The Bene Gesserit believed one person's weakness is another's strength. In the eyes of the Sisterhood the untimely loss of Duke Leto would prepare the way for young Paul and the rule the Bene Gesserit had awaited so long and had worked with such tenacity to achieve. Wanna Marcus was an instrument through which the order's dream would become reality.
The Sisters at the Chapter House where she had been a special favorite mourned Wanna's death with quiet affection and genuine sorrow, intoning lamentations of great simplicity and pathos. And the great dramatist Harq al-Harba later celebrated the saga of Wanna's blameless life and tragic death in "History of Duke Leto, Part II."
G.E.
Further references: YUEH, DR. WELLINGTON; Harq al-Harba, "History of Duke Leto, Part II," The Complete Works (Grumman: Tern); R.M. Gaius Helen Mohiam, Diaries, Lib. Conf. Temp. Series 133.
WAR OF ASSASSINS
A term used to describe a large-scale use of professional assassins in a feud between two great houses of the Landsraad in the Old Imperium (the pre-Atreides Imperium). Atomic weapons were outlawed by the Great Convention and shields nullified projectile weapons and nonnuclear explosives. Hence the Great Houses were obliged to resort to treachery and professional assassination in order to carry on their perennial vendettas.
All Great Houses customarily hired a master assassin — usually one with Mentat training in logic and the traditional Mentat distrust of emotion — to oversee the defenses of the family household, supervise the house's corps of assassins, and in some cases to command units of troops or mercenaries. Their function was therefore both offensive and defensive. Consequently a "war of assassins" between two great houses often took on the appearance of a Cheops game between two grand masters. However, some great barons or dukes, like Duke Leto Atreides, although relying on the advice of their chief assassin, may be said to have managed — or mismanaged — their own campaigns.
The first recorded instance of a war of assassins is the conflict between House Pardee and House Harkonnen in 3367-3375, a conflict which virtually obliterated House Pardee. This war involved an extensive use of poison, but it was climaxed by the famous Lasgun Massacre, when Harkonnen mercenaries ambushed Duke Ira Pardee and his family at their hunting lodge on the planet of New Salem. Various stories attribute this victory to the defection of the steward of their rural estate, a jealous functionary who was easily bribed. Undermining the loyalty of the retainers of another house was a specialty at which House Harkonnen seems to have excelled, according to the reputation of the house among others in the Old Imperium.
An outright war of assassins always required, under the Great Convention, a formal declaration of intent to be filed with the Imperial Court, the offices of the Guild, and the Secretary of the Landsraad. Imperial judges were appointed to monitor the conflict and particularly to observe any instances where innocent bystanders might be harmed. Such actions did not always ensure the safety of noncombatants, nor a fair treatment of the two houses involved, for the emperor was seldom completely disinterested in the conflict. But the observation made the feuding houses wary of harming or even involving outsiders.
Numerous famous wars of assassins occurred in Imperial history, often altering the balance of power among the Great Houses of the Landsraad. For instance, House Galloway was powerful in the third millennium, but was nearly destroyed in its war of assassins with House Albonite. Some other well-known wars of assassins were the Steinhauser-Boudreau feud (8193-8195) and the Choi-Dwyer-Ferguson war (8787-8843), a three-cornered bloodbath from which each house emerged weakened. This latter conflict was unusually bitter, and ended only when the emperor himself interceded with the families in conflict.
The important wars of assassins dominated political history of the last century of the pre-Atreides Imperium. The first of these was the feud of House Moritani of Grumman with House Ginaz, the latter an ally of Duke Leto Atreides. It took place in 10175-10181, and ended with the total defeat of House Ginaz, after the Ginaz Duke and several of his family were poisoned. The Corrino Emperor's wariness concerning Duke Leto Atreides and his house was a great aid to House Moritani in this affair.
Shaddam IV's favor also helped House Harkonnen immeasurably in its feud with House Atreides, culminating in the famous massacre of the Atreides on Arrakis in 10191. In this war the Harkonnens used Dr. Wellington Yueh, the family physician of House Atreides, as their piece of treachery, and Piter de Vries as their Mentat-Assassin. According to the Oral History and other sources, Dr. Yueh cut off the power, thereby lowering the shield defenses of the Atreides palace. The Atreides residence was then overrun by Harkonnen mercenaries and Imperial Sardaukar, although there was considerable resistance and many casualties, including Duke Leto, Yueh, de Vries, the famous Atreides warrior Duncan Idaho, and the equally renowned Liet-Kynes, the planetologist of Dune. Ironically, the Atreides Mentat-Assassin, Thufir Hawat, went over to the Harkonnens after their victory. But the Atreides concubine, Lady Jessica, and the heir, Paul Atreides, escaped the Barron's troops and became allied to the Fremen, changing the political history of Arrakis and the Imperium irrevocably.
The war of assassins between House Harkonnen and House Atreides was the largest one in recorded history and had the most sweeping political consequences. After the revolt on Arrakis, the nature of Imperial rule was changed when Paul Muad'Dib became emperor. His reign was followed by the Regency of Alia Atreides and then by the rule of Emperor Leto, during which the Great Houses declined. Although Alia employed numerous assassins, she did not declare any wars of assassination, for obvious reasons. During Emperor Leto's long rule of nearly four millennia, wars of assassins were virtually proscribed, although technically the Great Convention remained in effect.
During those, years, the profession of assassin fell into some disrepute, and those who took up the craft were largely second-rate. There were numerous assassination attempts in this period, most of them directed at the Emperor Leto, all of them frustrated. Siona Atreides' ultimate success in destroying Emperor Leto has been seen by some students of political assassination as a victory for amateurs.
It is held by some authorities that the best assassins in the Imperium during the reign of Leto were the gholas of Duncan Idaho, several of whom made serious efforts to murder Leto. Perhaps there is some validity in this view since the last Idaho ghola did successfully conspire with Siona to kill Leto.
Some interesting effects of wars of assassins entered the folklore of the Imperium. It was customary, for instance, to speak of someone who was notorious for his rationality as being "logical as an assassin." And the hour before dawn when human biocycles are customarily at a low ebb was often called the "hour of assassins" because of the tendency of professional assassins to use it for their attacks.
E.C.
Further references: ASSASSINS HANDBOOK; Zhautii Kuuraveer, Political Homicide in the Leto Imperium (Grumman: Tern); V. Colivcoh'p, The Text of the Great Convention, after the Materials from Arrakis (Placentia: Santa Fe).
WATERTUBE
Fremen device of wide application in the transfer of liquids. Examples of watertubes found on Rakis speak eloquently of the highly developed technology achieved by the Zensunni Wanderers during the final stage of their migrations. Strict conservation of moisture, especially that given off by the human body, was crucial to survival on Arrakis, and the simple sophistication of the watertube is a good example of the Fremen attention to minute detail that reflected this concern. The watertube was used anywhere that liquids, especially distilled water, had to be transferred from one place to another. They were used in stillsuits between catch-pockets and mouth, and even between bodily orifices and processing catches. Tubes were built into the catchpockets of stilltents. The Huanui (or Deathstill) used watertubing in the drainway and between the waiting basin and the flowmeter. Watertubes were also used in literjons, flowmeter spouts, and portable windtraps.
Construction of the normal watertube was somewhat simpler than the device's sophistication suggests.
The compound used for the body of the tube was melange-based plastic with plyotyl mixed in to provide the needed flexibility. The plastic was liquified and forced into a mold of plasteel, usually 10 to 15 cm square and 2 m long. The mold consisted of a group of holes of different diameters. A cap at one end allowed extrusion of rods as long as the mold and of varying diameters. The cap at the far end of the mold received the rods and thus helped maintain consistent thickness of the watertube being formed.
A half dozen of the molds discovered so far at two sites on Rakis have led to speculation that tube walls could be varied in thickness depending on which way the caps were put on the mold. No matter how the caps were installed, the rods would penetrate the match-up holes. But when the caps were rotated a quarter turn, the relation of rod size to mold-hole diameter changed. The result could have been that different production needs for watertubes of different flexibility and inside diameter were taken care of by a small number of multi-purpose mold-and-cap combinations. There are not yet enough examples to confirm this speculation or the possibility that switching caps among molds could have given the Fremen almost infinite varieties of tube characteristics. Some analysts say that these speculations overlook the Fremen characteristic of keeping technology simple; others say that this kind of flexibility and adaptability would reflect their sophistication.
Because the examples of watertubes uncovered so far show extraordinary uniformity of dimension, we believe that some supplemental mechanism must have been used to keep the rods perfectly straight inside the mold holes. The best guess so far, although no conclusive evidence has been found, is that ultrasonic radiation, applied to the cooling plastic/plyotyl in the mold, contributed to stabilization of the fluid and thus to macroscopic uniformity of tube wall.
Partially cooled tubes were removed from the molds and passed through the bonding vat where the still-tacky inner surfaces, but not the cooler outsides, collected the crystalline solution which formed, as it "dried" and bonded to the plastic tube, the friction release coating. Finally, the active processes completed, the watertubes, now looking like thin, limp cords of slightly different diameters, were taken to drying racks where they "set up" and cured.
The "crystalline solution" probably would not have been looked for, and the function of the "bonding vat" would have remained unclear, if not for the mention in the Dunebuk of the nearly frictionless surface of equipment associated with water measurement. Careful search of many watertube relics did turn up trace samples of a flexible crystal that is almost inert at normal temperatures. Significant amounts of the substance have been found only in the vicinity of some "bonding vats." Peri/pherometric analysis indicates that the Fremen's frictionless material has an intramolecular structure close to present-day Pethlax and the prototype Frolmyr compound.
Watertube technology looks at first to be fairly simple, as befits a commonplace item of everyday use. The close investigation prompted by scattered comments in the Dunebuk, however, reveals sophisticated attention to details of watertube design and manufacture, which in turn confirms the extraordinary importance of water conservation in the desert environment of Arrakis.
J.L.G.
Further reference: Princess Irulan Atreides-Corrino, ed., The Dunebuk, Rakis Ref. Cat. 7-Z331.
WORM RIDING
According to the chronicles which record that people's history the Fremen did not learn the art of worm riding for two generations after their transport to Arrakis in 7193. During those early years in their new home, they traveled either on foot or by ornithopter, finding neither method completely acceptable: walking was slow and dangerous, and the 'thopters were Guild machines on which the Fremen did not wish to rely too heavily. They waited, studying their surroundings, for a method more in harmony with the planet to suggest itself.
That suggestion came in 7265 when a large sandworm appeared near a party of Fremen who were investigating a new spice-sand. All but one member of the group — a young man the chronicles list only as Rothar — scrambled to the safety of a nearby outcropping of rocks before the worm drew too near. Rothar, evidently too stunned by the worm's arrival to move, found himself only centimeters from the creature's side as it rose from the sand; he seized the leading edge of one of the worm's ring segments and held on tightly, perhaps in an attempt to avoid the worm's flashing teeth.
Any report of Rothar's motivations can only be speculative, because the sandworm he had grasped rolled quickly, raising the segment the young Fremen had opened high above the surface of the sand (thereby putting Rothar on top of its body, as well). It then sped off into the desert, with Rothar as passenger.
Within days, the first crude maker hooks (designed to catch and hold open the edge of a worm's skin segments) had been fashioned and volunteers from every sietch were becoming sandriders. Refined techniques were costly to learn, and many of the earliest practitioners were killed in the attempt, but within another generation the Fremen's means of travel was firmly established.
It became customary for a Fremen youth to call his first maker at the age of twelve. (Earlier, the youth would have ridden the worms only as a passenger or steersman, never as mudir — ruler — of the ride.) The naib of the youth's sietch, along with various other men and a Sayyadina, accompanied him to the sand. The naib spoke the words of the ritual developed over the centuries to the would-be sandrider; the other men loaned thumper and hooks, since it was considered ill luck for a boy not yet a rider to own such things; and the Sayyadina, aloof from the proceedings, observed so that the events of the day could be properly recorded.
If the youth was successful — and the majority were, once the ways of the worm were better known — it was his privilege as, mudir of the sandride, to command the steersmen. At his "Haiiiii-yoh!" they would mount the worm behind him, followed by the rest of the witnesses. Then, following his calls of "Ach " (left turn) or "Derch" (right turn), they would guide the monster as he wished it guided. Not even the Naib of the youth's sietch would counter his orders until the ride had run its course.
The young mudir, as first on, had also to be last off, a position that could be dangerous if the worm was still fresh and prepared to turn when the annoying hooks were removed. During first rides, however, the worm was usually ridden nearly into exhaustion; it would be far more eager to escape and rest than to attack.
That the Fremen held such power over the worms was one of their best-guarded secrets during the years of their oppression, and the art's existence did not become widely known until Paul Muad'Dib Atreides became emperor.
C.W.
Further references: MAKER HOOKS; THUMPER; Jarret Oslo, Fremen: Lives and Legend (Salusa Secundus; Morgan and Sharak).
Y
YUEH, WELLINGTON
(10082-10191). The most notorious graduate of the Suk School of Medicine. The basic facts of his life that reputable scholars can agree upon are few. However, we are sure that he died in 10191 in the Harkonnen raid on Duke Leto Atreides' stronghold on Dune, and that Yueh was married to a Bene Gesserit adept named Wanna Marcus. All else about this man seems to be subject to dispute, conjecture, hypothesis and, in far too many cases, the politically self-serving reconstructions of the ancient chroniclers. For example, Yueh appears to have been given High College Imperial Conditioning. However, Professor Eisor Zhurcia, the medical historian of the time and Suk apologist, allowed that Yueh never graduated from either the Suk Imperial Conditioning or medical arts programs.1 Zhurcia maintained that Yueh's transcripts and other academic records were forged and that his graduation documents were fabrications. Zhurcia contended that Harkonnen agents planted these deceptive documents in the medical school's registrar's office and library archives in order to deceive Leto Atreides and his Mentat, Thufir Hawat, who was sure to check on Yueh's authenticity when the Atreides were first considering purchasing a Suk doctor. The Harkonnen plan, according to the Zhurcian theoretical reconstruction, was to infiltrate Yueh, a trained saboteur and assassin, into the Atreides household.
F
ew contemporary scholars today give serious credence to Zhurcia's theory, although it was widely accepted by several of the Minor Houses during the early years of Paul Muad'Dib's reign. The evidence we now have suggests that Yueh exhibited a considerable amount of medical expertise and human sensitivity. These characteristics, most would agree, are generally not found in saboteurs and assassins. Current opinion holds that Yueh indeed did graduate with High College Imperial Conditioning in approximately 10112. Yueh thus came to be regarded as the paradigmatic case of the fatal failure of Suk Conditioning. Yueh's actual role in the downfall of Duke Leto Atreides is difficult to ascertain because of conflicting and incomplete reports. Even the Atreides family journals concerning those tragic and hectic days are unclear. The earliest published version of Yueh's role is to be found in the widely used and very popular The Irulan Report written by Paul's wife, the Princess Irulan Corrino.2 In that account Yueh is described as the "betrayer of Duke Leto Atreides" (p. 81). Although it is clear that Irulan could not have been present at the moment of the alleged betrayal, she self-confidently promulgates the official Atreides family position that the rival Baron Harkonnen could not have possibly prevailed against House Atreides without the assistance of a villainous traitor.
Paul Muad'Dib apparently never took a public position on Yueh, but neither did he contradict Irulan's claims. We can infer, therefore, that he was content to have Yueh regarded as a traitor. Although the young Paul was quite fond of Yueh and Yueh felt an avuncular affection for the young Atreides (even to the point of giving Paul a special gift, an Orange Catholic Bible once the possession of Yueh's beloved wife Wanna), it seems that either Muad'Dib believed Yueh to be a traitor, or, as many now hypothesize, Paul found it in the interests of the empire and of his new religion to put aside boyhood affections and cultivate the view that Yueh was indeed a Judas. The once mysterious and iconoclastic Preacher of Arrakis, whom we now know to have been Muad'Dib, was quoted as saying, "Every religion needs its Judas just as badly as it needs its saints."3
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