NPCs of note - the Tet Corporation/Keystone World
The Tet Corporation: Established in the seventies by virtual strangers at the behest of (and with financial advice from) time travelers from another world, the Tet Corporation is a strange beast. Its primary mission is the possession and protection of a plot of land in Manhattan; the survival of the universe is contingent on it. They also use their position to try and fight against the forces of evil in the multiverse in various ways; their euphemistic security teams are paramilitary outfits capable of infiltrating alternate universes and (hopefully) neutralizing paranormal threats, they acquire and protect other metaphysically significant properties and objects, and they carefully monitor the work of Stephen King.
Unlike the Torens and many others, the Tet Corporation is located in "our" world, Keystone Rose.
Marian Carver: Marian Carver is the CEO of the Tet Corporation. Her father was Moses Carver, who ran first Holmes Dental Industries and then the Tet Corporation following the disappearance of Odetta Susannah Holmes. Born late in her father's life, Marian is a tall black woman in her forties. Pragmatic, competent and serious to a fault, Marian's loyalty to Tet and to Susannah Toren (Odetta Holmes that was) is unquestioned, but the two strong-willed women have been known to butt heads privately. This can happen when the rightful heir returns after forty years of stewardship.
Nancy Deepneau: Nancy Deepneau is a quiet white woman in her thirties, formerly CFO of the Tet Corporation. Her uncle was a founder of the Tet Corporation, with Moses Carver and John Cullum. Nancy and Marian have a strong working relationship and friendship; between them, they have steered the ship for most of their adult lives. In 2008, investigating possible betrayal by a Tet board member and shareholder, Nancy was exposed to a psychically toxic image, which has caused her serious psychological damage. She is unable to function within the Tet Coporation building and is on disability leave.
The Calvins: Properly speaking the Calvins are five men and women who are experts in the work of Stephen King. However, the term has spread to encompass the almost 100 Tet employees who answer to Michael Copeland, the leader of the Calvins. Calvins work as analysts, as researchers and as local experts on loan to field teams investigating alternate universes.
Michael Copeland is a genial man in his late forties who rarely gets to read for pleasure anymore. He wears his responsibilities with a positive attitude and a certain dogged exhaustion.
At the end of 2008, the Calvins will be folded, by decision of the Tet Corporation Board of Directors.
Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is composed of elected representatives of Tet Corporation's largest shareholders; Susannah Toren, as majority stockholder, tends to have a whip hand, for which she is not well-loved. The Board of Directors has nursed at least two traitors, but the great threat from their membership is simple apathy--many of them see the metaphysical mission of the Corporation as over, and would like to get back to making money.
Specific Employees of Note: Kate Logan is a hard-nosed senior member of the Security forces at Tet. Pragmatic and deadly, there's no better bodyguard or soldier in Tet's private army. Moiraine Du Maurier was a board member and corporate officer for many years, until she moved to the West Coast; she was also a personal friend and neighbor of Susannah Toren. A serene, strong-willed woman, adept at political maneuvering, she passed away in 2008 of a stroke. Helen Saldana is a Security forces member in her fifties; she was rescued from a doomed alternate universe, and since has served the Tet Corporation with total dedication. She has no visible personal life whatsoever. In 2008 she was tapped to assist in the training of Rose Toren as a gunslinger. Her skills are many; her patience is apparently infinite.
Jake Toren is a lawyer, specializing in finance, with a senior position at Tet; he is Susannah Toren's brother-in-law. Susannah Toren is the majority shareholder in the Tet Corporation. In 2008, in response to financial difficulties, she redoubled her investment in the corporation, and now has almost all of her (considerable) holdings all in one basket.
Taos: Originally a corporate retreat, the ranch in Taos, New Mexico sits on a patch of metaphysically positive land. (Cf. the Taos hum.) Until 1999, it was home to a small community of psychics, employed by the Tet Corporation for their insights into the ongoing war between the gunslingers and the forces of the Crimson King. In 1999, their numbers swelled, as Taos became the home of a large group of children rescued from the Firefly/Serenity universe. These children had had psychic abilities activated by traumatic brain surgery; the effect on their sanity and coherent perception of the universe was tragic. Taos is a place of rebirth and recover.
Notable employees include Charlie McGee, Irene Tassenbaum, and Ted Brautigan. In 2008, steps were taken to separate Taos from the Tet Corporation, both for financial reasons and to protect the children from manipulation by financial interests. Taos is now incorporated as a charitable foundation, underwritten by the Toren family and managed by Charlie McGee.
The Rose: aka the Rose of Perfect Beauty, the Lot in Turtle Bay. On a small block of land in Mid-town Manhattan grows the rose of perfect beauty. In some way the protector of one of the Beams which holds up the multiverse, the rose has (perhaps accurately) been discussed as equivalent with the entire tower of existence. If the rose dies or is destroyed, Keystone universe, our world, goes with it, and many other 'subsidiary' worlds; certainly all those created by Stephen King would go into the darkness. The rose is capable of defending itself from physical attack, but the plot of land must belong to someone; possession and protection of the rose was a hotly-contested front in the war between good and evil waged by the gunslingers, ultimately resolved by the founding of the Tet Corporation.
The rose is a direct conduit to whatever bright forces guard and care for our universe; it is a heartening and uplifting place to visit, rekindling hope and sparking bright memories of the loved and lost. It is also known to have life-extending and health-improving effects. Tet employees don't tend to use their health insurance that often. (More than balanced, sadly, by the needs of the Security forces.)
It's simply a single rose growing in an empty grassy lot; the lot has now been incorporated into a courtyard on the ground floor of the Tet Corporation headquarters, 2 Dag Hammerskjold Plaza.
Stephen King: A writer, of sorts. Unbeknownst to himself, many of the things Stephen King writes are true, somewhere; or reflect some truth. Because he was chosen by fate to write the tale of the gunslingers' war to protect existence (purely as a sideshow to their quest for the Dark Tower), he too became intimately connected with the survival of all reality. It is believed that since finishing the Dark Tower sequence, his death will no longer doom the universe.
He has no idea, even though many of his supposed creations--the Tet Corporation, for instance, and specific individuals he created--are real in his own world.
Unlike the Torens and many others, the Tet Corporation is located in "our" world, Keystone Rose.
Marian Carver: Marian Carver is the CEO of the Tet Corporation. Her father was Moses Carver, who ran first Holmes Dental Industries and then the Tet Corporation following the disappearance of Odetta Susannah Holmes. Born late in her father's life, Marian is a tall black woman in her forties. Pragmatic, competent and serious to a fault, Marian's loyalty to Tet and to Susannah Toren (Odetta Holmes that was) is unquestioned, but the two strong-willed women have been known to butt heads privately. This can happen when the rightful heir returns after forty years of stewardship.
Nancy Deepneau: Nancy Deepneau is a quiet white woman in her thirties, formerly CFO of the Tet Corporation. Her uncle was a founder of the Tet Corporation, with Moses Carver and John Cullum. Nancy and Marian have a strong working relationship and friendship; between them, they have steered the ship for most of their adult lives. In 2008, investigating possible betrayal by a Tet board member and shareholder, Nancy was exposed to a psychically toxic image, which has caused her serious psychological damage. She is unable to function within the Tet Coporation building and is on disability leave.
The Calvins: Properly speaking the Calvins are five men and women who are experts in the work of Stephen King. However, the term has spread to encompass the almost 100 Tet employees who answer to Michael Copeland, the leader of the Calvins. Calvins work as analysts, as researchers and as local experts on loan to field teams investigating alternate universes.
Michael Copeland is a genial man in his late forties who rarely gets to read for pleasure anymore. He wears his responsibilities with a positive attitude and a certain dogged exhaustion.
At the end of 2008, the Calvins will be folded, by decision of the Tet Corporation Board of Directors.
Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is composed of elected representatives of Tet Corporation's largest shareholders; Susannah Toren, as majority stockholder, tends to have a whip hand, for which she is not well-loved. The Board of Directors has nursed at least two traitors, but the great threat from their membership is simple apathy--many of them see the metaphysical mission of the Corporation as over, and would like to get back to making money.
Specific Employees of Note: Kate Logan is a hard-nosed senior member of the Security forces at Tet. Pragmatic and deadly, there's no better bodyguard or soldier in Tet's private army. Moiraine Du Maurier was a board member and corporate officer for many years, until she moved to the West Coast; she was also a personal friend and neighbor of Susannah Toren. A serene, strong-willed woman, adept at political maneuvering, she passed away in 2008 of a stroke. Helen Saldana is a Security forces member in her fifties; she was rescued from a doomed alternate universe, and since has served the Tet Corporation with total dedication. She has no visible personal life whatsoever. In 2008 she was tapped to assist in the training of Rose Toren as a gunslinger. Her skills are many; her patience is apparently infinite.
Jake Toren is a lawyer, specializing in finance, with a senior position at Tet; he is Susannah Toren's brother-in-law. Susannah Toren is the majority shareholder in the Tet Corporation. In 2008, in response to financial difficulties, she redoubled her investment in the corporation, and now has almost all of her (considerable) holdings all in one basket.
Taos: Originally a corporate retreat, the ranch in Taos, New Mexico sits on a patch of metaphysically positive land. (Cf. the Taos hum.) Until 1999, it was home to a small community of psychics, employed by the Tet Corporation for their insights into the ongoing war between the gunslingers and the forces of the Crimson King. In 1999, their numbers swelled, as Taos became the home of a large group of children rescued from the Firefly/Serenity universe. These children had had psychic abilities activated by traumatic brain surgery; the effect on their sanity and coherent perception of the universe was tragic. Taos is a place of rebirth and recover.
Notable employees include Charlie McGee, Irene Tassenbaum, and Ted Brautigan. In 2008, steps were taken to separate Taos from the Tet Corporation, both for financial reasons and to protect the children from manipulation by financial interests. Taos is now incorporated as a charitable foundation, underwritten by the Toren family and managed by Charlie McGee.
The Rose: aka the Rose of Perfect Beauty, the Lot in Turtle Bay. On a small block of land in Mid-town Manhattan grows the rose of perfect beauty. In some way the protector of one of the Beams which holds up the multiverse, the rose has (perhaps accurately) been discussed as equivalent with the entire tower of existence. If the rose dies or is destroyed, Keystone universe, our world, goes with it, and many other 'subsidiary' worlds; certainly all those created by Stephen King would go into the darkness. The rose is capable of defending itself from physical attack, but the plot of land must belong to someone; possession and protection of the rose was a hotly-contested front in the war between good and evil waged by the gunslingers, ultimately resolved by the founding of the Tet Corporation.
The rose is a direct conduit to whatever bright forces guard and care for our universe; it is a heartening and uplifting place to visit, rekindling hope and sparking bright memories of the loved and lost. It is also known to have life-extending and health-improving effects. Tet employees don't tend to use their health insurance that often. (More than balanced, sadly, by the needs of the Security forces.)
It's simply a single rose growing in an empty grassy lot; the lot has now been incorporated into a courtyard on the ground floor of the Tet Corporation headquarters, 2 Dag Hammerskjold Plaza.
Stephen King: A writer, of sorts. Unbeknownst to himself, many of the things Stephen King writes are true, somewhere; or reflect some truth. Because he was chosen by fate to write the tale of the gunslingers' war to protect existence (purely as a sideshow to their quest for the Dark Tower), he too became intimately connected with the survival of all reality. It is believed that since finishing the Dark Tower sequence, his death will no longer doom the universe.
He has no idea, even though many of his supposed creations--the Tet Corporation, for instance, and specific individuals he created--are real in his own world.