The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (22 page)

S
tephen King's official Web site, stephenking.com, has a section devoted to the Dark Tower series. It covers the books, the graphic novels, the artwork, connections to other books, has a glossary, and features a section called Discordia, which is the name for the chaos out of which Mid-World arose and to which the Crimson King wants all realities to return.

When King's Web site was revamped in 2007, designer Brian Stark came up with a concept that focused on North Central Positronics, the company built by the Great Old Ones to meld magic and technology in Mid-World. Imprints of NCP and its various subsidies, including Sombra Corporation and LaMerk Industries, are seen throughout the Dark Tower series. Stark thought that he could design the Dark Tower section of the Web site using a “retro-tech” theme derived using NCP concepts. The ultimate goal of the redesign was to sharpen the Dark Tower brand and present a better understanding of the story to the uninitiated.

The North Central Positronics concept gradually evolved into an online game—a progressive storytelling platform—called Discordia. It is inspired by the Dark Tower series, though it gradually developed its own mythology. The idea of an interactive experience appealed to King's personal assistant, Marsha DeFilippo, who had fielded many requests over the years for a video game based on the Dark Tower mythos. While the concept is firmly rooted in the ongoing war between Sombra Corporation and Tet Corporation, the
company founded to protect the rose and Stephen King in the real world, the Discordia story line reaches far beyond the day-to-day conflict between the two companies.

Phase I of the project took two years to develop and execute. King's former research assistant, Robin Furth, became the project's director. As Stark rendered the artwork, designs and animations using high-powered custom computers, he sought feedback from a focus group called the Secret Window that consisted of ten people who were regular visitors to the message board on King's site (including the author of this book). As executive producer, King approved all artwork and concepts and made decisions great and small, helping to keep the development team grounded in the world of the Dark Tower.

In Chapter I, which launched in late 2009, players are given a verbal mission briefing by Stephen King. In the role of Op19, a highly trained rookie agent working for the Tet Corporation's Investigation and Surveillance Unit, players are to search the Dixie Pig for magical objects created by North Central Positronics. Op19 is then to travel beneath the restaurant to the Fedic Dogan. If mutants or robots or Sombra Operatives are encountered, they are to be neutralized. Once the mission is complete, players will need to find a doorway back to the present, where they are to provide a full report.

Chapter I (now considered to be the prequel to Discordia) begins with a shooting range tutorial, where players acquire skills they will use in Chapter II. Then Op19 enters the filthy, disgusting Dixie Pig, fully rendered in 3D graphics that are utterly faithful to the way the restaurant is described in
The Dark Tower
. Alert players will observe details and items that reference the series as they explore. The exquisitely lit and incredibly detailed set features the main dining room, the kitchen, pantry, bathroom and VIP room. Players can explore these rooms by moving the mouse—a perspective that can be as dizzying as the one Roland experienced when he went through the doorway into Eddie Dean's body—and by clicking on numbered viewpoint icons that change Op19's location in the room.

To complete Chapter I, Op19 must find five magical items (an Oriza, for example) and seven orbs that depict major characters from the series, designed by Michael Whelan, the artist who illustrated the first and final novels. The model Whelan used for Father Callahan was David Williamson, the current proprietor of Betts Bookstore, an online store that deals exclusively in Stephen King books, many of them signed or rare. DeFilippo interviewed Williamson about the experience for King's official Web site.

As each orb is located, players are given the chance to download a high-resolution image as computer wallpaper. Printable high-resolution versions of
these definitive character depictions are awarded to players who find all the orbs. Whelan also contributed art used in the opening-credit animation and made other conceptual and art direction contributions for Discordia.

A secret passage provides access to a lobby that gives way to the mind-trap tunnel that leads up to the doorway that allows travel between New York and Fedic. Players who know the magic word that opens the door are rewarded with the closing credits.

Every time a player enters a new room, his journal is updated with a discussion of the room's significance to the story narrated from the point of view of Op19, who is investigating the Dixie Pig as a crime scene ten years after the fact. These entries contain hints about what players might expect to find in that room. Players can also access descriptions of the magical items and lengthy biographies of the characters associated with the orbs, all written by Dark Tower expert Robin Furth.

With Chapter II, which launched in 2013, the story branches out into completely new territory. Going down the rabbit hole, in the words of Brian Stark. New characters are introduced, and the war between the two powerful corporations veers off from King's story line. Roland and his
ka-tet
are not part of the plot except for their appearance in the orbs. However, members of the development team were mindful of “the faces of their fathers,” seeking to honor the original series while mapping new territory.

One of the interesting aspects of Discordia is the fact that it plays out in real time. Between Chapter I in 2009 and Chapter II in 2013, the world did not stand still. Op19 spent the intervening years in Mid-World, engaging in battles with opposing forces, monsters, demons and todash creatures. Op19 can't return to the Keystone World because he hasn't been able to find a working doorway out of Mid-World. Worse, the doorway to the Fedic Dogan malfunctioned after Op19 passed through, which means Tet Corporation can't send backup forces to assist him.

The real-time aspect goes a step further. Roland returned to the Mohaine Desert at the end of
The Dark Tower
. Time has been moving forward for him since then, so, by 2013, nearly a decade has passed. Roland has repeated the events of
The Gunslinger
and is asleep after his meeting with the man in black. He doesn't play a part in the interactive adventure, but the designers imagine that Op19 could conceivably venture off to the golgotha and find Roland asleep there.

There is a three-way struggle going on within the Fedic Dogan. The three sides are represented by Op19, Richard Sayre—who is working on behalf of the Crimson King to gather Breakers and bring down the Tower—and a new
character named Arina Yokova, a Russian mobster with a Mid-World fixation. Arina and her mercenaries are headquartered in Castle Discordia, which is protected by skilled marksmen and armed sentries. Sayre's operations are disrupted somewhat by the arrival of Op19 and Arina. He and his team are using isolated parts of the Dogan and the tunnels beneath as their base of operation.

Who is Arina Yokova? She is the daughter of Pasha Yokova, the boss of the Crimson Crescent, a multigenerational crime family, one of the oldest and most dangerous in the world. As a child, Arina was sheltered from her family's business. She was educated in Russian boarding schools and obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University.

While in graduate school, Arina's father dies and she inherits leadership of the Crimson Crescent from him. She has no choice but to accept the position, but she becomes a figurehead, delegating the day-to-day operations to other family members.

Arina is a huge fan of the works of Stephen King and, in particular, the Dark Tower series. Her studies in metaphysics and science lead her to believe that Mid-World and the Dark Tower really exist. She holds Roland Deschain in high regard and engages in online debates about the science of the Dark Tower. This attracts the attention of Sombra Corporation, who make her an offer she can't refuse. They tell her that her theories about the existence of the Dark Tower are true and that Roland really does exist. Once they offer to take her to Mid-World, she agrees to become the CEO of Sombra while maintaining a close connection with the Crimson Crescent.

In 2002, Sombra is looting the Fedic Dogan of the ultra-advanced weapons stored there, including weapons of mass destruction. Sombra reverse engineers and sells these weapons to private and government organizations connected to the Crimson Crescent in the Keystone World.

Arina is shocked, enraged and perplexed when, in 2004, she reads
The Dark Tower
. She interprets Roland's situation as being analogous to a software programming glitch that causes an infinite loop, and she becomes determined to free Roland from this loop, by any means necessary, an endeavor she code-names “The End Game.” Her advantage is this: she knows every detail of Roland's life from the Mohaine Desert forward.

To fund her operations in Mid-World, she embezzles billions of dollars of profits that Sombra's arms operation garnered, using the Crimson Crescent's money-laundering network. Once her crimes become known to intelligence and investigative organizations in the Keystone World, Arina becomes a hunted woman, but she is safe from arrest in Mid-World. She takes advantage
of the hundreds of magical and scientific doorways in the rotunda to gather as much information about the Dark Tower as she can.

This is the situation Op19 encounters on the other side of the Fedic door and forms the basis for Chapter II of Discordia.

A
N
I
NTERVIEW WITH
B
RIAN
S
TARK

Brian Stark is the producer and art director responsible for more than one hundred interactive and branding projects. He created the Streetwise.com portal and co-owned a production boutique in New York, building a catalog of well-known and highly respected clients.

He became a specialist in interactive culture and admits to an obsession with culture, motion pictures, music and technology. A filmmaker at heart, he attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan but, during orientation, discovered that digital video editing was poised to make what he was being taught in the classroom obsolete.

He took a job as a digital video editor for a CD-ROM developer that exposed him to programs like Adobe Premier and Macromedia Director. Then he began to experiment with digital music and sound. He and his partner created a Web site for their Vertigo Studios in 1996. Vertigo produced dozens of songs for companies around the country. Stark then switched gears, building Web sites for other companies, which is where he discovered Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash, a product that brought new freedom to Web designers with motion graphics and integrated sound.

His obsession with Flash developed into an asset. He worked on projects for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Harvest Consulting. He then created Streetwise.com, which was an immediate success, drawing the attention of
Time
,
Billboard
, the
Wall Street Journal
and the
New York Times
. He created and maintained interactive content for bands like Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Papa Roach, and the attendant publicity got him side gigs with Ozzfest and others. He also produced the official Web site for the movie
Almost Famous
for DreamWorks.

He and his partner reinvented themselves as Metro Digital Media Artists. One of their first big jobs was building the official Web site for
La Bohème
on Broadway. They followed up with sites for
Les Misérables
and
Man of La Mancha
.

In 2004, he was hired by Stephen King to work on the Dark Tower section of his Web site. The following interview was conducted by phone in February 2012, prior to the launch of the second phase of Discordia.

Q:   How did the connection with King come along? Did he approach your company?

Q:   What was your familiarity with King at that point? Were you a fan?

Q:   At some point you decided to do a Dark Tower section of the Web site. Was that Steve's suggestion?