The Dark Tower Books I - III: Roland's Journey
My completed map for the June/July 2018 Lite Challenge, “map a journey.” This map covers some key plot points from the first three books in the Dark Tower series. MINOR(ish) SPOILERS AHEAD. For those who aren't familiar with the Dark Tower series, it starts (as does the timeline on my map) with Roland following the Man in Black into the Mohaine Desert; the town of Tull is behind him when the novel begins. Roland is the last gunslinger - think Arthurian knights but with guns, which btw are forged from Excalibur because Roland's world is very similar to ours (our worlds are simply different levels of the Dark Tower, and there are doorways between them). Roland's world has "emptied" and "moved on" so things like time, direction, and distance are no longer trustworthy. Roland is an agent of The White; the Man in Black is an agent of the Crimson King, who seeks to tear down the Dark Tower, which is the linchpin of space and time and the multiverse. If the Tower falls, there will be chaos ruled by the Crimson King.
As Roland follows the Man in Black and seeks the Dark Tower, he assembles a "ka-tet" - a group of people bound together by Ka, which is fate/destiny and a universal force. The ka-tet is a close-knit family. The first 3 members of the ka-tet come from different times in our world's New York City or very close versions of it: Jake, a young boy; Eddie, an addict; and Odetta, a wealthy civil rights advocate with a second personality, the hardscrabble Detta. Odetta and Detta eventually fuse into Susannah and she and Eddie become gunslingers. The ka-tet eventually finds the path of the bear-turtle beam, which will lead them to the Dark Tower. Jake re-enters Roland's world and joins the ka-tet. Shortly thereafter they find a billy-bumbler, a highly intelligent animal (looks like a dog/woodchuck/raccoon) who can count and speak, which is rare since the world has moved on. Jake calls him "boy" and the billy-bumbler repeats "Oy," and so Oy is his name. Eventually the humans realize that Oy is a full-fledged member of the ka-tet. My map ends in Lud, which powerfully reminds Jake, Eddie, and Susannah of New York. After an adventure in Lud that I didn't document on the map, the ka-tet boards Blaine the Monorail (who is both pink and murderously insane) for a trip through the Wastelands.
The map was drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuous tablet, except that the trees in the Great West Woods and Willow Jungle are brushes, as is the skull at Golgotha. The font is The Dead Saloon.
I had an absolute blast making this map!
WIP thread is here.
Rolands Journey v9 (sm).jpg
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