Dune Messiah
Encyclopedia
Dune Messiah is a science fiction
novel by Frank Herbert
, the second in a series of six novels. It was originally serialized in Galaxy
magazine in 1969. The American
and British
editions have different prologues summarizing events in the previous novel. The novels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune
were adapted by the Sci-Fi Channel
in 2003 into a mini-series entitled Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. In 2002, the Science Fiction Book Club also published the two novels in one volume.
(1965), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides
rules as Emperor. By accepting the role of messiah
to the Fremen
, Paul had unleashed a jihad
which conquered most of the known universe. While Paul is the most powerful Emperor ever known, he is powerless to stop the lethal excesses of the religious juggernaut he has created. Although sixty-one billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity. Motivated by this knowledge, Paul hopes to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the Empire and focal point of the Fremen religion.
The Bene Gesserit
, Spacing Guild
and Tleilaxu
enter into a conspiracy to dethrone Paul, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
enlisting Paul's own consort Princess Irulan, daughter of the deposed Padishah Emperor
Shaddam Corrino IV
. Paul has refused to father a child with Irulan (or even touch her), but his Fremen concubine
Chani
has also failed to produce an heir, causing tension within his monarchy. Desperate both to secure her place in the Atreides
dynasty and to preserve the Atreides bloodline for the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Irulan has secretly been giving contraceptives to Chani. Paul is aware of this fact, but has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and does not want to lose her. Because of the way oracles interfere with one another's prescience, the Guild Navigator
Edric is able to shield the conspiracy from Paul's visions of the future. The Tleilaxu Face Dancer
Scytale
gives Paul a gift he cannot resist: a Tleilaxu-grown ghola of the deceased Duncan Idaho
, Paul's childhood teacher and friend, now called "Hayt". The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and the empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens his support among the Fremen, who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean. Chani, taking matters into her own hands, switches to a traditional Fremen fertility diet, preventing Irulan from being able to tamper with her food, and soon becomes pregnant.
Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commando
s, reveals evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against Paul. Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz who, like a recording machine, can remember faces, names, and details. Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. As Paul's soldiers attack the conspirators, others set off an atomic weapon called a stone burner, purchased from the Tleilaxu, that destroys the area and blinds Paul. By tradition, all blind Fremen are abandoned in the desert, but Paul shocks the Fremen and entrenches his godhead by proving he can still see, even without eyes. His oracular powers have become so developed that he can foresee in his mind everything that happens, as though his eyes still function. By moving through his life in lockstep with his visions, he can see even the slightest details of the world around him. The disadvantage of this is his inability to change any part of his destiny so long as he wishes to appear sighted. The unraveling of the Fremen conspiracy reveals that Korba, a former Fedaykin and now high priest of Paul's church, is among Paul's enemies.
Hayt interrogates Bijaz, but the little man actually an agent of the Tleilaxu uses a specific humming intonation that renders Hayt open to implanted commands. Bijaz programs Hayt to offer Paul a bargain when Chani dies: Chani's rebirth as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho's memories might be reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile. Bijaz also implants a compulsion that will force Hayt to attempt to kill Paul, given the appropriate circumstances. Hayt remains oblivious of the programming. Eventually news is brought that Chani has died giving birth. Paul's reaction to it triggers the compulsions in the mind of Hayt, who attempts to kill Paul. But rather than kill his beloved Paul, Duncan's ghola body reacts against its own programming and recovers Duncan's full consciousness. He remains conscious of the Zen-Sunni and Mentat training given to Hayt by the Tleilaxu, but is no longer bound to their programming.
Paul and Chani's newborn twins are "pre-born", like Paul's sister Alia
had been, and come into the world fully conscious with Kwisatz Haderach
-like access to ancestral memories thanks to a combination of their genes and an in utero
exposure to the quantities of spice in Chani's special pregnancy diet. Scytale offers to revive Chani as a ghola in return for all of Paul's CHOAM
holdings. Paul refuses to submit to the possibility that the Tleilaxu might program Chani in some diabolical way, and Scytale threatens the infants with a knife while he negotiates with Alia. Paul has now been rendered completely blind by the presence of his oracular son, who he failed to predict in his visions. Paul is able to kill Scytale with an accurately aimed dagger thanks to a vision from the perspective of his newborn son.
Now prophetically as well as physically blind, Paul chooses to embrace the Fremen tradition of a blind man walking alone into the desert, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, who will inherit his mantle of Emperor. Paul leaves Alia, now romantically involved with Duncan, as regent
for the twins, whom he has named Leto
and Ghanima. Duncan notes the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths had enabled them to triumph against their enemies, and that Paul has escaped deification
by walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing Fremen support for the Atreides line.
noted that he enjoyed the book, "even as [he] was driving a truck through the holes in its logic, because it had the same majestic rolling grandeur of the previous book."
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
, the second in a series of six novels. It was originally serialized in Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
magazine in 1969. The American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
editions have different prologues summarizing events in the previous novel. The novels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune
Children of Dune
Children of Dune is a 1976 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, third in a series of six novels set in his Dune universe. Initially selling over 75,000 copies, it became the first hardcover best-seller ever in the science fiction field...
were adapted by the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
in 2003 into a mini-series entitled Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. In 2002, the Science Fiction Book Club also published the two novels in one volume.
Plot summary
Twelve years after the events described in DuneDune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
(1965), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides
Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
rules as Emperor. By accepting the role of messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
to the Fremen
Fremen
The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis and are based on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and Kalahari Bushmen. In Herbert's novels, Arrakis is the sole known source...
, Paul had unleashed a jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
which conquered most of the known universe. While Paul is the most powerful Emperor ever known, he is powerless to stop the lethal excesses of the religious juggernaut he has created. Although sixty-one billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity. Motivated by this knowledge, Paul hopes to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the Empire and focal point of the Fremen religion.
The Bene Gesserit
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious, and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and...
, Spacing Guild
Spacing Guild
The Spacing Guild is an organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. With its monopoly on interstellar travel and banking, the Guild is a balance of power against the Padishah Emperor and the assembled noble Houses of the Landsraad...
and Tleilaxu
Bene Tleilax
The Bene Tleilax or Tleilaxu are an extremely xenophobic and isolationist society in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium...
enter into a conspiracy to dethrone Paul, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Gaius Helen Mohiam
Gaius Helen Mohiam is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and initially appears in the 1965 novel Dune and its 1969 sequel, Dune Messiah. Mohiam also has a major role in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert...
enlisting Paul's own consort Princess Irulan, daughter of the deposed Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor is the title given to the hereditary rulers of the Old Empire in the science fiction Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.-Original series:...
Shaddam Corrino IV
Shaddam Corrino IV
Shaddam Corrino IV is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is Padishah Emperor of the known universe in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. Shaddam's accession to the throne is chronicled in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.Born...
. Paul has refused to father a child with Irulan (or even touch her), but his Fremen concubine
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
Chani
Chani
Chani is a fictional character featured in Frank Herbert's novels Dune and Dune Messiah . Known mainly as the Fremen wife and legal concubine of protagonist Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides, Chani is the daughter of Imperial Planetologist Liet-Kynes and his Fremen wife Faroula, and later the mother of...
has also failed to produce an heir, causing tension within his monarchy. Desperate both to secure her place in the Atreides
House Atreides
House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series. It is suggested within the series that the root of the Atreides line...
dynasty and to preserve the Atreides bloodline for the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Irulan has secretly been giving contraceptives to Chani. Paul is aware of this fact, but has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and does not want to lose her. Because of the way oracles interfere with one another's prescience, the Guild Navigator
Guild Navigator
A Guild Navigator is a fictional humanoid in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Humans mutated through the consumption of and exposure to massive amounts of the spice melange, they are able to use a limited form of prescience to safely navigate interstellar space in a starship called a...
Edric is able to shield the conspiracy from Paul's visions of the future. The Tleilaxu Face Dancer
Face dancers
A Face Dancer is a type of human in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. A servant caste of the Bene Tleilax, Face Dancers are shapeshifters, and their name is derived from their ability to change their physical appearance at will.-Background:...
Scytale
Scytale (Dune)
Scytale is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. In the novel Dune Messiah , Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who participates in the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides. He later returns as a ghola and Tleilaxu Master in Heretics of Dune and...
gives Paul a gift he cannot resist: a Tleilaxu-grown ghola of the deceased Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character became a breakout character as the readers liked him and was revived by Herbert in 1969's Dune Messiah...
, Paul's childhood teacher and friend, now called "Hayt". The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and the empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens his support among the Fremen, who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean. Chani, taking matters into her own hands, switches to a traditional Fremen fertility diet, preventing Irulan from being able to tamper with her food, and soon becomes pregnant.
Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
s, reveals evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against Paul. Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz who, like a recording machine, can remember faces, names, and details. Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot. As Paul's soldiers attack the conspirators, others set off an atomic weapon called a stone burner, purchased from the Tleilaxu, that destroys the area and blinds Paul. By tradition, all blind Fremen are abandoned in the desert, but Paul shocks the Fremen and entrenches his godhead by proving he can still see, even without eyes. His oracular powers have become so developed that he can foresee in his mind everything that happens, as though his eyes still function. By moving through his life in lockstep with his visions, he can see even the slightest details of the world around him. The disadvantage of this is his inability to change any part of his destiny so long as he wishes to appear sighted. The unraveling of the Fremen conspiracy reveals that Korba, a former Fedaykin and now high priest of Paul's church, is among Paul's enemies.
Hayt interrogates Bijaz, but the little man actually an agent of the Tleilaxu uses a specific humming intonation that renders Hayt open to implanted commands. Bijaz programs Hayt to offer Paul a bargain when Chani dies: Chani's rebirth as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho's memories might be reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile. Bijaz also implants a compulsion that will force Hayt to attempt to kill Paul, given the appropriate circumstances. Hayt remains oblivious of the programming. Eventually news is brought that Chani has died giving birth. Paul's reaction to it triggers the compulsions in the mind of Hayt, who attempts to kill Paul. But rather than kill his beloved Paul, Duncan's ghola body reacts against its own programming and recovers Duncan's full consciousness. He remains conscious of the Zen-Sunni and Mentat training given to Hayt by the Tleilaxu, but is no longer bound to their programming.
Paul and Chani's newborn twins are "pre-born", like Paul's sister Alia
Alia Atreides
Alia Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character was originally killed in Herbert's first version of the manuscript. At the suggestion of Analog magazine editor John Campbell, Herbert kept...
had been, and come into the world fully conscious with Kwisatz Haderach
Kwisatz Haderach
In Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe, Kwisatz Haderach is a term which refers to a prophesied messiah and superbeing. In the series, the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal secret society, hope to create a male who can survive the deadly ritual spice agony that changes a capable female acolyte into...
-like access to ancestral memories thanks to a combination of their genes and an in utero
In utero
In utero is a Latin term literally meaning "in the womb". In biology, the phrase describes the state of an embryo or fetus. In legal contexts, the phrase is used to refer to unborn children. Under common law, unborn children are still considered to exist for property transfer purposes.-See also:*...
exposure to the quantities of spice in Chani's special pregnancy diet. Scytale offers to revive Chani as a ghola in return for all of Paul's CHOAM
CHOAM
The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles is a fictional universal development corporation in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, first mentioned in the 1965 novel Dune...
holdings. Paul refuses to submit to the possibility that the Tleilaxu might program Chani in some diabolical way, and Scytale threatens the infants with a knife while he negotiates with Alia. Paul has now been rendered completely blind by the presence of his oracular son, who he failed to predict in his visions. Paul is able to kill Scytale with an accurately aimed dagger thanks to a vision from the perspective of his newborn son.
Now prophetically as well as physically blind, Paul chooses to embrace the Fremen tradition of a blind man walking alone into the desert, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, who will inherit his mantle of Emperor. Paul leaves Alia, now romantically involved with Duncan, as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
for the twins, whom he has named Leto
Leto Atreides II
Leto Atreides II is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of Dune Messiah , Leto is a central character in Children of Dune and is the title character of God Emperor of Dune . The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
and Ghanima. Duncan notes the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths had enabled them to triumph against their enemies, and that Paul has escaped deification
Imperial cult
An imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor, or a dynasty of emperors , are worshipped as messiahs, demigods or deities. "Cult" here is used to mean "worship", not in the modern pejorative sense...
by walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing Fremen support for the Atreides line.
Characters
- Paul AtreidesPaul AtreidesPaul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
– Emperor of the known universe and Messiah of the FremenFremenThe Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis and are based on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and Kalahari Bushmen. In Herbert's novels, Arrakis is the sole known source...
. His formal(public) name is Muad'dib and Fremen sietch(private/secret) name is Usul. - Princess Irulan – Princess-consort of Emperor Paul Atreides
- ChaniChaniChani is a fictional character featured in Frank Herbert's novels Dune and Dune Messiah . Known mainly as the Fremen wife and legal concubine of protagonist Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides, Chani is the daughter of Imperial Planetologist Liet-Kynes and his Fremen wife Faroula, and later the mother of...
– of Paul's Fremen tribe, Imperial concubine and chosen mother-to-be - AliaAlia AtreidesAlia Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character was originally killed in Herbert's first version of the manuscript. At the suggestion of Analog magazine editor John Campbell, Herbert kept...
– Paul's sister, born with prescient awareness, a Reverend Mother - Gaius Helen MohiamGaius Helen MohiamGaius Helen Mohiam is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and initially appears in the 1965 novel Dune and its 1969 sequel, Dune Messiah. Mohiam also has a major role in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert...
– a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit and conspirator - Edric – a prescient Guild Navigator and conspirator
- ScytaleScytale (Dune)Scytale is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. In the novel Dune Messiah , Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who participates in the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides. He later returns as a ghola and Tleilaxu Master in Heretics of Dune and...
– a TleilaxuBene TleilaxThe Bene Tleilax or Tleilaxu are an extremely xenophobic and isolationist society in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium...
Face Dancer and conspirator - Hayt – a revived Tleilaxu ghola of Paul's childhood teacher, Duncan IdahoDuncan IdahoDuncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character became a breakout character as the readers liked him and was revived by Herbert in 1969's Dune Messiah...
- StilgarStilgarStilgar is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He appears in the first three novels in the series: Dune , Dune Messiah and Children of Dune . His early life is explored in Brian Herbert and Kevin J...
– Previous leader of the Fremen, now loyal to Paul Atreides
Reception
Spider RobinsonSpider Robinson
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...
noted that he enjoyed the book, "even as [he] was driving a truck through the holes in its logic, because it had the same majestic rolling grandeur of the previous book."