Heretics of Dune

On Chapter House Planet, the Bene Gesserit’s home base, Reverend Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza interviews Darwi Odrade for an obscure mission to Rakis. An increase in arms sales has accompanied the return of the Lost Ones from the Scattering, suggesting that violence is forthcoming. Taraza is concerned that the Bene Gesserit have forsaken their higher ideals in exchange for personal conveniences. She warns they may cease to exist if the Bene Gesserit remains too complacent.

Like all Reverend Mothers, Odrade can access the consciousness of all her female ancestors in streams of awareness called “Other Memories.” She also possesses a “prescient instinct” that Taraza only commands her to use in dire situations. Odrade recalls her childhood on Gammu where the Bene Gesserit placed her with foster parents to hide her Atreides lineage. When Odrade was six, the Bene Gesserit took her away from the two people she loved and never stopped loving despite the Bene Gesserit’s counsel to discard such ancient emotions. Taraza warns Odrade that accessing ancestral memories is a tool for survival, not for addressing childhood trauma and satisfying one’s curiosity about the past. Odrade assures her that she will not let her past affect her mission. She invokes the names Dar and Tar, nicknames that Odrade and Taraza once used to refer to themselves in their youths when Taraza was her mentor. The nicknames go against the Bene Gesserit’s formal mode of address and reveal their affection for each other. Taraza refuses to answer Odrade’s question about the complete plans for the ghola and rejects her interest in meeting Lucilla. She reminds Odrade to remember her loyalties and dispatches her to Rakis.

Confined to the Gammu Keep, young Duncan Idaho turns 13 years old. He likes both Miles Teg and Patrin but despises Schwangyu. He resents her for punishing the guards when he once sneaked out to explore the compound. The guards used to play with Duncan, but Schwangyu ended their friendship. Teg refuses to answer Duncan’s questions about why he must be guarded and who his parents are. Duncan learns in the library about the time of the God Emperor. Leto II had the body of a man-worm hybrid that dispersed into many larval sandworms upon his death. Rakis’s worshippers still revere him in the Church of Shai-hulud, the Divided God. They believe Leto’s consciousness exists in each worm, though this pearl is unaware and remains latent. When he was 10, Duncan learned about the history of Siona and Idaho and discovered that he was a ghola. He possesses the authentic genes of Idaho, but the original memories remain stored in his unconscious until triggered by trauma. Duncan is determined to revive his original memories and learn who he is.

In a flashback to six years earlier, Taraza pays Teg a personal visit to recall him out of retirement. She needs a Weapons Master for the young ghola-child. Taraza respects and trusts Teg, a direct descendent of the Atreides. She admires how his home retains his mother’s decor and personal touches after her death. Teg dislikes “chairdogs,” bio-engineered dogs shaped into chairs and other living furniture, and spends his retirement farming and gardening. 

The Bene Gesserit has conditioned Teg, but he also possesses an independent Mentat’s skills of logic and computation. Teg’s allegiance to the Bene Gesserit is founded on their shared “moral purpose.” He believes their code of ethics relies on fairness rather than on law; those in power can dictate laws whereas all parties involved must agree upon fairness. Teg bases his actions not on future predictions but on what’s right now. He agrees to the post but declines to reinstate his title as Supreme Bashar so his successor is given his just promotion. Teg is 296 years old but is still fit to train Duncan in military arts. The Bene Gesserit intends to use Teg’s uncanny resemblance to Duke Leto I to restore the ghola’s original memories when he comes of age. Taraza remains cryptic about the goal of the ghola project. She informs Teg that the Bene Gesserit council’s loyalties are divided and does not trust Schwangyu.

On the planet Tleilax, home to the Bene Tleilax (also called Tleilaxu), Tylwyth Waff assembles his council in the city of Bandalong. Waff is the Master of Masters, the leader of a secret 10-member order in the Bene Tleilax hierarchy. For millennia, the Tleilaxu have been constructing a myth of themselves as “dirty” inferiors to hide their true intent to take over the universe. Their new Face Dancers—constructs that can mimic appearances and access the memories of others—have infiltrated their adversaries’ ranks. The Tleilaxu plan to set the Honored Matres in opposition against the Bene Gesserit to weaken both forces. The Masters secretly follow a syncretic religion rooted in ancient Sufi-Zensunni beliefs and revere Leto II as a prophet. Waff assures the council that no one in the universe knows their deepest secret: All 10 members of the council are gholas who have been reproducing themselves for centuries. They have had their original memories restored in a cycle akin to immortality.

On the planet Rakis (formerly Arrakis), 11-year-old Sheeana Brugh rides a giant sandworm in the city of Keen (formerly Arrakeen). When she was eight years old, Sheeana survived a worm attack that killed her parents and swallowed up her entire village. In her anger, she chased after the worm and discovered that she could control the creature and ride it. She knew that ancient Fremen used to ride the worms but Rakian priests forbid the act, regarding it as a demeaning treatment of Leto II’s spirit. The worm safely took her to Keen where some priests worshipped her as a child of God. Sheeana feared the priests and regarded them as “bad” people who punished the poor by feeding them to the worms. Unsure if Sheeana has broken their laws, the priests test her by deserting her in the desert with an active thumper, a short stake with a spring-loaded clapper on one end that pounds repeatedly when released, to attract the sandworms to her location. Sheeana curses the worm for killing her family and friends, and the worm retreats. She survives the encounter, and the priests contact the Bene Gesserit embassy to inform them that the event they have been waiting for has finally arrived.

Miles Teg has a childhood memory of his mother, the Bene Gesserit Lady Janet Roxbrough-Teg. When Teg was seven, his mother taught him how to detect Face Dancers, a race of metamorphic transhumans engineered by the Bene Tleilax. He learned that new Face Dancers can absorb other people’s memories by touching them. Teg recalls how his love for his mother transferred to his loyalty to the Bene Gesserit. When Teg was 13, he attended a Bene Gesserit training school and returned a Warrior Mentat skilled in battle and computation. He thinks back to his first meeting with Schwangyu at the Gammu Keep. Schwangyu instructed Teg not to tell the child about gholas and spoke about Duncan as if he were not human. Teg confirms Taraza’s warning not to trust Schwangyu and vows to protect Duncan at all costs.

Waff meets with an Honored Matre on an Ixian no-ship where they cannot be detected. Unbeknownst to the Honored Matres, Face Dancers have infiltrated the ship disguised as Ixian crew members. Waff’s informants have told him that the Honored Matres are numerous and more threatening than the Bene Gesserit. They can use Voice, a speaking technique to command people, but they do not possess Other Memories. Their strongest power is their mastery of sex to control men. Waff secretly arms himself with two poison darts in his sleeves and meets with the Honored Matre to gather more intel. The Honored Matre demands to know what the Bene Gesserit’s ghola project entails and orders Waff to allow two Honored Matres to breed with the Tleilaxu and report on their technologies. Waff kills two Honored Matres and replaces them with Face Dancers who “print” the women’s memories by touching them head-to-head. The Tleilaxu destroy the no-ship and leave no survivors.