Moneo Atreides/DE



Moneo Ibn Fuad al-Lichna Atreides (13606-13724) was the son of Jesen Carrand and Lichna Ibn Fuad al-Kala Atreides. He was the ablest administrator and majordomo of Leto II Atreides, the longest tenured as well as the last.

Biography
Moneo had been trained in logic and pragmatism by masters. As an Atreides, he had suffered no scrimping in his education. Despite his mother being a courtier of the God Emperor, he soon rebelled against him. He reasoned that humankind deserved better than the tyrannic rule of a monster that was Leto. He decided that the Imperial Godhead had to be eliminated.

Rebellion


Moneo organized and planned a group of rebels dedicated to rid the universe from the monstrous God Emperor and allow humanity to choose their destiny. Thanks to his skills, they managed to achieve many small successes against him. Lichna had long cautioned her wayward son about the futility of attempting to escape his destiny as an Atreides; Moneo had chosen to disregard her words, counting them as the mournings of a co-opted toady in the Imperial Service.

Disturbed by her eldest son's heresy, Lichna often discussed it with the God Emperor. Of the hundreds of rebels Leto had seen, Moneo's exploits were a source of entertainment and even genuine interest for him. It was his initiative that made him consider Moneo as a replacement for his mother, Lichna, unlike her 2 younger and more docile children. As Moneo employed his skills against Leto, he was merely demonstrating to him the traits which would eventually make him a competent administrator. All Lichna had to do was advising him of the possible outcome of his actions.

In 13631 he managed to subvert a group of 25 Fish Speakers/DE from the Onn garrison. When word of the traitors in their midst got back to the Fish Speaker Command, their leaders did not give the traitors the usual option of joining a death commando squad to atone for their sin, but executed them secretly, in a private chamber beneath one of the Fish Speaker schools. Leto himself, interested in Moneo's feats, covered his tracks, as himself attributed his escape to good fortune.

In 13635 Moneo had managed to bribe, cajole, and blackmail his way to several key Spacing Guild/DE personnel connected with the weather satellites responsible for keeping the Sareer in its arid condition. In his prescience, Leto could find no possible future where Moneo would ever be capable in affecting the satellites's operations, but that movement alone worried him, and decided not to chance the possibility of Moneo being outside the scope of prescience, as his father proved to be.

Meeting with Leto
As Lichna was approaching her time to retire, Leto finally decided to rein in his wandering Atreides. After a roundup of the compromised Guild technicians Moneo was summoned by Leto to his Citadel. Moneo was certain of what awaited him after what his mother had warned him: to be tested in a trial tailored individually to him, to be sensitized to the God Emperor's Golden Path, or be left to die if found wanting.

Moneo was ushered by 3 hushed and terribly impressed young Fish Speakers to Leto's presence, and was told that Leto knew every thing of his meaningless charade those past years, until it stopped being entertaining. These remarks intentionally made Moneo respond with a tirade of his own, damning Leto for twisting whole genrations of humans without partaking of their humanity, until he was exhausted. Then Leto peered out of his cowl and countered him with a single furious question. "How dare you be offended by me?". Sliding from the Royal Cart, he herded Moneo down into a cavern maze beneath the Citadel, and abandoned him in its center with a bag of food and a vial of spice-essence.

For more than a day, Moneo wandered though the twisting maze, eating sparingly from his meager store and becoming more thoroughly lost with each passing hour. The spice-essence was the only liquid provided to him, unless he found an exit from the maze. The prospect of being exposed to he "internal multitude" harbored by the Atreides was frightening to him more than dying of thirst; but he also pondered that one of those memories might provide him with directions for escaping the maze. The multiple possibilities tormented his otherwise unengaged thoughts. After hours of confusion, he tossed off the spice-essence, and it was not long before the effects came. He saw prescient scenes of destruction, the end of humanity and the Golden Path that would avert it, as well as the reason and necessity of Leto's being. When he came to himself, Moneo followed the escape route to Leto's chamber where he was expected, certain that he would obey him ever after, grateful for his sacrifice.

Royal service
Having entered Royal Service, he lived with Rhiani, a formed Fish Speaker. Moneo was groomed over 19 years for his mother's administrating post, given increasingly more responsible assignments to carry out for Leto, such as maintaining an overall record of the farflung Fish Speaker garrisons, and acting as Leto's intermediary with the Tleilaxu/DE. His mother stepped down in 13654, and Moneo replaced her seamlessly in the workings of the Court, with an impressive list of achievments, more than any of his predecessors.

In 13659 he uncovered a massive stockpile of melange on Kaitain/DE, largest such find made to that date. While representatives from the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild arrived on the same errand, his agents discovered its exact location only days before. in 13664, during a rebellion on Shandor, and as the majority of the Fish Speaker Command wanted a wholesale slaughter as an example to other would-be heretics, Moneo managed to put it down with minimal bloodshed.

In 13667, and despite of years of childlessness with Rhiani, he was surprised when Leto informed him that he was needed as part of his breeding program. He bid Rhiani an emotional farewell and reluctantly (which was the only breaking from the God Emperor's will) and married Seyefa Nycalle, a Fish Speaker many years his junior.

Their child was Siona Ibn Fuad al-Seyefa Atreides, who lived with her parents in quarters near Leto's Citadel. Moneo was often accompanied with her on informal visits with Leto, held primarily on the Royal Road. She was sent to the Fish Speakers school in Onn at 10 years old. Seyefa died the following year of fever with nobody to care for her, as Leto monopolized Moneo's time.

During her time there, Siona started loathing Leto, blaming him for the death of her mother. Alarmed of her heretical conducts, it is said that Moneo secretly visited her to warn her that these would lead to her destruction.

Moneo lavished on his daughter with anger and solicitude, unable to see his own youth in hers, seeing her rebellion as a permanent and dangerous change. Leto (who valued Siona for quite different reasons from those Moneo held) was amused by Moneo's attitude and recognized the uselessness of attempting to steer her every move. Moneo sometimes did not, and needed reminding.

Moneo was told by Leto that she was to be brought to him for the testing he gave all his future administrators. Moneo brought her to the Little Citadel. Her prepared Siona with a stillsuit/DE and left for Onn.

In preparation to Leto's wedding to Hwi Noree, Moneo sent Siona to Tuono Village, along with Nayla and Duncan Idaho/DE to be as far as possible from Sietch Tabr. However the location was switched from Tabr to Tuono Village, giving them a chance to attack Leto.

Leto's company, including Moneo, was trapped in the ambush staged by Siona. Early in the attack, Moneo lost his footing on the collapsing Royal Road bridge and plunged to his death, shortly to be followed by Hwi Noree and the Lord Leto.

Personality
During his rebellious years, his main objective was not to replace Leto with a successor, not even himself, but just to rid humanity of Leto. He explained to his followers that this would result to anarchy and chaos, but from that would emerge a new race once again in control of its own destiny. His few successes against the prescient God Emperor were a credit and testament of Moneo's tremendous talents and skills.

As his servant, Moneo took great pride in his work, seeing his role of majordomo as the best and most appropriate use of his talents. He was valued by the God Emperor for the flawless way in which he kept the Court running, attending all details, overseeing all arrangments that involved Leto's interest. His incorruptibility earned Moneo a grudging admiration even among those who attempted (and failed) to bribe or subvert him. Moneo desired only three things in return for his labors: to enjoy the confidence of his ruler, to be allowed to abstain from any further experience with melange, and to preserve a quiet domestic life with Rhiani. His list of accomplishments was impressive even when compared to those of his extremely competent predecessors.

By his final years Moneo was fanatic in his devotion to Leto. Anyone who threatened the God Emperor, including Siona, threatened him personally.

Leto had once observed that Moneo was terrified of the idea of a world without the God Emperor — that he would rather the than face such an existence.