Bene Gesserit: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:31, 26 July 2025

Latest revision as of 01:08, 30 July 2025

(One intermediate revision by one other user not shown)

Line 37:

The Bene Gesserit super-being – whom they call the '''Kwisatz Haderach''' – arrives a generation earlier than expected in the form of [[Paul Atreides]], who is free from their direct control though his mother is the Bene Gesserit [[Lady Jessica]]. In ''Dune'', Paul seizes control of the harsh [[desert planet]] [[Arrakis]], the only source of the all-important spice melange; by threatening to destroy all spice production, he maneuvers himself onto the Imperial throne. With Paul holding a tight monopoly on melange, a decade later the Bene Gesserit participate in a conspiracy to topple his rule in ''[[Dune Messiah]]'' (1969). Even after a blinded Paul walks into the desert to die, his sister [[Alia Atreides|Alia]] rules his empire and keeps the Bene Gesserit at bay until Paul's young son [[Leto II Atreides|Leto II]] takes control himself in ''[[Children of Dune]]'' (1976). Over 3,500 years later, Leto – now a [[hybrid (biology)|hybrid]] of human and [[sandworm (Dune)|sandworm]] – still dominates the universe as the tyrant God Emperor in ''[[God Emperor of Dune]]'' (1981). Through [[prescience (Dune)|prescience]], he foresees humanity's possible destruction, and has forced humanity into what he calls the [[Golden Path (Dune)|Golden Path]], a plan which he believes will assure their survival. Having halted all spice production and thus making his own stockpile the only source of melange left in the universe, Leto is able to maintain firm control over the various factions and effects a "forced tranquility". He takes the Bene Gesserit breeding program from them and uses it for his own mysterious purposes, and their limited spice supply is conditional on their obedience to him and his prescient vision. Recognizing that his work is finally done, Leto allows himself to be assassinated.

Fifteen hundred years later in ''[[Heretics of Dune]]'' (1984), the Bene Gesserit have regained their power and relocated to a hidden homeworld they call Chapterhouse, and the spice cycle has been renewed on Arrakis, now called Rakis. Although they still have a reputation as manipulators and witches, the Bene Gesserit operate much more openly than they did before, since many of their schemes are common knowledge thanks to the religion of Leto II. New opposition arrives in the form of a violent matriarchal order calling themselves the [[Honored Matres]], a ruthless and brutal force who seek domination over the [[Old Empire (Dune)|Old Empire]] and who do not use or rely on melange for their powers. As the Matres all but exterminate the [[Tleilaxu]] race and next target the Sisterhood, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior [[Taraza (Dune)|Taraza]] implements a bold plan to release humanity from the oracular hold of Leto II by goading the Honored Matres into destroying Rakis. Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit have [[Terraforming|terraform]]ed Chapterhouse into a desert planet like Rakis by bringing a single sandworm there and drowning it, releasing its sandtrout, to begin a new spice cycle. In ''[[Chapterhouse: Dune]]'' (1985), the Honored Matres begin to destroy all of the Bene Gesserit-controlled planets and enslave the populace of the other planets they conquer. The Matres themselves are hunted by a far more powerful force from out in [[The Scattering (Dune)|the Scattering]]. The new Mother Superior [[Darwi Odrade]] recognizes that the threat of this unknown enemy is greater than that of the Honored Matres, and forms another bold plan. The captive Honored Matre [[Murbella]], who has been assimilated into the Bene Gesserit and gained the full powers of a Reverend Mother, defeats the leader of the Honored Matres in combat and thus becomes Great Honored Matre. She immediately succeeds Odrade as Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, joining the two forces under a single leader in an uneasy truce that, it is hoped, will be able to defeat the unknown enemy.

===Sequels===

Line 56:

The ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, up to the end of the novel ''Dune'', is the creation of a male Bene Gesserit they call the Kwisatz Haderach ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|w|ɪ|s|ɑː|t|s|_|ˈ|h|ɑː|d|ər|æ|k}},<ref name="Pronunciation">{{Cite web |url=http://www.usul.net/books/sounds.htm |title=Audio excerpts from a reading of ''Dune'' by Frank Herbert |publisher=Usul.net |access-date=October 6, 2010}}</ref> defined by Herbert as "The Shortening of the Way", the term comes from the Hebrew mystical term [[Kefitzat haderech|Kefitzat Haderech]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weingrad |first=Michael |date=March 29, 2015 |title=Jews of ''Dune'' |url=https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1633/jews-of-dune/ |website=Jewish Review of Books}}</ref>). They intend to achieve this superbeing through a massive human breeding program, which they have conducted for countless generations; using careful manipulations of relationships and breeding sisters to "collect" key genes, the Bene Gesserit have controlled and finessed bloodlines through the ages. Also called "the one who can be two places simultaneously" or "the one who can be many places at once", the Kwisatz Haderach, with mental powers that would bridge space and time and access to both male and female lines in Other Memory, will be an overt figure in the Bene Gesserit's manipulations and thrust upon the universe as a [[messiah]].<ref name="Kwisatz">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Frank |title=Dune |url=https://archive.org/details/dune0000herb |url-access=registration |chapter=Terminology of the Imperium: Kwisatz Haderach |date=1965}}</ref>

In ''Dune'', the millenia-old Bene Gesserit breeding scheme is, in theory, to have come at long last to full fruition fromin another generation by means of the union of an [[House Atreides|Atreides]] daughter (planned to be born of the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica and the [[Leto I Atreides|Duke Leto Atreides]]) andwith [[Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen]], a nephew of the Baron [[Vladimir Harkonnen]] (himself secretly the naturalspawning father of Lady Jessica). This entire plan is disrupted when Jessica chooses instead to conceive anthe Atreidesmale sonheir for which her Duke so wishes rather than the daughter shethat hadthe beenplan had ordered her to produce.

This surprise son, Paul Atreides, lateris the apt pupil of tutelage in many excellent schools of training, most of all in his mother's own Bene Gesserit ways, and he eventually proves himself indeed to be the Kwisatz Haderach, although unexpected in his characteristics and born a generation earlyearlier than planned. The ruination of House Atreides after their move to Arrakis actually positions the refugee Paul to assume the position of prophesied messiah among the indomitable native population of the deadly desert planet: the secretive Fremen. Political intrigue, resultsreligious inbelief, and Paul's risecharacter toand powerhis asuniting of great powers within himself, all result in his further assumption of the throne of the Emperor of the Known Universe, secured by his strangleholdpeerless onFremen armies and by, most of all, his complete control over the melange supply.

A decade later, in ''Dune Messiah'', the Bene Gesserit are frustrated to be at the mercy of their own creation, but a conspiracy to remove Paul from power fails. He realizes, however, that while prescience grants knowledge, absolute control of outcomes is not possible due to interference patterns caused by their own actions. Despising the religion that has risen up around him and seeing where it will lead, Paul walks into the desert seeking death in hopes that he can change the course of the future.

Paul's son [[Leto II Atreides|Leto II]] is also a Kwisatz Haderach; seeing the same future, Leto decides to do what his father could not. Hebring himself to do: he takes control of both the empire and the Bene Gesserit breeding program in ''Children of Dune'', and begins his own transformation into a human-[[sandworm (Dune)|sandworm]] hybrid to give himself the time he needs for his [[Golden Path (Dune)|Golden Path]] to be fully realized.

Thirty-five hundred years later, his breeding plan produces [[Siona Atreides]], the first in a line of humans who are able to disappear from prescient sight, and Leto allows himself to be assassinated. After 1,500 more years (as chronicled in ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse Dune''), the Bene Gesserit have restored their breeding program. However, they are too terrified of the consequences of producing another Kwisatz Haderach, so instead breed for special individuals of great talent and usefulness in order to amplify certain human characteristics and preserve them. Now aware of Leto's Golden Path, the Bene Gesserit widen their goals of advancing humanity and saving it from extinction.

The behind-the-scenes intrigues of the breeding program are illuminated in the ''[[Prelude to Dune]]'' prequel trilogy (1999–2001) as the program nears fruition in the time immediately prior to the novel ''Dune''. The origins of the program are explored in the ''Legends of Dune'' prequel series. Over 10,000 years before the events of ''Dune'', the Sorceresses of Rossak had started keeping detailed breeding records circa 400 B.G., trying to improve the potency and prevalence of their telekinetic powers. In 108 B.G., the Sorceresses begin collecting genetic samples of various human bloodlines, which were in jeopardy from a catastrophic virus genetically engineered and unleashed by the thinking machines.