.
Most starkblasts originate in the northernmost reaches of Mid-World, where the snows never end and New Earth never comes. When warm southern air reaches that northerly clime, a great funnel begins to form. This funnel breathes like a lung, sucking up the frigid air from below, which in turn makes it swirl faster, creating a self-sustaining energy pump. Soon enough, this funnel-like storm finds the nearest PATH OF THE BEAM and begins to travel along it toward human habitations.
Days before a starkblast is due to blow, the weather becomes unseasonably warm. To those without bumblers to alert them to the approaching danger, it might seem pleasantly balmy. However, those with bumblers will begin to notice their furry companions’ strange behavior. First of all, the bumblers will sit very still, their noses lifted to the coming storm, their eyes bright and dreamy, and their little corkscrew-like tails tucked around their bodies. As the storm comes closer, the excited bumblers will begin to turn in circles. In fact, some (like JAKE’s pet bumbler OY) will become so mesmerized by the approaching storm that they will not seek shelter. (Luckily, Jake grabbed Oy and carried him into the safety of the GOOK Meetinghouse before the storm could freeze him and sweep him away.)
When the starkblast finally descends it hits full force. In less than an hour, the temperature falls as much as forty limbits below freezing. Ponds freeze in an instant, with a sound like bullets breaking window-panes. Birds turned to ice-statues and fall from the sky like rocks. Grass turned to glass. Yet the cold is only part of the horror. The winds of a starkblast are gale-force, snapping the frozen trees like straws. Such storms often roll for three hundred wheels before lifting off into the sky as suddenly as they came.
Strong winds, especially the winds of the starkblast, unify the three interlinked stories of The Wind Through the Keyhole. At the beginning of the novel, ROLAND, EDDIE, SUSANNAH, Jake, and Oy are traveling along the Path of the Beam toward CALLA BRYN STURGIS, completely unaware of the trouble about to beset them. Thanks to Oy’s strange behavior, and also the observations of the ancient WHYE ferryman BIX, Roland’s tet has enough forewarning to hide up in the MEETING HALL of a deserted village called Gook. They collect firewood and get a fire blazing just in time.
As the freezing winds rage outside of the building, Roland tells his tet a story from his youth. Just after the death of his mother, GABRIELLE DESCHAIN, Roland and his ka-mate, JAMIE DeCURRY, were sent to the town of DEBARIA to investigate murders committed by a shapeshifting monster known as a SKIN-MAN. While protecting the only living witness to one of the skin-man’s massacres—a young blond boy named BILL STREETER—the younger Roland also recounted a story. Serenaded by the winds of a simoom, Roland told Young Bill a tale called “The Wind Through the Keyhole,” which told the story of a boy named TIM ROSS. While on a quest to find the wizard MAERLYN, Young Tim was faced with the horrors of a starkblast.
W:4 (Oy’s behavior), W:5 (Oy), W:13–15, W:16, W:17–31 (storm is coming), W:46, W:67, W:68, W:166, W:173, W:220 (throcken), W:224–27 (throcken, Fagonard tribe), W:232–47, W:252, W:254, W:255, W:256–57, W:258, W:305–6
STAUNTON, ANDREW
A NEW YORK CITY foot patrolman. His partner is NORRIS WEAVER.
II:380–84, III:262 (indirect)
STEVENS, BELINDA
See PIPER SCHOOL CHARACTERS
STOCKWORTH, RICHARD
See JOHNS, ALAIN
STOKES, DUSTIN
See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS: STOKES, DUSTIN
STONEHAM, MAINE, CHARACTERS
See MAINE CHARACTERS
STOUTHEART, TIM
See ROSS, TIM
STRAW WILLEM
See TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS
STRAKER
See VAMPIRES: TYPE ONE: BARLOW, KURT
STRAW
See CAN-TOI
STREET ANGEL
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S HOME SHELTER ASSOCIATES: MAGRUDER, ROWAN
STREETER, BILL (COOKIE)
See SKIN-MAN: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS: JEFFERSON RANCH
STREETER, OLD BILL
See STREETER, YOUNG BILL
STREETER, YOUNG BILL (YOUNG BILL OF THE JEFFERSON)
Young Bill Streeter was the only witness to the massacre at the JEFFERSON RANCH, a crime committed by the shapeshifting SKIN-MAN whom Roland and JAMIE DeCURRY were trying to hunt down during their stay in the railhead town of DEBARIA. Roland and Jamie found Young Bill while following the skin-man’s bloody backtrail through the ranch. As the two young gunslingers stood outside an abandoned TACK SHED and hostelry, they heard moaning. They ran inside the shed, only to see a heap of old tack heaving up and down as if it were breathing. As they watched, the tangle of hames, bridles, cinch straps, and reins tumbled away to either side, birthing a terrified blue-eyed boy. The boy wore jeans and an old, unbuttoned shirt. His white-blond
hair stuck out in all directions. In a trembling voice, the lad asked whether the monster was gone. As soon as Roland assured him that it was, the boy passed out.
Before the skin-man’s killing spree, Young Bill (son of the ranch’s cook) had been the ranch’s bunkhouse boy. He’d been responsible for making bunks, coiling rope, cinching bedrolls, polishing saddles, and setting the gate at the end of the day after the horses were turned in. This was a lot of responsibility for a lad who was probably not yet eleven years old. Other than the psychopathic ranch foreman, ELROD NUTTER, who liked to pick on anyone smaller than himself, most of the proddies and pokies at the ranch were fond of Billy. TINY BRADDOCK taught him how to make a lasso, and Roscoe was teaching him the bow. If he’d survived, FREDDY TWO-STEP would have shown him how to brand. Sadly, the skin-man’s murders left Billy not only friendless but also orphaned. Bill’s da, COOKIE, numbered among the dead.
Under a willow tree which grew to one side of the Jefferson house, Roland, Jamie, and SHERIFF PEAVY questioned Bill about the night of the attack. Other than stating that he had been camping out beyond the corral, Billy could remember almost nothing. The sheriff thought that the boy’s mind had been scrubbed clean by shock, but Roland knew better. Since Roland, Jamie, and Peavy knew that the skin-man was most probably a salt miner—but one who could sit a horse—Roland sent his ka-mate and the sheriff to LITTLE DEBARIA to round up the SALTIES who could ride. Deputy KELLIN FRYE and Kellin’s son VIKKA went with them. To Vikka, Roland gave a very specific job. He was to spread the rumor that Young Bill Streeter had seen the skin-man in his human form. Roland hoped that this rumor would help to flush out the killer.
While the other lawmen and Vikka were occupied with their own job, Roland took Billy back to Debaria. On the way our gunslinger used the howken—or the play of a shell over his quickly moving fingers—to hypnotize Billy. While in this trance-state, Young Bill remembered the night of the murders in great detail. Since Elrod had gotten hold of a bottle and was bound to turn mean, Billy had taken his blanket and his shaddie so that he could sleep under the stars. Hours later he was awoken by screams, roars, and fighting sounds issuing from the bunkhouse. Running to the bunkhouse’s grease-paper window, he peered inside. Amid rivers of blood, he saw an enormous bear tearing off the arm of Elrod Nutter and hitting him with it before biting off the man’s head. Young Bill ran for the big house, but when sai Jefferson accidentally shot at him, Billy ran for the old hostelry and hid under the tack. Unaware of Young Bill’s presence, the beast—now in the form of a giant cat—entered the hostelry, where it soon transformed into a screaming human. From his hiding place, Bill saw the skin-man’s feet, and noticed that there was a blue ring tattooed around one of his ankles, and that the ring was broken by a white mark of some kind. (Roland did not realize the significance of this white mark until much later in the tale.)
After drawing forth memories from Young Bill’s deep mind, Roland took the lad back to the sheriff’s office in Debaria and put him in the lockup to keep him safe. He then visited Debaria’s smithy, where he requested the smith to forge a silver bullet for him—the only kind of bullet that could kill a skin-man. Returning to the JAIL, Roland joined Billy in Debaria’s drunk-and-disorderly cell. There, serenaded by the raging winds of a simoom and eating stew and candy, Roland told Young Bill the story of “The Wind Through the Keyhole,” and of the heroic young lad named TIM ROSS, also known as Tim Stoutheart. Like Young Bill, Tim Ross’s father had been murdered, and Tim was destined to identify his killer.
When Jamie DeCurry, Sheriff Peavy, Constable WILL WEGG, Deputy Frye, and Frye’s son Vikka returned from Little Debaria with all the salties who could ride, Roland took the men into the BUSTED LUCK saloon. After giving the miners a drink, he rounded up the ten tattoed salties who had done time in the BEELIE STOCKADE. These fellows he took back to the jail. As Young Bill (pretending to be Tim Stoutheart) waited in his protective cell, the salt miners lined up according to age and paraded past. At Young Bill’s request, the salties walked by a second time, but with their pants legs hiked up to show their ankles. At that point Bill recognized OLLIE ANG’s blue ankle ring, which was broken by a thick line of white scar tissue which ran all the way up to Ang’s knee.
What happened next transpired so quickly that neither Roland nor any of the others were able to prevent it. STEG LUKA, the oldest of the miners, grabbed Ang by the shoulders, spit in his face, and called him a murdering, skin-changing bastard. But even as Steg Luka attacked, Ang transformed into a giant snake, first ramming his body into Steg’s throat and out the back of his neck, and then battening down on Will Wegg’s arm, injecting him with deadly poison. As Billy screamed, the snake lunged at Roland, but before he could strike, our gunslinger shot his silver bullet into the creature’s yawning mouth. In death, the skin-man transformed once again into its human form.
At the end of the tale, we are told that the orphaned Billy Streeter would be cared for by the SISTERS OF SERENITY until he came of age.
W:79–83 (79 described; 81 bunkhouse boy), W:84, W:85, W:86, W:87–97, W:98, W:99–102, W:104–6, W:267–70, W:273, W:280 (indirect), W:281–82, W:283–94 (284 Tim Stoutheart), W:295, W:296
MILLIE (MULE): Millie the mule was Young Bill’s special friend. According to Billy, Millie was solid as a dromedary. When ROLAND took Young Bill back to the SHERIFF’S OFFICE and DEBARIA JAIL to keep him safe, the boy rode Millie. Bill’s feet came almost to the ground. W:87, W:88, W:98
STREETER, BILL (COOKIE): See SKIN-MAN: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS: JEFFERSON RANCH
STREETER, OLD BILL: Young Bill’s granther, or grandfather. He went into the Clearing two years before the story of the SKIN-MAN took place. W:80
STRONG, GARRETT
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: FARMERS (SMALLHOLD)
STROTHER
See DEBARIA CHARACTERS: SHERIFF’S OFFICE
STUFFY-GUYS
See MID-WORLD FOLKLORE
STUTTERING BILL
See NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS
SUCCUBUS
See DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS
SUCKERBATS
See DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS
SULLIVAN, JOHN (SULLY JOHN)
See BREAKERS: BRAUTIGAN, TED
SUNSHINE
See WIDOW SMACK
SURREY, DAVID
See PIPER SCHOOL
SUSAN
See DELGADO, SUSAN
SUSANNAH
See DEAN, SUSANNAH
SUSANNAH-MIO
See DEAN, SUSANNAH; see also MIA
SWEDISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS
See DEAN, SUSANNAH: SUSANNAH’S PRESENT ASSOCIATES: VAN WYCK, MATHIESSEN
SWORD OF ELD
See ELD, ARTHUR: EXCALIBUR
T
**TAHEEN
The taheen servants of the CRIMSON KING have the heads of either beasts or birds but the bodies of men. Although JAKE, CALLAHAN, and SUSANNAH see several of these bizarre creatures while in NEW YORK CITY’s DIXIE PIG, most of the taheen work in END-WORLD. (There, at least, they don’t have to pass for human.) Unlike the rat-headed CAN-TOI (or low men), the taheen do not hide their beaks and snouts behind humanoid masks, nor do they believe that they are becoming human. Consistent with their appearance, the voices of mammal-headed taheen sound like yelps and growls. Although the taheen can speak and reason, their brains must be drastically different from ours, since their thoughts cannot be read by the psychic BREAKERS. (Any psychic trying to prog one of these creatures will only hear white noise.)
According to Roland, the taheen arose from neither the PRIM nor the natural world, but rather from somewhere in between. They are sometimes called the third people, though we are never told exactly what this means. Those taheen employed as guards at the DEVAR-TOI tend to man the watchtowers, since they have sharper eyes than either their hume or can-toi comrades.
If you thought the CHILDREN OF RODERICK’s taste for snotty tissues was hard to stomach, you’ll find taheen delicacies even worse. If yo
u want to form an alliance with one of these creatures, offer him some pus. You’ll make a friend for life, since the taheen think that pus is as sweet as candy. Unfortunately, they can’t take advantage of the pimples and rashes that plague their human charges in THUNDERCLAP, since the dark land’s emanations poison all human body fluids. Taheen don’t get such blemishes themselves; however, those who work in the Devar do find that their skins tend to crack and ooze and their noses (or snouts) tend to bleed spontaneously.
The taheen are found in the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, but not the original version. In the new Gunslinger, Roland sees a taheen with a man’s body but a raven’s head wandering in the MOHAINE DESERT. According to the BORDER DWELLER BROWN, the taheen is searching for a place called ALGUL SIENTO.
V:26 (indirect), V:150, V:660, VII:25, VII:126, VII:129–30, VII:200, VII:201, VII:204, VII:207, VII:209, VII:221, VII:223, VII:224, VII:225, VII:226, VII:229, VII:230, VII:231, VII:235, VII:239, VII:241, VII:244, VII:269, VII:281, VII:289, VII:292–93, VII:300, VII:326, VII:337, VII:352, VII:356–82 (Devar-Toi battle), VII:392, VII:393, VII:394, VII:448, VII:554, VII:808
BEAR-HEADED TAHEEN: A taheen employed at the DEVAR-TOI. VII:381
BEAVER-HEADED TAHEEN: This taheen guards the DEVAR’s east watchtower. He’s shot by our ka-tet mate SUSANNAH DEAN. VII:350, VII:364
BIRDMEN TAHEEN:
CANARY/CANARYMAN/MEIMAN/TWEETY BIRD/WASEAU-TAHEEN: Meiman (who is called Canary by his friends, Canaryman by SUSANNAH DEAN, and Tweety Bird by JAKE CHAMBERS) has a feathered, dark yellow head, eyes like drops of liquid tar, and talon-hands. He is one of the first true taheen which Susannah Dean (and later Jake Chambers and PERE CALLAHAN) encounters in the DIXIE PIG.
Like the other true taheen, Canary does not wear a humanoid mask, even when he is in CALLA NEW YORK. However, he seems to like human clothing. When we encounter him in the Dixie Pig, Canary is wearing jeans and a plain white shirt, like any ordinary American.
Canary appears to be a fairly high-ranking WARRIOR OF THE SCARLET EYE. However, this does not prevent him from being mesmerized by the magical SCRIMSHAW TURTLE (or CAN-TAH) which Callahan uses to paralyze his enemies at the Pig. Unluckily for Jake and Callahan, Canary and his can-toi friends manage to break out of their paralysis. However, Callahan manages to shoot this nasty bird-man (as well as one of his can-toi accomplices) before turning his gun on himself. VI:366, VII:6–15, VII:26, VII:28, VII:104