The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (59 page)

Son of the night foreman at the salt mines in Little Debaria. Vikka Frye knew him from Reap Fair-Day, where they entered contests together.

D
EMON
E
LEMENTALS
(6)

There are six demon elementals, one for each Beam. However, they are hermaphroditic, which means there is a total of twelve aspects to counter the Guardians of the Beam. They reign over the invisible world of demons and other evil creatures left behind after the Prim receded. They have no names—they know what they are. Roland had intercourse with one of these elementals in the place of the Oracle. It then changed genders and passed the semen along to Susannah when Jake came through the doorway from Dutch Hill.

D
EMULLET
, G
ENERAL
(5, M)

A member of the Affiliation forces that fight John Farson after the fall of Gilead. His column was ambushed and slaughtered at Rimrocks before the battle of Jericho Hill.

D
ENNIS
(2)

One of two desperate yet grim young men Roland encountered while they were pursuing a demon named Flagg who looked like a man.

Crossover to Other Works:
In
The Eyes of the Dragon
, Dennis was the son of Brandon, Peter's butler. Peter was the rightful heir to King Roland of Delain. At the end of the book, he joins Peter's brother, Thomas, in pursuit of Flagg. The story says that Dennis and Thomas did see Flagg again, and confronted him, but the outcome of that encounter has never been told.

D
EPAPE
, A
NDY
(6)

Roy Depape's brother. Roland believes he was stung to death by a snake, but Mia killed him.

D
EPAPE
, R
OY
B. (4, 5, 6, 7, M)

One of the Big Coffin Hunters. A twenty-five-year-old redhead who wears spectacles with gold rims. He's fast with a gun, even if his wits are slow, but he can't bear pain. According to Eldred Jonas, his heart is in the right place, he's a good enough boy, his head is a little soft and he follows orders, though usually only after they're explained several times. He is drunk on one of the local prostitutes, Gert Moggins (stage name: Deborah). He doesn't like Sheemie Ruiz and is humiliating him to entertain the patrons at the Travellers' Rest when Cuthbert comes to the rescue, smashing the tip of one finger with a slingshot. Eldred sends him to follow the back trail of the Affiliation Brats
to see what he can find out. He slits Mayor Thorin's throat. Roland kills him. Mia killed his brother, Andy.

D
ESCHAIN
, G
ABRIELLE
(1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 7, M)

Roland Deschain's mother and wife to Steven. Daughter of Candor the Tall (or Alan?). She came from Beesford-on-Arten, between Gilead and Debaria. Her maiden name was Verriss, and she was known as Gabrielle of the Water. She used to read and sing to Roland when he was young. Once he entered gunslinger training, she saw him less often. Ignored by her husband, she is seduced by Marten Broadcloak and becomes a traitor to Gilead, though Steven knows about the affair for two years. When Roland is sent to Mejis shortly after he learns the truth about her relationship with Marten, she goes to a retreat in Debaria.

While in Debaria, she makes a belt for Roland as a peace offering and returns in time for the party celebrating his return. However, she is still in Marten's thrall and plans to murder Steven with a poisoned knife in bed after apologizing for straying. Roland learns of the plot from the pink Bend o' the Rainbow and intercedes without betraying his mother. When he goes to her chambers to offer her one last chance to recover her sanity, the grapefruit—which Gabrielle stole from Steven as a consolation prize for Marten—misleads Roland into thinking she is the witch Rhea holding a snake. He shoots her to death with his father's guns.

As Roland learns from a letter she left with Everlynne, she returned to Gilead knowing that her son would kill her because she thought
ka
demanded it. She dies smiling. The people of Gilead believe she committed suicide “while possessed of a demon which troubled her spirit.” Roland hears her voice in the Doorway Cave in Calla Bryn Sturgis, begging him not to shoot her.

D
ESCHAIN
, M
ORDRED
(5, 6, 7)

Dan-tete
: the Little Red King. Mordred Deschain has four parents: Roland, Susannah, Mia and the Crimson King. Walter o'Dim arranged his conception as another trap for Roland, to fulfill ancient prophecy and to create someone to rule in the place of the trapped Crimson King. He was named for the ill-begotten son of King Arthur, who killed his father. He was conceived when Roland had sex with a demon elemental in the Speaking Ring of the Oracle. The elemental inverted itself and delivered the semen into Susannah when Jake came through the doorway from Dutch Hill. At some point the Crimson King's sperm was added to the mix.

He is born with a mouth full of teeth, a head full of black hair and a fully erect penis. Within minutes, he consumes Mia, absorbing her energy and all of her knowledge. He passes through adolescence to become a young man within a few months. He could be the most powerful Breaker ever, but this potential is never realized.

Mordred is his own twin in that he has two physical forms: human boy and black widow spider, a blend of magic and mundane. Transforming requires large amounts of energy, but he can consume meat only as a spider. In this form, the birthmark on his heel becomes a red hourglass on his belly—the real key to the Dark Tower. A white node rises from the spider's back, containing his human face with blue eyes identical to Roland's. He requires much more energy in this form. His thoughts become dark, primitive urges uncolored by emotion.

He is a tragic figure who didn't choose his mission and has no way to argue against it. The Crimson King directs his actions from the Dark Tower. At times he is drawn to Roland, jealous of the friendship he senses among the
ka-tet
. He resists the temptation to join their circle, knowing they would kill him in an instant. Besides, he's been bred to hate Roland, so he could never accept the gunslinger as his
dinh
. Still, he stays close, feeling like he's sharing their
khef
. At times, Roland almost pities Mordred, leaving behind food for him when they break camp.

Though he's a monster, he is vulnerable because of his human aspect. Susannah shoots him soon after he's born, and the wound never heals. When he's a baby, he relies on Nigel the robot for food, but he's smart and powerful enough to outwit Walter, who means to kill him and take his heel to the Tower.

During his first attempt to kill Roland, the machinery in the Fedic Dogan that was supposed to release poison gas fails. While trailing the
ka-tet
, he is constantly hungry, cold and miserable, sometimes crying himself to sleep. The poisons of the Badlands and his starvation diet make him appear wretched. His hunger undoes him when he eats Dandelo's horse, Lippy, and poisons himself.

At the end, he looks like he's twenty. Desperate to please his Red Father, he attacks Roland the night before the gunslinger reaches the Dark Tower. Mordred is dying, so he has nothing to lose. If not for Oy's sacrifice, he might have succeeded. Once Roland is awake, the spider-monster is no match for his White Father.

D
ESCHAIN
, R
OLAND
(T
HROUGHOUT
)

The last gunslinger and a soldier of the White. He is the son of Steven, who was the last
dinh
of Gilead, and Gabrielle, and the grandson of Alaric and
Henry the Tall. He is a thirtieth-generation descendant of Arthur Eld, though more likely via one of Eld's gillies than one of his wives.

At the age of eleven, he sees firsthand the seriousness of John Farson's threat to the Affiliation when he overhears Hax, the castle cook, conspiring with a traitorous guard. After reporting this to his father, he asks to witness the hanging, which is an important part of his coming of age.

His suspicions about the relationship between his mother and Marten Broadcloak are confirmed when the wizard flaunts the affair, hoping to drive Roland to take his test of manhood with his instructor, Cort, before he's ready. The price for failure is exile. He's only fourteen, two years younger than his father was—and he was the youngest ever. Roland falls for this trap, but Marten underestimated the boy, who is willing to sacrifice his longtime friend, a hawk named David, to win his guns. It's behavior he will repeat often in the future.

Once he's officially a gunslinger, he's still no match for Marten, who is determined to prevent him from fulfilling his destiny. Steven sends Roland and two friends to Mejis, out of harm's way, unaware that he's sending them into a hotbed of anti-Affiliation activity. There, Roland falls in love for the first—and only—time, with Susan Delgado, whose spirit will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Roland comports himself well against Farson's regulators, but he allows love to blind him to the seriousness of their situation. He refuses his best friend Cuthbert's suggestion to notify Gilead once they discover what's going on. Though he, Cuthbert and Alain prevail, destroying the oil supply Farson planned to use in weapons against Gilead, Susan pays the price for his inexperience.

Roland had hoped that this victory over Farson would allow Gilead to prevail. He would then be able to live a peaceful life and start a family with Susan. Then he's sent a vision of the Dark Tower's peril and he forswears everything to save the axis of existence. He couldn't have stayed with Susan had she lived, even though she's pregnant with his son. Thus begins a lifelong obsession that causes Roland to sacrifice many things and people over the span of a thousand years.

The second great tragedy of Roland's life comes shortly after he returns to Gilead. He learns that his mother is plotting to kill his father. He goes to her room, intending to make her see the error of her ways. Tricked by the pink Wizard's Glass he took from Farson's men, he thinks the person approaching him from behind is the witch Rhea, whom he thwarted in Mejis. Using his father's guns, he kills his mother.

Though Gabrielle was still aligned with Marten—which is why the pink orb was in her chambers—Roland is devastated. He spends weeks moping around the castle and tending to Cort, who was seriously injured during the test of manhood. To get him out of his funk, his father sends him to Debaria to stop the skin-man. While there, he learns that his mother knew he would kill her but continued down her treasonous path because she felt that was what
ka
wanted. She forgives Roland in a posthumous message, and Roland is able to forgive her.

As a student gunslinger, he was told that he lacked imagination and his teachers assumed he was slow mentally, in part because he doesn't waste words. He has come to accept this assessment, but adversaries do well not to underestimate his dedication, charisma and guile. He hates mysteries, isn't good at thinking around corners, and acts most successfully when he does so without thinking, shooting first and asking questions later. His romantic nature is buried deeply.

Not only can Roland shoot better than any adversary or accomplice, but he acquires skills allowing him to serve as peace officer, envoy, mediator, hypnotist, messenger, accountant, diplomat, teacher, spy and executioner. Though he always feels sick after big battles, he is never so happy to be alive as when he's preparing to deal death.

He is an expert liar and a storyteller, as well as a glutton for stories told by others. His vision is better than most. He can speak five languages and is familiar with several others, though written English defies him and he loses something in the translation in that world. Even though he knows many riddles, sarcasm is the only form of humor he understands.

His first
ka-tet
ends at the battle of Jericho Hill, where everyone else is killed. Roland escapes by hiding in a cart filled with bodies. He continues on his quest for the Dark Tower, which many people think is just a legend. A symbol of his narrow vision is the fact that he fails to pick up the Horn of Eld, which once belonged to his ancestor, Arthur.

He's ageless, living outside time, skipping entire generations. He spends much of his unusually long life alone, casting about for the Tower, which turns him heartless. His only companions are the badgering voices of those he left behind, including Cort, Vannay and his father. He still has a touch of humanity left when he befriends Jenna in Eluria and Allie in Tull, but he's so focused on his quest that he's willing to sacrifice Jake Chambers's life for the chance to speak with the man in black, even though he knows that doing so will damn him. Only three things matter: mortality,
ka
and the Tower. Things
in the past are beyond his power to change, and
ka
will take care of what's ahead—and he rarely thinks about
ka
, though he is prone to mistaking his will for
ka
.

His most prized possessions are his father's guns, which have yellow sandalwood stocks and barrels made from the blade of Arthur Eld's sword Excalibur. He carries a satchel that contains a leather grow bag—a continually replenishing source of money or gems and the only magical item he owns, though Susannah thinks that occasionally he
is
magic—along with ammunition, tobacco, food and water. The letter his mother left for him at Serenity crumbled to dust long ago.

After he loses two fingers to lobstrosities, he is forced to assemble another
ka-tet
. He doesn't get to pick his traveling companions—
ka
does this for him. Though he grows to love and respect Eddie, Jake and Susannah, he often operates as if he were still alone, keeping secrets from them. He believes that he stands somewhat outside the
ka-tet
. He's faithful to them, but worries that he would sacrifice them if doing so would get him closer to his goal. Experience says that Roland's way means death for those who accompany him. He takes no pride in the fact that he is good at producing martyrs. His obsession with the Tower is contagious and his
ka-tet
would carry on without him if he died.