Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (30 page)

SUSAN DELGADO’S ASSOCIATES:

AMY (SUSAN’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND):
IV:327

DELGADO, CORDELIA:
See
DELGADO, CORDELIA,
listed separately

DELGADO, HIRAM:
See
DELGADO, HIRAM,
listed separately

DELGADO, PAT:
See
DELGADO, PAT
listed separately

GRAMMA:
Susan inherited her singing voice from this grandmother. IV:123

MATERNAL GREAT-AUNT:
She ran crazy, set herself on fire, and threw herself over the DROP. IV:152

MOTHER:
The only thing we know about Susan’s mother is that her maiden name was Manchester. IV:313

DELICIOUS RAIN

See
NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS

DELONG, PUCK

See
DEBARIA CHARACTERS
: SHERIFF’S OFFICE: FRYE, KELLIN: FRYE, VIKKA

DEMON ELEMENTALS (DEMON ASPECTS OF THE BEAM)

According to the metaphysical map of MID-WORLD, which Roland drew in
The Waste Lands,
Mid-World is shaped like a wheel. The hub of the wheel is the DARK TOWER. Crossing at this nexus point are six BEAMS, which simultaneously hold the Tower in place and maintain the proper alignment of time, space, size, and dimension. The Beams both bind the macroverse together and separate the many worlds which spin about the great, smoky-colored linchpin of existence. The twelve termination points of the Beams are watched over by twelve animal totems known as GUARDIANS.

In
Song of Susannah,
we find out that—like the kabbalistic Tree of Life found in our world—Mid-World’s metaphysical map has a darker side. Just as each Beam has two designated Guardians, each Beam is also overseen by a Demon Elemental. Although there are only six Demon Elementals, there are twelve demon
aspects,
since each demon has a male and a female self. The Guardians of the Beam watch over the mortal world, but the hermaphroditic Demon Elementals
watch over the invisible world of speaking demons, ghosts, and ill-sicks—all those LESSER DEMONS OF THE PRIM, which remained in Mid-World after the magical tide of the PRIM (or GREATER DISCORDIA) withdrew from the land.

If some of the Guardians serve the WHITE, then at least some of the Demon Elementals serve the Outer Dark. In
Song of Susannah,
we find out that one such Demon Elemental tricked both Roland and SUSANNAH into helping the CRIMSON KING bring MORDRED RED-HEEL (the
dan-tete,
or little god) into being.

Posing as the ORACLE OF THE MOUNTAINS that we met in
The Gunslinger,
the demon’s female aspect had sex with Roland in exchange for prophecy. Once collected, Roland’s sperm was stored (probably in one of the GREAT OLD ONES’ machines) until he and his
tet
-mates EDDIE and Susannah Dean arrived at the SPEAKING RING near LUD, where JAKE CHAMBERS was about to be reborn into Mid-World.

As Roland and Eddie brought Jake through the magical door labeled THE BOY, Susannah kept the sex-hungry, male SPEAKING-RING DEMON busy. Though our
tet
didn’t know it, this was no ordinary speaking-ring demon but the male aspect of the Demon Elemental who had copulated with Roland earlier in our tale.

Roland’s sperm must have been defrosted beforehand, because this demon—though sterile itself—shot our gunslinger’s fertile seed into Susannah, seed which was (or soon would be) mixed with that of the Crimson King.

VI:112–14, VI:117, VI:242, VI:252
(service for the King)

**ORACLE OF THE MOUNTAINS (SUCCUBUS):
CONSTANT READERS met the Oracle of the Mountains in
The Gunslinger,
the first book of the Dark Tower series. This female demon haunts a circle of DRUIT STONES in the WILLOW JUNGLES of the CYCLOPEAN MOUNTAINS, where Roland and JAKE CHAMBERS travel while following the MAN IN BLACK. Like others of her kind, the Oracle feeds on desire. This weeping, sighing presence, who is described as a “demon with no shape, only a kind of unformed sexual glare with the eye of prophecy,” first lures Jake into her cold embrace and then, when she is thwarted, takes Roland. (Roland is probably the one she wants anyway.)

Unlike Jake, Roland enters the Oracle’s circle willingly, and with the aid of mescaline (what CORT once called the Philosopher’s Stone) makes conscious contact with the haunting presence. Roland’s desire is to force the spirit to prophesy, but in order to do this he has to have sex with this star-slut and whore of the winds. During their encounter, the Oracle takes on the voice and scent of Roland’s dead love, SUSAN DELGADO. In the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger,
the Oracle warns Roland to watch for Roses and Unfound Doorways.

In
Song of Susannah
we learn that this demon was no run-of-the-mill demon sexpot but the female aspect of a Demon Elemental posing as a speaking-ring demon. She seduced Roland so that she could collect his sperm for the making of his nemesis, MORDRED. I:117, I:121–32, I:138, I:215, II:25, II:40, II:315, III:173, V:46, VI:112–13, VI:121–22, VI:241
(indirect)

SPEAKING-RING DEMON (JAKE’S ENTRY INTO MID-WORLD):
Like the MANSION DEMON that Jake Chambers battles in
The Waste Lands,
this invisible male monster is a doorkeeper. Roland, EDDIE, and SUSANNAH
have to outwit it in order to draw Jake from his version of our world into Mid-World. However, unbeknownst to our friends, this wraith is in actuality a Demon Elemental, the male facet of the ORACLE with whom Roland had sexual relations in
The Gunslinger.

Like all such sexually charged Druit Stone spirits, this invisible creature’s weakness is the same as its weapon. Hence, the only hope our
ka-tet
has of “drawing” Jake successfully is first to capture the doorkeeper and then to keep him in a sexual snare long enough for the boy to pass through.

As soon as our
ka-tet
enters the circle, this raging, hungry demon senses their presence and comes toward them, disturbing the grasses to the north as it rushes forward. Since Eddie is the one outlining the magical picture of the door itself (and hence the one transgressing that ancient law against passage between worlds), he is the lightning rod attracting the force. However, as the demon rushes toward him, Susannah Dean traps it, quite literally, between her legs. Though it is agonizingly painful, Susannah manages to hold the demon long enough for Jake to be “born.”

Sex with such demons has its risks, as Roland is all too aware. As the novel progresses we find that Susannah is pregnant, but that the baby’s father is not Eddie but this demon, whose engorged sex is compared to a giant icicle.

In retrospect, it seems that our
tet
’s tangle with this spirit was a setup designed by the followers of the CRIMSON KING. As the Oracle of the Mountains, this Demon Elemental took Roland’s sperm so that it could be genetically fused with that of the Red King. This tainted seed was then planted inside Susannah so that she would give birth to Roland’s ultimate nemesis, MORDRED. III:189–90, III:193–94, III:197–98, III:201–3, III:206–12, IV:69, IV:92, V:84, V:246, V:258, V:378, V:478, V:483, VI:106, VI:107, VI:113, VI:116

DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS (LESSER DEMONS OF THE PRIM)

MID-WORLD is a desolate land littered with the ruined machinery and leaking poisons of the GREAT OLD ONES. However, it is also a landscape haunted by the magic of a more primitive but equally dangerous people—those who knew more about demonology than they did about technology.

In three of the first four novels, Roland and his friends encounter “thin” places—areas where the division between the spirit world and the physical world is almost nonexistent. These places—whether circles of DRUIT STONES or cellars where men have been murdered and their bodies hidden—are the sites of human sacrifice. Hence, they function as evil magic circles. Unfortunately for unwary travelers, it is not just the magician who can conjure demons and spirits in these “in-betweens.” Because of their history of violence and blood, these evil places are PORTALS where thirsty demons can manifest whenever they scent possible prey.

Like the demons of our world, Mid-World demons seem to feed on human blood and human energy. Locked in the circles or buildings they haunt, they wait for unwary men and women to chance upon them. Drawn by the
khef,
or life force, of human beings, they come to drink. Lucky people chancing upon these beings will be able to entice a prophecy from them. Unlucky ones will lose their lives.

In the final books of the Dark Tower series, we learn the origin of Mid-World’s demonic forces. Like the DARK TOWER itself, these negative energies arose from the primal magical soup of creation. When the magical tide of the PRIM receded from the Earth, it left behind the Tower and the BEAMS, as well as a flotsam and jetsam of demons, elemental spirits, oracles, and succubi. Some of these intangible beings (known collectively as the Lesser Demons of the Prim) strangled in this new element, but others adapted and thrived. Among the less savory of the Prim’s survivors were sexual predators such as MIA and demonic beings such as the DEMON ELEMENTALS and the TYPE ONE VAMPIRES, also known as the GRANDFATHERS.

GENERAL REFERENCES:
I:14
(dust devils),
I:16, I:22, I:44, I:48–52
(Pittston’s Interloper),
I:55–56
(Pittston’s Interloper),
I:58, I:59–62
(Pittston’s Interloper),
I:85, I:88
(spooks),
I:90, I:91, I:124, I:154, I:205, II:25, II:34, II:40, II:44, II:73, II:114, II:362, II:367, III:20, III:35, III:315, IV:15, IV:63, IV:92
(thinny as demon),
IV:132, IV:157
(thinny as demon),
IV:321, IV:353
(inside Maerlyn’s glass),
V:2
(bogarts, speakies),
V:150
(bogarts),
V:247
(devil),
V:341
(ogres),
V:350
(devil),
V:394
(demon),
V:577, VI:36, VI:106
(Demons of the Prim),
VI:112
(Speaking Demons, general)

SPECIFIC DEMONS:

CENTIPEDE MONSTER:
See
TODASH DEMONS
,
listed below

CHAP (MIA’S CHAP):
See
MORDRED
,
listed separately

DANDELO:
See
DANDELO
,
listed separately

DEMON CHILD:
See
MORDRED
,
listed separately

DEMONS OF HOUSE:
VI:112, VI:117

DEMONS IN THE EARTH:
In “The Skin-Man,” the first of the two stories which Roland recounts in
The Wind Through the Keyhole,
we learn that the mines of Mid-World are populated by monsters very similar to the ones found in Desperation, Nevada. (See the novel
Desperation.
) According to HIGH SHERIFF HUGH PEAVY, the DEBARIA SALT COMBYNE dug too deep to reach their NEW SALT PLUG and in the process woke a demon of the earth, which he believes turned one of the miners into a flesh-eating SKIN-MAN. Roland, on the other hand, doesn’t believe that a demon transformed a miner into a monster. Instead he blames one of the OLD PEOPLE’s
artyfax.
Although we never learn exactly what transformed OLLIE ANG into a shape-shifting monstrosity, we are led to believe that the cause was a ghost (or in this case a demon) inside one of the Old People’s machines. Hence, both Peavy and Roland prove to be correct. W:64
(in plug, woken by miners)

DEMONSTUFF, JAR OF:
The people of FEDIC believed that the Red Death, the plague which wiped out their town, came from a jar of demonstuff that had been opened in CASTLE DISCORDIA. VI:244

DEVIL:
VI:247, VI:259, VI:318
(Satan),
VI:319
(Satan),
VII:582
(tempting),
VII:590
(tempting)

DEVIL GRASS:
Devil grass grows in the wastelands of Mid-World. In CALLA BRYN STURGIS, removing devil grass from the fields is New Earth’s first chore. This weed—which is the first growth to appear on ruined ground and the last to disappear once land is poisoned—is also narcotic. However, as we saw in
The Gunslinger,
smoking weed leads to
chewing weed, and chewing leads to death. Roland thinks that the devil powder (cocaine) of our world is very similar to devil grass.

When no other fuel is available, devil grass can be burned. However, burning it brings its own dangers. Devils dance in the greasy flickering flames and those who watch them can be drawn into the fire. I:12–13, I:15, I:23, I:28–29, I:34, I:35, I:36, I:39–40, I:44, I:51, I:118, I:119, I:138, II:40, II:65, II:73, II:100
(devil powder),
II:101
(devil dust),
II:141
(devil powder),
II:394, III:46, III:248, IV:268, V:3, V:403, VII:580, VII:588, VII:612, VII:829

DEVIL’S ARSE DEMONS/MONSTERS OF THE ABYSS:
These telepathic demons are neither for the CRIMSON KING nor against him. However, it seems reasonable to assume that they are creatures of the Outer Dark. Although they were once contained in a crack in the earth located near the town of Fedic, they are slowly tunneling toward the underground chambers below both the FEDIC DOGAN and Castle Discordia. It seems likely that these creatures originated in TODASH and are the GREAT ONES which MORDRED says live in that terrible no-place between worlds.
See
TODASH DEMONS
,
listed below.
VI:105, VII:539–40, VII:557, VII:567

DISCORDIA:
See
PRIM
,
listed separately

DUST-DEVILS:
VI:642

GREAT ONES:
See
TODASH DEMONS
,
listed below