The first three girls, Eleanor, Helene, and Elaine, were born during the period when Ghanima was working with Voices from the immediate past. (Years later, when she discovered the identity of her paternal greatgrandmother, Ghanima realized what had inspired their names.) Jeunne, the next to the youngest child, was named for al-Ada's sister, and the last child, Noree, was named for a figure who haunted al-Ada's dreams in hopes of "exorcising" her from his nights. All the children were trained in academic disciplines and in prana-bindu control. The boys were given training in sword and knife attack and defense while the girls were trained in the Bene Gesserit "weirding" way of hand-to-hand combat. This insistence on martial arts training seemed out of place in Leto's peaceable kingdom, but both Ghanima and al-Ada feared a recurrence of assassination attempts and wanted the children prepared to defend themselves. To balance their martial training, the children also perfected various creative talents and skills, and Ghanima notes with pleasure the family evenings of music and drama. She even persuaded Harq al-Harba to write a masque which the family produced privately for the court, each person proudly playing his or her own role. Leto appeared, appropriately enough, as the voice of God. Unfortunately the text of this masque was not preserved, and Harban scholars have argued that the story is merely apocryphal.
Though Ghanima enjoyed a loving relationship with all of the children, her most frequent companion was Elaine. Recent evidence supports the theory that Volume Two of the Book of Ghanima is in Elaine's voice, and from her we get a portrait of the middle-aged Ghanima:
Mother was always slender and wiry, never becoming, as the Fremen used to say, water-fat. Her crinkly red hair curled around her forehead, always a bit adrift and never sleekly in place like the rolls and tendrils of beautiful Aunt Irulan. But Mother's steady blue, reasonable gaze brought instant trust and respect, and her dignity was warm, unlike Irulan's cold green eyes and remote aristocratic manners. Uncle Leto says that Mother was more Liet-Kynes than Atreides, but I'm not sure what that means. He seemed to mean it as a compliment, though. To me she will always be the most beautiful woman in the world — her loveliness coming as much from her kindness and wisdom as from her pretty freckled face.
The only other family woman whom Ghanima trusted besides Elaine seems to have been her mother Chani even though her mother had been "dead" for years. After an initial period of conflict when Ghanima was young and the Chani-persona within Ghanima still wished to be with Muad'Dib, the two women formed a coalition of support which lasted Ghanima's lifetime. Ghanima had loved Harah, her living mother-substitute, but Alia separated them when Ghanima was three, jealous of their relationship. Jessica, her grandmother, was a rather remote figure who Ghanima saw rarely. Farad'n's respect and affection for Jessica helped to strengthen Ghanima's relationship with her grandmother, but Jessica spent most of her later life on Caladan. Thus, Alia and Irulan had vied for control of the young Ghanima. Ghanima was both terrified of and empathetic to Alia, seeing her as a mirror of the possessed soul Ghanima could so easily become. Though the rest of the family refused to speak of Alia after her waters had been emptied on the sand, Ghanima taught her children about their aunt to show them the problems and the pain of being human and in contact with one's active past.
Irulan presented a more complicated problem for Ghanima. The woman was not only her grandfather's official wife, she was also the twins' tutor and tried in her own way to show them affection. But when Ghanima began speaking with her mother, she soon learned the part that Irulan had played in Chani's death. Ghanima was also suspicious of Irulan's Bene Gesserit ties and other connections with Wensicia's assassination plot. After Ghanima pledged herself to al-Ada, her relationship with Irulan became even more complex, though al-Ada seems to have had little affection for his aunt. Though she remained friendly with Irulan for some twenty more years, Ghanima would not allow the Bene Gesserit Sister to tutor the children, and instead encouraged Irulan in her literary pursuits. The break between them came when Ghanima learned of Irulan's attempt to seduce the sixteen-year-old Trebor, a handsome but rather innocent youth. Irulan's action made Ghanima lose her temper:
I finally had to speak to Farad'n about Irulan. She must be getting senile! She has just gone through one of her violent rejuvenation periods and she seems determined, at her age, to finally lose her virginity. Well she is not going to contaminate poor Trebor! And I won't have my first grandchild produced by my father's wife. Even she should see how ridiculous she is (and she certainly can't blame this folly on her bitchy sisterhood).
Farad'n and I have arranged for a new suite of rooms for her — on the other side of Leto's apartments (she certainly won't bother him). Farad'n, who seems to be getting soft in his maturity, has also made her Director of the Atreides Archives — that should satisfy her desires for creativity. She can churn out some more stories for idiots about her "beloved" Muad'Dib — who wouldn't stay in a private room with her for more than five minutes. She seems determined that every child in the Imperium will know the tales of poor Paul. And her wonderful "lectures on Muad'Dib's jihad strategy" have old Tyek helpless with laughter. I am usually more understanding of her frustrations and her fantasies, and I will probably be compassionate again once I calm down. She simply has to leave the children alone!
When Irulan retired to Wallach IX in 10249, taking not only her own library but most of the Atreides Archives along with her, both Ghanima and al-Ada were relieved.
Even though her children took much of her attention, her complicated relationships with Leto and al-Ada consumed most of her time. With al-Ada she shared the children, their mutual work, and a highly satisfactory relationship as friends and lovers. But with Leto she shared a relationship unique to them. In his Journals, Leto terms their unity "a timeless web of closeness" which would last as long as their consciousness was carried within his body. And Ghanima remembers the hours they spent as children, trying to come to terms with their overwhelming abilities and their awesome fate:
Never once have I envied Leto's position of power. With that power comes so much agony, so much pain, and the complete annihilation of his basic human body. As we talked, night after night, I realized that he would have to make the sacrifice. I felt so weak, such a coward, but the thought of that grossness overpowered me, and I had to volunteer to breed rather than to lead. Leto loved me and never wanted to hurt me, but I think I saw the pity in his eyes.
The Golden Path is the way to preserve humanity, to eliminate "abomination" and "possession" but the choice was so difficult, and he still suffers from it. I worry about his growing attachment to that old Harum of his. Chani says he's one of the benign, but Leto is becoming more dependent on him than on Father. Only Farad'n seems to understand why I worry so about Leto.
During the early years of his transformation, Ghanima was the only person who could give Leto the love and compassion he so desperately needed, the only one who could empathize with him as he gradually lost the sensations of his human body and also lost the ability to communicate emotion through touch. As when they were young, Ghanima again spent many nights sitting with him in his tower. In Volume Two of The Book of Ghanima Elaine tells of seeing her mother and Leto: "The two of them would sit like statues in the darkness, quietly talking in their secret languages. In the morning mother would be emotionally exhausted. She tried to make me understand what it is like to be Leto, now unable to touch her or to be touched because his skin is so sensitive. Touching is so important. That must be why she and father still sit together for hours like young lovers." Ghanima expressed her own feelings about her two "men" in a poem found in the Commentaries to the Voices:
Love Eternal —twice have I.
The first a sturdy ship afloat
Across the tides of time—
The second a fragile passion flower
Whose essence never dies.
Both golden—precious,
One will richness to the other bring.
Between the two drift I
Fo
rever Love lies in remembering.
When Ghanima finally decided to join her ancestors, it was because she had tired of living:
Farad'n has been gone so long, and the children's children are having children of their own. Leto still wants me with him, but we seem to have less and less to speak of. I still believe in his Golden Path —it is the only right way— but he has grown so cold about it all. At times it's almost as though my Leto had gone, replaced by an entity I don't really know. He speaks to me of truth, but sometimes all I hear is his ambition. So much death seems to be the center of his plans — being a living god must change one.
Now I know what my dear Farad'n meant when he said he was tired. The world around me has become Leto's creation, and I am no longer a necessary part of it. I now will discover what my mother already knows, what it feels like to be submerged in someone else's consciousness. That part is a bit frightening, but it will be better than my present life.
At her death, Leto declared a period of Imperial mourning, and from the urn holding her water, he caused the voices of the Atreides to speak, convincing the multitude of his godhead. But his final words at the end of Volume Three of The Book of Ghanima show his love and his longing for Ghanima:
My sister/wife Ghani — my other soul — the freshness I have always been too old to have — how I will miss your daily visits. Without you here beside me, I have little to remind me of our youth when I was truly human. As this new body tightens around me, the piercing emotions you kept alive in me are beginning to fade. You will be a part of me always — we will live together in a closeness no other two can ever feel — but I do long for one more glimpse of those steady blue eyes in your sweet, tender face. Sleep well, my beloved.
J.A.C.
Further references: HARQ AL-ADA; CORRINO, IRULAN; Gwenemera, Apturos, Home-Life of the God Emperor (Tleilax; Mentat); Ghanima, Atreides, Commentaries to the Voices Rakis Ref. Cat. 37-BG132; Ghanima, Elaine, and Leto Atreides, The Book of Ghanima, Rakis Ref. Cat. 13-A-700; Leto, Atreides II, Journal, vol. III; Bene Gesserit Special Reports File no. A:G 20368-20375; Lors, Karden, Truth and Fancy in the Oral History (Yorba: Rose).
ATREIDES, HOUSE, Foundation of
The House of Atreides was also called the House of Pelops, successively Lords of Tantalos, Counts of Thuestes, Counts of Aramanli, Counts Chalcedony, Siridar Counts of Hoosak Norn, in the Cleo System, Siridar Counts of Hestia, Dukes of Atreus, Siridar Dukes of Gallatin, Siridar Dukes of Caladan, Siridar Dukes of Arrakis, and Emperors of the Known Universe; junior titles include Barons Pelops, Barons Menelaus, Barons Aigisthos, Counts Atreides, Counts Gamnonides; distaff titles include Barons Mukenai, Lords Theseides, and Counts Delos. The House of Atreides (sometimes called the House of Atreus) claimed descent from the mythical Greek heroes, Pelops and Atreus; their actual descent, however, can only be proven from the time of the Butlerian Jihad.
EARLY HISTORY. The first mention of an Atreides in historical records occurs in Camille de Bry's The Great Revolt: A Popular History of the Jihad, which drew on eyewitness accounts, diaries, surviving documents, and oral tradition to produce a rather lurid rendition of the heroic struggle between man and machine. Bry's work mentions one Agamemnon d'Atreides, Governor of the Brunig District, who was assassinated about 175 B.G. while defending the use of computers before the rioting masses. The location of the "Brunig District" was not mentioned by Bry, and has not been found by later historians, leading some to speculate that the incident (and the person) were invented by an overactive imagination.
It is certain that Demetrios Atreides participated in the Battle of Corrin as a junior officer, serving with the soon-to-be emperor's forces in the struggle against the Landsraad. Demetrios Atreides is known to have enlisted as a Sardaukar Auxiliary in the Sixth Draco Wing, which represented a number of the planets in the Mockmuhl Cluster near Upsilon Draconis. Demetrios was made a gunnery officer on the ship Lu-ta, and assumed command of his vessel early in the three-day battle after all the senior officers were killed. During one phase of the battle, when Sulaiman al-Hajj Kunaitra threatened to turn Sheuset Costin's left flank after the desertion of Bashar Abulurd Harkonnen, Atreides rallied Costin's forces, and spearheaded a desperation attack that took Kunaitra by surprise. Kunaitra's command ship was heavily damaged, Kunaitra himself killed, and communications disrupted. Most military historians point to this action as the key turning point of the struggle. Atreides was ennobled after Sheuset's coronation as Baron Tantalos, and was given large estates on the planet Enskog in recognition for his services to the Imperium (86 B.G).
Demetrios Atreides had three sons; Pausanias (born ca. 85 B.G.), Theseus (born ca. 81 B.G.), and Konstantinos, named for the Emperor's father (born 79 B.G.); from these three men descend all the branches of the House Atreides. Pausanias succeeded to the Barony on his father's death in 38 B.G.; Theseus Atreides was ennobled as Baron Pelops in 43 B.G. during the wars of expansion conducted by Henoor I: Konstantinos or Costal Atreides became Baron Menelaus the year before he died, in 11 B.G.; Pausanias's son, Demetrios II, was further ennobled in 6 B.G. as Count Thuestes. The family fortunes fell, however, with the assassination of Elrood I in 104, and his replacement by Alman bin Haig; a bill of attainder was brought before the Landsraad by Alman in 122, accusing Elias Atreides of supporting the exiled Emperor's forces; but Alman himself was assassinated before the bill could be acted upon. Elias Atreides was restored to his estates by Saudir II, and reconfirmed in his titles. Elias's son, Demetrios IV, was murdered by Alman II shortly after his accession in 184, and the Atreides lands redistributed. Thomas Atreides was instrumental in restoring Elrood II in 207, and received the title Duke of Jaddua and a planetary fiefdom, both of which were attainted by Alman IV in 346, when Thomas II Atreides was executed. Alkman Atreides successfully petitioned for restoration of the County of Thuestes before the Regent Henli al-Qair in 381. Thereafter, the Atreides generally attained the status of a House Major as the imperial feudalism developed from necessity into a workable system of government.
Further references: ATREIDES, HOUSE, PROMINENT MEMBERS; HOUSE ATREIDES AND IMPERIAL RULE; Camille de Bry, The Great Revolt: A Popular History of the Jihad, tr. Lewia Burl (345; rpt. Topaz; Ludlow).
ATREIDES, HOUSE, Prominent members
Between its establishment and the middle of the fifth millennium, House Atreides produced many sons and daughters who gained fame from their unique talents, flamboyant actions, or spectacular vices. This entry sketches only a few of the most noteworthy.
The most prominent member of the family during the first millennium of imperial rule was Iason Atreides, son of Count Pausanias III, who was instrumental in settling the differences between various branches of the Imperial House, thereby instituting a long period of stable rule. In the year 603, he persuaded Harmon II al-Qair, who ruled with the title of Protector, to step down in favor of Audrii I, the son and heir of Shaddam I. Concentrating most of the imperial power in his own hands, Iason Atreides set about reorganizing the Imperial government and reestablishing the principles of The Great Convention. Thus, what had been a government of personal rule, with all its attendant chaos, became a Hierarchy in which the Imperial seat was merely one source of power counterbalanced by the Landsraad, whose meetings became regularly scheduled for the first time, and CHOAM and the Spacing Guild, previously dealt with through the Emperor. The Imperial power was further diluted by making the Emperor responsible for his actions to the Imperial Family, which itself was controlled and balanced by the Imperial Household (the immediate relatives of the reigning Emperor), the Imperial Cousines (offshoots of the Imperial Household, distaff members of the Family, and collateral houses), and the Sardaukar Over-Bashars (whose daughters became royal concubines). For his contributions to Imperial rule, Iason was named Count Aramanli in 635, and was given the hand of Audrii Corrino's daughter, Princess Salusa, thereby making him a member of the Household. Thus began the long and close association between the two houses.
Count Heraklios II Atreides
(ruled 681-715), Iason's son, maintained the family grip on the imperial power by having himself named Imperial Chancellor by the Landsraad; he was murdered by Ivan Harkonnen while making love to one of Ivan's twenty-four mistresses. Count Demetrios VIII Atreides, younger brother of Heraklios, succeeded to the family estates, but distinguished himself only as a sportsman and hunter, taking little interest in imperial politics. His grandson, Konstantinos IV, was renowned in his day as an advocate of art and music which he supported by subsidizing performers on his estates.
In 1027 during a rupture within the Sardaukar forces, a Bashar named Feyd usurped the throne, killing all close imperial relations and suspending the Landsraad. Two of the Atreides counts, Demetrios IX and Paulos II, attempted to organize resistance to Feyd's rule, and were quickly branded as traitors. The now-rebel Sardaukar joined a hastily-organized Atreides forces, and attacked Feyd's homeworld, Ibleam III. The arrival of the Imperial Fleet reserves during the course of the battle doomed the revolution, and Demetrios, his son Pausanias, and Paulos's son Isaak, were all killed. Paulos Atreides was attainted, stripped of all titles and lands, and condemned to death on sight. Count Iakobos Atreides, representing the third junior line, was banished from his estates; Baron Ioannes Atreides, of the House of Atreides Pelops, was executed for high treason, his son Konstantinos being sold into slavery; Baron Aimilianos Atreides was forced to cede half of his lands to the Imperium; Lord Alexandras Atreides was dismissed from his imperial posts; Lady Dunamis Atreides was sent to an Imperial brothel for one year; and several Atreides children, including Odusseus Atreides, were apprenticed to tradesmen and sheepherders. Baron Andreas von Wikkheizer received the main Atreides fief of Aramanli.
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