Paul Muad'Dib's final years during the Second Jihad and the founding of universal government from the planet Arrakis are considered less than believable by many scholars because they are laced with constant reference to his prescience and his final act of self-banishment after the abortive attempt on his life by the combined forces of the Spacing Guild, the House Corrino, and the Bene Gesserit.
As to Muad'Dib's being prescient, there is little reason to suppose that he did not have some such power. It must be remembered that he had ingested more melange than any other living being in his time. It is documented that this mind-expanding drug had as one of its effects the ability to reason through a series of complicated facts to accurate predictions of future events. Both the Guild and the Bene Gesserit used melange for exactly this reason. In fact, it was Muad'Dib's control of this vital drug that led to these two groups' participation in the assassination attempt. Given Muad'Dib's place within the Bene Gesserit breeding program and his mentat training through Thufir Hawat, it is not impossible to conclude that under the influence of melange he was capable of such vast reasoning power that his visions of the future were far greater and more vivid than these others, paler imitations. This is not to argue that the future is some fixed chain of events which Muad'Dib was able to foresee. It simply suggests that he was able to see with greater clarity than any other being the complicated chain of events that led to future happenings and that he took advantage of this "sight." Prescience, in other words, was for Muad'Dib not the vision of the future normally associated with it, but the power to see how the future was created.
Finally, concerning the death or non-death of Paul Muad'Dib much has been and can still be written. He managed to escape death at the hands of a stoneburner explosion only to be blinded by the flash of light associated with it. Immediately after the birth of his twin children, Leto II and Ghanima, and the consequent death of his beloved Fremen concubine, Chani Liet-Kynes, Paul Muad'Dib walked into the desert as Fremen culture dictated. The blind were more than a burden to a Fremen sietch; they were looked upon as anathema; others within a sietch did not even want the water that could have been recovered from the dead bodies.
Many historians see this final act of Paul Muad'Dib's as further evidence of his Fremen birth and the fictional nature of his story. They reason that if he were really of the House Atreides, he would have not exiled himself but simply have regained his sight by using Tleilaxu eyes. Once again this kind of reasoning illustrates how scholars single-mindedly devoted to proving their thesis will ignore all reason in their search for so-called truth. Paul Muad'Dib was Fremen. He could not have been other than Fremen and still have created the Fedaykin. But he was Fremen not by birth but by example. He took the world view of the Fremen to its ultimate extreme and in the end accepted his blindness as "the way things are." To have done less would have been to expose himself as simply "playing" at being a Fremen. But it is doubtful that he ever played at anything. First, the Fremen would have been sure to detect acting, and, second, what is actually known of his life would not have been so consistent in so many different sources. Muad'Dib took the only course open to a Fremen.
There is one final issue that needs to be addressed concerning the life of Paul Atreides: the old man who showed up years after Muad'Dib's walk into the desert and whom many people thought was Paul. It should first be pointed out that both Irulan and Leto II did believe that this "prophet" was Muad'Dib, but even if he were not, it is irresponsible to cast out all of the information on his life as fabulous simply because years after his death a madman claims to be Muad'Dib. Indeed, over the thousands of years that followed his death, many madmen have made just such a claim. As has been earlier stated, it was exactly these claims that inspired Archbishop Spil to commission Neja N'Nam-Krib's report. All such claims, however, merely testify to the enduring power of Muad'Dib's fame. They do not have anything to do with whether or not the stories are true.
It is time to put the whole issue of Paul Atreides, Muad'Dib, the Kwisatz Haderach, to rest. There was such a man, born of House Atreides, who had remarkable power, so remarkable that through his acts and those of his son, Leto II, the histories of all the worlds were forever changed. Both fact and common sense argue for that conclusion. The only reason to suppose differently is that by calling into question the existence of Paul Atreides and his acts, many hundreds of university scholars have been able to publish countless articles and books so that they may receive promotion and tenure.
S.G.
Further references: ATREIDES, DUKE LETO; ATREIDES, LADY JESSICA HARKONNEN; KWISATZ HADERACH; ATREIDES, CHANI; Because the literature concerning Paul Atreides is so extensive, the reader is referred to the partial listing contained in the Bibliography appended to this volume.
ATREIDES, SIONA IBN FUAD AL-SEYEFA
(13698-13953). Daughter of Moneo Ibn Fuad al-Lichna Atreides, Leto II's last majordomo, and his commanded breeding partner, Seyefa Nycalle. Siona led the rebellion which terminated in the God Emperor's Fall. She was the end of Leto's millennia-long experiment in human evolution, the first of the new Atreides line, capable of disappearing from prescient view. In her, Leto had created the means of humanity's continued survival and of his own destruction.
Seyefa left Fish Speaker service when Siona was a year old, and the child remained with her parents in quarters near Leto's Citadel until she was ten. She was then sent, at Leto's orders, to the Fish Speaker school in Onn. Valuable as parental guidance was, the training Moneo and Seyefa provided for their daughter served only as groundwork for the education she would receive from her Fish Speaker teachers and from Leto himself.
Seyefa died a year after Siona's admission to the school. Her death was the earliest event for which Siona held the God Emperor to blame; she was to tell her father many years later that her mother would have survived the fever which lolled her had someone been at home to care for her. Since Leto monopolized Moneo's time and had ordered Siona sent away to school, her mother's death was his fault, Siona reasoned.
Despite her grief, Siona performed well at the school, for her teachers refused to accept anything less than her best. Almost a century later she wrote:
I saw pupil after pupil make mistakes in the simplest exercises and be given a gentle reprimand or be completely overlooked. If I made even the slightest error — one target missed in a gunning drill — I was made to repeat the entire sequence. This was the first hint I was given that the instructors had been told to give me special attention, and I hated it.
The Fish Speaker teachers had been given other orders as well. More so than any of the other pupils, Siona was exposed to the Oral History and its many contradictions of the official "received" version of events. While some of the faculty at Onn felt uncomfortable about teachings which so closely skirted heresy, they could console themselves with the idea that Siona was, after all, an Atreides. And the God Emperor alone decided what was best for his descendants.
Siona spent nine years at the Fish Speaker school. Throughout that time, though she was primarily under the control of her instructors and the older students, she continued to be influenced by her father... and by the God Emperor.
From earliest childhood, before her fury at being sent off to school had sparked her distaste for him, Siona had been fascinated by Leto. Notes in Leto's Journals indicate that the girl often accompanied Moneo on informal visits, held primarily on the Royal Road. The God Emperor details several of these encounters, describing with obvious amusement Siona's avid study of himself and her evident ignorance of the fact that she was being studied in return.
While curiosity and a degree of religious awe may have marked these childish encounters, her moods shifted as Siona entered adolescence. She became increasingly cynical and critical, sometimes calling her father to task for his service to "the Worm" as she insisted on referring to Leto. In the document known as the Welbeck Fragment, Siona recorded one of the exchanges between herself and Moneo; an excerpt conveys its overall tone:
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SIONA: How have you survived with him for so long a time, father? He kills those who are close to him. Everyone knows that.
MONEO: No! You are wrong. He kills no one.
SIONA: You needn't lie about him.
This dialogue probably took place when Siona was fifteen years old. Moneo, alarmed at reports that had reached him of his daughter's conduct, had visited her secretly to warn her that her heretical mockeries could lead to her destruction.
Her refusal to take her father's advice was demonstrated in 13717, when she first organized a group of like-minded rebels. Having been graduated from the Onn school, Siona recognized the uselessness of attempting to suborn her fellow Fish Speakers; instead, during her last months at the school, she had made contacts with outsiders from various walks of life. Those who responded to her tentative advances (always made gingerly, since she could not be certain that the person who was listening to her might not be doing so for Leto's benefit) were primarily of Fremen descent or scholars familiar with that people's history and sorry for its passing.
During the first three years of its existence, Siona used the rebel network primarily to gather information. Having Leto's majordomo as a near relative was a great advantage since Siona often knew of appointments in the courtier's ranks and could advise her friends on how best to maneuver. Her own proximity to the Fish Speaker Command permitted her to exploit still other sources.
Moneo, recognizing Siona's activities, found himself in a most uncomfortable position. His warnings were scorned by his daughter and treated with amusement by his master, who reminded him of his own rebellious days and emphasized his plans for Siona. His majordomo, Leto saw, had yet to realize that Siona's struggle with the God Emperor was an affair completely outside Moneo's sphere of concerns.
Leto's approach to the situation differed from Moneo's. Rather than warn Siona away from the course she was following or interfering in any way with her actions, Leto simply stepped up his observations. Since he could not accurately predict her actions with prescience, he depended rather more heavily than usual on his Ixian "eyes" — electronic sensors — and on his informers. In 13720, he took the added precaution of introducing an agent of his own into Siona's group: a fanatical Fish Speaker named Nayla. Siona, not knowing that this new convert was actually a spy, accepted her gladly. She had reached the point of considering some form of violence an eventual necessity, and Nayla seemed a strong and dependable person to have on the rebel side.
In 13723, wearied by inaction, Siona led a raid on Leto's Citadel in the Sareer. This raid, which brought about the deaths of every member of the party but its leader at the hands of Leto's D-wolves, also resulted in the theft of the Stolen Journals. Siona, although shaken by the loss of so many of her trusted companions, exulted at having escaped not only with a pair of books which appeared to be important to Leto (and which she promptly sent off to the Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Ixians for attempted translation) but with the complete plans for the Citadel as well. At last, she believed, she was ready to take action against the Worm.
Leto also believed her ready, though for quite a different reason. After permitting her enough time to receive and read the translated versions of his Journals, he gave word to Moneo that she was to be brought to him for the testing he gave all his future administrators. Moneo, fearful for her survival, did not presume to argue with this particular command; he knew, from his own experience, that Leto could not be dissuaded.
It was a summons Siona had expected. The Oral History told much of Leto's behavior toward his Atreides descendants, and Moneo had confirmed many of the stories. She recognized, too, that the extended "vacation" she had received on graduating from the Onn school: — the time in which she had organized her rebellion — was a part of the pattern. Leto always permitted his breeding stock to run free before he brought them back into the fold.
Moneo had told her very little about his own testing, saying that the experience was different for every individual and that he did not wish to confuse her with his own perceptions. He simply delivered her to the Little Citadel, Leto's retreat in the central Sareer, as his master had commanded. They were met by Leto. Moneo departed the following morning after having prepared Siona with a stillsuit. Leto had informed him of his intention to take Siona out into the Sareer, and Moneo did his best to ensure her safety before he returned to Onn.
Moneo's preparations had been insufficient, as Leto had expected they would be. Siona was generations removed from life in the Arrakeen desert; stillsuit discipline had not been instilled into her as it had been into her Fremen ancestors. Two days into the Sareer, with six more travel days ahead, she was still walking the sands with the face mask of her suit down, allowing the moisture of her breath to escape into the air as she and the God Emperor argued about the Dune days and Leto's right to rule. Only Leto's reminder, in the words of the old Fremen admonition to children ("Guard every breath for it carries the warmth and moisture of your life"), made her seal the mask shut, but not until the morning of the third day. With so far yet to travel, Leto knew, Siona would never survive without additional moisture. And she was not carrying water.
On the fifth day, compelled by thirst and the still-urgent need to understand the one she opposed, Siona underwent the second phase of her testing. Directed by Leto, she stroked the flaps of the cowl which clung about his face, drawing drops of spice-essence-laced water to the surface of his sandtrout skin. Then, fighting down the fear of the effect the spice would have on her, she drank.
The melange affected her in less than a minute, sending her into a deep spice-trance. She tapped at the front segment of Leto's pre-worm form, causing him to make a hammock of it for her as he had during their previous sleep periods, then climbed in and abandoned herself to the trance.
Though she was later to write much about this period of history, Siona never detailed her experiences during her hours of trance. Leto, in his Journals, indicated only that she had seen far more of the horrific future-that-might-have-been than any Atreides other than himself had. Even the sight of those horrors had not convinced her that he had been right to initiate the Golden Path. She did not regain normal consciousness for slightly over ten hours.
While she did not display the immediate shift of loyalty to the God Emperor as her father had done, Siona had been sensitized to the Golden Path and survived the ordeal, thus fulfilling Leto's demand. The two of them completed their journey, arriving three days later at the Citadel. Siona was given new clothes, refreshments, and a brief rest before she and Leto returned to Onn. At no time during this recovery period, according to the Journals, did she speak to her companion.
Her sensitizing had made Siona no less rebellious; if anything, the knowledge of this latest encroachment on her personal life enraged her. When her father sent her to Tuono Village with Nayla and Duncan Idaho, intending to keep her as far away as possible from the God Emperor's wedding, she left reluctantly. Only when she discovered that the ceremony's location had been switched from Tabr to Tuono Village, giving her a chance to attack Leto, did Siona brighten.
The plotting and execution of the Fall in 13724 have been thoroughly studied elsewhere and need not be repeated here. After those events concluded, however, and Siona found herself in a new universe — one which did not include Leto II — she discovered that a successful rebellion required more than the overthrow of a ruler, however great a tyrant that ruler might have been. It required a reassignment of power and the ability to control that power. Siona, much to her chagrin, discovered that she could not channel the force she had released, alone; she needed help.
Duncan Idaho provided it. Their partnership took on a more personal shape in 10728 when they were married, using the ancient ritual from the Oral History. Over the next twenty years, Siona bore the eleven children (nine daughters and two sons) who carried her ability to disappear from prescient view.
Although history indicates that Idaho had come to love his mate very deeply, he refused to
follow Siona's lead in ingesting large enough doses to melange to prolong his life. (He is reported to have said that he had already lived far longer than he had any right to — undoubtedly a reference to the long line of Duncan Idaho gholas the God Emperor had ordered produced.) He died in 13791, severing the last link to the days of Paul Muad'Dib Atreides; one of his earliest acts following Leto's death had been the destruction of the cell cultures from which the gholas were produced, thus ensuring that it would be a final death.
Siona retired from public life after Idaho's death and lived quietly on Arrakis, producing one book, The Last Days, but otherwise calling little attention to herself. She was 255 years old when she died.
C.T.
Further references: ATREIDES, LETO II; ATREIDES, MONEO, IBN FUAD AL-LICHNA; IDAHO, DUNCAN; NAYLA; STOLEN JOURNALS; Siona Atreides, The Last Days, Arrakis Studies 218 (Grumman: United Worlds).
The Dune Encyclopedia Page 23
