Heretics of Dune – Entry #2

Once Frank Herbert identified the concept of prescience (seeing the future) as something he wanted to explore in the Dune saga, it is fascinating to consider the long tendrils this one theme reaches out to.  The societal addiction to the drug mélange (spice) is connected to it since “ancient” times when Norma Cenva first discovered its ability to open her vision to guide through fold-space.  That ability to “see” also led to Leto II breeding for humans that could not be “seen” by Guild searches, Siona being the first in that line.  And it led to the design of the no-rooms, no-ships, etc.  This, naturally, would lead to the desire to nullify the no-ship’s ability to hide.

In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history.  Show me someone who says, “Something must be done!” and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no other outlet.  What we must strive for always! is to find the natural flow and go with it.

-The Reverend Mather Taraza

Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9

(Heretics of Dune, p. 90)

This chapter starter got my attention because I genuinely like change and therefore could be considered a “reformer”.  Yet I would have to agree that to foster change, you do need to find “the natural flow”, and I am not sure I could have said it or even identified it as clearly as was done in this passage.

Heretics of Dune – Entry #1

It is now 1500 years after the “death” of Leto II.  Certainly, a lot has happened but the Bene Gesserit persist as does the Litany Against Fear, which appears quite early in this book on page 8.  The Litany, unchanged for many thousands of years, is a key thread throughout the Dune Saga.

Early in the book, we meet Miles Teg; retired Supreme Bashar (military commander) for the Bene Gesserit, mentat, and an Atreides.  We also meet young Duncan Idaho, evidently the twelfth ghola in a series bought and paid for by the Bene Gesserit and created in the Bene Tleilax axlotl tanks.  Teg has been asked to come out of retirement to complete the training of the young Duncan (16 years old) on Gammu (previously known as Geidi Prime – Home Planet of the Harkonnens).  This ghola was altered on the request of the Bene Gesserit so that his reflexes match contemporary human capabilities. Teg, whose appearance is strikingly similar to Duke Leto Atreides, has also been charged with restoring Duncan’s memories.

Although similar forces rule in the universe, including the Bene gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Fish Speaker Council, CHOAM, Ix technology leaders, and the Bene Tleilax, the Bene Gesserit have regained much power since the Tyrant’s death.

A small measure of the Sisterhood’s far-reaching authority could be deduced from the fact that they held this authority despite Tleilaxu tank-grown mélange, which had broken the Rakian monopoly on the spice, just as Ixian navigation machines had broken Guild monopoly on space travel.

(Heretics of Dune, p. 69)

Space travel now includes the “no-ship”; a ship that is not visible through prescience or by scanning.  It and its inhabitants can only be found if seen.

There is also a new force, the Honored Matres, who have come from far reaches of space, returned from the scattering.  Evidently, after Leto II died, there were Famine times and the Scattering … a sort of Diaspora.  The Honored Matres return from the Scattering with wealth and power yet they seek more.  They seek to “nullify a no-ship’s invisibility” (Heretics of Dune, p. 79).  And they know there is something very dangerous about the Idaho ghola.