The Crimson King

The Crimson King

The ultimate in evil, this mysterious figure wishes to conquer the Dark Tower and raze it to the ground. Since this will destroy the entire universe, the Crimson King is naturally cast as the villain in The Dark Tower books. He is also known as Ram Aballah, and once ruled from his castle in End-World, but now is imprisoned on a balcony on the Dark Tower, which he had run to in a fit of madness that had taken him over. He believes that when the Tower falls, he will rule the Todash darkness that was once the multiverse. He is the one whom Walter/Flagg serves, whom the low men and taheen serve, and he has opposed Roland of Gilead from the beginning. The Crimson King is known by a number of names, including Los' the Red, Ram Aballah, The Aballah, The Kingfish, The Red King, The Lord of Spiders, and The Lord of Discordia. He also appears in Insomnia as a higher being trying to murder Patrick Danville as a child.According to the Dark Tower comics, the Crimson King was the bastard offspring of Arthur Eld, a legendary gunslinger, and the Crimson Queen, a demonic creature of the Prim – the chaotic primordial void from which the Dark Tower, and all universes, arose. With the aid of the wizard Maerlyn, the Crimson Queen took on human form and deceived Arther Eld to achieve this union. The main protagonist of the series, Roland Deschain, is himself a distant descendant of Eld; this makes the Crimson King a half-uncle of Roland, albeit through many generations. This is the key through which Roland can defeat the King, as stated in a prophecy laid out during the course of the series. As previously predicted, Roland and Patrick Danville bring about the Crimson King's downfall. Patrick captures the King's image with his supernatural artistic abilities, using a mixture of Roland's blood and a rose's petals to finish the drawing; then he erases the King from existence, forever banishing him to some other world, or to the todash space between the worlds. Only his red eyes remain, trapped eternally on the balcony of the Tower.
However, the series ends with Roland being transported back in time to the Mohaine desert to repeat his quest from the beginning, this time with the Horn of Eld. The final line of the series reveals that the deceased Randall Flagg is alive once more. The Crimson King's status in this altered reality is uncertain.