The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (30 page)

M
AP OF
E
ND
-W
ORLD

This map starts at the Mid-Forest bog in the northwest corner and shows the wedge of Mid-World along Shardik's Beam between the Elephant Beam and the Horse Beam, ending in the fields of Can'-Ka No Rey and the Dark Tower. The regions represented are the Borderlands; the Grand Crescent containing the Callas, which are distributed along the River Whye; Thunderclap, home
to Devar-Toi, Fedic and Castle Discordia; the Discordia Badlands, home to Le Casse Roi Russe and the White Lands of Empathica.

N
ORTH
C
ENTRAL
P
OSITRONICS

North Central Positronics (NCP) was a corporation at the center of the advanced knowledge amassed by the Great Old Ones, who mastered every scientific field and used this knowledge to manipulate the fabric of the multiverse and reality itself. One of the corporation's goals was to replace magical elements of their reality (the Dark Tower and its supporting Beams, for example) with scientific analogs. Their experiments fusing magic and technology were conducted in research stations known as Dogans. Among the creations of NCP that continued to function long after the Great Old Ones and their Imperium vanished are the robots designed to maintain and manage the Dogans.

D
OGANS

The Great Old Ones constructed the Dogans following Maerlyn's specifications. While most are research labs, many are surveillance outposts located in strategic places throughout Mid-World. The weapons of the Great Old Ones that led to the Great Poisoning were built here and survived whereas their creators did not.

L
E
C
ASSE
R
OI
R
USSE

This is the Castle of the Crimson King, a fortress located in End-World on the edge of the White Lands of Empathica. Its red glow (known as the Forge) can be seen from a great distance.

A N
OTE FROM
R
OBIN
F
URTH

Plot writer Robin Furth discusses how she was able to turn her dreams of Cuthbert and Alain into a coherent tale.

C
OMMENTS FROM
P
ETER
D
AVID

Scriptwriter Peter David talks about the daunting process of adapting the Dark Tower, especially in parts of the graphic novel that do not appear in the original novels—a process he likens to pedaling the Dark Tower bicycle without the aid of training wheels. An audience of one, he reassures readers, stands between him and them: Stephen King, who continually approves of their work.

T
REACHERY

Original release dates:
September 2008 through February 2009 (6 issues)

Credits:

•
Creative Director and Executive Director:
Stephen King

•
Plotting and Consultation:
Robin Furth

•
Script:
Peter David

•
Art:
Jae Lee and Richard Isanove

•
Lettering:
Chris Eliopoulos

Though the focal event of this miniseries—the death of Gabrielle Deschain—was related in
Wizard and Glass
, events leading up to it are revealed for the first time. Treachery is aptly titled, for it deals with several forms of deceit that are occurring simultaneously in Gilead and are symptomatic of the empire's impending collapse.

By failing to give the pink orb from Maerlyn's Rainbow to his father, the
dinh
of Gilead, Roland's treachery is nearly treason. Alain and Cuthbert are frustrated by his obsession with the grapefruit. He isn't eating or sleeping or bathing. If it traps Roland again, they don't have Sheemie around to free him. Roland rationalizes his deceit by telling himself he is protecting his father. Alain and Cuthbert worry they will need to take the orb from him.

The ball reveals the Tower to Roland. The roses around its base are dying. The Voice of the Tower bids him to look up—he sees the Crimson King. Then the orb shows him a spidery Rhea of the Cöos soaring across the desert, on the way to Gilead as an agent of Farson. He sees her decapitating his father with a garrote. In a trance, he shoots, thinking he is attacking Rhea but instead narrowly misses Cuthbert. Alain and Cuthbert finally make Roland see reason and he delivers the pink orb to his father. A spy—a supposed scout—named Justus sends word to Farson's men that Steven has the Wizard's Glass.

A grand party is planned to celebrate the coming of age of Alain, Cuthbert and Roland. Alain and Cuthbert are becoming gunslingers based on their performances in Hambry, which doesn't sit well with some of the other apprentices. They think the two boys are getting special treatment. Roland is okay—he faced Cort, unlike his friends. There are ugly confrontations and hateful graffiti of the type Eldred Jonas left for the boys in Mejis.

Traitors and spies are infiltrating Gilead at every level. The gunslingers unwittingly rely on Justus, who promises to lead them to one of Farson's
camps, but it's a trap. Steven Deschain is nearly killed. Justus's treachery goes unsuspected, and he convinces the gunslingers to consider attacking Farson's camp in the Shavéd Mountains, where Farson is planning an ambush.

Not even the gunslingers of Gilead are immune to turning into traitors. John Farson captures Charles Champignon, who threw himself in front of a hand grenade to save Steven Deschain's life. His wife is raped and their unborn child is ripped from her womb before his eyes. He is forced to recommend Kingson, John Farson's nephew, for a position as court minstrel. (This story is told in greater detail in the one-shot issue
The Sorcerer
.)

Kingson also delivers the poisoned knife that Gabrielle Deschain is supposed to use to kill her husband after the coming-of-age feast. Cort catches Kingson cheating at the riddling contest and kills him. In his pocket he finds a signet ring marking him as one of Farson's men. Roland told this story to his
ka-tet
in
The Waste Lands
, although he didn't say when this took place.

A new character enters the story, Aileen Ritter. Her mother's brother, Cort, is her only living relative and guardian. She is only mentioned in
The Gunslinger
as the girl his parents wanted him to marry. She plays a much larger part in The Gunslinger Born series. Cort is the one who wants Aileen to marry Roland, the future
dinh
of Gilead. She would rather be a gunslinger at Roland's side than his wife. She “borrows” weapons from her uncle's armory and practices alone, sharpening her skills, even though by tradition she can never be a gunslinger. Cort promises to speak to Steven on her behalf, though.

Roland invites Aileen to dance at the banquet and tells her of the tragedy that occurred in Mejis and about his vision of the Dark Tower. Aileen thinks the Tower is a myth, but Roland assures her it is real. He wants to reach the Tower, climb to its top and confront whatever dwells behind the varicolored oriel window to force it to erase the plague rotting Mid-World's soul. Aileen pledges herself to the mission and kisses Roland. At first Roland resists; then he relaxes into the kiss.

The final acts of treachery involve Gabrielle Deschain. When Roland was in Mejis, she was exiled in Debaria, where she was expected to confess her sins and pay penance. However, her confessor turns out to be Marten Broadcloak. She confesses her love for him, and he convinces her it's better to take the fight to the gunslingers than flee. She knows that he wants her to kill her husband and deliver the Wizard's Glass to him. With fingers crossed, he promises that Roland won't be harmed.

At the feast, Steven promises both the guns of Eld and the Horn of Eld to
Roland upon his eventual demise, along with the title of
dinh
. Steven accepts Gabrielle back into his arms and asks Roland to forgive her. However, Roland is wary of her, especially when he sees her with the musician who Cort later kills. During a dance, Gabrielle steals the key to her husband's safe.

Roland hurries to his father's chambers, where he discovers the safe open and the grapefruit gone. His suspicions are confirmed when he finds the orb in his mother's room. Once again it captivates him, showing him Rhea of the Cöos sneaking up behind him with a garrote. He turns and fires without looking, shooting his mother in the chest. Instead of a garrote, she holds a belt she had made for Roland while in Debaria.

The Wind Through the Keyhole
, published three years after Treachery, contradicts details in this graphic novel, which is an indication of how King considers them spin-offs rather than part of the mythos. In the novel, Cort was so badly injured during his battle with Roland that he is permanently incapacitated. Before he goes to Debaria to stop the skin-man, Roland is acting as his nursemaid. While Marten did attempt to see Gabrielle at Serenity (not Our Lady of the Rose) in Debaria, they never met face-to-face. Roland told his friends that he learned of Gabrielle's plot to kill her husband and intercepted the knife before it ever reached her. In
Wizard and Glass
, the
ka-tet
left Mejis after Reap, so the Fair-Day riddling contest would have taken place recently. However, it is possible that riddling contests were also held during coming-of-age feasts. In one of the essays in the Fall of Gilead series, Robin Furth talks about how she tempted the wrath of Dark Tower fans by changing details like these.

E
XTRA
F
EATURES:

I
SSUE
1: _______________________________________________

I
NJURED
H
AWKS AND
F
AILED
G
UNSLINGERS

A discussion of the process by which boys become gunslingers, using hawks as an analogy for these trained fighters. Candidates are selected at the age of six and sent to live in communal barracks. Their training nominally lasts until the age of eighteen, at which point they are expected to take the all-or-nothing test to become a gunslinger. If they feel unprepared, they may defer the test for up to seven years. If a boy fails at the challenge, he will be banished forever, but if he fails to take the challenge by the age of twenty-five, he will become a laughingstock and fade into obscurity. Many of the candidates are children of gunslingers, but gunslingers also adopt the sons of merchants and farmers in the area, basing their selections on open contests for boys held during the Fair-Day festival. Those who fail the test (“injured hawks”) often became violent, vicious or addicted to alcohol or weed. Many join the ranks of John Farson, Gilead's deadliest enemy. Cuthbert and Alain are the only two boys to be promoted to gunslingers without facing the solitary challenge against their teacher in Gilead's Square Yard. Because they avoided the possibility of public humiliation and failure, the other trainees resented them.

I
SSUE
2: _______________________________________________

W
OMEN OF
M
ID
-W
ORLD AND THE
C
ULT OF
O
RIZA

Father figures are fundamental to the belief system of Mid-World. Forgetting the face of one's father is the ultimate shame. The system is eminently patriarchal, with daughters of gunslingers having fewer opportunities than their brothers. The most basic difference is that daughters are never allowed to take up guns. However, Mid-World scholars tell of a time before the Imperium of the Old People when mothers were as honored as fathers. The ancient Druit circles were the realms of female spirits with the gift of prophecy. These scholars are willing to go so far as to suggest that the word
dinh
does not apply to a father but instead to a respected elder of either gender. There are also a number of female deities worshipped in the Baronies, one of which, Lady Oriza, patron of rice and corn and protector of small children, was a warrior who took up arms against her enemies. In some creation stories, it was she who created human beings after Gan created the world. The weapons used by Lady Oriza and her followers, the Sisters of Oriza, were discuslike plates
with razor-sharp edges. She rose to fame after using her weapons to kill the harrier Gray Dick, who murdered her father, Lord Grenfall.

I
NTERVIEW
: T
ALKING WITH
R
OBIN
F
URTH
, P
ART
1

Robin Furth discusses how her journey to the Dark Tower began, whether she has always wanted to be a writer, the challenges she faced in writing
The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance
, whether there are any “rules” she needs to follow when working on The Dark Tower, how she handles the language and vocabulary of the series and how she reacted to the sample pages produced by Marvel when the series was pitched.

I
SSUE
3: _______________________________________________

T
HE
S
HADOW OF THE
R
OSE