The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (61 page)

A smallhold farmer in Calla Bryn Sturgis. His wife's name is Deelie.

E
VERLYNNE
(4.5)

Prioress of the Serenity retreat in Debaria. An enormous woman who stands at least six foot six. Daughter of Roseanna. She tended to Gabrielle Deschain and sent Marten Broadcloak away when he tried to see Roland's mother.

F
ANNIN
, R
ICHARD
(3, 7)

The guise under which Randall Flagg came to Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man, in Lud.

F
ARADAY
, N
EIL
(5)

A squat man with a smallhold rice-patch far on the south side of Calla Bryn Sturgis. A hard worker and a hard drinker. His twin children are Georgina and George, who is roont.

F
ARDO
(4)

Cort's father. He delivered the blow that sent Eldred Jonas west, breaking his leg and giving him a permanent limp.

F
ARSON
, J
AMES
(4, M)

John Farson's eldest nephew, a wandering singer. He brought a poison-coated knife into the court at Gilead that was supposed to reach Gabrielle Deschain, who would use it to kill Steven, but Roland intercepted it. His first name isn't given in the books, only in the Marvel adaptation, where he uses the alias Kingson. Cort kills him after catching him cheating in the riddle contest. In the Marvel comics, Walter brings him back to life so Farson won't fly into a rage and attack Gilead prematurely.

F
ARSON
, J
OHN
(1, 2, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 7, M)

Also known as the Good Man. A minion of the Crimson King. Reputed to be whimsically, dangerously insane. He is deeply concerned with
ka
. A former
harrier or land-pirate with pretensions. He was a bandit and stage-robber in Garlan and Desoy who reportedly had a taste for kidnapping before leading the insurrection against the Affiliation that ended the reign of the gunslingers. Described by Roland as a symptom of the rebel movement, not its cause. He frosted his theft and murder with talk of democracy and equality, preaching against class slavery and ancient fairy tales. He thrived because the Affiliation was already crumbling from neglect.

He never appears in the series (he is more of a presence in the Marvel comics), but is described as being six feet tall and “broad across at both brace and basket.” By the time Roland is fourteen, Farson has overtaken the Northern and West'rd Baronies, killing any leaders who don't follow him and leaving the cities in flames. He has a reputation for taking no prisoners.

He acquired a number of war machines—tanks, lasers and robots—that belonged to the Old People and needs the oil produced in Mejis to power them for a surprise offensive against the Affiliation in the Shavéd Mountains northwest of Gilead. He is also in possession of the pink Bend o' the Rainbow, which allows him to see the Affiliation's plans in advance, giving him a strategic advantage. The gunslingers consider Farson “small cheese” and think him mad for putting his trust in the Old People's machinery, because they are the way of death. Roland thinks the game is apt to be over before his father's people consider him a serious threat.

Walter is his “underliner,” who emphasizes the importance of certain details with distant supporters. Farson's
sigul
is the eye of the Crimson King. His troops clasp their hands to the chest, left above right, then hold out both to the person being greeted. His more subdued supporters point at the centers of their foreheads, as if at an invisible eye.

After the battle of Jericho Hill, Roland moved away from him. Farson wanted Roland's head on a pole because he and his friends were responsible for the deaths of many of his people and because Roland stole the pink Bend o' the Rainbow from him in Mejis. He was insane with rage, according to Roland. Though he is ultimately victorious against the Affiliation, nothing is known about what happens to him afterwards.

In the synopsis at the beginning of
Wolves of the Calla
, King implies that Marten is also John Farson, but he states that this is not the case in the interview found in this book.

F
EEMALO
(7)

The guise of Brass, one of Rando Thoughtful's aides. He claims to represent Stephen King's ego. Susannah calls him Goodmouth. Roland shot him.

F
ELDON
, A
MY
(1)

A whore from Tull.

F
IMALO
(7)

The guise of Rando Thoughtful, the Crimson King's Minister of State. He claims to represent Stephen King's superego. Susannah calls him Referee King.

F
LAGG
, R
ANDALL
(2, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)

Another guise of Walter o'Dim, Marten Broadcloak and the man in black. The Dark Man or, rather, a demon pretending to be a man. Roland encountered him in the final years of Gilead when Flagg had been fleeing from Dennis and Thomas. Roland saw him change a man who had irritated him into a howling dog. He doesn't laugh—he titters. He uses the name Richard Fannin when he comes to Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man, in Lud. He appears to the
ka-tet
in the Green Palace, where Roland recognizes him as Marten, and tries to convince them to cry off their quest. Mid-World guns don't work against him—they only misfire. His initials are affixed to the message the
ka-tet
finds outside the Green Palace, and also to the note Tim Ross finds at the North Forest Kinnock Dogan (along with those of MB, Martin Broadcloak), which confirms him as being the Covenant Man.

Crossovers to Other Works:
Flagg was chief adviser to King Roland of Delain in
The Eyes of the Dragon
. He is also the leader of the evil faction in Las Vegas in
The Stand
. He appears in various guises throughout King's works, often as a character with the initials RF (Raymond Fiegler in
Hearts in Atlantis
, for example).

F
ORTUNA
(4.5)

Real name: Annie Clay. A tiny woman, one of the sisters at the Serenity retreat in Debaria. She was attacked by the skin-man, who clawed off half her face.

F
RANE
, B
OBBY
(4.5)

One of the miners from Little Debaria who did time in Beelie Stockade.

F
RANK
(3, 5)

A member of the Pube faction in Lud. His frizzy red hair reminds Eddie of Ronald McDonald and Susannah of Clarabell the Clown. He is armed with a homemade spear. Eddie shoots him in the chest. Before he dies, upon learning that they are gunslingers, he cries their pardon.

F
REEBORN
, C
HAS.
(L, M)

A cattle thief in Eluria. He was to be tried on 12/Fe/99. However, the slow mutants probably killed him in his cell.

F
RYE
, K
ELLIN
(4.5)

The good deputy in Debaria. His son is Vikka.

F
RYE
, V
IKKA
(4.5)

Son of Kellin, the best deputy in Debaria. Roland uses him to spread the news that there was a witness to the skin-man's attack at the Jefferson Ranch.

F
UMALO
(7)

The guise of Compson, one of Rando Thoughtful's aides. He claims to represent Stephen King's id. Susannah calls him Badmouth. She shot him.

G
AN
(4.5, 6, 7, M)

The god of Mid-World and its creator. Gan the Maker and Evil-taker. The creative overforce, personified in the Dark Tower. He rose from the Prim and gave birth to the universe from his navel. The Manni say that “fin-Gan” (hile) was the first word, and it set the world spinning. Roland believes that he tipped the world with his finger, thus creating time. Gan denies the
can toi
, the Crimson King and Discordia. Writers and artists are prophets or singers of Gan. The Beam of the Elephant and the Wolf is called Gan's Beam and Stephen King is its mortal Guardian. According to King, Gan is the creative overforce in Hindu mythology, served by a great turtle that bears the universe on its shell. The hands of Gan are the hands of
ka
, and they know no mercy.

G
ARBERS
(4)

Former owners of the Bar K Ranch in Hambry. After it burned, they moved on.

G
ARMA
(7)

A Child of Roderick who lives near Algul Siento. Haylis of Chayven's friend (with benefits).

G
ASHER
(G
ASHERMAN
) (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)

One of Tick-Tock Man's Grays. Dressed like a pirate: a yellow headscarf, hoop earrings and a white silk eye patch. His face is covered with sores and he's dying of syphilis. His skull is bald, except for a few straggling tufts of
black hair like porcupine quills, and deeply dented above the left temple. Talks in a thick accent. He takes Jake captive, using a hand grenade to keep the gunslingers at bay. Not smart enough to remember a simple password. He isn't afraid of dying but is afraid of being humiliated, an observation Jake uses to his advantage. Killed by Roland. Eddie has a dream in which he is driving a bulldozer in the vacant lot in Manhattan.

G
RAY
D
ICK
(5, M)

A famous outlaw prince who murdered Lord Grenfall, Lady Oriza's father. She decapitated him with the first Oriza during what was supposed to be a reconciliation dinner at her castle by the River Send.

G
RAYS
(3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

One of two factions that have been fighting in Lud for many years. So called because they were, on average, older than their adversaries. They were harriers led at one time by David Quick and later by Andrew Quick, the Tick-Tock Man. They used some of the surviving technology in Lud to terrify their opponents, the Pubes, into killing themselves.

G
REAT
O
LD
O
NES
, A
KA
O
LD
P
EOPLE
(1, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

Legendary people who aspired to be gods from the time before the world started moving on. The stories about them are unclear. There may have been Old People and Really Old People. When the world's natural magic seemed to be receding, they panicked and replaced it with scientific analogs. They formed North Central Positronics to conduct experiments that wedded magic with science or replaced magic with science. This loss of faith in magic that might have supported the Tower forever created a system doomed to progressively deteriorate with time.

They built modern cities run by computers and even put a man on the moon. They have satellites in orbit around the Earth and constructed Dogans as experimental or monitoring stations. They built Asimov robots that resemble humans (these robots refer to them as “Makers”) to perform domestic duties. Almost everything they built has some form of artificial intelligence. Even the handcar Roland and Jake find beneath the mountain can talk.

They also built mechanical doorways so they could visit other worlds. Their preferred destinations often involved tragedies. This taste for violence is reflected in the weapons of war they built.

The end of their Imperium was a conflict called the Old War, the Great Fire, the Cataclysm or the Great Poisoning, though no one knows who they fought. It may have been a civil war or an accident involving their weapons that poisoned the world. Some say that the Old People went to other worlds after they left Mid-World.

They've been gone for at least two thousand years but their leavings are found everywhere. The Manni are said to be a sect of the Old People. Many relics are deadly, but the earthen pot Roland carries in his gunna for brewing tea is one of their artifacts and he believes the jawbone he found beneath the Way Station belonged to one of them.

Some of their Dogans are at least partly operational. The one Bix visited is radioactive. Some people believe Maerlyn turned evil after discovering some of their artifacts. John Farson used their war machines against the Affiliation after figuring out how to make them run.

The hieroglyphics on the Unfound Door are the scratchings of the Old People.

G
RENFALL
, L
ORD
(5)

Lady Oriza's father, the wiliest lord in the River Baronies. His castle Waydon was on the banks of the River Send. Gray Dick murdered him, but his daughter avenged him.

G
RISSOM
, G
ENERAL
(5, M)

Leader of the horde of blue-faced barbarians who attack Roland and his friends at Jericho Hill. Either he or his son killed Jamie DeCurry.

G
UNSLINGERS
(T
HROUGHOUT
)

Knights, squires, peacemakers and Barons. They make up an elite group, the Council of Eld, that is the political head of the Affiliation. Gunslingers are generally descendants of the line of Eld, though there are exceptions. Boys are trained in the arts of war until they feel prepared to challenge their teacher in hand-to-hand conflict. Those who fail are sent west into exile. They are skilled in diplomacy as well as in battle. In the time of Steven Deschain, their primary concern is the decline of the Dark Tower, which means they ignore some of the more imminent troubles, such as the fragile state of the Affiliation and the threat posed by John Farson.

When someone wants gunslingers to help him, he is asked three questions. 1) Will you open to us if we open to you? 2) Do you see us for what we
are and accept what we do? 3) Do you seek aid and succor? A gunslinger never asks the final question until he knows what the answer will be. The gunslingers may take no reward for their services and the supplicant must not offer any. Once the gunslingers decide to act, after ascertaining that the supplicant is on the side of the White, the opinion of the supplicants no longer matters.