Bene Gesserit: Difference between revisions

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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.