Jehanne Butler



Jehanne Butler [ 230 BG - 182 BG] was the personality who inspired the Butlerian Jihad.

She was born on Komos and trained to be a priestess and a Bene Gesserit. She obtained control of her own body beyond autonomic muscle systems, as well as an amplified rhetorical gift, but she abandoned the order and married Thet'r Butler, the Logistos of Xania in 205 BG, at an age considered late for their culture.

Soon after, she went to the hospital in the capital of Pylos to give birth to their daughter, Sarah Butler. Without anyone knowing, Sarah would have been the way for the first Kwisatz Haderach, but, tragically, her death delayed his arrival until Paul Atreides was born.

The parents were informed that the malformed child had been aborted, but with her Bene Gesserit abilities, Jehanne she was able to verify the processes of her gestation and came to believe that the child's death was unnecessary.

Studying records provided by Thet'r's position as Logistos, she discovered that the thinking machine hospital director instituted a program of unjustified abortions. Jehanne and her husband began the formation of a secular organization, joining her gifts of rhetoric and his administrative abilities. She then approached the priestess of Kubebe to create a movement against the domination by Richese and formed the Front for the End of Koman Exploitation.

The coup was accomplished during the tribute collection week, when they seized the tribute fleet for transport to Richese and executed an intricate plan which achieved bloodless victory. They arrived to Richese and discovered the situation there: over the centuries, machines had come to control the population and had altered its emotional and intellectual characteristics. The chief programmers and scientists had been mostly willing participants in the actions of the machines in altering the population of the planet. These revelations issued the priestesses of Kubebe to institute a Jihad.

Jehanne argued against this, anticipating much of what would happen.

She was killed when her flagship Sharah III exploded above Carthagos.

Eventually the tension was resolved in favor of priestess Urania soon after.


 * Dune Encyclopedia, entry BUTLER, BUTLERIAN JIHAD