by Bev Vincent
Crossovers to Other Works: The Crimson King appears in Insomnia, where he has minions in Derry, Maine, determined to kill Patrick Danville. Under the name Ram Abbalah, he appears in Black House, the sequel to The Talisman, which focuses on his search for Breakers.
CROW, ALLAN “PA” (4.5)
Leader of the Crow Gang, who specializes in kidnappings for ransom. Steven Deschain leads a posse against them. An old man, paralyzed on one side from a stroke, Crow is the only one to get off a shot, which ricochets, striking Deschain in the arm. Steven Deschain shot him.
CROW GANG (4.5)
Harriers, train robbers and kidnappers who ply their trade in and around Debaria. Steven Deschain leads a posse that includes Deputy Hugh Peavy against them to their lair in the foothills. Most of the posse is killed in an ambush, but Roland’s father and Peavy take the Crows by surprise at night and kill most of the gang and arrest the rest.
CROYDON, JOHN (4)
Owner of the Piano Ranch and a small orchard in Mejis. Alain Johns shoots him.
CURRY, YON (4.5)
A sheepherder killed by the skin-walker on the Low Pure in Debaria.
DANDELO (7)
Eddie Dean warns Roland to beware Dandelo. Jake Chambers passes on the same message via Oy. A vampire who drinks human emotion instead of blood. See Joe Collins.
DEAF RICON (4.5)
A resident of Tree Village. Bern Kells hides in his barn after his crimes are revealed.
DEARBORN, WILLIAM “WILL” (4, 7, M)
Roland Deschain’s alias in Mejis. He is a drover’s son. Dearborn is the middle name of Western author Louis L’Amour.
DECURRY, DR. (M)
Jamie’s father. Traitorous members of Gilead’s guard shoot him and his nurses to death.
DECURRY, JAMIE (L, 1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)
Part of Roland’s first ka-tet, a boy of few words. Also known as Silent Jamie, because he rarely says anything if he doesn’t have to, and Red-Hand because one of his hands looks as though it has been dipped in blood. Flagg described him as the fellow with the birthmark. Though he is adept with a gun, he prefers his bow or his bah. Not much of a reader. He accompanies Roland on his mission to defeat the skin-man and loses his virginity on their final night in Debaria. A sniper—perhaps General Grissom or his son—kills him during the battle of Jericho Hill.
DEIDRE THE MAD (3)
Roland’s grandmother.
DELGADO, CORDELIA “CORD” (4, 7, M)
Susan Delgado’s aunt and sister to Pat Delgado. Daughter of Hiram. She is sour, miserly, greedy, supercilious, angry and suspicious, but can act nice when she wants something. She never hears good gossip and has few social pretensions, a love of gold and silver and a fear of being turned out, penniless, into the world.
She helped raise Susan after her mother died and became sole guardian after Pat was killed. Susan believes that she wasn’t party to her father’s murder, but she knew about it. When they lose title to their land and horses, she brokers a deal with Mayor Hart Thorin to have Susan become his gilly in return for an enormous financial consideration, with more to come when Susan gives the mayor a son. She manipulates Susan by invoking her dead father’s name.
She claims to have had a lover or two when she was young, including Fran Lengyll, though Susan doesn’t believe her. She allows Eldred Jonas to charm her when he’s fishing for information. She’s so obsessed with the possibility that Susan is ruining the deal with Thorin that she stops eating and taking care of herself, slowly going insane. She lets Rhea drink her blood so the witch can regain her power and they can seek retribution against Susan. As Rhea’s puppet, she paints Susan’s hands red and lights the fire that kills her. She dies before the bonfire burns down to embers from a heart attack, a stroke or shame.
Physical description: She’s a skinny woman edging into late middle age and has gray streaks in her chestnut hair. There’s a family resemblance to Susan, but her aspect is pinched and shrewish, thin and disapproving.
DELGADO, PATRICK “PAT” (4, M)
Susan Delgado’s father. He was a quiet, calm man who was interested in the Old People. He was in charge of the Barony’s horses for almost thirty years until his death when Susan was eleven. According to Francis Lengyll, a snake spooked his horse, Ocean Foam, who threw him and rolled over on him. In truth, he was murdered because he stood up against the traitors in the Horsemen’s Association, with whom he worked on a daily basis. His land and horses were confiscated after he died. His sister, Cordelia, who helped raise Susan, became her sole guardian. He had red hair and a beard and smoked a pipe. He was a firm believer in ka, much to Susan’s consternation.
DELGADO, SUSAN (THROUGHOUT)
A sixteen-year old girl from Mejis. Roland Deschain’s first love. Her father, Pat Delgado, was in charge of the Barony’s horses and died when she was eleven. Her mother was already dead by then. After her father died, her spinster aunt Cordelia, Pat’s sister, raised her.
She isn’t vain, but she knows she’s good-looking from the way boys act around her. She inherited a good singing voice from her grandmother and a calm nature from her father. She’s normally levelheaded and clever, though she can be stubborn and headstrong. Roland thinks she’s brave to visit Rhea’s hut alone in the dark. She’s never been out of Hambry. She is in favor of the Affiliation, but not strong for it. She doesn’t put much stock in John Farson and his war, since it is thousands of miles away.
Her aunt Cordelia uses her love for her father to coerce her into accepting a deal whereby she becomes Mayor Thorin’s gilly in return for financial consideration. After Pat’s death, they lost title to their land and horses and they might end up homeless if Susan doesn’t agree to this lucrative deal. She wishes her father were around to advise her.
Susan rationalizes that she will still be able to get married later, thinking that her part of the deal will end when she gets pregnant, but Mayor Thorin is less interested in a child than in having a beautiful young woman in his bed. The first time she uses Thorin’s name in her own defense—during her visit with Rhea, who must attest that she is a virgin and free of demons—she feels humiliated. She is also ashamed by what this arrangement—which is acceptable under the old laws—means for Thorin’s wife. By the time she understands what she’s gotten herself into, it’s too late to undo it. Breaking her word would bring shame to her father’s name.
As her attraction to Roland grows, she curses fate for having brought him into her life after she made a commitment to Thorin. She has no use for “greedy old” ka, which was so important to her father. She avoids Roland until her situation gets so bad and her love for him so strong that she begs him to ask her to break her vow. When he does, they begin a romance that lasts the whole summer, during which she becomes stronger and more self-confident.
Her loyalty prevents her from believing that her father’s friends were involved in his death until shown incontrovertible evidence. After the Big Coffin Hunters execute their plan to frame Roland and the others, she orchestrates their jailbreak. She remains calm in the face of violence, relying on her father’s voice to guide her, like any good gunslinger. She kills Sheriff Avery and Deputy Hollis, whom she played with as a child.
She becomes pregnant with Roland’s child—perhaps after their first time together—but never gets to share the news with him. She is captured, freed and captured again, falling into the hands of Rhea, who resents the girl for defying her. She is paraded through the streets of Mejis on Rhea’s cart and burned at the stake in one of Mid-World’s old, banned traditions of ritual sacrifice: charyou tree. She proclaims her love for Roland as she dies.
Physical description: She is almost too beautiful to look at, in Roland’s estimation. She is tanned from riding, has long blond hair that glows like the sun and reaches the middle of her back, often in braids, and the grayest eyes Cuthbert has ever seen.
DELONG, PUCK (4.5)
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.
DEMON ELEMENTALS (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.
DEMULLET, GENERAL (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.
DENNIS (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.
DEPAPE, ANDY (6)
Roy Depape’s brother. Roland believes he was stung to death by a snake, but Mia killed him.
DEPAPE, ROY 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.
DESCHAIN, GABRIELLE (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.
DESCHAIN, MORDRED (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.
DESCHAIN, ROLAND (THROUGHOUT)
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.
