The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (65 page)

Physical description: He can take whatever form suits him, and he usually wears a hood. Sometimes he sports a handsome, regular face. Sometimes he has a pallid complexion, ragged, matted black hair, a high forehead, dark and brilliant eyes, a nondescript nose and full and sensual lips. To others, when he drops his hood, he has the snarling face of a human weasel. Sometimes he has the same red mark in his forehead as the low men.

O
LD
P
A
(4)

The Mid-World version of Noah.

O
LD
P
EOPLE OR
O
LD
O
NES

See Great Old Ones.

O
MAHA
(4)

A one-eyed gambler whom Roland knew. He died with a knife in his throat at a Watch Me table.

O
RIZA
, L
ADY
(5, M)

The Lady of the Rice. Daughter of Lord Grenville. Also called Lady Riza and the Lady of the Plate. She avenges her father's death by slaying Gray Dick, his murderer, with a sharpened plate during a dinner at her castle, Waydon, on the banks of the River Send. The Sisters of Oriza throw plates once a month in tribute to her. Her servant is Maid Marian. She is both a legendary heroine and a goddess to the people of Mid-World. Some say she gave birth to the first man. Her spirit turns back the seminon winds at the River Whye because Lord Seminon married her sister and Lady Oriza wanted him for herself.

O
RTEGA
, M
ILLICENT
(4)

A resident of Hambry.

O'S
HYVEN
, T
HERESA
M
ARIA
D
OLORES
(3)

A woman from Hambry, a forty-year-old mother of four. She sells rugs and draperies in the Upper Market. Her husband, Peter, is a range-rider and her family is middle-class. Rhea, via the grapefruit, discovers her strange obsessive madness that causes her to lick the corners of her house clean. She sometimes gets splinters on her tongue from doing this.

O'
T
EGO
, F
INLI
(5, 7)

A taheen, chief of security at Algul Siento. He's more than three hundred years old. He has a sleek weasel's head, several rows of tiny sharp teeth and unexpressive black eyes. He wears a lot of gold chains and had his tail docked, a decision he now regrets. He is smart and very good at his job and is proud of his ability to read and appreciate human literature. He thinks low men are odd. He allowed them to take the credit for bringing back Ted Brautigan, but
he choreographed the recovery. During the battle of Algul Siento, he shoots Ted Brautigan in the arm. It might have been worse, but Dani Rostov tackled him and slowed him down. Eddie finds him dying in Main Street of Pleasantville. When asked if he has any last words, Finli is contemptuous of the way the
ka-tet
ambushed them, but when Eddie asks him how he can defend what he was doing to the world, all Finli can say is that he had his orders. Eddie shoots him in the head.

O'
T
EGO
, G
ASKIE
(5, 7)

Deputy security chief at Algul Siento. Susannah kills him with a head shot.

O'
T
EGO
, H
UMMA
(7)

Master of Algul Siento when Ted Brautigan arrived. He executed a low man who raped a Breaker. He may have lost his job (and his life) because Ted escaped.

O
VERHOLSER
, W
AYNE
D
ALE
(5, 6)

Owner of the Seven Mile Farm, the biggest in Calla Bryn Sturgis. Son of Alan, though he lost his parents when he was young. He has only two children, both grown singletons, a boy and a girl two years apart. A smart and successful man. He's used to getting his way in town and tends to be overbearing and pompous, though he strikes Roland as a good enough fellow. A man unused to changing his mind, once he meets Roland he finds himself looking for a way to say yes. Some of the other ranchers call him Wayne the Weathervane because he swings this way and that. His late twin brother Welland was nine when the Wolves took him. Ultimately he comes around to Roland's side and becomes a staunch supporter. Standing aside makes him sick.

Physical description: He's about sixty. His heavy cheeks will be jowls in another five years. He has a vast, sloping belly, a tight mouth and shrewd eyes. He has “I want” lines in his brow and cheeks.

O
Y
(3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, M)

A billy-bumbler. His name comes from his attempt to pronounce the word “boy.” He remembers men and has limited speaking skills, mostly imitating what he hears, though he sometimes seems to say something that might be the product of original thought. He has a low, deep voice, almost a bark. He was limping from a bite when he encountered the
ka-tet
, probably because he was driven out of his pack for being too smart or talkative. He proves to Roland
that he can count when he surveils Tick-Tock Man's lair. He has a mild case of the touch and feels
ka-shume
along with everyone else.

Bumblers are supposed to be good luck. Like all bumblers, Oy is sensitive to starkblasts, adept at finding muffin-balls, good at following scents and knows the Grandfather-fleas in the Dixie Pig as old enemies that he was bred to kill. He seems to have human emotions and has been known to cry and swear. He is shy around most people except Jake, but he occasionally surprises by being friendly. He understands that Jake should see what Ben Slightman and Andy are up to and wakes the boy. He proves himself fearless and valuable during his time with Roland. He remains in Mid-World to sacrifice his life for Roland when he could easily have gone to New York with Susannah.

Physical description: He looks like a blend of raccoon, woodchuck and dachshund, with a furry corkscrew tail, black paws, black-and-gray striped fur that is silky to the touch, gold-ringed black eyes, a long and graceful neck, a sharp, whiskery snout, a slender black nose and a toothy grin. When threatened, he can puff his fur out to nearly double his normal size. He was based on King's Welsh corgi.

P
ADICK
, S
AM
(7)

The miller from Delain who was Walter o'Dim's father.

P
ADICK
, W
ALTER
(7)

Walter o'Dim's name when he was a boy in Delain fifteen hundred years ago. Son of Sam Padick. He ran away from home at the age of thirteen. In the Marvel comics, Walter was born of supernatural beings who left him in Delain to be raised human. He left to find his real parents.

P
ATRICIA THE
M
ONO
(3, 4, 4.5, 6, 7)

A sentient blue monorail with beautiful glass sides that served the Northwest Baronies. Her route also took her to Fedic in Discordia, where she was used during the evacuation after the Red Death came. After technology declined in Lud, she grew lonely and mad. She started developing a spiritual malaise. Her constant sobbing disturbed Blaine, so he erased the circuits that controlled her nonvoluntary actions, allowing her to commit suicide by plunging off a broken rail line into the Send River.

P
EAVY
, H
UGH
(4.5)

High sheriff of Debaria. A big-bellied man with long white hair and a droopy mustache. When he was a deputy, Steven Deschain led a posse against the Crow Gang. When the outlaws killed his sheriff and the rest of the posse, Peavy followed Deschain into battle, killed two of the Crow Gang and dug a bullet out of Deschain's arm with his knife. Steven Deschain gave him credit for destroying the gang, which led to his being sheriff ever since. By the time Roland brings him the bullet as a gift, Peavy is tired of blood and no longer interested in mysteries.

P
ERTH
, L
ORD
(3, 4, 4.5, 5)

A tall man, part of a legend similar to Goliath. “Thus fell Lord Perth, and the earth did shake with that thunder,” people say. Roland told his
ka-tet
that he has played Lord Perth in his time. David Quick, who died in a plane crash outside Lud, may be the inspiration for this legend.

P
ETTIE THE
T
ROTTER
(4, 7)

A prostitute who works at the Travellers' Rest in Hambry. She also sings and dances the bump and grind. Her days as a prostitute are nearing an end and she thinks she might become a bartender when she's done, so she sometimes fills in when Stanley Ruiz is busy.

P
HIL
(7)

The Asimov robot that drove the bus that picked up Ted Brautigan and the other Breakers who arrived in Thunderclap Station from Santa Mira. He was in bad shape at the time and died not long after and was dumped in the robot graveyard.

P
ICKENS
(4.5)

One of two not-so-good deputies in Debaria. A little man with a peculiar undershot jaw.

P
ITTSTON
, S
YLVIA
(1, 3, 4, M)

A wandering preacher who came from beyond the Mohaine Desert to Tull. The year before Roland arrived in Hambry, she passed through town. The man in black told her he impregnated her with the Crimson King's child. Roland says it is a demon child and rids her of it. She preaches against
Roland, calling him the Interloper, and raises the townspeople against him. Roland kills her, along with everyone else in Tull.

P
OSELLA
, F
ARREN
(5)

A farmhand in Calla Bryn Sturgis.

P
RENTISS
, P
IMLI
(7)

The Master of Algul Siento. Originally Paul Prentiss of Rahway, New Jersey. He's about six foot two, balding, grossly overweight and has the nose of a veteran drinker. After he was laid off as a prison guard at Attica in 1970, he found the job at the Breaker prison in the
New York Times
. He appears to be fifty years old, but he was fifty when he came to Thunderclap at least twenty-five years ago. The poisonous atmosphere gives him pimples and a cyst on his neck.

He believes he's doing God's work and sincerely cares for his prisoners, whether they like it or not. He doesn't care that there's no money in his job. The benefits are exceptional. He wallows in food, booze and sex. On the day of the battle, he feels something amiss and takes his pistol with him. Roland shoots him in the back of the head, but it wasn't a kill shot. Prentiss recovers long enough to inflict major damage on the
ka-tet
. Roland's second shot kills him.

P
UBES
(3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

One of two factions fighting in Lud for many years. So called because they were, on average, younger than their adversaries. They were the original residents of Lud, a group comprised of artisans and manufacturers. They used the Great Old Ones' weapons against the invading force, the Grays led by David Quick, until they stopped working. They became superstitious and believed the drums broadcast through the city's network of speakers were a sign from the gods demanding human sacrifice.

Q
UICK
, A
NDREW
(3)

The Tick-Tock Man's real name. He is David Quick's great-grandson and leader of the Grays in Lud. Shot in the head by Jake Chambers but not killed. Randall Flagg turned him into one of his minions. The
ka-tet
shoots him to death in the Green Palace.

Q
UICK
, D
AVID
(3, 4, 4.5, 5)

Legendary outlaw prince and inspiration for the legend of Lord Perth. He was the leader of the last army of Grays that fought the Pubes for control of Lud.
He was killed in an airplane crash ninety years before the
ka-tet
reaches Lud. His great-grandson is Andrew Quick, also known as the Tick-Tock Man.

Q
UINT
, H
IRAM
(4)

From the Piano Ranch in Hambry. A trustworthy idiot. He owns a musketoon gun. He is one of the people assigned to guard the tankers at Citgo and is ordered to send for oxen to pull them out to Hanging Rock. Jonas leaves him in charge of the lead party when they turn back in the Bad Grass. He survives the ambush at Hanging Rock and flees.

R
AINES
(4)

The bugler in Rodney Hendricks's company. A pimply, scared-looking boy with a dented bugle on a frayed strap.

R
ALPH
(L, M)

One of the slow mutants who killed everyone in Eluria and ambushed the caravan that John and James Norman were guarding. He leads the group of muties against Roland in the town square. He wears ancient red suspenders over rags of shirt and a filthy bowler hat. He has only one good eye. The Little Sisters bribe him with whiskey and tobacco to get him to take the religious medallion from around John Norman's neck. He's smart enough to draw blood so they will be distracted and he can escape.

R
ANDOLPH
([1], M)

A survivor of the fall of Gilead. His wife, Chloe, and young son, Edmund, are captured by Farson and used to turn him into a traitor against Roland's
ka-tet
. He provides misleading information that leads to General DeMullet's death. When his duplicity is revealed, he shoots himself. Walter had already killed Chloe and Edmund. His name is mentioned only in the original version of
The Gunslinger
and the person who betrays the
ka-tet
is never identified in
Wolves of the Calla
.

R
AVENHEAD
, P
IET
(4)

His signature affirms Richard Stockworth's identity when Alain goes to Mejis.

R
EED
, J
AMES
(4)