Hi,

first I'm new to this board and I find it very interesting in solving some questions I had while reading The Dark Tower the first time. I apologise for my English.
I have always been into fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings and the mixture of Western with Fantasy the Dark Tower Series provides was really cool and they became my favorite novels.
What I always liked was analyzing stories. Their mythology, their geography, timelines etc. What startes in the early days with Lord of the Rings (for example refering in the 8th grade in school about the geography of Middle-Earth) and found its extreme form in analyzing the TV Series LOST. (yeah I loved that show)

So yeah... after reading the Dark Tower several times I found some things in the story (especially the timeline) that don't make sense to me or maybe I just got confused. Also I'm reading the GERMAN version of the books maybe there are translation mistakes... I don't know...

One thing is that I don't understand the nature of the Calla Borderlands. I Wolves of the Calla Roland remarks that the Callas are not part of his world anymore and his world ended after Lud. In other cases it is refered to be part of Rolands world supported by the fact that the Calla Folken know about Gilead and about Lud (TWTTKH for example). Even relicts of the Old Ones can be found.
So what is now correct? Is the Calla Borderland just the region between the ancient kingdom of Mid-World and End-World or is it another world/reality like the Kansas of THE STAND Roland and Company passed? Or I am mistaken about the meaning of the word "World"? Does it more or less be another mid-worldish term for "Land"?

My other questions are more or less connected to the quesion if the Callas and End-World itself can be considered as part of Rolands World. When I read about Mias story in Song of Susannah she explained some of the things that happendes in Discordia Castle and Fedic and somehow this whole thing doesn't also make sense to me.

She was trapped in Fedic and stalked the population and said that in this days most people werent even fertile or just had slow mutants as children. This sounds for me that this has to be after the Old Ones destroyed themselves and hundrets of years before Arthur Eld was born. But when she talked about the child "Michael" Susannah asked about the Wolves and Mia said that they appeared 200 years later?! She also said that she watched the child and his parents enter Patricia The Mono.

What? That doesn't make sense at all! The whole timeline seems to be messed up.

We know that the Old Ones destroyed themselves thousands of years ago and Arthur Eld came to power roughly 700 years before Roland was born.
We know that Roland somehow scipped generations while being on the search for the Dark Tower. Blaine the Mono says that it has been 300 years the last time a Gunslinger walked through In-World and Mid-World. This is also supported by the fact that the Calla Folken see Gilead and Jericho Hill as something that existed 1000 years before their time and this even confused Roland a little bit. If I am right then Roland and is mates skipped after Blaine additional 700 years!

We know that the wolves first attacked the Calla 160 years before the Ka-Tet started to help them. We know that Patricia killed herself/itself some time before the Ka-Tet left Lud with Blaine. Remeber, this has to be 700 years before our Ka-Tet enters Calla Bryn Sturgis. So if Baby Michael and parents entered Patricia this has to be more than 700 years before Susannah talks with Mia about all the stuff with the Dogan and the Red Death but in her story this has to take place roughly 360 years before their palaver. But 360 years ago Patricia was lying dead in the river Send. 200 years + 160 years!

I hope you can get what I was wondering about. Is this a big mistake King made in the book or missed I something important and don't come with a term like "The Wold has moved on"!


Other questions I got is about the Old Ones and their Empire.

Am I right to assume that the Old Ones Empire is also one of the infinite number of Alternative Americas what is just thousands of years ahead of us? If this is correct Gilead and the other baronies are situated on the North American continent. Right? I mean there are relicts like the Citgo Oil Field, Amoco Gas Stations, Chevrolets and even their military outposts have computers where "Made in USA" is written on. Or do this things in Mid-World just exist because of the breakdowns of reality?
We know that there are United States with different presidents... maybe there was an United States what somehow in later years screwed democracy and became an Empire. Like the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire. Are my assumptions correct or should I forget this whole "Mid-World is the USA in a distant future"Thing?

I hope my questions are still understandable... sorry again for my English.

So I just got one last question left... maybe it is easy to solve. In Mid-World we have the Kissing Moon, Huntress Moon, Peddlers Moon and the Demon Moon. So this are just phases of one of the same moon right? There are not four moons circling around Mid-World? And what about the pictures this moon phases show? Can we take the appearance of (for example) the grinning demon on the moons surface literally or is it just what the inhabitants of Mid-World see because of their folklore? Because in our world we also have different names for the Lunar Mare on our moon. Some cultures see a hare, others see a skull other the face of the "man in the moon".

I hope you will answer my questions and help me solving them. Thank you.