Ka (Dark Tower)

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Ka is the force in Stephen King's Dark Tower series that leads all living (and unliving) creatures. It is the will of Gan, the approximate equivalent of destiny, or fate, in the fictional language High Speech. It is the force that causes a destiny to happen, but is not necessarily impossible to surpass. Ka can be considered to be a guide, a destination, but is certainly not a plan - at least, not one that is known to mortals. Ka is not necessarily a force of good or evil; it manipulates both sides, and seems to have no definite morality of its own.

The official Dark Tower site (see below) describes ka as the following: "Ka... signifies life-force, consciousness, duty and destiny. In the vulgate, or low speech, it also means a place to which an individual must go."

[edit] Concepts involving ka

Because of the importance of ka to the world of King's Dark Tower, many phrases in the High Speech use the word ka, such as:

ka-babbies: young ka-tet members.
ka-tel: a class of apprentice gunslingers.
ka-mai: ka's fool.
ka-me: ka's wiseman; the opposite of ka-mai.
kas-ka: a prophet
ka-shume: a unique feeling that a ka-tet is destined to break soon.
te-ka: ka's friend.
Can'-Ka No Rey: the red fields of none, where the Dark Tower lies.
tet-ka can Gan: the navel (specifically, the navel of Gan, analogous to God).
ves-ka Gan: singer of Gan's song.

[edit] Ka-tet

A ka-tet is a group of beings brought together by ka. "We are ka-tet. We are one from many," says Roland Deschain on the day before the Battle of Algul Siento.^[1] Ka-tet is the belief that a group of people can be tied together by fate, or ka. It is said that a group has shared "khef" or the water of life. Sometimes the symbol of water is used literally, as in a ritual Roland and his ka-tet performs the night before the battle of Algul Siento.

Roland's ka-tet includes himself, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, and Jake Chambers. Donald "Pere" Callahan could possibly be considered ka-tet, or partially ka-tet, at the end of the series. Roland's previous ka-tet included himself, Cuthbert Allgood, Jamie De Curry, and Alain Johns.

This a concept frequently used by King, even in books that do not use the terms ka or ka-tet, such as It, The Stand, Desperation, Insomnia, and Dreamcatcher. This may be compared to Kurt Vonnegut's "karass".