1 MAIN CHARACTERS IN DUNE
1.1 Alia Atreides
(aka St. Alia of the Knife)
The sister of Muad'Dib. She was an Abomination; while in the later years of her
regency, her enemies and victims among the Fremen called her Coan-Teen, "the female death
spirit that walks without feet."
She was born in year 10,191 A.G on the planet Arrakis to Lady Jessic Atreides. Her
father Leto Atreides I had died eight months earlier. She was younger sister to Paul Atreides,
and through their mother, a granddaughter to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Alia was born a full Reverend Mother, having been exposed to the Water of Life in
the womb as Jessica Atreides underwent the Spice Agony. Children born this way were killed
by the Bene Gesserit whenever possible because they had little defense against the
personalities contained in Other Memory. Without the existence of a strong personal identity,
a child awakened to consciousness in utero was highly susceptible to becoming possessed by
one of their ancestors. Jessica, despite her awareness of this likelihood, brought her baby to
term, and Alia slowly learned to control what powers she had.
Alia was born with limited powers of prophecy and second sight. Her powers were
only hinted at, though she was born with full awareness. She was raised in a community of
Fremen, led by her brother in an effort to control the planet and its production of melange.
Since her mother, as the Sayyadina, was often away from the sietch, Alia was left with her
nephew, Leto, in the care of Harah, Paul's personal servant. Alia was captured and her
nephew killed in a Sardaukar raid on the sietch. She was presented to the Padishah Emperor
Shaddam Corrino IV, who offered her life in exchange for the surrender of the Fremen rebels.
Alia managed to escape during the final battle of Arrakeen, but not before she poisoned her
grandfather, Baron Harkonnen, with a deadly gom jabbar
The character was further explored in Dune Messiah through her relationship with the
ghola Nefr, who was a clone of Paul's teacher, Duncan Idaho. Throughout the novel, there
were hints of sexual tension between them as they worked together to unravel the conspiracy
against the Atreides. When a blinded Paul departed into the desert, as was the Fremen custom
for the blind, Alia was named Regent and the guardian of Paul's children: the heir, Leto
Atreides II, and his sister, Ghanima. Shortly after, Alia married Nefr, who had regained his
full memory was thus completely restored as Duncan Idaho.
In Children of Dune, Alia became progressively more witch-like and less human as
she slowly succumbed to Abomination. Falling under the influence of the spirit of her
deceased grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, Alia abused her powers as Regent and became a
ruthless tyrant. She allowed the Baron access to her senses in exchange for his help fighting
off the other personalities within her, but his sexual perversions soon controlled her,
compelling her to engage in sexual acts with her aides. During the exercise of his Mentat
powers, Duncan came to the realization that Alia had fallen into Abomination, and helped
Jessica escape Alia's murderous plot. Alia then decided to kill Duncan, but he soon
recognized the signs of this decision and escaped himself.
1.2 Ghanima
She is the eldest daughter of Paul Atreides and Chani, and the younger twin sister to
Leto Atreides II.
Like her aunt Alia, and her brother, Leto, Ghanima could see the lives of both male and
female ancestors. Leto and Ghanima's mother, Chani, consumed so much melange during her
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pregnancy that Leto and Ghanima awoke to full, adult consciousness before birth, receiving
the genetic memories of all their ancestors.
All those ancestors are in the twins' heads, more or less in the background, providing
almost infinite knowledge, but each genetic memory of a person also ready to completely
possess the body that holds them.
Unlike Alia, Ghanima never succumbed to Abomination: her mind is guarded from
possession by the memories of her mother, Chani.
Ghanima had a very close relationship with Leto; they worked together to create the
Golden Path, a plan to avoid humanity's almost inevitable future destruction.
She supplied her fertile creativity to the details of the plan, and even ensured its success
by performing a ritual to make herself believe that Leto was killed by the Laza tigers, when in
reality Leto was searching the desert for Jakarutu.
Her memories were restored when Leto spoke the key words, "the Golden Path"
translated into an ancient Egyptian language to her.
Alia tried to use Ghanima as bait for House Corrino by promising her hand in marriage
to the Corrino heir, Farad'n, which Ghanima initially resisted but relented after swearing to
kill him on their wedding night.
Upon his ascension to power, Leto II commanded Farad'n to take Ghanima as his wife
in a marriage, and appointed Farad'n to be in the post of Royal Scribe. This line ensured that
the Atreides heritage would remain as Leto II could not have children.
Since Leto's joining with the sandworm effectively made him sterile, Ghanima ensured
the continuation of the Atreides line by bearing her brother his children that should have been
fathered by Farad'n.
In God Emperor of Dune, it is mentioned that Ghanima lived the longest relatively
normal life throughout the millenniums.
Upon Ghanima's death, Leto II performs a miracle, causing the voices of all the
Atreides to flow forth from his sister-wife's water before he died with her.
1.3 Jessica Atreides
Jessica was conceived through the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen by Tanidia Nerus, and
born to the Bene Gesserit in the year 10,154 A.G. She was raised to be a legal concubine to
the Duke Leto Atreides, and instructed to produce a daughter, but no sons, for him. This
daughter would be bred to Feyd-Rautha, nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and heir to
House Harkonnen, healing the generations-old rift between House Atreides and House
Harkonnen, and producing the Kwisatz Haderach for the Bene Gesserit. The Kwisatz
Haderach is the male Reverend Mother-equivalent who has other memories of his male line,
along with the female line.
However, Jessica falls in love with Leto, and produces a son for him, Paul (there is
some indication that Jessica believed she could achieve the Kwisatz Haderach herself, one
generation early). Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, and eventually sets the Imperium on a course
lasting thousands of years in the person of his son, Leto Atreides II. Much to the frustration of
the Bene Gesserit, they do not control Paul, and the events of the coming millennia leave
Jessica noteworthy as a figure of history who committed a great wrong; in the coming
centuries, for a Bene Gesserit to choose her love over the instructions of her order is known as
"the Jessica Crime".
In Dune, House Atreides is given the planet Arrakis in fief-complete, taking possession,
from House Harkonnen, of the only melange-producing world in the Imperium. The change of
fief is a trap, however: shortly after committing themselves there, House Harkonnen invades
with the tacit support of the Emperor (using the Emperor's Sardaukar disguised as Harkonnen
soldiers); the betrayal of the Duke by the family's doctor, Dr. Wellington Yueh, completed the
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plan, and House Atreides is destroyed in place. Paul and Jessica narrowly escape to the desert,
finding refuge with the Fremen thanks to the legends planted there by the Bene Gesserit's
Missionaria Protectiva, which practices religious engineering. Jessica casts Paul as the Lisan
al'Gaib, the messiah, and herself as the Reverend Mother who shall bring him, even though
she hasn't experienced the spice agony that transforms an acolyte into a full Reverend Mother.
The Fremen provide not only refuge, but also an army with which Paul can retake the
planet and restore his house. The Fremen also have 'wild' Reverend Mothers, women who
undergo the spice agony to awaken their other memories. Hiding in Stilgar's sietch, their
Reverend Mother about to die and with the sietch about to travel into the desert, Jessica
accepts the ritual of the spice agony and becomes the Sayyadina of the tribe. Unfortunately,
Jessica is pregnant with the Duke's daughter, Alia Atreides. For a fetus to undergo the spice
agony results in abomination: because the spice agony awakens the ego-memories of one's
ancestors, the 'pre-born' become possessed eventually by one of their forebears, since they
lack a coherent personality of their own. Jessica is the daughter of the Baron Vladimir
Harkonnen. In Children of Dune, this is the ego-memory that will possess Alia, leading her to
attempt the complete destruction of the restored House Atreides while she rules as regent.
In Dune Messiah, Jessica has returned to Caladan, the ancestral home of the Atreides.
She has also, by some accounts, returned to the Sisterhood following the death of her Duke,
and while she cannot influence Paul, she does act as distant counselor. It is also mentioned
briefly that she and Gurney Halleck become lovers.
In Children of Dune, Jessica returns to Dune to inspect Paul's children, Leto Atreides II
and Ghanima, to see if they can be returned to the control of the sisterhood. Realizing that
Alia is fully possessed, Jessica survives an assassination attempt by Alia and flees to the
desert once more, taking refuge with Stilgar in his sietch. A civil war has divided Arrakis,
with Fremen revolting against the transformation of the desert started by Pardot Kynes. Alia's
husband, Duncan Idaho, also realizes that Alia is possessed. When Alia instructs Duncan to
make her mother disappear, Duncan kidnaps her on the orders of the Preacher, a mysterious
desert figure that some suspect is Paul Atreides, who disappeared into the desert. Duncan
takes her to Salusa Secundus, the home of House Corrino and the previous emperor, where
the Preacher has told Jessica, through Duncan, to train the pupil she finds there: Prince
Farad'n Corrino. She trains him in the Bene Gesserit way, and at the end of Children of Dune,
he becomes Ghanima's concubine and Leto's imperial scribe. Jessica dies in year 10,256 after
102 years of life.
1.4 Leto Atreides I
Leto I was reportedly born in year 10,140 A.G, to Duke Paulus Atreides and Lady
Helena Atreides.
Paulus was reigning Duke of House Atreides, their house having ruled planet Caladan
for 26 generations. The House Atreides is allied to the Imperial House Corrino and had
carried a deep feud with House Harkonnen for generations.
Duke Paulus arranged for him to spend a portion of his adolescence on planet Ix in the
care of House Vernius and its then-Earl, Dominic Vernius. There, Leto became fast friends
with the Earl's son, Prince Rhombur Vernius and his daughter, Kailea Vernius. They returned
to Caladan after the uprising of Ix's working class of mentally limited subhumans and
subsequent Tleilaxu invasion.
Paulus had engaged in the sport of bullfighting, both for the sport and for the spectacle;
he would play every bull for all it was worth, and the people of Caladan loved him for it. He
was killed by his treacherous Richese wife through a Salusan bull drugged to extraordinary
levels of rage, strength and endurance by the stableman, Yresk, a loyalist to House Richese,
from which Lady Helena originated. Leto realized what she had done immediately, and
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banished her to live in a remote location with the Sisters in Isolation rather than execute her,
as public knowledge of what she had done would have a large impact on House Atreides.
Leto kept a portrait of his father and the head of the beast as a grisly sort of reminder to
the event.
Leto eventually took Kailea as his concubine, and they had a son named Victor.
However, Leto refused to take Kailea as his wife or name Victor as his heir, preferring to keep
a political marriage a possibility. Leto and Kailea eventually grew apart, and after the arrival
of a second, Bene Gesserit concubine to whom Leto found himself freshly attracted and in
love with, she attempted to take matters into her own hands by attempting to kill Leto.
Kailea's plot failed, but her brother Rhombur was severely injured in the process, while her
son Victor was killed, whereafter she committed suicide.
Leto eventually took the Bene Gesserit acolyte, Jessica Atreides, as his bound
concubine. They never married in order to maintain, as always, the possibility of an alliance
with another Great House &mdash although this would ultimately never occur. Unknown to
Leto, Jessica was the illegitimate daughter of his rival Vladimir Harkonnen. Leto and Jessica
were utterly devoted to each other in every way; any marriage on Leto's part would have been
purely political, and meaningless to him. In year 10,176, Jessica gave birth to Paul, their son.
Leto was known in some Imperial circles, and especially by the Emperor, as "the Red
Duke." He gained fame as an effective politician, a fair and just statesman, and a capable
leader of his small army. He recruited skilled individuals, including Thufir Hawat, Gurney
Halleck and Duncan Idaho to lead and train his military forces. Jessica and Hawat also served
as his two main advisors. Leto was greatly admired, as well as disliked, by the Padishah
Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV due to an incident in his youth in which Leto had made a
bluffing attempt to blackmail the Emperor into intervening on his behalf in court, where he
had submitted to a Trial by Forfeiture to prove that he had not fired on another ship inside a
Heighliner in foldspace. He had, in fact, been framed for this by longtime rival Vladimir
Harkonnen.
In year 10,191 Leto's two greatest enemies conspired against him. Vladimir was forced
by the emperor to surrender Arrakis to Leto, requiring Leto to leave Caladan.
His term as Duke of Arrakis would prove short, as he was betrayed by Dr. Wellington
Yueh, his family physician and surrendered alive to the Baron Harkonnen. Yueh, in revenge
against the Baron for killing his wife, provided Leto with a false tooth filled with poison gas.
It was designed to kill those nearby when Leto bit down on the tooth and exhaled, in the
hope that he would manage to kill the Baron. Unfortunately for both Yueh's plans and Leto,
he only managed to kill the twisted Mentat Piter De Vries. Leto was 51 years old.
1.5 Leto Atreides II
(aka God Emperor)
Leto is named for his paternal grandfather Duke Leto Atreides, who was killed in the
Harkonnen / Imperial invasion of Arrakis. He is the second child of Paul to bear that name,
the first having been killed by the Emperor's Sardaukar.
In Children of Dune, Leto and his twin sister Ghanima are nine years old. Because of
the spice ingested by their mother, Leto and Ghanima are "pre-born", meaning that, as fetuses
in their mother's womb, they were awakened to consciousness and to their genetic memories;
thus, they are born as fully matured human beings in the bodies of infants. At the start of the
novel, Leto is not prescient to the degree that Paul was, but he senses the test his father faced to embrace a prescient vision of the universe is to set the universe on that path, a terrible
responsibility that comes with terrible power. At the end of Dune Messiah, Paul forsook that
responsibility by walking into the desert - his time as the Fremen messiah had shown him that
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he was not strong enough to be messiah/tyrant to the universe. Leto believes that he must face
the same test.
At the same time, the Imperium Paul created is ruled by his sister Alia Atreides as
regent. The horror of the pre-born, the reason the Bene Gesserit call them "abomination", is
that they are easily possessed by the ego-memories of their ancestors. When Bene Gesserit
awaken their 'other memories' in the ritual of the spice agony, they are adults with fully
formed personalities, and can withstand the inner assault of their forebears; the pre-born have
no such defense. Like Leto and Ghanima, Alia was pre-born, and she succumbs to the
pressure under an intense dose of spice. Among her ancestors is the Baron Vladimir
Harkonnen, still hungry for revenge against his enemies, the Atreides. Alia is possessed by
him, and unconsciously turns against the Atreides empire, plotting to kill Leto and Ghanima
and to tear down the Imperium in a bloody civil war.
Leto faces the test his father refused to take, and embraces prescience, its visions, its
attendant power, and the terrible price it will extract- to follow his vision, Leto will become a
symbiote with the sandworm and rule for thousands of years, effectively immortal until
humanity evolves enough to kill him. By doing so, he will set the universe on "The Golden
Path", a future in which humanity's survival is assured. Following an assassination attempt by
Hous Corrino Leto disappears into the desert leaving Ghanima behind. He finds Jacurutu, a
sietch that has been forbidden to anyone by Fremen law. There he finds the means to live for
millenia by merging with sandtrout into a new symbiotic form of being.
Independently, Leto and Ghanima both solve the problem of the pre-born. Leto
constructs his own personality out of an executive committee of his ancestors; with all (the
important ones) possessing him, none can possess him individually. As part of Leto's plan,
Ghanima hypnotizes herself to believe that Leto was killed in the assassination; the intense
mental discipline this demands builds a safe haven in Ghanima's mind for her own personality
to safely develop.
At the end, following his test and his embracing of his vision, Leto returns to wrest the
Imperium from Alia and take his rightful place as Emperor.
(Look Golden path for more details)
More than 1500 years after his death, Leto II is brought back as a ghola onboard the
Ithyca. Even at a very young age, he shows signs that he may be more than he seems. During
an assassination attempt, he somehow transforms into a small sandworm and defends himself
before reverting to an innocent 1 year old. As he grows older, he displays an uncanny
intelligence and is very withdrawn. Duncan Idaho, reflecting, says it was cruel to bring Leto II
back without his twin sister, who was so much of the original Leto II's life. The effects of
bringing the God Emperor back have yet to be seen.
1.6 Paul Atreides
(aka Umma Naib Emperor Duke Precher Paul Muad’dib Usul Atreides, Kwisatz Haderach)
Paul Atreides is the son of Duke Leto Atreides I and The Lady Jessica, the heir of
Hous Atreides, a nuclear-armed aristocratic family that rules the planet of Caladan. Jessica is
a Bene Gesserit and an important key in the Bene Gesserit breeding program. According to
the breeding program, she was to produce a daughter, who should marry Feyd-Rautha, a
nephew of Baron Harkonnen. However, she falls in love with Leto and grants him a son.
Although Paul is a boy, he receives a Bene Gesserit training, giving him among other
things, great control over his metabolism, heightened senses and knowledge of martial arts.
He is also trained in weapon use by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, and he receives
training as a mentat from Thufir Hawat.
When Paul is fifteen years old, the family is pressed to leave Caladan and govern the
desert planet Arrakis. They suspect it is a trap, but accept nevertheless because it could bring
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power to them. On Dune, the family is betrayed by their Suk doctor, Wellington Yueh. He
disables the house shield, allowing the imperial troops, Sardaukar, dressed in Harkonnen
uniforms, to capture Duke Leto and Thufir Hawat and to kill most of the Atreides army.
Duncan Idaho sacrifices himself while attempting to hold off the Sardaukar. Upon meeting
Piter De Vries and Baron Harkonnen, Leto uses a poisonous gas capsule hidden inside a false
tooth in an attempt to kill Harkonnen. He succeeds in killing Piter De Vries - and,
unfortunately, himself - but not the Baron. The tooth was given to him by Yueh, who planned
revenge against Harkonnen for killing his wife. Thufir Hawat is used by the Baron as his new
mentat. Paul and Jessica escape, with some help from Dr. Yueh, into the desert.
They flee to the Fremen, who see in Paul the Lisan al-Gaib, the Mahdi, a prophet who
will ensure a green, lush Dune, taking shelter in Sietch Tabr led by their Naib, Stilgar. He and
his mother start training Fremen in weapon use and martial arts, creating an army. He and
Chani, daughter of Liet Kynes, take each other as mates. He also reunites with Gurney
Halleck, who sought refuge with smugglers after the Harkonnen attack. While in the desert,
Paul Muad'Dib undergoes the process of spice agony via the consumption of the water of life.
He survives, although barely, and the ordeal gives him knowledge of his male and female
ancestors; this proves Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach.
After some years, he attacks the Harkonnen and Imperial troops with his Fremen
army, riding the enormous sandworms indigenous to the planet. They win and Paul requests
an audience with Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. He threatens to destroy the spice melange,
thus making transport between the planets impossible and effectively destroying civilization.
In return for preserving the spice, he asks for the hand of the Emperor's daughter Irulan as
well as the Emperor's abdication. These actions effectively make Paul Emperor. Urged by the
Space Guild, the Emperor accepts his terms.
Paul Atreides saw in his prescient visions that the human race was headed toward
extinction in the near future. He saw a way to prevent this but felt the sacrifice he would need
to make was too terrible. That sacrifice though was made later by his son Leto II, the God
Emperor.
(Look Muad’Dib’s jihad for more information)
1.7 Paulus Atreides
Paulus Atreides was born 10,089 A.G., as son of Duke Kean Atreides and grandson of
Duke Miklos Atreides.
He was the reigning Duke of House Atreides and ruler of Caladan. Paulus always said
that you should never marry for love, but for gain. His own wife, Lady Helena of House
Richese never loved him, and while he was fond of her early in their marriage, the fondness
had largely faded by the time their son reached his majority. Their marriage was arranged so
that both House Atreides and House Richese could gain from it. House Atreides was granted
Landsraad status thanks to this union.
Lady Helena plotted against her husband, she knew that by killing him her son, Leto
Atreides, would ascend and she believed she could use Leto to rule the Dukedom as she saw
fit. Her plot was also tied to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who had at the very least prior
knowledge of the plot if not full involvement in the planning and execution of it. (This is
revealed after Harkonnen tells his nephew Rabban on Dune that he plans to "be rid" of Paulus
soon.) Helena arranged that a stable worker, who was also from the home planet of House
Richese, was to poison a Salusan bull with a stimulant that would make it stronger and more
savage.
When the Old Duke, who was a skillful bullfighter, fought the Bull he found that it did
not seem to tire at all. Then when he started to suspect that something was amiss, Paulus
stabbed the Bull with his prod and injected it with the lethal substance that was supposed to
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kill it. However, the stable worker that had originally drugged the bull also injected it with a
catalyst that negated the poison and also further enhanced its strength. After Paulus repeatedly
stabbed it, the Bull went into a rampage, impaling the Old Duke on its horns, killing him
instantly. Thufir Hawat, loyal mentat to the Duke, shot the bull dead but was too late to save
the Old Duke.
Leto suspected his mother was behind this after she acted very suspciously just prior to
and after the assassination. and when it had been proven by Thufir's interrogation of the stable
worker, he had her banished to live with the Sisters of Isolation. He would rather have had her
executed but thought it in the best interest that the people should never know of her treachery.
The followers of House Atreides were the most loyal anywhere; they loved their leaders.
Knowledge of the treachery of Helena would cause much havoc.
1.8 Siona Atreides
Siona is violently opposed to the rule of Leto II and is the leader of a rebel group on
Rakis. At the start of the novel, she and members of her group manage to steal some of Leto's
personal journals and plans. Siona gives these documents to the Ixian ambassador for
decryption in a secret meeting. The Ixian ambassador mocks Siona for her disguise, asking
why she bothers when it is well known she is the leader of the rebels. He goes on to mock her
'rebellion' by asking her when she intends to join the God Emperor, since one generation after
another the young Atreides have 'played' at being rebels before being called into the loyal
service of Leto. At the end of the meeting Siona unmasks a spy in her ranks, sending him
back to Leto with a message. However, the spy is actually only a plant of her father Moneo,
and it is Siona's closest companion, Nayla, who is Leto's true spy.
Later, Leto meets with Nayla. This is a very disquieting meeting, because we discover
that Nayla, as a typical Fish Speaker, is completely fanatical and devoted to Leto and takes his
title of God Emperor literally. He orders her, for unknown reasons, to obey Siona's every
command. During their conversation we learn from Nayla that Siona is ready for testing, a
fact Leto was unsure of, because she wasn't always visible to his prophetic dreams.
Leto decides that Siona has been let off the leash for long enough and so sends his Fish
Speakers to induct her into his service. She does not enter his service willingly and is in fact
guarded at all times. Leto intends to breed Siona with Duncan Idaho, and so he arranges for
them to go on a trip together, expecting that things will happen naturally sooner or later.
Siona, being angry, decides to take Duncan to Goygoa village, which was in the past known
by the name Jacurutu. This is a cruel trick; he is stared at as soon as he arrives in the village
and is unpleasantly surprised to be confronted by a young boy, learning that the previous
Duncan Idaho was the father of the boy. Unable to resist investigating, he discovers that the
mother of the child resembles Jessica Atreides greatly. Roomed together by the Fish Speakers,
Siona and Duncan swap insults in their irritation at Leto's breeding plans for them both.
Leto meets with Siona to assess her readiness for the testing. They talk about many
subjects, including his worm body, and the state of his Empire. She points out that his
position is much weaker now; because of his reaction to the attack on the Ixian ambassador,
Hwi Noree, people now realize that he is vulnerable to attacks on the people he loves. She
goes on to question his right to rule, a question which is the root of her rebelliousness. His
response is that he rules by right of loneliness and sacrifice. This puts Siona on the defensive,
because she had never considered that Leto might have any rights as a consequence of his
uniqueness.
As Siona is tested in the deep desert by Leto, she is forced to drink Spice Essence from
Leto's body which sends her into a spice trance and into prophetic dreaming. In her dreams
she sees the various possibilities in the human future, and more importantly how in many
futures humans are hunted and killed to the last person by deadly machines. But she also sees
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Leto's Golden Path which leads to the survival of the human race. Despite going through the
spice agony and being shown the Golden Path this does not convince Siona of the rightness of
Leto's rule.
Due to the dangers involved in Duncan's love for Leto's fiancée, Hwi Noree, Moneo
tries to save Duncan from Leto by sending him and Siona away for the time of the wedding to
Tuono village. When Leto learns of this, he is amused that Moneo is attempting to save Idaho
and changes the location of his wedding to Tuono. The traitor Malky has been captured by the
Fish Speakers, though Anteac died capturing him. The Tleilaxu and Spacing Guild, seeing
Leto move against the Ixians, had struck first in order to steal the secret of the Ixian device.
But Anteac had managed to delay them enough to allow the Fish Speakers to lay siege. As a
result, the secret of the Ixian concealment device is scattered far and wide. Malky is escorted
into Leto's presence, and they talk about old and new times. At the end of this conversation,
Moneo does what Leto cannot and kills Leto's friend, at Leto's behest.
Duncan and Siona talk at Tuono village after a difficult start, and realize that they both
still believe that the God Emperor needs to be overthrown and killed. Reaching the realization
that Leto, being part Sandworm, can be killed by water, Duncan and Siona hatch a desperate
plan to kill the God Emperor.
On the night before Leto's convoy comes to Tuono, Idaho climbs a high cliff by himself
without ropes, using the experience he learned in his youth. From there he lowers a rope down
for Siona and Nayla. From the cliff they await the arrival of Leto's convoy. When the convoy
does arrive, Siona orders Nayla to fire her lasgun at the bridge and Nayla, having been
directly ordered by Leto to obey Siona's every order, obeys, fully expecting it to be religious
test of Leto's. The shot shatters the bridge and Leto is hurled into the water. He escapes to the
shore, but his death is now assured, and sandtrout desert his dying body into the sands. Hwi
Noree is accidentally killed by the blast sitting as she was in the same carriage. Duncan is
distraught, and kills the utterly shocked Nayla. Leto leaves Duncan and Siona stewardship of
his Empire by telling them where he has hidden his spice reserves before he breathes his last.
As Leto predicts at his death, the Fish Speakers choose Duncan Idaho as their leader
following the death/transformation of Leto II. Duncan Idaho rules the remnants of the
Imperium with Siona at his side; their power is based on the military power of the Fish
Speakers and control of Leto's hoard of spice. They marry and have children together as Leto
II planned; and their descendants share Siona's invisibility to the prescient vision of the
Spacing Guild.
1.9 Chani
(aka Sihaya, Chanisihayah)
In Dune, Paul had visions of Chani when he was still living in his ancestral home on
Caladan. She was described as nimble with nymph-like features. After Paul came to Dune and
was forced to flee from the Harkonnens, Chani was put in charge of Paul when he and his
mother Jessica Atreides first came to live with the Fremen. Paul and Chani quickly became
lovers. Their first child, Leto II (not to be confused with their later son, Leto Atreides II), was
killed as an infant in a Corrino raid on their home in the deep desert.
Chani was already a talented warrior before meeting Paul, but after training in the
Weirding Way by Paul and Jessica, she become truly deadly. As Paul rose as a religious
leader among the Fremen, she often killed in single combat unworthy Fremen who sought to
challenge her lover.
Chani saved Paul when he fell into a trance after using spice essence to enhance his
powers. She realized what he had done and was able to bring him out of the trance.
When Paul Atreides took Irulan Corrino as his wife to cement his control of the
Empire after deposing Shaddam Corrino IV, Chani was not put aside as many imperial
8
commentators expected. Indeed Paul remained completely loyal to Chani, declaring she
would be the only one to bear an heir, and his marriage-of-formality to Irulan would never
approach consummation. The Bene Gesserit were opposed to Paul's relationship with Chani,
because she represented a wild card in their breeding programme. Chani's Fremen ancestry
was a mystery to the breeding sisters, though Pardot Kynes may or may not have been an
unknown. Their principal objective was to ensure that Paul had children with someone more
suitable, like Irulan Corrino, whom they also could control.
Irulan, a member of the Bene Gesserit, fed Chani contraceptives in order to prevent
her conceiving an imperial heir. However, Chani eventually changed to an ancient Fremen
diet to enhance pregnancy, which Irulan was not able to contaminate and she soon fell
pregnant. Tragically, Chani died while giving birth to the twins Ghanima and Leto. The
Tleilaxu agent Scytale offered to resurrect her as a ghola in return for control over the empire,
but Paul Atreides declined the offer violently. According to Paul, who had the gift of
prescience, Chani's death during childbirth was far less painful and cruel compared to her
possible future fates had she survived.
1.10 Farad’n Corino
(aka Harq al’Ada)
Farad'n's mother is Princess Wensicia Corrino, the third daughter to the former
Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV; his father was Count Dalak Kenola — apparently a
relative of Count Hasimir Fenring — who was killed in a suspicious ornithopter accident in
10,204 when Farad'n was four years old.
Unlike his mother and the other members of the Imperial House Corrino before him,
he prefers history and books to the idea of becoming an Emperor.
Farad'n is aware of his mother Wensicia's plan to assassinate Leto Atreides II and
Ghanima
Ghanima uses self-hypnosis to actually believe Leto was killed to avoid discovery by
Bene Gesserit Truthsayers. She promptly vows to kill Farad'n, believing that he had
masterminded the death of her brother.
In the meantime Duncan Idaho and Jessica Atreides are delivered to Wensicia on
Salusa Secundus at the request of the mysterious The Preacher, where Jessica teaches Farad'n
the Bene Gesserit prana-bindu training just as she and Irulan taught her grandchildren.
In the end Jessica succeeds in making him the second male Bene Gesserit in, which
also causes a rift between Farad'n and his mother; this results in Wensicia's banishment and
Farad'n assuming the powers of the Imperial House Corrino.
Alia tries to use Ghanima's vow of kanly to kill Farad'n, by arranging for a false
marriage between the two when she knows that he will be killed by his would-be wife.
Farad'n is saved by the reappearance of Leto II, clad in his new sand trout skin.
On coming to power, Leto confronted and exiled his aunt into a mad suicidal condition
by enslaving Farad'n and proclaims him as his scribe and historian and renames him 'Harq
al'Ada', or the 'breaker of habit'.
Though Farad'n lost his chance to Leto who became the reigning Padishah GodEmperor of the Knonw Universe; he was the sire of future generations of Atreides through his
embittered relationships with his stepcousin and his sister-wife; this bloodline is the one Leto
will tend over the next three and a half millennia.
1.11 Piter De Vries
De Vries was an evil mentat in the service of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This mentat
was a particular favorite of the Baron because the Tleilaxu had shown him to be an amoral
sadist, making an ideal candidate for chief torturer.
9
De Vries' loyalty to his master is unusual in that he continues to serve the Baron with
great enthusiasm, even though his Mentat abilities and great intelligence confirm his
suspicions that his master plans to eventually kill him. However as he put it, "I will know
when the executioner comes".
De Vries pioneered a type of poison called "residual toxin”, which remains in one's
body for years. One such fatal poison was used by the Harkonnen on Thufir Hawat, in order
to keep the Mentat's allegiance by being the only provider of the antidote. The poison was in
fact administered without Hawat's knowledge as a way to kill him should the need arise.
Hawat's "loyalty" came from his desire to wreak his vengeance on the Imperium.
De Vries is generally regarded as architect of the plan to destroy the Harkonnen's longtime enemy, House Atreides, while returning the Baron's stewardship over Arrakis. He died
on Arrakis shortly after House Harkonnen's troops and Imperial Sardaukar had captured Duke
Leto Atreides. He was killed by Leto, who had been given a false tooth by Wellington Yueh,
the Suk doctor who betrayed House Atreides. When the tooth was crushed, a poisonous gas
was released. The attack was meant to kill the Baron, but failed.
1.12 Hasimir Fenring
Hasimir Fenring has always been a figure of mystery throughout the Imperium; with
much of his origin and activities, beyond being the childhood companion of Shaddam Corrino
IV, remaining mysterious.
Depending on which source is relied upon, Fenring was born in either 10,118 A.G. or
10,133 A.G. on Kaitain. His mother, Lady Chaola or Cirni Fenring, was a Bene Gesserit and
lady-in-waiting to Habla, the fourth wife of Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX, and served
as wet nurse to both her son Hasimir and Crown Prince Shaddam. According to one source,
Fenring's mother may also have been a sister to Elrood.
House Fenring, a House minor long allied with House Corrino, was a significant part of
the Bene Gesserit breeding program to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. Hasimir Fenring was a
prime candidate for this genetic potential, but this did not eventuate, in part due to Fenring
being a genetic-eunuch. As Paul Atreides himself noted in Dune, "Fenring was one of the
might-have-beens, an almost Kwisatz Haderach, crippled by a flaw in the genetic pattern — a
In Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen described Fenring as "a killer with the manners of
a rabbit ... the most dangerous kind." Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen had this impression of Fenring:
"a small man, weak-looking. The face was weaselish with overlarge dark eyes. There was
gray at the temples. And his movements — he moved a hand or turned his head one way, then
he spoke another way. It was difficult to follow." In her work In My Father's House,
Shaddam's daughter Princess Irulan later wrote of Fenring: "My father had only one real
friend, I think. That was Count Hasimir Fenring ... one of the deadliest fighters in the
Imperium." She went on to describe him as "a dapper and ugly little man." In Dune: House
Atreides, the Imperial Concubines call Fenring "the Ferret" (and others see him that way as
well) because of "his narrow face and pointed chin."
1.13 Gurney Halleck
Gurney Halleck was a ruthless, noble, and romantic warrior of enormous talent. He was
the most loyal of friends to those he loved, and to those he hated there were few enemies more
terrifying. He was a talented minstrel who was skilled in the use of the baliset. His jawline
bears a scar from an inkvine whip wound inflicted by Beast Rabban in the Harkonnen slave
pits. In a fight against Gurney with sword or knife few opponents lasted more than a few
seconds. Gurney was also skilled at various other weapons, and astonished Fremen later saw
that he taught himself to ride sandworms as they did.
10
Gurney Halleck did not indulge in melange addiction or other methods to prolong
human life. He had been a loyal friend to Duke Leto Atreides and his concubine Jessica.
Many years after the death of Duke Leto, Gurney Halleck became the lover of Lady Jessica,
though the two of them kept their relationship out of the public eye so as to avoid scandal.
Lady Jessica, who knew him so well, recalled in him an epigram written on the wall of
a Muslim palace in the country of Spain, which once existed on the Old Earth.
1.14 Vladimir Harkonnen
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was born in the year 10,110 A.G. as son and heir of Dmitri
Harkonnen and his wife Victoria . Dmitri was the head of House Harkonnen and served as
Siridar (planetary governor) and Baron of the planet Giedi Prime. Trained since youth as a
possible successor, Vladimir presumably proved to be the most promising candidate as he was
eventually chosen over his younger half-brother Abulurd Harkonnen.
Abulurd eventually married into House Rabban and renounced the name Harkonnen
and his rights to the title. Under the name Abulurd Rabban he reigned as Count and governor
of planet Lankiveil. Vladimir was uncle to his heirs: Glossu Rabban (year 10,132 - 10,193),
nicknamed Beast Rabban, and Feyd-Rautha Rabban (year 10,174 - 10,193). Vladimir later
adopted them back into House Harkonnen and the latter became his designated heir as FeydRautha Harkonnen.
The Baron's most prominent political rival was his distant cousin Leto Atreides I, head
of House Atreides and Duke of planet Caladan. The true heritage of the Duke's consort, Lady
Jessica, was unknown by either. In year 10,176, his grandson Paul Atreides was born.
In year 10,191, Vladimir was apparently contacted by Shaddam Corrino IV, 81st
Emperor of House Corrino with the proposal of an alliance against the Duke. Vladimir was
content in accepting, although uncertain of the Emperor's motivation.
By Imperial order, Leto was forced to surrender Caladan to the Empire under rulership
of Count Fenring and instead receive Arrakis, the only known source of the spice. He
complied, well aware of the hidden motives behind the command. The Baron and the
Emperor had been stock-piling large hordes of spice for several decades in anticipation for a
shortage in spice production that would coincide with the Atreides takeover of Arrakis. The
Baron had also been stockpiling spice to pay the massive amount of Solaris required to
transport the joint Harkonnen-Sardaukar invasion forces to Arrakis. His stockpiles were
destroyed by a small raiding force sent by Duke Leto to Geidi Prime.
Shortly after this, a much larger invasion force arrived on Arrakis, consisting of both
Sardaukar and Harkonnen forces. The Sardaukar were disguised in Harkonnen uniforms, so
that outsiders would not recognize the hand of the Emperor in destroying Duke Leto. The
Duke had not yet had time to establish a solid presence on Arrakis, and soon most of the
Duke's army was slain.
Vladimir had arranged for the Duke to be taken prisoner by Dr. Wellington Yueh, his
own physician. But Yueh had personal reasons to hate Vladimir. A tooth of the captive was
filled with poisonous gas intended to kill him and those around him. The Baron survived
Yueh's assassination attempt but his twisted Mentat Piter De Vries did not. He was replaced
with Thufir Hawat, Mentat to the deceased Duke, under duress. Vladimir apparently managed
to convince Hawat that they could join forces against the Emperor.
The following two years saw Vladimir becoming increasingly aware that both of his
nephews were conspiring against him to obtain the Baron's throne. The Baron let them
continue to do so, reasoning that they had to somehow learn to organize a conspiracy.
However as punishment for a failed assassination attempt against him, Vladimir forced FeydRautha to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who served as his lovers, while the
Baron watched. He explained that Feyd-Rautha had to learn the price of failure.
11
By year 10,193, the Fremen of Arrakis had managed to gain a series of victories against
Beast Rabban and to capture most of the territory of the planet, which threatened to disrupt
the trade of the spice. The Emperor decided to take control of the situation and arrived on
Arrakis along with five legions of Sardaukar forces. Vladimir and Feyd-Rautha escorted him
with a vastly larger Harkonnen army, made up mostly of conscripts but also containing
seasoned Harkonnen troops.
Vladimir was shocked to learn that Paul Atreides led the Fremen. The imperial forces
fell prey to a surprise attack by the Fremen. Part of the Fremen/Atreides strategy was to wait
until a sandstorm shorted out the force field shields of the Harkonnen/Imperial transport ships,
disable them with projectile weapons, and then attack with a vast assault force, using
Sandworms under cover of the severe weather to break the enemy lines. The Sardaukar and
Harkonnen forces were trapped on the planet, astonished at the Sandworm mounts and vast
numbers of their attackers, and their past ruthlessness gave them little hope of quarter from
the enraged Fremen.
Beast Rabban died in the initial part of the battle. The Harkonnen army was massacred
to the last man, almost all the 300,000 Imperial Sardaukar died, and Vladimir was poisoned
by Alia Atreides, his own granddaughter, and took his last breath at the age of 83. FeydRautha was killed by Paul in a duel. The death of the three men and the massacre meant the
end of House Harkonnen as a galactic power. But, since grandson Paul subsequently was
named emperor, Vladimir's descendants would long reign as the Imperial House Atreides.
The Baron's story does not end with his death however. Paul's sister Alia was born with
her ancestral memories in the womb, because in their experience it is inevitable that the
individual will become possessed by one of their ancestors. Alia falls victim to this prediction
and initially shares control of her body with the Baron, gradually falling under his power. At
the end of Children of Dune Alia commits suicide, in part because she realizes the Baron has
virtually surpassed her abilities to contain him.
1.15 Tufir Hawat
In Dune, the Mentat Master of Assassins who served under the Atreides family for
multiple generations, until Duke Leto Atreides is killed by a Harkonnen attack.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, recognising good talent, and seeking a replacement for the
late Mentat Piter De Vries, wishes to utilize Hawat's immense abilities. The Baron manages to
press Hawat into service by making him chemically dependent on a substance provided by the
Harkonnens, but also by suggesting Hawat can achieve revenge for the assassination of Duke
Leto by helping the Harkonnens to destroy House Corrino. The Baron, himself a dangerous
intellect, also keeps Hawat's abilities in check by feeding him false data, specifically,
permitting him to believe that Jessica Atreides was the traitor responsible for the Atreides'
destruction.
In spite of these immense obstacles, Hawat very nearly brings down the Harkonnens
from within, playing the ambitions of the na-Baron Feyd-Rautha against his uncle, and
facilitating an assassination attempt that is nearly successful. 'Several years' previous to this
attempt, Hawat engineered an attempt against Feyd's life, in co-operation with Feyd, who
hoped to win greater support on Giedi Prime, and impress the onlooking Count Fenring (who,
along with his wife, still managed to uncover the conspiracy) by sabotaging his appearance in
the combat arena. Instead of facing a drugged slave, Hawat arranges for Feyd to confront a
trained Atreides soldier with his capacities fully intact. These schemes underscore the deadly
cunning of Hawat, who had clearly earned his legendary reputation as a formidable
commander.
At the conclusion of the novel, Hawat chooses death rather than betrayal of Paul
Atreides.
12
In Hunters of Dune, Scytale, the last Tleilaxu Master, had a nullentropy capsule
embedded in his chest, containing cells from many important past figures, including Hawat.
Out of desperation, the aging Master revealed the existence of the capsule to his Bene
Gesserit captors, and offered to assist in the production of gholas in exchange for a ghola of
his own body. The venerable warrior-Mentat was one of the resurrected. He has a deep
admiration for Miles Teg, a warrior-Mentat himself.
1.16 Duncan Idaho I
At the time of Dune, Idaho has already undergone the long training of being a
Swordmaster of the Ginaz, before joining the service of House Atreides, and becoming one of
Duke Leto's right-hand men (with Gurney Halleck and Thufir Hawat). When the Atreides take
over the planet Arrakis at the order of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, Idaho becomes
Leto's ambassador to the Fremen, the desert people of Dune that Leto hopes will ally with him
in the coming war against the Emperor and the Harkonnens; Idaho goes to live with the
Fremen, serving Stilgar and Leto both.
When the Emperor attacks Dune in the guise of Harkonnen troops, Idaho is killed by the
Emperor's dreaded Sardaukar by a blow to the head, in doing so saving Paul Atreides and
Lady Jessica. Even though impossibly outnumbered by the elite Sardaukar, he kills an
unheard of 19 of them before finally falling.
1.17 Duncan Idaho II
(aka Hayt, Nefr)
Idaho returns in Dune Messiah as a ghola, a clone made by the Tleilaxu and gifted to
Paul Atreides, now Emperor. The purpose of the gift is 'psychic poison': Idaho is supposed to
tempt the Kwisatz Haderach Paul into becoming that which he despises. Known as Hayt in his
ghola incarnation, Idaho was trained as a mentat and a Zensunni philosopher. He has no
memory of his former life, but constantly feels vague hints and reminders of his previous
incarnation that make him hope he can recover those memories.
Failing to destroy the Emperor psychically, Hayt is programmed to kill Paul against
his will. In the stress of the attempt, Hayt recovers his memories as Duncan Idaho, up to and
including his death at the hands of the Imperial Sardaukar; he stops the attempt, and becomes,
once more, a loyal Atreides servant. This becomes the culmination of the plot to overthrow
Paul by demonstrating that the Tleilaxu can create an exact equivalent of his dead wife Chani,
but only if he abdicates his throne.
Also in Dune Messiah, hints of growing attraction between Idaho and Paul's sister,
Alia, are dropped. In one scene, Duncan even kisses Alia, which infuriates her but he replies
that he took no more than what was offered. When Paul abdicates and wanders into the desert
to die, as is the tradition for blind Fremen, Alia asks Idaho for his continued support and
affection to help her get through the times ahead.
In Children of Dune, Idaho is now Alia's husband and mentat. She has assumed power
as Holy Regent in the name of Paul's children, Leto II and Ghanima. Alia becomes possessed
by the memory-ego of her ancestor, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who sets out to destroy
the Atreides empire. Recognizing this, Idaho remains loyal to the Atreides, and flees to the
desert to protect the children. In order to get Stilgar to join the Fremen opposition to Alia's
rule, Duncan kills Javid, Alia's secret lover, on the neutral ground of Sietch Tabr. He also
insults Stilgar three times, by saying to him the three deadliest insults a Fremen can hear:
"You wear a collar!", "You are a servant! You've sold Fremen for their water!", and "You
have no immortality! None of your descendents carry your blood!" Driven into a rage, Stilgar
kills Duncan for violating the sietch's neutrality, which was what Duncan had planned from
13
the beginning. His last gasping words were, "Two deaths for the Atreides. The second for no
better reason than the first."
1.18 Duncan Idaho (n)
God Emperor of Dune reintroduces Idaho as a serial ghola: Leto II has ruled as a
sandworm for around 3,500 years, and has continually had an Idaho ghola to serve him at all
times. To Leto, Idaho represents loyalty, humanity and the spirit of the unknown (something
which the God-Emperor, having perfect prescience, knows nothing of (it is also implied that
Duncan is needed for the 'Golden Path' to come to fruition). Leto and his father also loved
Duncan, which is another reason why the God Emperor wants a Duncan around. However, the
Idaho gholas, with their memories restored, struggle to deal with what the Atreides have
become. Where before, the hallmark of Atreides rule was justice, Leto's reign has been one of
godhood and oppression. Idaho's old-fashioned conscience rebels, leading the Idaho ghola to
attempt to kill Leto (who is invulnerable to all but water and extreme violence as a
sandworm). Leto notes that only nineteen of "his" Duncans have survived long enough to die
what is considered a "natural death". In just about all of these rebellions, the reborn Idaho is
killed by the God Emperor. After a certain time, the God Emperor will order another ghola of
Duncan from the Tleilaxu. The man usually shows up strongly believing he has gone insane,
in shock at how the Universe has changed since his "death" (as the Duncans have memories
only of the first Duncan). If the new ghola survives his first interviews, he will serve the God
Emperor until his almost inevitable rebellion.
The novel significantly revolves around the perceptions and action of a new Duncan
that has just been ordered from the Tleilaxu. Like the others before him, Duncan is appalled at
what Atreides rule has become, but Leto appoints him as the head of his all-female military,
the Fish Speakers. He also reveals that he has repeatedly used his Duncan gholas in his
breeding program to genetically improve the Atreides line. The current Duncan is intended to
mate with Siona Atreides, the end product of Leto's breeding program: she is able to "fade"
from prescient sight. Duncan is extremely reluctant and protests, saying that he is not Leto's
"stud." He does catch the eye of Hwi Noree, the Ixian Ambassador sent to Arrakis with the
explicit purpose of wooing the Emperor. Leto forbids Duncan from having any relations with
her, but he disobeys and sleeps with Hwi.
Duncan eventually joins Siona's rebels and works with her to assassinate the Leto. His
plan is successful, but Hwi is killed in the process. Leto reveals that he knew of their plan, and
that his death is simply another step to ensuring the Golden Path. Siona, having seen the
Golden Path during her trial in the desert, realizes she was bred as key figure for humanity's
survival. At the end of the novel, she schemes on how to carefully seduce Duncan and mate
with him, as Leto had originally intended. None of their descendants will be able to be tracked
by prescience, forever free of any one person's vision and ensuring that humanity could never
be completely found and destroyed.
The Bene Gesserit become the consumers of Idaho gholas in Heretics of Dune and
Chapterhouse Dune. However, the Tleilaxu keep killing the gholas after several years. Not
knowing exactly what purpose Idaho will serve, the Bene Gesserit suspect that the Tleilaxu
are using the gholas to control the timing of his release upon the universe, implying some
Tleilaxu purpose in addition to their own. The current ghola survives, and entraps an Honored
Matre, revealing the Tleilaxu purpose: the Honored Matres, who are all female, rule by the
sexual enslavement of men to the point of creating physical addiction, and Idaho is the
Tleilaxu response. When Murbella, an Honored Matre, tries to sexually bond Idaho, she is
also enslaved, and the two of them are confined to a no-ship on Chapterhouse. There, Idaho
trains young men to go out into the universe and enslave Honored Matres. Miles Teg is able
to restore the memories of Duncan Idaho to the ghola, but Duncan can feel that the Tleilaxu
14
planted something else in his mind. When Murbella tries to bond Duncan, the Tleilaxu's plan
fruits, and he becomes aware of the memories of all the other Idaho gholas. Duncan also
inherits an awkward prescient vision, wherein he sees an old man and woman staring back at
him. Duncan restores the memories of the Miles Teg ghola, and escapes in the no-ship,
evading the trap set for him by the strange couple.
Duncan is portrayed in Dune and the other works as a handsome man, to whom women
are easily attracted. He is a gifted soldier and general as well as gifted as an
agent/ambassador. He can sometimes get drunk, and in Dune once called Jessica a "damn
Harkonnen spy" whereupon she hurled coffee in his face. One of the Duncan gholas once
married a woman named Irti, who strongly resembled Jessica, and it is revealed that Duncan
fantasized about Jessica as well.
He is a very good fighter with a rapier and in the final fight in which he died for the first
time, he killed 19 Sardaukar - a feat which all characters hold to be astonishing, given that a
single Sarduakar supersoldier is the equal of a dozen standard soldiers in battle. The
Sardaukar sold his body to the Tleilaxu who grew the gholas of Duncan from the original
cells. The original Duncan and all of the gholas show his rebellious streak, and Duncan is
aways a very opinionated, headstrong man.
Duncan's character is the symbol of newness and rebirth in the Dune universe. Leto II
viewed Duncan as a symbol of the unknown, the opposite of stagnation.
1.19 Liet Kynes
Liet-Kynes was born in the year 10,154 according to the Padishah Imperial Calendar.
Kynes was technically only half Fremen, since his father Pardot was a Salusa Secundian.
Liet's mother, Frieth was a sister to Stilgar, a future naib of Sietch Tabr. Liet took upon him
the traditions of the Fremen society, and became a sand rider already as a youth. When Pardot
Kynes died at a cave-in, Liet inherited his father's mantle and served as both the planetary
ecologist of Dune and leader of the Fremen in their path towards a green Dune. He continued
his father's vision of gradually transforming the planet's climate from a harsh desert into a
temperate one.
He died as a result of the Harkonnen/Sardaukar assault on House Atreides; the
Harkonnens abandoned him in the desert without water or supplies. When he was close to
death he began halucinating, and heard his father lecturing him over and over again. His last
words were: "I am a desert creature!"
Liet-Kynes is notable in that he makes critical thematic contributions to the novel of
ecology and economy. Liet-Kynes is perhaps an allusion to the economist John Maynard
Keynes who advocated deficit spending during difficult economic times.
Liet-Kynes is also the father of Chani, who becomes the concubine of Paul Atreides.
1.20 Pardot Kynes
Kynes was named the Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis by Elrood IX. Originally from
Salusa Secundus, a planet that since ancient times had been the Imperial prison planet of the
Corrino dynasty, Kynes was ordered by the Emperor to go to Arrakis to find out exactly how
the spice melange was produced. Arrakis was, of course, the only known source of melange,
the precious spice without which the Imperium would collapse.
The planetologist arrived to Arrakis in 10,154 A.G. After being on the planet a few
months, Glossu Rabban took him out for hunting sandworms. Rabban blew up a sandworm
with explosives to find that the worm disintegrated. This prompted Kynes to begin to
investigate the ecology of the planet, soon realizing that it was possible to change Arrakis to a
green and lush paradise.
15
Kynes found his way into Fremen society after saving the lives of three young fremen,
one of them named Stilgar. They took him to their sietch, but the naib and the elders council
found him to risky and decided that he was to be assassinated. The Fremen Uliet was given
the mission, but when he heard of the wonderful dreams the offworlder had, he killed himself
with the poisoned crysknife. The fremen took this as an omen, and Kynes was declared a
prophet, Umma, and "went native." He married the fremen woman named Frieth, and together
they had a son, who was named after the man who was supposed to kill Kynes, and gave the
boy the name Liet Kynes. With his dream as a goal, the Fremen started uniting, helping Kynes
to unravel the mysteries of the planet and achieving his dream of a green Dune. Kynes
estimated that this would take 400 to 500 Standard years.
Kynes finally died trying to get fruit to give to his wife, when one of his cavebiostations crashed in. The Fremen decided not to try to find him and take his water, and left
their old prophet to rest in peace among his beloved plants. Much later, under the rule of his
great-grandchild, the God Emperor Leto II, his dream came true, and the ocean of Dune,
Kynes Sea was named in honour of him and his son.
1.21 Gaius Helen Mohiam
Mohiam trained Lady Jessica Atreides in the Bene Gesserit chapterhouse on Wallach
IX. Two decades later, Mohiam tested the young Paul Atreides before his departure for
Arrakis with the gom jabbar, a device for injecting poison. Mohiam held the gom jabbar to
Paul's neck, threatening to kill him if he withdrew his hand from a box that inflicted pain
through direct nerve induction. Mohain explained to Paul that the purpose of the test was to
discover whether Paul was "truly human", by requiring him to endure pain and still act
rationally.
In Dune Messiah, the Reverend Mother joined the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul
Atreides after he ascended the Lion Throne and unleashed his Jihad upon the Empire. She,
along with Scytale (a Tleilaxu Face Dancer), Edric (a Spacing Guild Navigator), and Princess
Irulan Corrino (embittered consort of Paul Atreides), plotted to insinuate the Tleilaxu ghola
Hayt into the court to weaken Paul's confidence in his prescience and thereby ruin him. When
the plot failed, Mohiam and Edric were executed in 10,207 A.G. by Fremen Naib Stilgar, on
orders from Paul's sister Alia Atreides.
It was also revealed in the prequels that the name given for Jessica's mother in the
original novels, Tanidia Nerus, was an alias used by Mohiam. This name was presumably the
name listed in the "open" records, as the Bene Gesserit commonly hid true parental identity.
1.22 Hwi Noree
Hwi Noree enters the story as the new Ixian ambassador to the God Emperor Leto II.
Hwi Noree is a highly empathic and intelligent woman, who has hugely admired Leto from
afar, and almost immediately understands him. Hwi Noree and Leto have a bond of mutual
understanding from the first. Leto is immediately attracted to her, as she is exactly the kind of
woman that (if he were still a man) he would have wanted as a mate. As such, she is a kind of
delicious agony for him because his sexual organs have long since disappeared. He is aware
that she is quite obviously some kind of Ixian trap, since clearly someone must have
deliberately created and trained her to be such a perfect fit for him, but he cannot resist the
pleasure of her company even so. Furthermore, he possessed no foreknowledge of her, which
meant that somehow the Ixians had managed to hide her existence from his prophetic dreams.
When Hwi Noree and Leto meet for the second time, she is hurriedly called to audience
with Leto. When she arrives, she learns that her embassy had been overrun by Face Dancers,
and the only reason she had survived was because they needed the time to perfect their
mimicking of her in order to fool the God Emperor. Shocked by this, she wonders why the
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God Emperor hadn't wiped out the Face Dancers. He answers that they have their uses and
furthermore that the only political group Leto ever actually considered destroying were the
Bene Gesserit, because they are so near to what they should be, yet so far. As if this is not
enough for one meeting he asks Hwi Noree to be his bride, though he "reassures" her that he
is incapable of being her physical lover and tells her that she can have children with a discreet
lover if she so wishes. Finally, he suggests she goes away to think about it.
Moneo Atreides, Leto's chief minister, meets with Leto with news. He first suggests that
the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Anteac is a secret mentat, a skill prohibited in the Empire.
Leto agrees but says that it amuses him. Moneo goes on to say that they have pressured the
Bene Tleilax into giving him information about Hwi Noree. The Bene Tleilax played a role in
her birth, by supplying the Ixians with technology to do a cellular restructuring. Leto suggests
that it is interesting that Hwi Noree seems the total opposite in character to Malky, the
previous Ixian ambassador crafted by the Ixians as a being of pure cynicism and amorality,
with whom Leto had had a close friendship.
Hwi Noree and Leto talk again. Leto explains the shape of his Empire and what he is
trying to produce. He talks about how in human affairs each cycle is a reaction to the previous
cycle. He explains what will happen when he "goes into the sands" and his empire falls apart.
Basically, he believes that the process will make humankind more mature, through being
confronted by the desperate experience of the disasters his death will cause. Hwi Noree,
unlike Moneo and the Duncans understands what Leto means, which pleases Leto greatly. At
the end of the audience Leto asks her if she has given any thought to his proposal, and she
answers that she has chosen to marry him.
Upon leaving Leto, Hwi goes to see Anteac and shares her knowledge of the
environment she was brought up in. Anteac has been conscripted by Leto to lead a Fish
Speaker assault on Ix, to wrest the secret of Hwi's origins. Anteac is shocked at the knowledge
that Hwi is to marry Leto and at the same time annoyed that her order had allowed so talented
a woman as Hwi to pass through their training programme without turning her into a Bene
Gesserit.
Later, the city of On rises in rebellion against Leto. Leto is completely surprised, which
is interesting in itself. The rebels attack the Ixian embassy, which, because of the threat to
Hwi, sends Leto into a rage. He leaps out of his cart, and physically attacks the rebels. The
Fish Speakers, using the confusion and panic his assault causes, wipe out the rebels.
Regaining his calm upon discovering Hwi is safe, Leto regrets his intervention because he has
created a dependency among his Fish Speakers. Now they know that he awaits in the wings, a
seemingly invincible death machine. Leto realizes it will take generations to erase this
dependency. Leto also realizes that this attack must have been planned by Malky, hidden
away within the Ixian machine that protects people from his vision.
The announcement that Leto is marrying Hwi Noree upsets Moneo immensely. Moneo
believes the wedding will bring Leto's enemies in alliance against him. He asks Leto for an
explanation for why Leto must do this. Leto tells him that it is because of emotions. He says
the Hwi provokes glorious emotions within him that he had long thought he had lost. She
restores his sense of humanity. During the conversation we learn more about Moneo's abilities
and limits. Leto tries to raise Moneo's level of awareness but ultimately fails. Moneo's idea of
himself limits him from being all he could be.
After the frustration of having to deal with Moneo, Leto answers Duncan's calls for
audience. Duncan, Leto realizes, is suffering from what he call "Since Syndrome", something
which happens to most gholas, but with this one had happened much earlier than ever before.
Duncan feels out of sync with this time and place. Duncan is also upset by the news Leto is
marrying Hwi, a woman he finds intensely attractive also. Leto orders him not to spend time
with her.
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Some time later Moneo and Leto discuss Duncan. Leto is irritated that Duncan is
courting Hwi Noree. However, Moneo informs him that it is Hwi Noree herself who is
initiating the meetings. He says that Hwi feels a great deal of sympathy for Duncan because
he is so out of his time and place. But this does not calm Leto because he says Duncan is very
clever with women. Leto asks when a new Duncan ghola can be provided by the Tleilaxu.
Moneo says that the Tleilaxu claim they are having problems and that it will be a year. Leto
orders that his marriage to Hwi be hurried along.
Moneo and Duncan talk. Moneo tries to get Duncan to call off his pursuit of Hwi Noree.
The conversation becomes very heated and Duncan says a number of critical things about the
God Emperor, within the hearing of Fish Speakers. When Duncan finally returns to his room
he finds Hwi waiting for him. She had been told of his latest outbursts by some sympathetic
Fish Speakers and had rushed to calm him down. However, things do not get any calmer. Hwi
says to him that she was produced to seduce the God Emperor, to seduce an Atreides, and that
he, Duncan, is as much the Atreides ideal as any. In the heat of the emotional interchange,
Hwi Noree and Duncan have passionate sex. But afterwards, to Duncan's great
disappointment, she tells him that she is still going to marry the God Emperor. When Duncan
asks why, she says it is because he has the largest needs of the two of them, the largest need in
all the Empire.
Duncan and Siona hatch a desperate plan to kill the God Emperor. When Leto's convoy
arrives, Siona orders Nayla to fire her lasgun at the bridge, and Nayla, having been directly
ordered by Leto to obey Siona's every order, obeys, fully expecting it to be a religious test of
Leto's. The shot shatters the bridge and Leto is hurled into the water. Hwi Noree is
accidentally killed by the blast, sitting as she was in the same carriage. Duncan is distraught,
and kills the utterly shocked Nayla.
1.23 Darwi Odrade
Odrade is an elite Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. The name "Odrade" is derived from
the Atreides, whose bloodline she possesses thanks to the Bene Gesserit breeding program.
Though trained by the Bene Gesserit from a young age, in Chapterhouse Dune it is revealed
that for the first few years of her life she was raised in secret on the seacoast of Gammu by a
couple she called "Mama Sibia and Papa." Odrade recalls this childhood fondly and treasures
the lessons of love learned there, which she must keep forever secret from the Bene Gesserit,
a "society where any form of love was suspect." Odrade refers to herself in these days before
the Sisterhood as "Sea Child", an image that appears in many of her visions and embodies her
Atreides "wild talents," which the Bene Gesserit have long tried to suppress.
The "wild talents" of Atreides bloodline that Odrade displays intermittently are what the
Bene Gesserit both fear and desperately need. The suspicious — mainly Bellonda —
scrutinize her continually, looking for reasons to terminate her, while Mother Superior Taraza
senses that the Sisterhood needs Odrade's limited Atreides prescience to avert imminent
destruction at the hands of the Honored Matres.
An anonymous document surfaces, referred to as the Atreides Manifesto, that attacks all
religions in the Known Universe except for that of the Bene Tleilax. This creates a furor with
the intensely religious Tleilaxu, who have long nursed dreams of hegemony, dominating the
universe with their religion. The Tleilaxu council decides to treat the Manifesto as a gift from
God, and they spread it far and wide. It is later revealed that the Manifesto was wriiten by
Odrade.
When Taraza is killed after a showdown on Arrakis, Odrade becomes Mother Superior.
Odrade tours Chapterhouse with Tamalane to visit and to consider a promotion for
Sheeana, and check the progress of the planet's conversion to desert.
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Odrade is accompanied by Tamalane, Dortujla and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great
Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. With the
Gammu about to fall, the Honored Matres activate their "weapon of last resort", turning
victory into defeat and holding Odrade captive. Tamalane, Dortujla and Suipol are killed. As
planned with Odrade previously, Murbella travels to Junction alone, pretending to have
escaped the Bene Gesserit with their unique abilities and the location of Chapterhouse.
Murbella is brought before the new Great Honored Matre Logno, who has Odrade standing
nearby unrestrained in a gesture of contempt. Murbella provokes and kills Logno, while
simultaneously the Honored Matre Elpek kills Odrade. With both of their deaths, Murbella
becomes the new Mother Superior as well as Great Honored Matre, fulfilling Odrade's
intentions.
1.24 Feyd-Rautha
Feyd-Rautha is the younger nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and figures heavily
in the Baron's plans to gain power. He is, for a while, the Na-Baron, or heir to the throne. The
Baron favors the handsome and charismatic Feyd-Rautha over Feyd's older brother Glossu
Rabban, "The Beast," because of Feyd's extreme intelligence and his dedication to the
Harkonnen culture of carefully-planned and subtly executed sadism and cruelty, as opposed to
Rabban's outright brutality.
The Baron intends a strategic marital alliance, hoping to marry Feyd to Princess Irulan
Corrino, the eldest daughter of the Emperor Shaddam IV, and giving the Harkonnens
influence or control over the throne. To promote Feyd's power, he is to be installed as ruler of
Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Glossu Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the
savior of the people.
Born on Lankiveil as the son of Abulurd Rabban and his wife Emmi, Feyd had been his
father's hope for a son who would not have to inherit the dishonour of the name Harkonnen,
and a worthy heir in comparison to his older, more brutal son, Glossu. Feyd was named in
after his maternal grandfather, Rautha Rabban, who had been killed by Glossu. When the
Baron heard of this he decided to take the boy Feyd from his father, to raise him on Giedi
Prime, as a possible heir of his own. In time, the Baron came to also favour Feyd more over
his older brother, though for different reasons.
Feyd, like Paul Atreides, is also the product of a centuries-long breeding program
organized by the Bene Gesserit, who planned their own alliance by joining a Harkonnen son
to an Atreides daughter with the expectation that their offspring would have a high probability
of being their hoped-for Kwisatz Haderach. For this reason, Jessica Atreides' decision to defy
the Sisterhood and to produce an Atreides son, Paul, threw the Bene Gesserit's plans into
turmoil and established an irreconcilable tension between Feyd and Paul as the scions of their
bitterly opposed noble houses. The risk of one or both of these young men being killed,
destroying thousands of years of genetic engineering, is so great that the Bene Gesserit send
an envoy, Margot Fenring, to seduce Feyd and conceive a child, salvaging his genetic
material.
As Paul makes his final bid to usurp the Emperor's power, he is challenged by Feyd.
Though famed for his prowess in single combat, Feyd intends to guarantee victory by
breaking the formal rules of kanly (which govern this type of challenge) and using a hidden
poison spur in his fighting outfit. He nearly succeeds in killing Paul Muad'dib in the ritualized
fight, as Paul struggles with whether to try the paralysis word-sound and owe the Bene
Gesserit his victory, or to risk his life against Feyd in a "fair" fight. Paul manages to defeat
Feyd without the command, and goes on to ascend the throne of the Emperor.
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1.25 Stilgar
(aka Stil)
The Fremen Stilgar Ben Fifrawi was born in 10141 A.G. in Umbu Sietch as Tuan on
the planet Arrakis. In 10175 A.G., Stilgar challenged Forad, the Naib of Sietch Tabr, and
defeated him, becoming the new Naib of Sietch Tabr, a title he would hold until his death in
10228 A.G.
In his youth, Stilgar and two friends, Turok and Ommun, had been cornered by
Harkonnens. Badly injured, Stilgar would have died if Pardot Kynes had not come and helped
kill the Harkonnens. Because of this water-debt, Stilgar and Pardot Kynes became good
comrades. Stilgar, Turok and Ommun promised to help Kynes achieve his dream of turning
Arrakis into a paradise. When Pardot Kynes died, Stilgar was a very good friend to his son
Liet Kynes, and thereby something of a paternal figure to Liet's daughter Chani.
It was not until 10153 A.G., after a successful raid against a Harkonnen village, that he
acquired the name of Stilgar. Among the members of Umbu Sietch, he was known as Sahkan
or "the Desert Hawk."
Stilgar had two wives, one of whom was named Tharthar. He later took Harah as his
wife, a woman whom Paul had won by killing Jamis.
In the novel Dune, Stilgar met Paul and his mother Jessica when the Atreides fled into
the desert, escaping a Harkonnen attack. Like the other Fremen, Stilgar eventually believed
that Paul was their long-foretold Messiah. Subsequently, in Dune Messiah and Children of
Dune he was a staunch supporter of Paul and his children, Leto II and Ghanima. In Messiah,
Stilgar executed the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam and Spacing Guild
Navigator Edric after their conspiracy to topple Paul's empire failed. In Children, Stilgar
helped Ghanima and the Princess Irulan escape Alia's later tyranny.
1.26 Miles Teg
In Heretics of Dune, Miles Teg is introduced as the former Supreme Bashar of the Bene
Gesserit Sisterhood. He is charged with the weapons training of ghola Duncan Idaho by
Taraza, the Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit. His mother Janet Roxbrough, a Bene
Gesserit, taught him some of the ways of the Sisterhood before he was sent to Lampadas to
train as a Mentat.
Teg was later tortured by the Honored Matres using a T-Probe. His mentat abilities
learned the T-probe before it could learn him, and this created a deadly reaction within Teg.
He was able to move faster than the eye could see, at the cost of incredible energy
expenditure; he had to consume huge amounts of carbohydrates to regain his energy. At the
end of the book, he sacrificed himself on Rakis as the Honored Matres turn it into a charred
ball. At the beginning of Chapterhouse Dune, a ghola of Teg was birthed, and the Bene
Gesserit later reawakened him to his full memories. Under the intense stress of sexual
imprinting, Miles Teg's latent Atreides abilities were unlocked; he moved with blinding
speed, had a unique form of prescience, could sense immediate danger from people, and also
had the ability to see no-ships.
Miles Teg represents an exquisite product of the eugenic program of the Bene Gesserit
and their meticulous training. Miles Teg is an Atreides and bears a striking resemblance to
Duke Leto Atreides I not only in his appearance but in his strict sense of honour. Mother
Superior Darwi Odrade is his daughter.
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1.27 Wellington Yueh
Yueh was a Suk Doctor with Imperial Conditioning, which was supposed to make the
so conditioned person unable to take life (although it is shown that the Conditioning can be
overcome), and thus was trusted and qualified even enough to tend to the health of the
Emperor of the Known Universe. He was, however, corrupted. Yueh spent the last years of
his life in the service of House Atreides. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, in an attempt to destroy
House Atreides, kidnapped Yueh's wife Wanna and forced Yueh to betray the Atreides.
Wellington Yueh led to the downfall of House Atreides when he disabled the shields to
the Atreides Palace on Arrakis allowing the combined forces of the Emperors Sardaukar and
the Harkonnens to attack, and he drugged Duke Leto Atreides himself.
Yueh delivered the Duke right into the hands of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, but
retained some loyalty to the Atreides and allowed Jessica Atreides and Paul Atreides to
escape by convincing the Baron to dump them in the desert.
Wellington's last act for vengeance was implanting an artificial tooth into Leto's jaw.
This tooth was filled with deadly gas that would be released when the jaw clamped down.
Wellington's hope was that Leto would be able to bite down on the tooth while the Baron was
gloating over his victory and in doing so, kill the Baron. The plan was unsuccessful in killing
the Baron, but the gas did kill his Mentat Piter De Vries.
Wellington, upon delivering the Duke to the Harkonnens found out that his wife was
already dead, as he already suspected, but he did not have much time to mourn this loss as he
was killed almost immediately after his task was complete. He died after 109 years of life.
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