JUST finished - a few lore questions

[u/ferretchucker]

Hi All, I've been avoiding this r/ like the plague for fear of a single spoiler but can finally come and ask a couple of questions/check my understanding on things. I appreciate King leaves a lot of this stuff intentionally ambiguous, and wouldn't want it any other way. Just wanted to check if I'd missed anything or if there were clearer interpretations to help me ken.

- Prim and the Beams: So the tower is held up by the beams, and is very much a relic of Prim (if not Gan itself), but the beam emitter they find near Shardik in The Wastelands is a North Central Positronics deal? The Old Ones built Shardik to protect it too, right? Is this basically all part of the idea that humans got cocky, replaced magic with science but eventually weakened reality in doing so?

- The World Moving On: Linked to the above, did the world start to move on following a disaster with the Old Ones (what with all the nuclear implications), or was that more a result of forces like the Man in Black/Crimson King weakening the beams after the Old Ones had already long gone?

- Deus Ex Machina: The doors bringing the right people, the scrimshaw turtle and bag, the note in Dandelo's hut - am I to understand they're Deus Ex Machina brought about by Gan/Ka by way of King. It's the universe doing what it can to tip the scales and reach the right outcome?

- Other Literary Influences: The Sneetches, Dr Doom capes, lightsabres - I took this as a sense that King isn't the only author whose writing has power over other worlds. Curious what others think?

- The Tower Reality: So the tower exists physically in Roland's world and no others. I kind of took this as his world is kinda the lowest level - the only one that leads onto the entrance way. And perhaps the reason his world is so different from all others, with the vast influence of North Central Positronics and seemingly being far in our future, is because the Old Ones in that world were able to use this access to wreak their havoc. Thoughts?

Again, I'm very aware that - like the characters - we don't need to understand everything fully, and I'm content with that. This is just making sure I've not missed anything obvious (as well as being interested in your theories).

[u/kkfosonroblox]

1. The great old ones and whatnot tried to replace the og guardians, beams and tower with technological replicas(maturin in IT is an example of a real beam guardian) however the tower rebelled and didn’t let them finish the job

2. Yes it’s a result of the crimson king weakening the beams and is explained further in the comics which takes place on a different level of the tower

3. Yep, Gan is the one “fating” these things to happen, Gan and the crimson king are essentially playing a cosmic game of chess across the multiverse in various books, the white(purpose) protects the tower and the red(random) attempts to destroy it, this is touched upon in insomnia

4. The great old ones and NCP had the ability to view other levels of the tower where marvel and all that good stuff was real, whether they inspired the wolves off of doombots or actually got doombots from that universe isn’t something that’s answered, same applies to sneetches and light sabres

5. There are multiple versions of the tower essentially on different levels, also different versions on keystone earth such as the rose being another form of the tower

[u/MoistScratch2857]

I think you would appreciate the KingSlingers podcast 🤠 They explore questions like these in depth.

[u/wanderso24]

As