by Robin Furth
STOWE: VI:402
VIENNA
See AUSTRIA
VIETNAM
EDDIE DEAN’s bossy older brother, HENRY DEAN, fought in Vietnam. He returned home with a bad knee and a worse drug habit.
II:169, II:174, II:207, II:239, II:242, II:337–38, V:254, V:264, V:468, VI:136, VI:285, VI:407, VI:409, VII:173
W
WASHINGTON (STATE OF)
GRAND COULEE DAM: The Grand Coulee Dam is located on the Columbia River in central Washington. It is the largest concrete structure in the United States. VI:241, VI:242
SEATTLE: VI:241
WASHINGTON, D.C.
II:114, VII:116
GEORGETOWN: II:114
PENTAGON: VI:41
WATERFORD
See MAINE (STATE OF): OXFORD COUNTY
WATERVILLE
See MAINE (STATE OF): KENNEBEC COUNTY
WEST VIRGINIA (STATE OF)
V:302
ROUTE 19: V:302
WESTPORT
See CONNECTICUT (STATE OF)
WHITE MOUNTAINS
New England’s White Mountains, located in northern NEW HAMPSHIRE and southwestern MAINE, are part of the Appalachian system. The White Mountains of our world parallel the dry, poisoned mountains of the DISCORDIA in END-WORLD.
VI:397, VII:117
WICHITA
See KANSAS (STATE OF); see also ATCHISON, TOPEKA, AND SANTA FE RAILROAD
WILKES-BARRE
See PENNSYLVANIA (STATE OF)
WINDHAM
See MAINE (STATE OF): CUMBERLAND
WISCONSIN (STATE OF)
BELOIT: V:425, V:426, VII:183
FRENCH LANDING: French Landing, Wisconsin, is the setting for the KING/Straub novel Black House. Evidently, the nasty WALTER traveled there to get his “thinking cap.” Unfortunately for him, the thinking cap (so effective in the DEVAR-TOI) cannot keep baby MORDRED from spying on his thoughts. VII:183
GREEN BAY: V:102
WOOLWORTH’S
See also ALABAMA (STATE OF)
II:64
WORLD TRADE CENTER
See NEW YORK CITY: MANHATTAN
WYOMING (STATE OF)
IV:32
Y
YAZOO
See MISSISSIPPI (STATE OF)
YOSEMITE
See CALIFORNIA (STATE OF)
Z
ZABAR’S
See NEW YORK CITY: MANHATTAN
ZION
VI:319
PORTALS, MAGICAL PLACES, AND END-WORLD PLACES
Beyond the reach of human range
A drop of hell, a touch of strange . . .
Line from a Manni poem, I:127
All is silent in the halls of the dead. All is forgotten in the stone halls of the dead. Behold the stairways which stand in darkness; behold the rooms of ruin. These are the halls of the dead where the spiders spin and the great circuits fall quiet, one by one.
III:76–77
This is a place between . . . a place where shadows are canceled and time holds its breath.
VI:240
A
ABYSS
According to the Oxford English Reference Dictionary,26 the word abyss has several related meanings. They are: 1. A deep or seemingly bottomless chasm. 2a. An immeasurable depth (as in an abyss of despair). 2b. A catastrophic situation as contemplated or feared (his loss brought him a step nearer the abyss). And finally, when preceded by the word the (as in the abyss): 3. Primal chaos, or Hell.
In the Dark Tower series, all of these definitions apply. When Roland first touches the ghostwood box containing BLACK THIRTEEN, the voice of MAERLYN’s evil magic ball warns him that if he is not careful, his mind, body, and soul could all be swallowed by its dark magic. “Do you see how little it all matters?” it says. “How quickly and easily I can take it all away, should I choose to do so? Beware gunslinger! Beware shaman! The abyss is all around you. You float or fall into it at my whim.”
CASTLE DISCORDIA, which abuts the town of FEDIC, is also known as the Castle on the Abyss. The abyss for which it is named is actually a great crack in the earth, located just beyond its adjoining town. This abyss is filled with terrible monsters that cozen, diddle, and plot to escape. Although we cannot be completely certain, it seems likely that these creatures originated in the TODASH darkness located between worlds.
According to MID-WORLD folklore, GAN bore the world and then moved on. If the great TURTLE had not caught the plummeting universe on his back, all of the worlds would have landed in yet another version of the abyss.
Finally, in The Gunslinger, JAKE CHAMBERS died for the second time when his adopted father, Roland, let him fall into an abyss located below the CYCLOPEAN MOUNTAINS. While he fell, Jake uttered the famous phrase “There are other worlds than these.” In Jake’s case, perhaps the abyss turned out to be yet another DOORWAY BETWEEN WORLDS.
V:317, VI:105 (Castle on the Abyss), VI:295 (and Turtle), VI:299 (and Jake)
AFTERLIFE, PLANET
See PLANET AFTERLIFE
**ALGUL SIENTO
See DEVAR-TOI
ALL-A-GLOW
The All-A-Glow is the magical kingdom which children inhabit. As adults, we spend years trying to return to this place.
VII:23
ALLURE
See CASTLE DISCORDIA
ALTERNATIVE AMERICAS
See MULTIPLE AMERICAS, in OUR WORLD PLACES; see also ALTERNATIVE AMERICAS and MULTIPLE AMERICAS, in APPENDIX I
ARC 16 EXPERIMENTAL STATION (FEDIC DOGAN)
See DOGAN: FEDIC DOGAN
ARC 16 STAGING AREA
See DOGAN: FEDIC DOGAN
ATCHISON
See KANSAS, in OUR WORLD PLACES; see also ATCHISON, TOPEKA, AND SANTA FE RAILROAD, also in OUR WORLD PLACES
AVEN KAL
See APPENDIX I; see also BEAMS, PATH OF THE, below
AYJIP
According to the Book of the MANNI, when the Angel of Death passed over Ayjip, he killed the firstborn in every house where the blood of a sacrificial lamb hadn’t been daubed on the doorposts. The Book of the Manni sounds very much like the Bible, and this story, which the Manni recount in CALLA BRYN STURGIS’s TOWN GATHERING HALL, is similar to one found in the Book of Exodus. According to Exodus, God imposed ten plagues upon the Egyptians because Pharaoh would not release the Israelites from captivity. The smiting of the firstborn was the tenth of these plagues.
V:16
B
BADLANDS (CALLA BADLANDS)
See CALLA BADLANDS
BADLANDS (THE BADS)
See DISCORDIA
BADLANDS AVENUE
See DISCORDIA: BADLANDS AVENUE
BANQUETING HALL, THE
See CASTLE DISCORDIA
BEACH DOORS
See DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS
BEAM, GARDEN OF THE
See LOT, THE: GARDEN OF THE BEAM
BEAM PORTALS
See BEAMS, PATH OF THE, and PORTALS OF THE BEAM, below
BEAMQUAKE
See BEAMS, PATH OF THE
**BEAMS, PATH OF THE (BEAM PORTALS, BEAMQUAKE)
In The Waste Lands, Roland draws a metaphysical map of his world. According to this map, MID-WORLD is shaped like a wheel. At the hub of this Earth-wheel sits the DARK TOWER, the linchpin of the time/space continuum. The spokes radiating out from this hub are BEAMS. Each end of a Beam terminates in a PORTAL, which is a doorway leading into, and out of, Mid-World. The twelve Portals are watched over by twelve animal GUARDIANS.
The six Beams, which connect opposite Portals and which pass through the nexus of the Dark Tower, are like invisible high-tension wires. Their energy can be felt by those who pass close to them, and their stream-like paths can be detected in the movement of nearby clouds. As well as affecting gravity and the proper alignment of time, space, size, and dimension, the Beams hold the Dark Tower in place. Their purpose is to bind the multiverse together while simultaneously holding the separate worlds—which spin upon the Tower like sequins upo
n a needle—apart. As the Beams break down, and as the Tower becomes unstable, the effects are felt in all worlds. The coherence of the time/space/size continuum weakens and THINNIES appear.
Although the Beams may not be visible in all worlds, they affect all of them. In The Waste Lands, JAKE follows the path of the Beam to the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND and later to the DUTCH HILL MANSION. While Jake follows the Beam in his version of Earth, Roland, EDDIE, and SUSANNAH follow the same Beam from its origin at SHARDIK’S LAIR through the GREAT WEST WOODS and finally on to the GREAT ROAD, which leads southeast toward the decaying and dangerous city of LUD. Along the Path of the Beam, Roland, Susannah, and Eddie use a magical SPEAKING RING—one of the places where the divisions between worlds are thin—to draw Jake into their where and when. Perhaps the fact that they are on the path of the BEAR-TURTLE Beam makes this drawing easier. In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, Roland follows WALTER (the MAN IN BLACK) southeast. Both of them are drawn in the direction of the Bear-Turtle Beam.
In Wolves of the Calla, Roland and his tet discover just how far the crazed CRIMSON KING has progressed in his desire to destroy both the Beams and the Tower. For approximately 140 years, the servants of the Red King have been sending robotic WOLF-masked horse-riders into Mid-World’s BORDERLANDS to steal one of every pair of prepubescent twins born there. From the brains of these innocent victims, the workers in the FEDIC DOGAN withdraw the chemical which causes twin-telepathy. This chemical is then fed to the psychic BREAKERS, whose wild talents are being used to erode the Beams.
Although Roland has experienced only two Beamquakes in his life (Beamquakes are similar to earthquakes, but are caused by the snapping of a Beam), many more must have taken place over the centuries. By the time our tet reaches the DEVAR-TOI, the Beams guarded by RAT and FISH, BAT and HARE, EAGLE and LION, and DOG and HORSE have all collapsed. The only two Beams left to hold the Tower in place are our tet’s Beam (the Bear-Turtle) and GAN’s Beam (the ELEPHANT-WOLF). These two remaining Beams are in place, but they are not healthy, as the wounded and disfigured BEAM BOY can attest. Luckily, Roland and his tet manage to destroy the Devar-Toi and stop the terrible erosion of the macroverse’s framework before the whole thing comes crashing down. We readers are also assured that the future of the Tower is secure. Either the collapsed Beams will regenerate, or the two existing Beams will generate more Beams to support the macroverse’s linchpin.
In the seventh book of the Dark Tower series, we learn that Tower, Beams, and the red ROSES of CAN’-KA NO REY (the Red Fields of None in which the Tower sits) are all part of one living force field. The song and perfume of the Roses feed the Beams, and the Beams, in turn, feed the Roses. Both Roses and Beams spin out from Gan, the living body of the Dark Tower. As Roland approaches his life’s goal, he sees two jutting steel posts atop the Tower. The Beams emanate from these posts.
In the novel The Wind Through the Keyhole, TIM ROSS follows the LION-EAGLE BEAM from the ENDLESS FOREST to the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN. This is the same Beam that passes near GILEAD. In Wind Through the Keyhole we learn that STARKBLASTS like to follow the Beam Paths. (For information about the AVEN KAL, or tidal wave along the Beam, See APPENDIX I.)
III:39, III:73–77, III:80–86, III:122, III:130, III:149–52, III:155, III:158–65 (following the Beam. Direct references on 158, 164), III:166, III:170–76, III:178–82, III:191, III:194, III:219–32 (following. Directly mentioned on 232), III:238, III:243, III:253–70 (following the Beam. Directly mentioned on 262, 264, 266, 269), III:273–301 (leave the Beam. Directly mentioned on 285), III:309 (Street of the Turtle corresponds to Beam), III:310–12, III:331, III:337 (Grays tunnel follows it), III:349, III:350, III:400–420 (Blaine follows path of the Beam. Directly mentioned on 404), IV:3–61 (Blaine follows path of the Beam. Directly mentioned on 14, 34 electricity at Falls of the Hounds, 49), IV:62–78 (ka-tet follows Beam through Topeka. Directly mentioned on 72), IV:79 (ka-tet falls off the Beam), IV:96, IV:659–68, V:8, V:29, V:31, V:36, V:37–47 (following; 38 near it but not on it, 39), V:72, V:93, V:97, V:99, V:101–69 (on or near Path; directly mentioned on 101, 110, 121–22, 126, 129, 160), V:183, V:192 (indirect), V:193, V:539, V:562, V:563, V:604, V:638, V:660, V:661, VI:3, VI:12–18 (Beamquake; 14 Beam portals; 16 fish and rat), VI:21, VI:33, VI:40, VI:83, VI:108, VI:109–144 (discussed), VI:117, VI:118, VI:148, VI:211, VI:265–303 (heart of the Beam; 265, barrel of the Beam and King’s house), VI:318, VI:319, VI:336, VI:353, VI:359, VI:394, VII:17, VII:20–28 (aven kal—Beamquake; 21 Bear-Turtle Beam; 22 voice of the Beam), VII:32 (Beamquake), VII:33, VII:34, VII:40, VII:77, VII:92, VII:117, VII:121, VII:148, VII:150 (Beamquake), VII:188 (Beamquake), VII:195 (Shardik’s portal), VII:208, VII:212, VII:214, VII:232 (Bear-Turtle, Eagle-Lion, Wolf-Elephant), VII:234, VII:237, VII:244 (Shardik/Maturin), VII:251, VII:272 (Bear-Turtle), VII:291 (Bear-Turtle), VII:292 (Wolf-Elephant), VII:295 (Bear-Turtle is Shardik’s Beam; Elephant-Wolf is Gan’s Beam), VII:296, VII:297, VII:300, VII:301 (Shardik’s/Gan’s), VII:304, VII:305, VII:306 (Gan, Shardik), VII:317, VII:330, VII:333–36 (Beam Boy), VII:360, VII:378, VII:381, VII:387–88 (Gan’s), VII:389, VII:391, VII:392, VII:401, VII:406, VII:409 (Bear/Turtle), VII:428 (Beamquake), VII:438, VII:442, VII:455, VII:458, VII:476, VII:477, VII:505, VII:506, VII:518 (Beamquake), VII:551 (following it toward place of Turtle), VII:574, VII:577–803 (Roland and his companions follow the Beam through the badlands, the White Lands of Empathica, and all the way to the Tower. Page numbers that follow are for direct references), VII:582, VII:587, VII:592, VII:593, VII:594, VII:606, VII:609, VII:610, VII:617, VII:620, VII:624, VII:647, VII:658, VII:661, VII:663, VII:670, VII:691, VII:705, VII:706, VII:757, VII:780, VII:782, VII:786, VII:813, VII:819, VII:825, W:3–17 (Roland and his tet follow), W:23–24 (and starkblast), W:220, W:221–55, W:307
BERMUDA TRIANGLE
EDDIE thinks that DAVID QUICK’s Nazi airplane arrived from our world via a time/space warp similar to the Bermuda Triangle. Eddie calls this huge doorway between worlds the Roland Zone. The THINNIES, found in both the alternative KANSAS where BLAINE terminates and in the HAMBRY of Roland’s youth, also make Eddie think of the Bermuda Triangle. As is purported to happen in the Triangle, people, animals, and machinery can disappear into a thinny and never be seen again.
III:275, IV:86
BLACK THIRTEEN
See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW, in CHARACTERS
BLUE HEAVEN
See DEVAR-TOI
BLUETOWN
See DEVAR-TOI
BOG
See MID-FOREST (MID-FOREST BOG), in MID-WORLD PLACES
BOOM-FLURRY HILL
See EASTERN PLAIN (CALLA BADLANDS)
BREAKER U
See DEVAR-TOI
BRIDGE OVER THE ABYSS
See CASTLE DISCORDIA and FEDIC
C
CALLA BADLANDS (EASTERN PLAIN)
Located east of the RIVER WHYE, the dry wastes of the Eastern Plain form a border zone between CALLA BRYN STURGIS and THUNDERCLAP. The CALLA DOGAN is situated here. Although the Calla folken maintain that they could once see mountains beyond the Eastern Plain, by the time our tet reaches the BORDERLANDS, all that is visible beyond the plain is a vast darkness. The train which returns ROONT children must cross this desert land before it reaches the banks of the Whye.
V:149, V:153 (plains), V:207, V:386, V:445, V:574 (region leading to Thunderclap), VI:72
BOOM-FLURRY HILL: The giant, carnivorous, cactus-like BOOM-FLURRY guard this wrecked section of the EAST ROAD, which leads from the RIVER WHYE to the CALLA DOGAN. V:561–62, V:567–68, V:571, V:577
CALLA DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS NORTHEAST CORRIDOR ARC QUADRANT OUTPOST 16): See DOGAN, THE, listed separately
DEVIL’S CAUSEWAY: The Devil’s Causeway is the train bridge which crosses the RIVER WHYE. The CALLA’s ROONT children cross it in flatcars once they are released from THUNDERCLAP. V:562
CALLA DOGAN
See DOGAN: CALLA DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS NORTHEAST CORRIDOR ARC QUADRANT OUTPOST 16)
/> CAN CALYX
See DARK TOWER
CAN STEEK-TETE
See DEVAR-TOI: STEEK-TETE
CANDY HOUSE
See GINGERBREAD HOUSE
CAN’-KA NO REY
See DARK TOWER
CANNIBAL ISLES
According to EDDIE DEAN, the people of the BORDERLANDS are so civilized that they make the city of LUD, with its warring GRAYS and PUBES, look like the Cannibal Isles in a boy’s sea story.
V:135
CARA LAUGHS
See DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS
CASSE ROI RUSSE (LE CASSE ROI RUSSE, LE CASSE ROI ROUGE, COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, FORGE OF THE KING, RED KING’S CASTLE, CASTLE OF THE KING)
According to the old legends, the CRIMSON KING’s castle is called Le Casse Roi Russe. When SUSANNAH DEAN first sees its pulsing crimson glow from the ALLURE of CASTLE DISCORDIA, MIA tells her not to stare at the Forge of the King, since the Lord of Discordia can fascinate, even at a distance.
By the time Susannah, OY, and Roland reach its cobbled forecourt, the forge has been extinguished and the Red King has galloped toward the DARK TOWER, but the castle is not completely deserted. Left to greet the remaining members of our tet is an UFFI, or shape-shifter, who has split himself into three and taken on the form of our kas-ka Gan, STEPHEN KING (albeit in triplicate). In the end, this false uffi proves not to be a shape-shifter at all, but three servants of the Red King (AUSTIN CORNWELL, BRASS, and COMPTON) disguised by glammer.
The Crimson King’s wide cobbled forecourt is painted with the king’s sigul, a staring crimson eye, and is guarded by two deserted watchtowers. Before this outer courtyard is an unpleasant-smelling river (which serves as a moat), and beyond the moat, an inner courtyard. Beyond the courtyard, the castle rises in a jumble of towers, turrets, and walkways, which remind Susannah of turnpike entrances and exits. However, the center of the castle, from which this mind-boggling architecture sprouts, is quite plain, its only decoration being the staring eye carved into the keystone of the main entrance’s arch.
As its name suggests, Le Casse Roi Russe is built of deep red stone, which, over the years, has darkened to near black. The sills of its oddly narrow windows are haunted by castle rooks (birds known to feed from bodies of hanged men). Crossing the castle’s yellow-foamed moat-river is a humped stone bridge. Here, the false uffis await our friends, and it is here that two of them die under Roland and Susannah’s guns.