List of The Dark Tower characters
is a series of eight novels written by American author Stephen King, which incorporate multiple genres including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. Below are The Dark Tower characters that come into play as the series progresses.
Protagonists
Ka-tet of the Nineteen and/or Ninety and Nine
Roland Deschain
Roland Deschain, son of Steven Deschain, was born in the Barony of Gilead, in In-World. Roland is the last surviving gunslinger, a man whose goal is finding and climbing to the top of the Dark Tower, purported to be the very center of existence, so that he may right the wrongs in his land. This quest is his obsession, monomania and geas to Roland: In the beginning the success of the quest is more important than the lives of his family and friends. He is a man who lacks imagination, and this is one of the stated reasons for his survival against all odds: he can not imagine anything other than surviving to find the Tower.Eddie Dean
Edward Cantor "Eddie" Dean first appears in The Drawing of the Three, in which Roland encounters three doors that open into the New York City of our world in different times. Through these doors, Roland draws companions who will join him on his quest, as the Man In Black foretold. The first to be drawn is Eddie Dean, a drug addict and a first-time cocaine mule. Eddie lives with his older brother and fellow junkie Henry, whom Eddie reveres despite the corrupting influence Henry has had upon his life. Roland helps Eddie fight off a gang of mobsters for whom he was transporting the cocaine, but not before Eddie discovers that Henry has died from an overdose of heroin in the company of the aforementioned mobsters. It is because of Eddie's heroin addiction that he is termed 'The Prisoner'.Roland also acquires a small quantity of medicine for his infection during the trip to Eddie's world, but this only temporarily quells the fever until he picks up a larger supply while inside the body of Jack Mort.
Eddie passes through the door into Roland's world, and faces heroin withdrawal symptoms, but despite his suffering, he also shows an affinity for the way of the gun—and a good deal of what Roland calls 'steel'. Unwillingly at first, Eddie becomes Roland's companion through Mid-World, and he soon falls in love with Susannah, the next member of Roland's ka-tet. Eddie and Susannah consider themselves husband and wife, although they never formally marry.
Roland and Eddie frequently clash due to their differing personalities; while Roland is often calculating and distant, Eddie is intuitive and emotionally present. Initially mistaken for a lack of seriousness, Eddie's frequent joking, emotional outbursts, and pop culture references irritated Roland; however, he earns Roland's respect by asserting his quick thinking and imagination to defeat Blaine the monorail during their 'riddle' duel in Wizard and Glass.
In the final novel, during the attack on Algul Siento, Eddie is shot and killed by Pimli Prentiss, the master of the establishment.
Roland also notes that Eddie's character strongly resembles that of Cuthbert, a gunslinger of Roland's past, and one of Roland's greatest friends. The character of Cuthbert is mentioned in Browning's poem and is described most fully in The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, although he is first mentioned in The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger.
Susannah Dean
Also hailing from New York City, Susannah is a black woman with two major afflictions: her legs below the knees were severed in a subway accident, and a childhood head injury left her with dual personalities, which Eddie incorrectly labels schizophrenia. She is "The Lady of Shadows", the second companion predicted by Walter to be drawn into Roland's world via the mysterious doors.Initially, her dominant personality is that of Odetta Susannah Holmes, a well-mannered but priggish woman active in the civil rights movement. At times, however, she is taken over by Detta Susannah Walker—murderously psychotic, incredibly crafty, completely unbreakable—whom neither Eddie nor Roland can control. Neither Odetta nor Detta are aware of the existence of the other, and confabulate memories for the periods when they are not the dominant personality. Roland manages to resolve these personalities by forcing Detta to look through the third door while he himself looks out of it, forcing Detta and Odetta to see themselves for what they really are, and almost kill each other upon realising their presence. However, Odetta chooses to embrace Detta, and the personalities are integrated into a single, far more balanced individual, known as Susannah Dean, Eddie's wife, although they were never formally married. Susannah has access to the memories and personalities of both Holmes and Walker, and can call upon their skills and temperaments at will.
During the drawing of Jake, she submits to sex with the demon of the doorway, in order to distract it, and afterwards, she becomes pregnant. Susannah shares the experience of her pregnancy with a demon-turned-mortal named Mia, resulting in Susannah housing yet another personality in her mind. Mia takes over Susannah's body and runs in it to yet another when of New York, this one circa 1999, to give birth to the demon child.
Susannah is the only member of either of Roland's two ka-tets to leave him voluntarily without dying. She asks Patrick Danville to draw an "unfound" door she has seen in her dreams, then uses it to depart from Roland's world and enter a parallel version of New York in which Eddie and Jake are alive. She takes one of Roland's guns with her into this world, but discards it after finding that it has become rusty and useless.
Jake Chambers
Jake Chambers is an eleven-year-old boy from the New York of 1977, and is considered by Roland to be his "true son". Jake's given name is John, but he prefers to be known by Jake, and is called "'Bama" by his housekeeper, who is far closer to him than his parents. In his home world, he dies at the hands of Jack Mort and ends up in Roland's world as a result. The gunslinger and the boy travel together in pursuit of the Man in Black, developing a strong bond along the way. However, in order to reach the Man in Black, Roland lets Jake fall to his death.The person Roland allowed to die reappears in Roland's mind in The Waste Lands resulting in a paradox. Since Roland prevented Mort from shoving Jake into traffic, he never died, therefore he never appeared in Mid-World and was never left to die under the mountains. Jake and Roland, however, can remember both timelines, and the knowledge is slowly driving them insane.
In the first half of The Waste Lands, Roland's ka-tet figure out a way to draw Jake into Mid-World, where he belongs. Eddie is driven to whittle a key out of wood as they approach a Speaking Ring, where he draws a door on the ground, this one guarded by an invisible demon. Susannah distracts the demon by allowing it to copulate with her, while Eddie perfects the key and uses it to open the door. On the other side, in 1977, Jake finds a vacant lot that contains a silver key and a rose that represents the Dark Tower. Guided by their dreams of each other, Eddie's younger self from this time leads Jake to an abandoned house, filled with evil spirits and a horrendous gatekeeper. Jake fights through them to reach and unlock one particular door, with timely assistance from Roland, and is pulled into Mid-World once again. This action resolves the paradoxes in the minds of both Jake and Roland, and their sanity is restored.
On the journey, Jake befriends a billy-bumbler who he calls Oy, who provides comfort for the boy on his quest. While crossing the desolate city of Lud, Jake is kidnapped by a deranged resident of the city. He allows himself to be taken in exchange for the rest of the group's safe passage, and Roland promises to come for Jake, despite having to abandon him temporarily. Despite the danger it poses, he rescues Jake with the help of Oy, reaffirming the father-son bond that has grown between them. Like Eddie and Susannah, Jake shows amazing aptitude to the way of a gunslinger.
Jake is the second member of the ka-tet to die, when he sacrifices himself to save Stephen King from certain death by putting himself between King and the van meant to take his life. By the end of the tale Jake has died a total of three times. An alternate version of Jake is encountered later by Susannah Dean; in this world, he and Eddie are brothers, with the last name Toren.
Roland also notes that Jake strongly resembles Alain, another gunslinger, in his stable, reserved personality and talent with a psychic skill referred to as "the touch." Alain is described mostly by his time with Roland as a teen in Wizard and Glass.
Oy
Oy is a "billy-bumbler," a strange creature found in Roland Deschain's world. King describes Oy in the "Argument", or foreword, of the fourth book, Wizard and Glass—"Bumblers, which look like a combination of badger, raccoon, and dog, have a limited speaking ability". Elsewhere, bumblers are described as "a combination raccoon and woodchuck, with a little dachshund thrown in." At one point, Eddie calls Oy "a fucked-up weasel". Oy's voice is described as "low and deep, almost a bark; the voice of an English footballer with a bad cold in his throat."Regarding Oy's appearance, by far the most frequently described feature throughout the series is his large, "bright" almost glowing, "intelligent, gold-ringed eyes", though King also frequently refers to the creature's "disproportionately long," "surprisingly graceful neck". The creature has "black- and grey-striped fur" and a "furry corkscrew tail".
At the time of their meeting, Roland concedes that Oy may quite possibly be meant as another member of their ka-tet. This is confirmed in Wizard and Glass, when the ka-tet cannot enter "The Emerald City" until all of them—including Oy—are wearing ruby slippers. Later, in the 6th book, this is commemorated when the Tet Corporation forms as the association of "Deschain, Dean, Dean, Chambers, and Oy."
Oy develops emotions and even a sense of humanity beyond that of his ability to replicate some words that the others speak. Oy is often referred as the smartest bumbler that characters have seen since the world had moved on. Oy provides a much-needed shelter from the harsh nature of the quest for Jake, often playing with him or providing moments of lightheartedness to the ka-tet. His deep loyalty to his friend saves Jake's life several times, and he remains part of Roland's ka-tet even after the boy dies, as a final request from Jake.
Oy is killed in the last Dark Tower book. He saves Roland's life by attacking Mordred, who came to kill Roland in his sleep. Mordred snaps Oy's back and impales him on a tree limb while the bumbler is defending his friend, but Oy finds enough strength to lick Roland's hand one time before he dies. Stephen King hints that Oy will be found in the same universe that Susannah travels to and will be in some form of a dog with "odd, gold-ringed eyes and a bark that eerily resembles human speech."