The last of the gunslingers and the sole surviving member of a knightly order sworn to protect the Beams that hold the multiverse together. Roland has pursued the Man in Black across a dying world for years, driven by a singular obsession with the Dark Tower - the nexus of all realities. Trained from boyhood in Gilead, he is one of the finest warriors alive, possessed of an almost supernatural speed and accuracy with his revolvers. He is also ruthless, willing to put the quest above all else - a quality that defines him across eight books.

The primary antagonist of the early Dark Tower books and one of Stephen King's most recurring villains across his wider fiction. A sorcerer of vast age and power, Walter has manipulated events across countless worlds and centuries. He is the Man in Black whom Roland has been pursuing since the first line of the series. Devious and theatrical, he is a figure of genuine menace.

A big, blond, stolid young man from Gilead and one of Roland's closest friends, travelling under the alias Richard Stockworth. He possesses the touch - a psychic sensitivity that gives him premonitions and the ability to sense things others cannot. Calm and diplomatic, he serves as a mediator between Roland and Cuthbert during their conflicts. He is a capable fighter who helps Roland destroy Farson's supplies and rout his soldiers at Eyebolt Canyon.

An insane sentient monorail AI beneath the city of Lud. Demands riddles as the price for passage and threatens to kill the ka-tet if they fail to stump him.

The weapons master of Gilead who trained Roland and his generation of gunslingers. Brutal, demanding, and deeply traditional, Cort tested each apprentice with a formal combat trial that would either earn them their guns or exile them. Roland defeated him at an unusually young age - the youngest ever to do so - using a trained hawk named David. Cort appears primarily in the Wizard and Glass flashbacks and in Roland's memories throughout the series.

Roland's closest childhood friend and fellow apprentice gunslinger in Gilead. Quick-witted, humorous, and brave, Cuthbert is described as more intelligent and talkative than Roland, with a ready grin and a tendency to make jokes even in dire situations. He trains alongside Roland under Cort and witnesses key events including the hawk David's training, the cook Hax's treasonous plot, and Roland's unprecedented early challenge for his coming of age. He goes to his death laughing, blowing a horn.

A heroin addict from 1987 New York, drawn into Mid-World through one of the doors on the beach. Quick-witted and irreverent, Eddie has a gift for defusing tension through humour that masks a deep well of courage. He becomes one of Roland's most capable and loyal companions.

The leader of the Big Coffin Hunters, a trio of hired guns working for John Farson in the Barony of Mejis. An old man with a limp and long white hair, Jonas is cunning, dangerous, and ruthless. He was once a gunslinger's apprentice who failed his test and was sent west in disgrace. He coordinates the conspiracy to steal horses and oil for Farson's army, and frames Roland's ka-tet for the murders of Thorin and Rimer. He is killed by Roland in single combat on Reaping Night.

A boy from New York who finds himself drawn into Mid-World, where he becomes a companion to Roland and his ka-tet. Perceptive and brave beyond his years, Jake possesses a low-level psychic ability and bonds deeply with the billy-bumbler Oy.

A billy-bumbler - a raccoon-like creature native to Mid-World with limited speech ability - who attaches himself to Jake Chambers and becomes inseparable from him. Oy is capable of mimicking words, shows unusual loyalty and intelligence, and serves as both comic relief and emotional anchor for the ka-tet.

An ancient and powerful witch who lives atop Coos Hill east of Hambry, with her six-legged mutant cat Musty and a venomous snake called Ermot. She performs the proving-honesty ritual on Susan and becomes obsessively addicted to the Wizard's Glass, which wastes her body while fuelling her malice. She discovers Roland and Susan's affair through the glass, and after losing it to Jonas, directs her fury at Susan. She ultimately leads the mob that burns Susan alive on the Reaping bonfire.

A simple-minded but kind-hearted young man who works as a boy-of-all-work at the Travellers' Rest in Hambry. After Cuthbert saves his life from Depape, Sheemie becomes utterly devoted to the boys, especially Cuthbert. He serves as a go-between for Roland and Susan and helps free the boys from jail on Reaping Night. Despite his limited intelligence, he shows real courage and discretion. His mother was Dolores Sheemer, and the bartender Stanley Ruiz may be his father.

A beautiful sixteen-year-old girl from Hambry in the Barony of Mejis. Daughter of the late drover Pat Delgado, she is promised to Mayor Hart Thorin as his gilly in exchange for the return of her family's land and horses. She falls deeply in love with Roland during his time in Mejis and becomes his secret ally against the conspiracy. Brave, intelligent, and spirited, she is ultimately captured by Rhea of the Coos and burned alive on the Reaping bonfire. She is pregnant with Roland's child at the time of her death.

A civil rights activist from 1964 New York with dissociative identity disorder, drawn into Mid-World through one of the doors on the beach. Her two identities - the composed Odetta Holmes and the volatile, dangerous Detta Walker - must find a way to coexist. A wheelchair user who lost her legs below the knee in a subway accident, she becomes one of Roland's most formidable companions.

One of the Big Coffin Hunters, a man who wears a silk-lined cloak and carries himself with cold composure. He harbours a grudge against Chancellor Rimer for mocking him as Senor Manto and murders him on Reaping Night. He works with Jonas to camouflage oil tankers at Citgo and manage the conspiracy's logistics.

Susan Delgado's aunt and guardian, a thin, disapproving woman who brokered Susan's arrangement with Mayor Thorin. She manipulated her young niece into accepting the gilly compact using tears and appeals to her dead father's memory. She grows increasingly bitter and quarrelsome with Susan as the arrangement progresses, and ultimately joins Rhea in denouncing Susan, throwing ashes at her in the old ritual of renunciation.

The Mayor of Hambry and Chief Guard of Barony Mejis. An elderly man with bony fingers, white hair, and a compulsive knuckle-cracking habit, he has become infatuated with the young Susan Delgado and arranged for her to become his gilly. He is vain, easily manipulated by his Chancellor Rimer and by Jonas, and oblivious to the conspiracy being run from his own house. He is murdered by Depape on Reaping Night.

A powerful sorcerer who seduced Roland's mother Gabrielle and served as an agent of the Crimson King. He engineered Roland's premature test of manhood, hoping the boy would fail. Also known by many other names across worlds, he is the shadowy force behind much of the evil in Roland's early life. His enchantment of Gabrielle ultimately leads to her death at Roland's hands when the Wizard's Glass corrupts his vision.

One of the Big Coffin Hunters, a young, bespectacled man who wears a blue coffin tattoo on his hand. Cruel and hot-tempered, he nearly kills Sheemie for spilling a bucket on his boots. He rides east to investigate the boys' true identities and murders Mayor Thorin on Reaping Night, planting Cuthbert's rook skull to frame the boys.

Roland's father, a gunslinger of the twenty-ninth generation descended from Arthur of Eld. He sends Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain to Mejis to keep them safe from the growing conflict with John Farson, while also tasking them with counting the Barony's resources. He wrote the letter of introduction that the boys carry. A grave, wise man who understands the political situation better than most, he is mentioned throughout Roland's flashback as a guiding influence.