by Robin Furth
MAERLYN’S RAINBOW (THE BENDS O’ THE RAINBOW): See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW, in CHARACTERS
MANSION DOOR (JAKE’S DOOR): Located on RHINEHOLD STREET in DUTCH HILL, BROOKLYN, this haunted Mansion sits only one mile from where EDDIE DEAN grew up in CO-OP CITY. It also happens to sit on the PATH OF THE BEAM. Like many magical places, the Mansion is not really a mansion at all but a portal between worlds that shifts shape from reality to reality and TOWER level to Tower level. In JAKE’s world it most certainly looks like an imposing building, but in Roland’s world it is the haunted force within a SPEAKING RING. All that Eddie has to do to let Jake pass through this portal—and be born into MID-WORLD—is to connect these two thin places with a drawn door. Unfortunately, the door is locked and both Eddie and Jake need copies of the key.
Just as the PORTALS OF THE BEAM are protected by GUARDIANS, all other portals, in our world or Mid-World, are protected by demons. In order to cross over into Mid-World and join Roland’s ka-tet, Jake must face the Mansion’s demon. The Mansion’s demon is the animating spirit of the house, a spirit of place, and parallels the demon which SUSANNAH battles sexually in the Speaking Ring. See also STONE CIRCLES, this section, and DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS and DEMON ELEMENTALS, in CHARACTERS. III:75–76, III:161–62, III:185, III:187–88, III:189, III:190–92, III:194–96, III:198–201, III:203–4, III:205–6, III:207, III:208–9, III:210–11, III:262, III:344, III:348, III:399, IV:98, V:50 (indirect), V:93, V:104, V:246 (“pulling Jake through” and demon of the stone circle), V:258 (stone-circle demon/doorkeeper in Dutch Hill), V:478 (stone-circle demon/doorkeeper in Dutch Hill), VII:143, VII:144–45, VII:249
JAKE’S DOOR (MANSION VERSION): See also STONE CIRCLES. III:200–204, III:205–12, III:219
PORTALS OF THE BEAM: See PORTALS OF THE BEAM and BEAMS, PATH OF THE, listed separately. See also GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM, in CHARACTERS
SHARDIK’S LAIR: See PORTALS OF THE BEAM and BEAMS, PATH OF THE, listed separately. See also GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM, in CHARACTERS
SHEEMIE’S MAGIC DOORS: Although teleportation is a talent forbidden in THUNDERCLAP’s DEVAR-TOI, Roland’s old friend SHEEMIE RUIZ can make Doorways with his mind. When Roland was young, Sheemie used this skill to follow our gunslinger and his original ka-tet to GILEAD. Sheemie used this ability again to help TED BRAUTIGAN escape the Devar-Toi and return to his home state of CONNECTICUT. Unfortunately, when Sheemie uses this skill (as he does several times to help our tet), he has tiny strokes. See BREAKERS: RUIZ, STANLEY (SHEEMIE), in CHARACTERS
SPEAKING RINGS: See STONE CIRCLES (SPEAKING RINGS), listed separately
STONE CIRCLES: See STONE CIRCLES, listed separately
THINNY: See THINNY, listed separately
TODASH: See TODASH, listed separately
TRAINS BETWEEN WORLDS: See BLAINE’S ROUTE in this section. See also NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS: BLAINE, in CHARACTERS, and ATCHISON, TOPEKA, AND SANTA FE RAILROAD COMPANY, in OUR WORLD PLACES
UNFOUND DOOR: In the Dark Tower series, the Unfound Door has three manifestations. The first time we see it, it is a freestanding ironwood door located in DOORWAY CAVE, high in the ARROYO COUNTRY of the BORDERLANDS. In this incarnation, it bears a strong resemblance to the BEACH DOORS, through which Roland drew EDDIE and SUSANNAH DEAN into MID-WORLD. Like the portals Roland found on the shores of the WESTERN SEA, the Unfound Door stands six and a half feet high and has no visible support, its hinges apparently fastened to nothing. However, whereas the Beach Doors were marked with the High Speech words for The Prisoner, The Lady of Shadows, and The Pusher (the final of these being the door which led Roland to the evil JACK MORT), the Unfound Door is marked with hieroglyphs. These hieroglyphs mean Unfound and also appear on the ghostwood box containing BLACK THIRTEEN. Etched upon the Unfound Door’s crystal knob is a ROSE.
By the time our tet arrives in CALLA BRYN STURGIS, the Unfound Door has been in Doorway Cave as long as PERE CALLAHAN has been in the Calla (probably between five and ten years). In fact, the two of them appeared together in that cavern, which, before their arrival, had been known as the Cave of Voices. Callahan, the Unfound Door, and Black Thirteen were transported to the arroyo cave from the MOHAINE DESERT’s WAY STATION. The magician who did the transporting was Roland’s old nemesis WALTER. Since the Unfound Door had not previously existed in the Way Station (otherwise Roland and JAKE would have seen it during their sojourn there), we can assume that Walter conjured it from another where and when. This would be completely consistent with the Unfound Door’s later appearances in the series.
While in the Cave of Voices/Doorway Cave, the Unfound Door is locked. Although it has no keyhole, it does have a key. That key is MAERLYN’s most dangerous magic ball, Black Thirteen. Despite the many risks involved in waking Thirteen, our tet uses it to open the door so that they can travel to other wheres and whens. With Roland’s help, Eddie uses ball and door to travel to NEW YORK CITY, 1977. With Roland and Eddie’s aid, Pere Callahan uses them to travel to New York and to STONEHAM, MAINE. At the end of Wolves of the Calla, MIA, Susannah’s demon possessor, opens the door for what she hopes will be a final time. Taking Black Thirteen with her, she escapes to New York City, 1999, where the servants of the CRIMSON KING await her arrival.
However, the Unfound Door’s job in the Callas is not over yet. With the help of the MANNI, our remaining tet-mates reopen the door so that they can complete their quest. Callahan, Jake, and OY travel to New York City, 1999, to pursue Susannah-Mio. Roland and Eddie travel to Stoneham, Maine, circa 1977, to track down CALVIN TOWER (owner of the Vacant LOT) and to meet our kas-ka Gan, STEPHEN KING.
We next encounter the Unfound Door in the final book of the Dark Tower series. Only three members of our tet—Roland, Susannah, and Oy—still struggle onward toward their goal. Although Eddie and Jake are dead, Susannah begins to dream about them. In her dream, Eddie and Jake are in a snowy CENTRAL PARK. Behind them is the Unfound Door. This ironwood dream-door looks exactly like the Unfound Door in Doorway Cave, only below the hieroglyphs for Unfound are the words The Artist. The knob is no longer crystal but solid gold, and filigreed with the shape of two crossed pencils—#2’s whose erasers have been cut off. When they are but a few days’ journey from the Tower, PATRICK DANVILLE, the artist whom Susannah and Roland rescued from DANDELO in the WHITE LANDS OF EMPATHICA, draws this second version of the Unfound Door so that Susannah can escape Mid-World. Although the door he draws does not have The Artist written upon it, and though the knob is of a plain shiny metal, not filigreed gold, it bears the necessary hieroglyphs and so works perfectly well. Susannah leaves Mid-World through this ironwood portal and joins her beloved ka-tet mates (who in this particular ALTERNATIVE AMERICA are named Eddie and Jake TOREN) in a wintertime Central Park.
The final time we encounter the Unfound Door is at the base of the DARK TOWER itself. Roland’s long journey ends at a ghostwood door banded with black steel. Upon it, engraved three-quarters of the way up, is the hieroglyphic sigul meaning Unfound. As Roland lays AUNT TALITHA’s cross and his final remaining six-gun at the Tower’s base, the hieroglyphs change. The door which Roland has been seeking all of his life transforms from Unfound to Found. Through this, the Found Door, Roland enters the Tower.
UNFOUND DOOR AND DOORWAY CAVE/CAVE OF VOICES: V:335, V:399–400, V:407 (indirect), V:408–16 (two thousand feet up; 408–10 described; 411 previously Cave of Voices), V:421, V:458–65 (Unfound Door only), V:466, V:468, V:505, V:508, V:509–48 (Roland waiting there), V:549, V:550–51, V:573, V:584, V:590–600 (door), V:618–27, V:642, V:687, V:699, V:702, V:703–9, VI:3–8 (under discussion), VI:12, VI:21, VI:26 (cave), VI:28–43 (34—kra kammen means “house of ghosts”), VI:49 (indirect), VI:64, VI:80–82, VI:122 (Unfound Door), VI:124, VI:129, VI:142, VI:164, VI:167, VI:307, VI:308, VII:36 (Cave of Voices), VII:88 (Cave of Voices), VII:123 (Unfound Door), VII:143, VII:196, VII:239, VII:416, VII:447 (inside sai King’s head), VII:540, VII:743
UNFOUND DOOR DRAWN BY PATRICK DANVILLE (ARTIST’S DOOR, EBERHARD-FABER DOOR): VI
I:724–25, VII:729, VII:738–50, VII:751–52
UNFOUND DOOR TO THE DARK TOWER: VII:820–21
WIZARD’S RAINBOW (MAERLYN’S MAGIC BALLS): See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW, in CHARACTERS
MECHANICAL DOORWAYS (OLD ONES’ DOORWAYS): Both our world and MID-WORLD are riddled with mechanical doorways left over by the GREAT OLD ONES. At one time, 595 working mechanical doors existed below CASTLE DISCORDIA and the FEDIC DOGAN alone. More than thirty of them were one-way ports leading from NEW YORK CITY to FEDIC. Unlike magical doors, mechanical doorways are dedicated. In other words, they always open onto the same place.
The Great Old Ones (who, as we all know, learned to merge technology and magic) built doorways to other wheres and whens for mere entertainment. For example, anyone wishing to witness the assassination of President JOHN F. KENNEDY had merely to enter the ROTUNDA portal (located below Castle Discordia and the Fedic Dogan) marked DALLAS (NOVEMBER 1963)/FEDIC. Anyone wishing to see the Lincoln assassination had only to go through the door marked FORD’S THEATER. Like the cyborg GUARDIANS, ANDY the Messenger Robot, and BLAINE the Insane Mono, the mechanical doorways between worlds were manufactured by NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS. VII:73–74, VII:200
BOMBAY/FEDIC DOOR: VII:78
DALLAS (NOVEMBER 1963)/FEDIC DOOR: VII:78, VII:538
DOOR TO TODASH DARKNESS: According to MIA, below CASTLE DISCORDIA is a door that goes TODASH, or to the no-place between worlds. Although this door was probably created by mistake, the CRIMSON KING uses it to punish his worst enemies. Anyone unfortunate enough to be pushed through this door will wander, blind and insane, until eaten by one of todash’s many monsters. VI:248–49, VII:562
FEDIC/THUNDERCLAP STATION DOOR: This doorway leads from the ARC 16 WOLF STAGING AREA to THUNDERCLAP STATION, six miles from the DEVAR-TOI. Although the robotic WOLVES have been using it for decades, this portal is in terrible shape. Any human unlucky enough to pass through it feels as though he or she is being turned inside out. Once on the other side, he/she is overcome with a terrible, gut-spewing nausea. Unlike the other magical and mechanical doorways we have encountered so far, this one is made of steel, not ironwood. It is painted green and bears a sigul which resembles a cloud with a lightning bolt. VII:151–52, VII:179, VII:187–88 (marked with a cloud and lightning sigul), VII:190, VII:194–200, VII:203
FORD’S THEATER DOOR: This door leads to Ford’s Theater, in WASHINGTON, D.C. We can also assume that it always opens onto April 14, 1865—the day on which President Lincoln was assassinated. (He was killed while attending the play Our American Cousin.) VII:538, VII:561, VII:562
FORTY-SEVENTH STREET DOOR (BLEECKER STREET, NEW YORK CITY): Like the NINETY-FOURTH STREET door, NEW YORK CITY’s Forty-seventh Street door links both the MULTIPLE AMERICAS and the multiple New Yorks. In all of its manifestations, this door is located on BLEECKER STREET, between FIRST and SECOND AVENUES. However, in some versions of New York, the door stands in an empty warehouse. In other versions of the city, it stands in an eternally half-completed building. VII:105
NEW YORK #7/FEDIC DOOR: This door leads from the tunnels below the DIXIE PIG to the EXTRACTION ROOM in the ARC 16 EXPERIMENTAL STATION in FEDIC. It is made of ghostwood. After SUSANNAH DEAN is dragged through this door by SAYRE and his closies, it burns out. Hence, when our other tet-mates travel from the Dixie Pig to Fedic, they are rerouted to a default door (NEW YORK #9/FEDIC), located in the ROTUNDA below CASTLE DISCORDIA and the FEDIC DOGAN. SUSANNAH has the robot NIGEL carry her from the Extraction Room to the Rotunda so that she can meet her friends. VI:373 (indirect), VI:377–79, VII:74
NEW YORK#9/FEDIC/FINAL DEFAULT DOOR: At one time, more than thirty one-way portals led from NEW YORK CITY to FEDIC. However, after the FEDIC DOGAN’s EXTRACTION ROOM door (NEW YORK #7/FEDIC) burns out, only #9 Final Default remains. All operational doors leading from New York to Fedic now transport to this doorway. VII:74, VII:78–80, VII:110 (New York side), VII:133–38, VII:146, VII:529, VII:538
NINETY-FOURTH STREET DOOR (NEW YORK CITY): This doorway connects alternative versions of NEW YORK CITY. Unfortunately, it is usually on the blink. VII:105
SANTA MIRA/THUNDERCLAP DOOR: TED BRAUTIGAN and his fellow BREAKERS—TANYA LEEDS, JACE McGOVERN, DAVE ITTAWAY, and DICK of the forgotten last name—were all brought to END-WORLD through this door. VII:287–89, VII:297
SHANGHAI/FEDIC DOOR: VII:78
DRAWERS
According to SUSANNAH DEAN (previously ODETTA HOLMES/DETTA WALKER), the Drawers are places that are spoiled, useless, or both. However, they are also places of power. In many ways they resemble psychic trash middens. The Drawers are a kind of WASTE LAND.
I:90, II:327, III:44–46, III:82, III:264, III:347, III:377, III:407, VII:733
DETTA ANDFORSPECIALPLATE: II:194–96
DETTA’S SEX HAUNTS: These locations (RIDGELINE ROAD outside NUTLEY, ROUTE 88 outside AMHIGH, and THE RED WINDMILL) were places where Detta Walker vented her rage against white men. The negative force of her emotion, and the experiences she had in these places, transformed them into a kind of psychic Drawers. III:196–97
E
EASTERN PLAIN (CALLA BADLANDS)
See CALLA BADLANDS
ELMVILLE
See DEVAR-TOI
EMPATHICA, WHITE LANDS OF (WESTRING, SNOWLANDS)
The White Lands of Empathica are the snow-laden lands located southeast of the DISCORDIA BADLANDS. Unlike the Badlands, which were poisoned by the CRIMSON KING, the White Lands still contain living creatures. After their terrible encounter with the false UFFI at LE CASSE ROI RUSSE, Roland, SUSANNAH, and OY travel into the hilly White Lands, where they hunt deer, make themselves some winter clothes, and build a travois. (Susannah even makes snowshoes for Roland.)
However, from the beginning, the careful reader realizes that something is fishy about any land called Empathica. When you empathize with someone, you identify completely with that person’s mind-set and emotions. In a place called Empathica, someone or something is using this power. On ODD’S LANE, our threesome meets the empath living in Empathica. However, he is anything but empathetic.
DANDELO, the were-insect who uses glammer to disguise himself as a cheery old man named JOE COLLINS, eats other people’s emotions. For years he has been milking fear and laughter out of PATRICK DANVILLE, a young artist whom Dandelo keeps in his basement. Dandelo tries to feed from Roland, but SUSANNAH (warned by the deus ex machina STEPHEN KING) kills him first.
VII:545, VII:607, VII:609 (pass into them), VII:611, VII:612, VII:618, VII:625, VII:647–711 (action takes place here), VII:715, VII:746
CAMPSITE WHERE HIDES ARE PREPARED: Roland and SUSANNAH prepare deer hides here. They use the “brain-tanning” method. Gross but effective. VII:636–45
FEDERAL, THE (FEDERAL OUTPOST 19): See DOGAN: FEDERAL OUTPOST 19
ODD LANE (ODD’S LANE): Three weeks after entering the White Lands of Empathica, SUSANNAH, Roland, and OY emerge from a snowy tract of upland forest and see, below them, an inverted T carved in the snow. Much to their delight, they realize that this letter is actually the crossing point of two roads. The long body of the T, which continues over the hump of the horizon, is TOWER ROAD, but the relatively short cross-arm is Odd’s Lane, home of JOE COLLINS and his horse, LIPPY.
The self-proclaimed “Odd Joe of Odd’s Lane” seems as friendly and welcoming as his house is cozy. However, in the White Lands of Empathica, not everything is as it seems. In reality, Odd Joe is none other than the dangerous were-spider DANDELO. Dandelo disguises his appearance (as well as the rundown façade of his cottage) using glammer. In actuality, Dandelo is a vampire, but one who drinks human emotion. Fearful that our tet will discover that Odd Lane is an anagram of Dandelo, this tricky were-spider painted an S onto the end of his lane’s name. (It doesn’t work.) VII:651–60 (corner), VII:661, VII:666, VII:671, VII:680, VII:682, VII:683, VII:690, VII:696, VII:707, VII:710 (intersection), VII:751
DANDELO’S HOUSE: VII:652–711, VII:731, VII:755
DESERTED VILLAGE: V
II:652
STONE’S WARP: According to the improvised life’s tale which the false JOE COLLINS spins for our tet, Joe awoke in an END-WORLD town called Stone’s Warp after being beaten up by three NBA-size men in our world’s CLEVELAND. VII:670
TOWER ROAD: Tower Road runs from DANDELO’s house, in the White Lands of Empathica, all the way to the DARK TOWER itself. VII:651–60 (corner), VII:664, VII:671, VII:682, VII:705, VII:707, VII:709, VII:710 (intersection), VII:711, VII:715–17, VII:718 (discuss traveling along it), VII:726–27 (on it), VII:729–803 (on it; 777, 779, 781—description of road near Tower)
**END-WORLD
In the first four books of the Dark Tower series we learn that End-World is the fey region that exists beyond MID-WORLD. It contains both THUNDERCLAP and the DARK TOWER. According to the LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA, the ashes of the dead blow out toward this dream place. Once, hundreds of years before our ka-tet traveled in his Barony Coach, BLAINE had monitoring equipment in End-World. However, it has been down for more than eight centuries. When Roland and his friends reach the border between Mid-World and End-World, the first part of their journey is complete.
In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, SYLVIA PITTSTON states that when God casts out the unrepentant from his palaces, he will send them to the burning place beyond the end of End-World. End-World must be a terrible place. Even the sorcerer WALTER states that to speak of things in End-World is to speak of the ruination of one’s own soul. In Wolves of the Calla, we discover that the RIVER WHYE marks the end of Mid-World and the beginning of the BORDERLANDS, that strange region that sits on the lip of End-World.
