The Can-Toi are fictional creatures from Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

's Dark Tower

The Dark Tower (series)

The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...

series and related works. They are unofficially but more commonly known as low men, as in Low Men in Yellow Coats due to their often garish yellow clothing. Their first appearance was in the 1999 collection, Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King, all connected to one another by recurring characters and taking place in roughly chronological order....

(although coyotes in the 1996 novel Desperation were called by this name) and they later made appearances in the final three novels in the Dark Tower series.

Characteristics

Marvel

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

's Dark Tower Almanac describes the can-toi as being the results of human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

/taheen

Taheen

The Taheen are fictional creatures humanlike in proportion, but with animal characteristics. They are mostly mammals and birdlike creatures, and most are under control of the Crimson King. They are mentioned in Stephen King's Dark Tower series; most specifically, they are first hinted at in the...

 interspecies mating, and that they tend to exhibit "the most undesirable characteristics of both species". Unlike the taheen, which have the heads of various animals, the can-toi always have the heads of deformed rats.

The can-toi have extremely poor hygiene (many are infested with fleas and lice), and many carry diseases such as rabies

Rabies

Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...

. Their teeth are constantly growing, but are worn down by constant chewing.

The can-toi and humans

The can-toi seem to possess an oddly ambivalent attitude toward humankind, both idolizing and mocking its culture at the same time. Their religion states that the can-toi will replace humans once the Dark Tower falls. Because of this, the can-toi wear synthetic human masks, made from a living latex that is grown by them, which they believe is their first step to becoming human. These masks have bleeding red holes on the forehead in order to breathe, which are described as always welling up but never actually bleeding. These red holes may "dry up" depending on which world they are in.

Their clothing is garish, usually consisting of vibrant colors and clashing patterns. When "Earthside" they tend to get around by driving replicas of classic American cars. Their cars are strongly hinted at being alive; in one instance a tire extruded a tentacle to snatch at a piece of litter.

The can-toi also have a practice of adopting names from American pop culture once they reach adulthood, with occasionally absurd results. When briefing Roland Deschain

Roland Deschain

Roland Deschain of Gilead is a fictional character, the protagonist and antihero of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He is the son of Steven and Gabrielle Deschain and is descended from a long line of "gunslingers", peacekeepers and diplomats of Roland's society...

's ka-tet about them, Ted Brautigan mentions one named Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

 Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

.

Functions

The can-toi are described as functioning in two major areas of service for the Crimson King

Crimson King

The Crimson King, also commonly known as Los', is a fictional character created by Stephen King. He is the antagonist in the novel Insomnia the main villain due to a plot twist in Black House and one of the main villains in the latter half of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.-Fictional...

: guards at Devar-Toi

Devar-Toi

Devar-Toi is a fictional minimum-security prison located in Thunderclap, an area of End-World in the Dark Tower series. Several of the events of the novel The Dark Tower occur here. A campus-like complex, Devar-Toi is also known by the names Algul Siento and Blue Heaven...

 and as trackers. Their role as guards at Devar-Toi appears to be mostly in subservience to the Taheen

Taheen

The Taheen are fictional creatures humanlike in proportion, but with animal characteristics. They are mostly mammals and birdlike creatures, and most are under control of the Crimson King. They are mentioned in Stephen King's Dark Tower series; most specifically, they are first hinted at in the...

 supervisors. As trackers, they seem to be allowed a much longer leash as they direct and carry out missions as varied as the recruiting, testing, capture (and in the case of Ted Brautigan, the recapture) of new Breakers and the hunting down of enemies of the Crimson King

Crimson King

The Crimson King, also commonly known as Los', is a fictional character created by Stephen King. He is the antagonist in the novel Insomnia the main villain due to a plot twist in Black House and one of the main villains in the latter half of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.-Fictional...

, such as was described in Wolves of the Calla, through the recollections of Pere Callahan.

The Can-Toi methodology in these seeker/hunter escapades is in-line with their overall absurdist take on human culture. They communicate to their targets via lost-pet posters and obscene graffiti.

In film

The "low men" appear in the 2001 adaptation of Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis (film)

Hearts in Atlantis is a 2001 American/Australian drama thriller directed by Scott Hicks. It is loosely adapted from Stephen King's novella "Low Men in Yellow Coats", from his story collection Hearts in Atlantis.-Plot:...

, which removed all other references to the Dark Tower series. Instead of being agents of the Crimson King sent to kidnap Brautigan for "breaking" the beams, they are instead government agents sent to "recruit" psychics to combat Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

.