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.
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.
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".
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."
Alain is one of Roland's original ka-tet, and along with the gunslinger and Cuthbert is evacuated to Mejis in Wizard, and Glass for safety, due to the ongoing war against John Farson.
Shortly before the battle of Jericho Hill, the last stand by the gunslingers of Gilead against Farson's men, Alain was accidentally killed by Roland and Cuthbert, who mistook him for an assassin in the night.
Jamie figures prominently in the novel The Wind Through the Keyhole, traveling with Roland to investigate rumors of a shape-changing "skin-man" that is attacking a frontier town.
Before consummating her relationship with Thorin, however, she falls in love with Roland and becomes involved in the young gunslinger's plans to prevent John Farson from using an oilfield near Hambry to supply his troops with crude oil.
Sheemie joined Roland's ka-tet briefly and helped the gunslingers ward off the Crimson King's followers until he and his mule Capi mysteriously disappeared.
Known mostly for his wisdom and forbearance, Vannay's analytical method of instruction and pacifistic nature serve as strong counterpoints to the ruthless application of force and cynical thought process exercised by Cort.
Whereas Shardik runs amok in The Waste Lands, nearly killing Eddie before it can be destroyed, Maturin is a totally benevolent (and incredibly powerful) presence in the story, helping the ka-tet at several points along their journey.
In Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower, a small ivory scrimshaw sculpture of Maturin comes into the ka-tet's possession, and with it, Susannah/Mia hypnotizes a stranger, forcing him to get Susannah/Mia a hotel room.
He has little gold framed glasses, a bad case of rheumatism, and a stooped posture; upon seeing him, Roland estimates that if he could stand straight, the two would be the same height (roughly 6'3").
Irene is a middle-aged housewife from Staten Island, somewhat neglected by her wealthy husband, who meets Roland, Jake, and Oy in Stoneham, Maine of the Keystone World in the year 1999.
His significance in the story is highlighted when Eddie and Jake visit the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind in 1977, where they discover a book in Calvin Tower's possession, written by Benjamin Slightman Jr.
the Good Man, was a former thief, murderer, and harrier in the lands west of Gilead in Roland's youth, later becoming a general of rebellious people from the lesser classes of Mid-World.
In Wizard and Glass, a then-teenage Roland and his ka-tet uncover and stop a plot by Farson to use crude oil from fields in the Barony of Mejis to fuel his rebellion.
It becomes clear that Blaine has a huge library of riddles from many different levels of the tower at his disposal, and programs to decipher plays on words or hidden clues, so the game seems doomed.
At the time that he is encountered by Roland, he is several thousand years old, malfunctioning, slowly dying, and infested with parasites (a reference to Richard Adams's novel Shardik).
Though the situation is initially resolved with diplomacy, the event reveals to Jonas the true nature of Roland and his friends (who were hiding incognito in Mejis under aliases) and blows their cover.
When the Big Coffin Hunters frame the young Gunslingers for murder he kills mayor Hart Thorin and plants the rook's skull that ties Cuthbert and by extension Roland and Alain to the crime.
In the comic series The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home, Reynolds is seen leading a posse of Mejis citizens in pursuit of Roland's Ka-tet, which they break off when Cuthbert Allgood cuts a rope bridge over a wild river.
Son of two fathers and two mothers, Mordred was born of Susannah's egg fertilized by the seed of both Roland of Gilead and the Crimson King, and carried to term by Mia.
Like the other members of his race, he dresses in garishly colored clothing and has a raw spot on his forehead that continually wells up with blood without scabbing or spilling down his face.
Among his actions in the series are: kidnapping Eddie Dean's older brother, Henry (who in turn overdoses on heroin before he can be saved), running over Jake with his car and killing him for the first time, and hiring out his musclemen to the Sombra Corporation.
Using the name of 'Joe Collins', he lures Roland and Susannah into his cottage on Odd Lane (the street that crosses Tower Road in the White Lands of Empathica, and an anagram of "Dandelo") and treats them to a feast.
After the gunslingers have moved on, Mordred Deschain, starving after weathering the storm out in the wilderness, fed on Lippy's corpse, which poisoned him and eventually contributed to his downfall.
Andy, who is described as reminiscent of C3PO from the Star Wars series, was created by Lamerk Industries (the same company that made the Twelve Guardians) and had lived in the Calla for thousands of years.
By the time it is encountered by Roland and his ka-tet, North Central Positronics is part of the Sombra Group, owned by the Crimson King, the personification of evil in the world of the Dark Tower.
In "The Waste Lands," Jake and Gasher, and later Roland, enter the underworld of the city of Lud via an iron manhole which is protected by a cover stamped with the label "LaMerk Foundry."