Walter.
In
Stephen King's book,
The Gunslinger, the man in
black is the
antagonist of the
story where
Roland, the world's last
gunsinger, is persuing this
man across a
cyclopean desert, only to
kill his own "
symbolic son" Jake in a
desperate attempt to catch the
man in black, and learn
more about his own
dark future. . .
We learn more of
Walter in the fourth
book in
the Dark Tower series,
Wizard and Glass. He is sent before a
contingent of
John Farson's troops, led by George Latigo, to the town of
Hambry, where Farson had a
glass ball sent for safekeeping. The ball is part of
Maerlyn's Rainbow, and allows he who holds it to
see things. . .but never anything good.
Walter is described as
something close to a wizard, but more like a "
glamor-man"; an
illusionist, a
sorcerer, and at times, a fortune teller. His appearance can shift back and forth between his own
countenance and that of people who have been known by those to whom he is speaking. He wears a long bl
ack robe, similar to a priest's
cassock, has closely cropped hair, and a
Tarot deck. His teeth appear to have been
filed to points, and people who have met him say he "
laughs like a dead person."