Roland Deschain
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Roland Deschain, son of Steven Deschain, of Gilead in New Canaan, and of the line of Eld, is a gunslinger, an agent of The White and the protagonist of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He is the son of Steven and Gabrielle Deschain (pronounced dess shane) and is descended from a long line of gunslingers. His image and personality are largely inspired by the "Man with No Name" from several of Sergio Leone's westerns, though his quest and many of his personal, internal conflicts are drawn from Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came."
Roland is alone at the beginning of the series, following the way of "ka", a variant of destiny that is similar in concept to other karmic ideologies. The term "ka-tet" is used for a group of people who are deeply bonded to each other through ka. The seven-book series is about Roland's acquisition of a new ka-tet and the completion of his quest. Roland is the last surviving gunslinger and is possessed (or, as he describes it himself, "addicted" -- Eddie Dean, an ex-heroin addict and member of Roland's ka-tet, calls Roland a "Tower junkie") by a quest to reach The Dark Tower, the axis upon which infinite numbers of parallel worlds rotate. The Dark Tower is under assault by the Crimson King, Lord of Discordia, a Satanic figure bent on destroying the Dark Tower by undermining the "Beams" that support it. Roland's oldest enemy is Randall Flagg, a villain who appears in many of King's works.
Roland is a descendant of his world's version of King Arthur, referred to in the series as Arthur Eld. In Wizard and Glass, he mentions that he is a 28th-generation descendant of one of Arthur's many whores. Even his guns were originally made of the melted-down metal from the legendary Excalibur sword. It is hinted that one must possess this sword in order to enter the Tower.
When we first meet him in "The Gunslinger", Roland's original desire was simply to climb to the Dark Tower's top to question whatever god may dwell there, but ka had greater plans for him.
Like his enemy the Crimson King, Roland Deschain both darkles and tincts. Leaping from one level of the Tower to another, he pursues his quest with steadfast single-mindedness. He is aided by his ka-tet, drawn from other levels of the Tower which mostly resemble our own, yet share traits with Roland's.
The series is also about Roland's redemption, as his quest has turned him into a virtually soulless killer by the time we first meet him. The ka-tet he acquires during the series bears many resemblances to his childhood ka-tet, who were all killed trying to help Roland on his quest. How he treats his new ka-tet when faced with decisions between their lives and his quest is a key component of the novels.
Roland became a gunslinger at the unheard-of age of 14, and immediately set out on a mission to the town of Hambry in the Outer Barony of Mejis with two members of his first ka-tet, Alain Johns and Cuthbert Allgood. While there, he came into the possession of a pink crystal ball, one of 13 magical artifacts referred to as "Maerlyn's Rainbow", with 12 colours representing the different Beams and their guardians and the 13th, the Dark Tower itself. It was while looking into this artifact that Roland first discovered his quest for the Dark Tower.
The big revolvers are described as long and heavy,with blued steel and sandalwood grips. During the search for some more ammunition in New York City in The Drawing of the Three, the guns are revealed to be chambered for .45 Long Colt ammunition.
Roland rarely misses with his guns.
King physically compares Roland to a pair of living people: Clint Eastwood in the Sergio Leone movies and, to a greater extent, Stephen King himself. There is a moment in the earlier books where Roland's apprentice, Jake, sees Clint Eastwood on a movie poster and remarks how similar his eyes are to the gunslinger's. In The Drawing of the Three, a police man who tries to arrest Roland later compares him to The Terminator. Roland himself sees Stephen King as a young man and recognizes that they share many of the same physical features. Physical appearance aside, King has often remarked that Roland is one of the few characters with which he could never really identify. By King's own words, Roland "scared him."
--MAD 13 June 2006
