Sandworms of Dune - Entry #5

     I liked this little explanation that Erasmus gave to the Baron and Paolo to explain the advanced Face Dancers that Omnius employed:

     "Long ago -- during your original lifetime, dear Baron -- a Tleilaxu researcher named Hidar Fen Ajidica created an artificial spice that he called amal.  Though the substance proved to have significant defects, Ajidica consumed huge quantities of it himself, and as a result he went increasingly mad, which led to his demise."
     "Sounds like a failure," Paolo said.
     "Oh, Ajidica failed spectacularly, but he did accomplish something very important.  Call it a side effect.  For his special ambassadors, he created greatly improved Face Dancers, with which he intended to populate a new domain.  He dispatched them into deep space as scouts, colonizers, preparers of the way.  He died before he could join them.  Poor foolish man."

(Sandworms of Dune, p. 297)

     Such long history telling.  This dates back 5,000 years and ties to storytelling in the prequel to Dune books.