Towerpedia:Can-toi

The can-toi are fictional characters in author Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Known for their loud clothing and not-quite human appearance, the can-toi are the henchmen of the Crimson King.

Like the taheen, the can-toi have human bodies, but the heads of animals. However, while taheen heads tend to vary, the heads of the can-toi are typically the louse-infested heads of rats with red hair and multiple rows of teeth.

The can-toi hide their rat-heads behind unconvincing humanoid masks that are grown from a kind of living latex. Because the masks are living things, they have to breathe. This is done through a red hole on the forehead that resembles a bleeding eye. When the can-toi travel to our world, these holes usually dry up, making it easier for them to pass as human.

The can-toi worship the human form, believing they are becoming human and will replace mankind after the fall of the Dark Tower. At a certain point in their development, the can-toi are given human names by their clan-fam, with often humorous results. Van Gogh Baez and James Cagney are but two examples.

The primary job of the can-toi is to care for the Breakers in the Devar-toi, although they also hunt down escapees through the use of lost pet posters and secret coded pavement messages filled with stars and moons. Like the Big Coffin Hunters, many can-toi have blue coffins tattooed on their hands.

At home in the Algul Siento, the can-toi live in Heartbreak House, where they often engage in hanging pictures upside down, which they consider the height of humor.

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References

Furth, Robin. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance. Scribner, 2006. ISBN 0743297342

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