Read Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated Online
Authors: Robin Furth
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.
As the followers of the CRIMSON KING know all too well, at the Fedic Dogan, magic and technology can still be merged. This Dogan’s technological magic made possible Mia’s transformation from spirit to flesh. This Dogan’s technological magic also made the conception and birth of MORDRED (child of four parents) possible.
Although we do not know the original purpose of the Fedic Dogan, like most of the other wreckage left by the Old Ones, it is now being used for evil ends. Several centuries after the Red Death decimated Fedic’s human population, the Crimson King’s servants began to use this experimental station to extract the twin-telepathy enzyme from the children of the BORDERLAND CALLAS. They did this in the EXTRACTION ROOM, which is also the room in which Mia gives birth to Mordred. Roland calls this place
devar-tete
or “little torture chamber.”
The Fedic Dogan is connected to CASTLE DISCORDIA by a series of subterranean tunnels. According to NIGEL THE BUTLER, the Fedic Dogan and the adjacent castle contain 595 operational DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS. At one time, 30 one-way doors connected Fedic to NEW YORK CITY, but after Door #7 (leading to the Extraction Room) burns out, all that is left is Default Door #9, located in the ROTUNDA. VI:237–38, VI:244–45, VI:247, VI:249, VI:251, VI:378–84, VII:21–23
(Extraction Room via
aven kal), VII:27, VII:55–80
(77–80 Rotunda),
VII:141–96
(141–58 Extraction Room setting),
VII:206, VII:222, VII:232, VII:532, VII:537–40, VII:549–52
(kitchen, pantry, office),
VII:553, VII:557, VII:558–70
(tunnels under Discordia; 559 Rotunda; 563 Main Street),
VII:591, VII:708
CONTROL CENTER (“THE HEAD”):
The Arc 16 Experimental Station’s nerve center is located four levels down from the EXTRACTION ROOM. During his short stay in the Fedic Dogan, baby MORDRED installs himself here so that he can view the Dogan’s many monitors. (He uses them to spy on Roland’s
ka-tet.
) Mordred kills and eats WALTER here. VII:159–64, VII:166–86
EXTRACTION ROOM:
According to Roland, the Extraction Room’s true name is the
devar-tete,
or “little torture chamber.” The NEW YORK/FEDIC door (#7), which SUSANNAH is dragged through at the end of
Song of Susannah,
leads directly to this room. The Extraction Room gained its terrible name from the awful procedures done on its many beds. The BORDERLANDS children were brought to this room so that the twin-telepathy chemical could be extracted from their brains. MORDRED was also born here. VI:378–84, VII:21–23, VII:27
(indirect),
VII:55–75, VII:141–58
NIGEL’S QUARTERS:
Nigel’s three-room apartment is located near the Fedic Dogan’s kitchen. It contains no bedroom, but it does have a living room and a butler’s pantry full of monitoring equipment. It also contains a book-lined study. Nigel is a big fan of STEPHEN KING’s novels. VII:158–59, VII:164–66, VII:189–90, VII:538
ROTUNDA:
Deep below the Fedic Dogan and CASTLE DISCORDIA is a Rotunda, whose shape reminds SUSANNAH DEAN both of GRAND CENTRAL STATION in NEW YORK CITY and of BLAINE’S CRADLE in LUD. Around the circumference of this rotunda are a series of doors that lead to other
wheres
and
whens.
Among them are portals labeled SHANGHAI/FEDIC, BOMBAY/FEDIC, DALLAS (NOVEMBER 1963)/FEDIC, and NEW YORK/FEDIC. All these doors are one-way.
(For more information, see
DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS
,
listed separately.)
VII:77–80, VII:559
STAGING AREA:
Deep in the entrails of the Fedic Dogan, our
tet
finds a hangar-sized door marked
To Horses.
Beyond this is a door marked
Staging Area.
When our
tet
enters this staging area, they find that it is thick with hanging WOLVES awaiting repair, as well as the utility bays used to fire them up. To the left of the utility bays is the DOORWAY leading to THUNDERCLAP STATION. VII:192–96, VII:207, VII:232
JAKE’S MIND-DOGAN:
While trying to escape the CRIMSON KING’s gunbunnies in the tunnels below the DIXIE PIG, Jake feels an unseen hand fiddling with his mind’s control center. He slams all doors shut, but the damage has been done. By the time Jake realizes what has happened, the OLD ONES’ MIND-TRAP has already located a memory which it can use to scare Jake to death. (The memory is of a dinosaur film called
The Lost Continent.
) The only way Jake survives the mind-trap is by switching bodies with OY. Oy’s mind-Dogan isn’t affected by the Old Ones’ machinery. In fact, he finds the controls of Jake’s mind-Dogan to be much more mesmerizing. Luckily, he ignores them. VII:88
(mind-trap),
VII:101
(Oy)
NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN (NORTHERN AERIE, GATEWAY OF OUT-WORLD):
The Dogan closest to the FAGONARD swamp was the North Forest Kinnock Dogan. When the NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS guidance module, DARIA, located it for TIM ROSS, the Dogan was already off-line. Although Daria recommended detouring around the Dogan (she detected a magical disturbance at that location as well as a Changed Life form), Tim decided to visit it. Luckily he did, since he found the magician MAERLYN there (albeit in the form of a caged TYGER), and shelter from the approaching STARKBLAST.
The round, metal-roofed Dogan sat in a large clearing amid a stand of IRONWOOD trees, at the base of a huge tower made of metal girders. Atop the tower was a blinking red light. Small windows, made of very thick glass, marched around the building’s sides at the height of Tim’s head. The door was made of metal, but had no knob or latch, only a slot like a narrow mouth. Above the slot, on a rusting steel plate, were the following words, written in a strange mixture of High and Low Speech:
NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS, LTD.
North Forest Kinnock
Bend Quadrant
OUTPOST 9
Low Security
USE KEYCARD
Scrawled below this was a single phrase: ALL HERE ARE DEAD. At the base of the door was a box that looked like a metal version of NELL ROSS’s trinket box. The box was locked, and was so heavy that Tim could not lift it. The box’s keyhole was shaped like the High Speech letter for “S.” Engraved on the box top were words in a language that Tim could not read.
The Dogan’s clearing ended in a rocky precipice a hundred wheels wide, but the clearing was crossed by a path paved in a smooth dark material so bright that it reflected the trees and the clouds. To the left of the metal road, about three yards from the place where the world dropped off into nothingness, there stood a round cage made of steel bars. Inside the cage was an enormous green-eyed TYGER. Around the tyger’s neck was a silver collar from which hung a keycard and a key. Beneath a silver bucket, located just in front of the cage, was a note from the wicked COVENANT MAN, and a key to the tyger’s cage. The keys to both the Dogan and the box hung from the tyger’s collar. Although faced with a decision as awful as that in the folktale, DIANA’S DREAM, Tim decided to open the tyger’s cage. His kindness paid off, as the tyger’s key opened the metal box, and the tyger himself showed Tim how to use the magic DIBBIN within to create a shelter from the approaching starkblast. After the storm passed and Tim helped the tyger transform back into his wizard-shape, the sorcerer gave Tim magic drops to restore his mother’s sight. W:222, 232–55
CLEARING WITH ENORMOUS TOWER AND BLINKING BEACON (NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN CLEARING):
Soon after escaping the TENTACLED MONSTER in the CHASM OF WHITE FLOWERS, TIM ROSS saw this enormous clearing ahead of him, at the end of a long upslope. From three wheels distant, the most prominent feature of this clearing was its tall tower, made of metal girders, which was topped by a blinking red light. Later, when he drew closer, he realized that the tower and clearing were both part of the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN. W:232