Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (38 page)

GASHER’S FATHER:
When he died, he was so rotten with mandrus that the dogs wouldn’t even eat him. III:355

HOOTS:
Hoots is GASHER’s former lover. When we see him in the CRADLE OF THE GRAYS, he is a tall skinny man in a black suit. He has a terrible, itchy rash on his face, caused by mandrus. III:338, III:352–61, III:365–72, IV:646, V:44, V:187, VI:269

QUICK, DAVID:
Also known as the outlaw prince, David Quick was the original leader of the Grays. He was also the harrier who organized the sundry outlaw bands besieging the city of LUD. In
The Waste Lands,
Roland’s
ka-tet
finds his giant, mummified body in a wrecked German Focke-Wulf airplane a few days’ walk outside the city. David Quick was TICK-TOCK’s great-grandfather. III:241, III:244, III:273–75, III:355–56, III:358
(plane),
III:381, III:410, IV:22
(dead harrier),
V:265, W:47

TICK-TOCK (ANDREW QUICK):
Tick-Tock is the leader of the Grays at the time of Roland, JAKE, and OY’s little visit to the CRADLE OF THE GRAYS. He is also the great-grandson of DAVID QUICK, the outlaw prince. Tick-Tock reminds Jake Chambers of the Morlocks from H. G. Wells’s novel
The Time Machine.
This is probably due more to Tick-Tock’s sense of cruelty than to his actual appearance. With his heavily muscled upper body, long dirty gray-blond hair, and green eyes, he is one of LUD’s few healthy, vibrant inhabitants. In fact, Jake thinks he looks like a cross between a Viking and a giant from a child’s fairy tale. Tick-Tock’s name comes from the coffin-shaped clock around his neck. The clock runs backward. III:298, III:305, III:313, III:314, III:326, III:327, III:336, III:338–39, III:351–61, III:365–72, III:373, III:375, III:381, III:385–90, III:394, IV:28, IV:645–47
(in Oz; killed by Roland’s
ka-tet
),
IV:663, V:36, V:44, V:55, V:187, V:204, V:535, V:573
(as Morlock),
VI:269, VII:502, W:3, W:31

TICK-TOCK’S FAMILY AND FORMER ASSOCIATES:

DEWLAP:
Once upon a time, a scrawny old man named Dewlap worked the cider presses located in a park on the far western side of LUD. In the later chaos of that city, even the cider houses were probably destroyed. By the time our tale takes place, Dewlap and his companions are no more than memories in the damaged brain of the injured Andrew Quick (Tick-Tock). III:386

FATHER:
After he was scalped by JAKE’s bullet, Tick-Tock has a memory of his father taking him to see the cider presses of Lud. III:386

TILLY:
Tilly is one of the two female members of the Grays High Command. (Unfortunately, Tick-Tock murders the other one.) She looks like a red-haired female truck driver. III:353–61, III:365–72, III:373–74, IV:646

OTHER GRAYS:
After Blaine sets off the city’s alarms, Roland and Jake see a number of unnamed Grays fleeing through the gang’s kitchens. III:378

SCRUFFY MAN IN KITCHEN:
Blaine kills this man by dropping open an oven door and directing a blast of blue-white fire at his head. III:376

GREAT OLD ONES

See
OLD ONES

GREAT ONES

See
DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS
: TODASH DEMONS

GREATER DISCORDIA

See
PRIM

GREEN FOLK

See
ELURIA CHARACTERS

GREEN KING

See
WALTER

GREENCLOAKS

See
WOLVES

GRENFALL, LORD

See
ORIZA, LADY

GRISSOM

See
FARSON, JOHN
: FARSON’S MEN

**GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM (TOTEMS OF THE BEAM)

In
The Waste Lands,
Roland drew a metaphysical map of MID-WORLD. The map was circular and looked like a clockface, but its circumference contained twelve
X
’s rather than twelve numbers. Each
X
designated a PORTAL into, and out of, Mid-World. The twelve Portals were connected by six magnetic BEAMS. Each Beam, in turn, was guarded by two animal totems, or GUARDIANS. At the center of this map, in the place where all the Beams crossed, was the Thirteenth Gate or DARK TOWER, the linchpin of the macroverse.

During Roland’s youth, many people maintained that the Beams and Portals were natural. However, when Roland was a little boy, HAX (the traitorous cook we met in
The Gunslinger
) told him a strange story about the framework of the universe. He believed that the Tower, Beams, and Guardians were man-made, not naturally or divinely created. They were the handiwork of the GREAT OLD ONES and were manufactured as a penance for the sins those ancient people had committed against the earth, and against each other. This latter tale explains why GILEAD’s children were told that each Guardian had a thinking cap, or hat upon its head, which contained a second brain. This somewhat apocryphal story was based on the fact that all of the NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS Guardians had radar dishes coming out of their skulls.

When Roland was young, the Guardians were still revered. He sees them depicted outside HAMBRY’S MERCANTILE and then later upon the imposing CRADLE OF LUD, where they march along the roof in their Beam pairs. Many Mid-World sayings also invoke the Guardians, such as “Bird and Bear and Hare and Fish, Give my love her fondest wish.”

In the final book of the Dark Tower series, we find out that the Tower, Beams, and Guardians are simultaneously magical and mechanical. Before the coming of the world of form, all that existed in the universe was the magical PRIM, or soup of creation. From this GREATER DISCORDIA arose GAN, the spirit of the Dark Tower. From his towering body he spun the Beams, the ROSES of CAN’-KA NO REY, and the physical substance of the multiple worlds, which the Beams bind together. Once the worlds were formed, the Prim receded, but the magic of Tower, Beams, and Guardians remained.

However, the Great Old Ones—those technological wizards who once ruled Roland’s version of Earth—mourned the passing of the Prim. Although enough magic remained in Tower and Beams to last for eternity, the Old People used their technology to remake the supporting structures of the macroverse, and to create doorways into, and out of, as many
wheres
and
whens
as possible. As we saw as early as
The Waste Lands,
the outcome of this misconceived folly was disastrous. Not only were the manufactured Beams destined to become unstable and the Old Ones’ doorways fated to be used by the evil followers of the CRIMSON KING, but the cyborg Guardians themselves—much like BLAINE, that other psychotic North Central Positronics creation—were fated to descend into a
vicious, malfunctioning madness. When we meet the Bear Guardian (also known as SHARDIK, or MIR), he is coughing up white worms, a disease which (if we take a look at
The Talisman
by STEPHEN KING and Peter Straub) concurs with the breakdown of the time/space continuum.

By the time our
tet
reaches the DEVAR-TOI in the final book of the Dark Tower series, the Beams guarded by RAT and FISH, BAT and HARE, EAGLE and LION, and DOG and HORSE have all collapsed, and we can assume that their Positronics Guardians have already landed on the celestial junk pile. The only two guy-wires left holding the Tower in place are our
tet
’s Beam—the BEAR-TURTLE—and Gan’s Beam—the ELEPHANT-WOLF.

Luckily for all of us, the remaining magical Guardians, though weakened, are far from helpless. Just as Gan, the spirit of the Dark Tower, aids those who serve the WHITE, the Prim’s Guardians aid those who serve the Beams. In both
Wolves of the Calla
and
Song of Susannah,
the Turtle Guardian (in the form of a little CAN-TAH) takes an active role in assuring our
tet
’s success.

In
Song of Susannah,
we learn that the Tower, Beams, and Guardians have a shadow side as well. When the Prim receded, it left behind not only twelve Guardians to watch over the Beams, but also six mischievous, hermaphroditic DEMON ELEMENTALS. Just as the Guardians watch over the mortal world (including the world of men), these DEMON ASPECTS watch over the invisible world of spirits and demons. Although there are only six Demon Elementals, each of these demons has a male and a female aspect. Hence, there are twelve Demon Aspects, just as there are twelve Guardians. In the original version of
The Gunslinger,
we were told that a thirteenth Guardian, called the BEAST, guarded the Tower. If each of the Demon Elementals corresponds to one of the Guardians of the Beams, then the Crimson King, the polar opposite of Gan, must be (in his spider form at least) the Beast that guards the Tower. This would make perfect sense, since at least one of the Demon Elementals plays a large part in the Red King’s plan to destroy both Tower and multiverse.

Throughout the Dark Tower series, our
tet
follows the Bear-Turtle Beam, specifically the Beam of the Bear, Way of the Turtle (sometimes called Path of the Bear, Way of the Turtle), which leads from Shardik’s lair deep in the GREAT WEST WOODS to the Tower itself. Had our
tet
begun their journey on the same Beam, but from the Turtle’s (or MATURIN’s) end, they would have traveled along the Beam of the Turtle, Way of the Bear (Path of the Turtle, Way of the Bear).

GENERAL INFORMATION:
III:29, III:33, III:37–40
(40 thinking caps),
III:171, III:325, III:331, III:333, IV:222, IV:326, IV:328
(Hambry’s Mercantile),
IV:355
(and Reap charms),
IV:424, IV:464, IV:529, IV:536, IV:571, IV:573, IV:606–8, IV:629, IV:667, IV:668, V:405, VI:112, VI:296, VI:297, W:234, W:250

BAT:
III:39, IV:222
(Hambry’s Mercantile)

BEAR (SHARDIK/MIR):

DESIGN 4 GUARDIAN

SERIAL # AA 24123 CX 755431297 L 14

TYPE/SPECIES: BEAR

SHARDIK

**NR**SUBNUCLEAR CELLS MUST NOT

BE REPLACED**NR**

Shardik was made in the dim, unknown reaches of OUT-WORLD, where we can assume the factories of NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS operated. Standing seventy feet high, Shardik was the largest creature ever to walk the GREAT WEST WOODS. He was so huge that he seemed to be a moving building or a shaggy tower rather than a bear. The primitive people who came across Shardik in the years following the destruction of the OLD ONES’ world renamed the great bear Mir. In their language, Mir meant “the world beneath the world” (III:32). They believed him to be both a demon incarnate and the shadow of a god.

Although Shardik had roamed the woods for eighteen centuries before his encounter with our
ka-tet,
Roland believes that he is actually two or three thousand years old. By the time he attacks EDDIE DEAN at the beginning of
The Waste Lands,
this ancient cyborg has already been driven mad by the white worms tunneling through his body, and needs to be put out of his dangerous misery. (To save her husband Eddie, SUSANNAH DEAN kills Shardik by shooting the radar dish that spins on top of his head.) Though Shardik dies early on in our tale, his Beam still holds. This is probably due to the efforts of the magical TURTLE Guardian.

In
Wizard and Glass,
Eddie Dean has a dream-vision in which he and his friends stand before the fence surrounding the magic LOT. Written in dusky-pink letters upon the fence is the following rhyme:

See the BEAR of fearsome size!

All the WORLD’S within his eyes.

TIME grows thin, the past’s a riddle;

The TOWER awaits you in the middle. (Eddie’s Dream IV:100)

According to STEPHEN KING, the
kas-ka Gan
of our tale, Shardik’s name comes from a Richard Adams novel.
(III:11–86 section title: Bear and Bone),
III:19–21, III:24, III:25–36
(31 shot),
III:37, III:39, III:50–51
(backtrail and portal),
III:53–77
(58–65 following backtrail; 65–77 clearing and portal),
III:79, III:84, III:154, III:162, III:260, III:261, III:262, III:264, III:325, III:331, III:333, III:347, III:407, IV:42
(Eddie remembers him),
IV:222
(Hambry’s Mercantile),
IV:326, IV:481, V:37, V:45, V:166, V:378, V:512, V:573, V:649, V:665, V:681, VI:14, VI:83, VI:112, VI:296, VI:297, VI:359, VII:21, VII:34
(by Shardik),
VII:192, VII:232, VII:244, VII:272, VII:291, VII:295, VII:296, VII:301, VII:306, VII:307, VII:345, VII:409, VII:458, VII:466, VII:813

SERVOMECHANISMS (LITTLE GUARDIANS: TONKA TRACTOR, RAT, SNAKE, BLOCK, BAT):
These nasty little mechanical creatures serve Shardik. Like the Guardians, they each have a radar dish on top of their heads. After Shardik’s destruction, our
ka-tet
comes across their pathetic but dangerous little retinue walking round and round in a circle. When EDDIE lists these odd creatures in
Wolves of the Calla,
he names the snake, the Tonka tractor, the rat, and “some sort of mechanical bird” (it was a bat). The original retinue also contained a walking block. III:65–71,
III:72, III:153, III:260, V:378 (
snake, Tonka tractor, stainless steel rat, flying thing
), V:563 (
indirect
), V:665, V:681, VII:195

**BEAST, THE:
In the original version of
The Gunslinger,
WALTER tells Roland that the DARK TOWER is guarded by a Beast, who stands watch over it. This Beast is the originator of all
glammer
and is an even more powerful force than MAERLYN. According to Walter, Roland will have to confront this Beast before he reaches the Tower.

In the 2003 version of
The Gunslinger,
Walter mentions neither the Beast nor Maerlyn. Instead he tells Roland that he will have to slay the AGELESS STRANGER, whose other name is LEGION, before he meets his final enemy, THE CRIMSON KING. Interestingly, in his spider shape the Red King bears an uncanny resemblance to this terrible monster. I:212, III:261, IV:464–65
(and the wind)