by Robin Furth
VII:76
DEVAR-TETE
See DOGAN: FEDIC DOGAN
**DEVAR-TOI (ALGUL SIENTO, BLUE HEAVEN, PLEASANTVILLE, BREAKER U, ELMVILLE, THUNDERCLAP STATION)
In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, we see a TAHEEN bird-man in the MOHAINE DESERT. According to the BORDER DWELLER named BROWN, he is looking for a place called Algul Siento. In the final book of the Dark Tower series we find out that Algul Siento means Blue Heaven, but that Blue Heaven’s other name is the Devar-Toi, or Big Prison. The Devar-Toi (whose other translation means BREAKER prison) is located in the desert wastes of THUNDERCLAP, the first, sunless region of END-WORLD. It lies on the SHARDIK/MATURIN BEAM and is six miles from Thunderclap Station.
To anyone looking down upon its cheerful blue roofs from the nearby butte, STEEK-TETE, the Devar-Toi looks like a delightful slice of Americana set amid the dry, dead lands of End-World. Half of the Devar is modeled upon a quiet American college campus, and the other half resembles the Main Street of an old-fashioned Midwestern town, complete with a local movie theater and a drugstore/soda fountain.
However, despite its idyllic appearance, the Devar-Toi is a horrible place. Its ground and air are poisonous, a lingering toxicity left over from the deadly gas set off by the mad CRIMSON KING generations before. All who live here—hume, taheen, or CAN-TOI—suffer from skin irritations, frequent infections, and general bad health. Since Thunderclap itself has no real sunlight (a permanent darkness left over from the mad king’s gas), the daylight which illuminates the compound is artificially generated by an electric (or perhaps atomic) sun. Like everything else in MID-WORLD and End-World, the machinery that runs this false sun is wearing down, hence days usually last more than twenty-four hours and are often disrupted by moments of complete darkness, like a foretaste of the Void.
True to its real name, the Devar-Toi is a prison, not a holiday camp. It employs 180 full-time personnel, all of whom serve the Crimson King and his ultimate goal of destroying the macroverse. Surrounding the campus and town are three runs of electric fence (guarded by humes) and six watchtowers (guarded by armed taheen). Both campus and Main Street are watched over by wandering can-toi guards, known as floaters.
The purpose of the Devar-Toi is to house (and cage) the psychic Breakers, whose powers are enhanced by the twin-telepathy chemicals culled from the brains of the BORDERLANDS’ prepubescent children. Whether they want to or not, the Breakers are forced to use their powerful minds to weaken the BEAMS, which hold the DARK TOWER in place. Unfortunately, few of the Breakers have the moral integrity needed to stand up against their captors’ desires. Most are in complete denial, but even those who suspect what they are doing are unwilling to rock the proverbial boat. The food is good, the sim sex is excellent, and most of them were outcasts in the hume world anyway, so why should they care if the universe ends in fire or in ice? However, luckily for our tet, a few of the Breakers (including TED BRAUTIGAN, DINKY EARNSHAW, and SHEEMIE RUIZ) find the job they do morally reprehensible. They help Roland and his friends destroy the Devar, saving the Tower, and the macroverse, from almost certain annihilation.
V:573, VII:151, VII:152, VII:153, VII:178, VII:181, VII:207–16, VII:221–46, VII:250, VII:254–59 (map), VII:261, VII:266, VII:272, VII:292–302, VII:309, VII:312, VII:323, VII:325 (indirect), VII:326, VII:329, VII:331, VII:340–42, VII:343–416, VII:421, VII:455, VII:535 (Blue Heaven), VII:559, VII:560, VII:606 (Algul), VII:627 (algul), VII:629 (dorms)
BREAKER U: The section of the Devar that resembles a college campus. The BREAKERS’ luxurious accommodations are located here, as are the INFIRMARY and the all-important STUDY. VII:209, VII:257
CORBETT HALL (DORMS, PROCTOR’S SUITE): Corbett Hall is one of the Breaker dorms. (SHEEMIE lives here.) After he is fatally wounded, EDDIE DEAN is brought to Corbett’s Proctor’s Suite. He dies here. VII:267, VII:366, VII:378, VII:387, VII:394, VII:395, VII:396, VII:399, VII:400–404, VII:408–16, VII:411–14
PROCTOR’S SUITE: EDDIE DEAN dies here. VII:394, VII:395–97, VII:400, VII:401–404, VII:408–10
DAMLI HOUSE (HEARTBREAK HOUSE): This large Queen Anne–style house is home to both the CAN-TOI and TAHEEN guards. It also contains the STUDY, the INFIRMARY, and the CAFETERIA. All of the Devar’s deep telemetry equipment (which measures psychic activity, among other things) is located here. On Roland’s instructions, HAYLIS OF CHAYVEN (a CHILD OF RODERICK) plants two sneetches in Damli. VII:201, VII:209, VII:230, VII:231, VII:232, VII:233, VII:234, VII:235–45, VII:256–57, VII:258, VII:293, VII:300, VII:345, VII:347, VII:349, VII:356–57, VII:358, VII:359, VII:361, VII:362, VII:363 (indirect), VII:366, VII:367–68, VII:370, VII:371, VII:372, VII:373, VII:374, VII:375, VII:389, VII:395, VII:414, VII:577
INFIRMARY: The infirmary is located on the third floor of Damli and is overseen by the much feared DR. GANGLI. V:367–68
THE STUDY: This plush room, which looks much like a richly endowed Victorian gentlemen’s club, is located in the center of Damli House. It is a long, high, oak-paneled room decorated with Turkish rugs, Tiffany lamps, and expensive art. Through its glass ceiling, the BREAKERS can see THUNDERCLAP’s false sun.
Any guard in a bad mood will jump at the chance to take a stroll onto the Study’s third-floor balcony. Watching the Breakers work in their sumptuous room is pleasurable. However, this pleasure doesn’t arise from the beauty of the room itself but from the “good mind” vibe which the Breakers exude while they’re working. VII:236, VII:239, VII:241–45, VII:272, VII:290, VII:291, VII:295, VII:337, VII:343, VII:353, VII:357, VII:359–61, VII:364
FEVERAL HALL: This Breaker dorm is located directly behind DAMLI HOUSE. Roland instructs HAYLIS OF CHAYVEN, a CHILD OF RODERICK, to plant a sneetch here. VII:349, VII:356, VII:357–58, VII:359, VII:362, VII:371, VII:389
MALL: The Mall is the large green lawn located at the center of the campus section of the Devar-Toi. DAMLI HOUSE and SHAPLEIGH HOUSE both overlook the Mall. VII:224, VII:230–34, VII:236, VII:241, VII:245, VII:343, VII:352, VII:358, VII:371, VII:372, VII:393, VII:400, VII:404–8, VII:411, VII:414, VII:416–17
SHAPLEIGH HOUSE (DEVAR MASTER’S HOUSE, WARDEN’S HOUSE, SHIT HOUSE): This tidy Cape Cod belongs to PIMLI PRENTISS and sits on the opposite side of the MALL from DAMLI. The BREAKERS call it SHIT HOUSE. HAYLIS OF CHAYVEN plants the last of his sneetches in Shapleigh. VII:221–30, VII:245–46, VII:256, VII:258, VII:299, VII:343–49, VII:352–55, VII:358, VII:361, VII:371, VII:377, VII:389, VII:400
PLEASANTVILLE (ELMVILLE): Pleasantville (which our tet originally calls Elmville) is the town section of the Devar-Toi. It looks like an old-fashioned Main Street taken from small-town-anywhere, USA. VII:209, VII:255, VII:257, VII:293, VII:299, VII:310–11, VII:327, VII:351, VII:362, VII:363, VII:381, VII:387, VII:399, VII:491
CLOVER TAVERN: Located at the end of Main Street in Pleasantville. After the Devar’s final battle (and after EDDIE DEAN is mortally wounded), JAKE CHAMBERS waits here until it is time for him to go to Eddie’s deathbed. VII:387–99 (Jake waits here for Roland’s call; his flashback happens here)
GAY PAREE FASHIONS: VII:370, VII:380
GEM THEATER: VII:210, VII:272, VII:293, VII:370, VII:382
HAIR TODAY: VII:370, VII:381
HENRY GRAHAM’S DRUG STORE AND SODA FOUNTAIN: VII:272, VII:369
MAIN STREET: VII:208, VII:293, VII:299, VII:327, VII:352, VII:369, VII:374, VII:378, VII:379, VII:380, VII:382, VII:387, VII:391
PLEASANTVILLE BAKESHOP: VII:378, VII:380
PLEASANTVILLE BOOKSTORE: VII:369
PLEASANTVILLE HARDWARE: This shop also contains Pleasantville’s robotic firemen. VII:363, VII:369
PLEASANTVILLE SHOES: VII:370, VII:380
STORAGE SHEDS: These empty sheds are located north of the Devar, just beyond the electric fence. SUSANNAH hides behind them at the beginning of our ka-tet’s attack upon the Breaker prison. V:341, V:349
ROD VILLAGE: The CHILDREN OF RODERICK live in this small, dirty village located about two miles beyond THUNDERCLAP STATION. The Rods do grounds
work at the Devar. VII:216
STEEK-TETE (CAN STEKE-TETE): In English, Can Steek-Tete means “The Little Needle.” Steek-Tete is a butte located about six or eight miles from THUNDERCLAP STATION. While planning their attack on the Devar-Toi, Roland’s ka-tet stays in one of the butte’s many caves. This hideout was prepared for them by TED BRAUTIGAN and his comrades. VII:203–20 (setting), VII:247–342 (setting; our ka-tet listens to Ted’s tapes here)
THUNDERCLAP STATION: Thunderclap’s deserted train station, located approximately six miles from the Devar-Toi, is a green-roofed structure adjacent to a huge, glass-roofed switching yard. Although we do not actually see Thunderclap Station until the final book of the Dark Tower series, it is an ominous, unseen presence as early as Wolves of the Calla.
To reach the CALLAS of the BORDERLANDS, the robotic, child-stealing WOLVES travel through a MECHANICAL DOORWAY (located beneath the FEDIC DOGAN) and come out in Thunderclap Station. It is from here that they gallop toward the Callas on their child-stealing mission. After they are made ROONT in the Fedic Dogan’s EXTRACTION ROOM, the Callas’ ruined children pass through this same door so that they can be loaded onto one of Thunderclap Station’s remaining flatcars. This train returns the children to the borderlands so that they can live out the remainders of their brief (and painful) shadow-lives. VII:151, VII:152, VII:153, VII:200–205, VII:206, VII:207, VII:208, VII:213, VII:214, VII:215, VII:221–22, VII:225–26, VII:261, VII:288, VII:297, VII:300, VII:411, VII:531
DEVIL’S ARSE
See FEDIC
DISCORDIA, THE (BADLANDS, THE BADS, NOWHERE LANDS)
The Discordia badlands, located deep in END-WORLD, lie between the southeastern side of CASTLE DISCORDIA and the northwestern edge of the WHITE LANDS OF EMPATHICA. When SUSANNAH DEAN first sees the broken rocks and gaping crevices of the Discordia from Castle Discordia’s ALLURE, she thinks it is the most forbidding landscape she has ever seen. Unfortunately for her, she and her dinh, Roland, are destined to travel through these poisoned lands on their way to LE CASSE ROI RUSSE, castle of the CRIMSON KING. According to Roland, the badlands were poisoned by the Crimson King himself.
The dead, needle-like mountains of the Discordia are the twinners of our world’s beautiful WHITE MOUNTAINS. Interestingly, the term Greater Discordia is sometimes used for the PRIM, the magical, chaotic soup from which all life arose.
VI:93, VI:95, VI:98, VI:101–18 (near castle), VI:219, VI:221, VI:222, VI:229, VI:232, VI:234, VI:244, VI:254, VI:290, VI:291, VI:294 (and Dis), VI:295 (and Dis), VI:318, VI:352, VI:353, VI:354, VI:357, VI:374, VI:384, VI:408, VI:409, VII:51, VII:52, VII:76, VII:96, VII:97, VII:127, VII:144, VII:150, VII:223 (lands beyond Fedic), VII:246, VII:259, VII:300, VII:303, VII:378, VII:406, VII:411, VII:533, VII:539, VII:554, VII:577, VII:580–627 (Badlands Avenue; 588, Nowhere Lands), VII:644, VII:658, VII:670, VII:677, VII:709, VII:710, VII:746
BADLANDS AVENUE (KING’S WAY): Badlands Avenue is SUSANNAH DEAN’s name for the path which winds through the Discordia. Badlands Avenue follows the PATH OF THE BEAM. As it nears LE CASSE ROI RUSSE, it is also known as King’s Way. VII:580–99 (591 named King’s Way), VII:617–19, VII:624–27
DISCORDIA (CASTLE OF)
See CASTLE DISCORDIA
DISCORDIA CHECK-POINT DOGAN
See DOGAN: DISCORDIA CHECK-POINT DOGAN
DIXIE PIG
The first time we hear a reference to the Dixie Pig is when Roland’s entire ka-tet travels to NEW YORK CITY via TODASH. Written on the fence surrounding the Vacant LOT, located on FORTY-SIXTH STREET and SECOND AVENUE, is the following rhyme: “Oh, SUSANNAH-MIO, divided girl of mine, Done parked her RIG in the Dixie Pig, in the year of ’99.” Our second hint that the Pig will play an important part in our tale comes while Mia hunts for food in CASTLE DISCORDIA’s deserted BANQUETING HALL (a dining room which is, in reality, just the JAFFORDS FAMILY barn). While Mia struggles with sai RAT over a suckling pig, we see that she is wearing a Dixie Pig T-shirt.
In Song of Susannah, we learn that the Dixie Pig is a restaurant located on LEXINGTON AVENUE and SIXTY-FIRST STREET in New York City. According to a todash version of Gourmet magazine, they have the best ribs in town. Unfortunately, the ribs are human, and the high-class clientele are actually the GRANDFATHERS, those hideous TYPE ONE VAMPIRES left over by the receding PRIM. Besides its two dining rooms (the second of which is secreted away behind a blasphemous tapestry depicting ARTHUR ELD’s court partaking in a cannibal feast), the Dixie Pig contains a kitchen, a pantry, and an underground tunnel containing a MIND-TRAP. Beyond the mind-trap is a MECHANICAL DOORWAY leading to the FEDIC DOGAN.
V:183, V:376 (Lexington and Sixty-first), V:648, VI:120 (Sixty-first and Lexington), VI:125, VI:143, VI:227, VI:229, VI:254, VI:255, VI:256, VI:317, VI:320, VI:327, VI:333, VI:334, VI:337, VI:339, VI:340–44 (Jake and Callahan outside), VI:360–78 (through door!), VI:382, VII:3, VII:4–16, VII:23 (via aven kal), VII:25–28 (via aven kal), VII:32, VII:34, VII:81–112 (86—mind-trap; 87–112—tunnel beneath Dixie Pig), VII:133–38 (tunnel beneath Dixie Pig), VII:145, VII:146, VII:147, VII:152, VII:297, VII:303, VII:309, VII:522–29, VII:531, VII:538
MIND-TRAP: To guard the NEW YORK/FEDIC DOOR, the GREAT OLD ONES fitted the Dixie Pig’s subterranean tunnel with a mind-trap, which, when activated, will (quite literally) stop unwanted visitors dead in their tracks. This mind-trap accesses a person’s deepest and oldest fears, then makes those fears manifest. Of course, the vision is an illusion, but the body reacts to the visual stimuli as if they were real and the victim dies of heart failure. When JAKE and OY travel through the mind-trap, Jake sees the dinosaur-infested landscape of a film entitled The Lost Continent. Oy saves Jake’s life by switching places with him. Taking over Jake’s body, Oy carries his friend (who is hiding in his own furry skin) to safety. VII:81–112
DOGAN, THE
The first time we encounter the term Dogan, it is merely a misprinted title on the cover of one of CALVIN TOWER’s rare books. (The Dogan, which is supposed to read The Hogan, was a Western novel written by our world’s version of BEN SLIGHTMAN JR.) Although, in our world, the word Dogan is no more than a typing error, in END-WORLD it has a particular and sinister meaning.
End-World’s Dogans are a series of military-like control centers and are shaped like Quonset huts. (As any CONSTANT READER knows, STEPHEN KING’s Quonset huts are invariably nasty places.27) In these Dogans, technology still works. Some of these Dogans (such as the CALLA DOGAN) are used as spy centers for the CRIMSON KING’s followers in THUNDERCLAP. In others, such as the FEDIC DOGAN, magic and technology can be merged. The series of Dogans which run along the BEAR-TURTLE BEAM were built by the OLD ONES’ sinister company NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS. V:532 (Tower’s rare book), V:533 (rare book), V:552 (rare book), V:553 (chapter title), VI:32
CALLA DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS NORTHEAST CORRIDOR ARC QUADRANT OUTPOST 16): The Northeast Corridor Arc Quadrant Dogan is the END-WORLD control center located on the THUNDERCLAP side of the DEVAR-TETE WHYE. JAKE CHAMBERS and his pet BILLY-BUMBLER, OY, discover it when they follow BEN SLIGHTMAN SR.’s backtrail through the CALLA BADLANDS. (Jake and Oy had seen Ben senior and ANDY, the CALLA’s devious Messenger Robot, holding a suspicious conversation near the Whye.)
What Jake discovers is that CALLA BRYN STURGIS is full of secret cameras, and that all of these images are projected onto monitor screens in the Dogan. From this Northeast Corridor Arc Quadrant Outpost, Ben Slightman and Andy report useful information about hidden children to FINLI O’TEGO, chief of security at the DEVAR-TOI. Obviously, Finli then feeds this information to the invading WOLVES. V:561–78, V:582 (indirect), V:656, V:678, V:702–3, VI:64 (should say on east side of River Whye), VI:67, VI:171, VI:247 (Jake’s Dogan), VII:151, VII:191
DISCORDIA CHECK-POINT DOGAN: SUSANNAH DEAN and Roland Deschain discover this Quonset hut in the wastelands of the DISCORDIA. (It sits next to the crumbling hillside arch where CASTLE DISCORDIA’s subterranean tunnels exit into the open air.) This Quonset hut looks similar to the ARC 16
Experimental Station found across the WHYE from CALLA BRYN STURGIS, only it is smaller and in even worse shape. The roof of the Discordia Check-Point Dogan is covered with rust, and piles of bones are scattered in a ring around its front. Both Roland and Susannah think that it was the site of a terrible battle. VII:577–80, VII:620
FAGONARD SWAMP CHARGING STATION: According to DARIA, the NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS Portable Guidance Module, there is no Dogan in the Fagonard, but there is a Charging Station. W:222
FEDERAL OUTPOST 19: TOWER WATCH (THE FEDERAL): Federal Outpost 19 (which the robot STUTTERING BILL refers to as the Federal) sits on the edge of the WHITE LANDS OF EMPATHICA. Like all the other Dogans, it is a lonely-looking Quonset hut. The Federal is located 120 wheels from the DARK TOWER. Until the CRIMSON KING took up residence on one of the Tower’s balconies and blew the observation cameras, one of the Federal’s TV surveillance screens projected images of that linchpin of the worlds. VII:709, VII:715, VII:717–22, VII:801, VII:803
FEDIC DOGAN (NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS LTD, FEDIC HEADQUARTERS, ARC 16 EXPERIMENTAL STATION; THE DOGAN OF ALL DOGANS): According to MIA, the Fedic Dogan is the Dogan of all Dogans. Located deep in the heart of END-WORLD, it was once the Fedic headquarters of NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS. Just as we readers have long suspected, the GREAT OLD ONES’ company learned how to fuse the magic of the PRIM with their own rancid technology, and the Fedic Dogan was a center for such dangerous research. Once there may have been many such magical/technological Dogans in IN-WORLD, MID-WORLD, and End-World, but by the time our story begins, the Fedic Experimental Station is the only outpost of its kind left. To Mia, it is a place both wonderful and terrible.