Tylwyth Waff/XD



Tylwyth Waff was a Tleilaxu Master or Mahai, and a Masheikh. Most significantly, he was the tacit leader of the Ruling Council during the return of the Honored Matres. As such he had significant control over the direction of the Bene Tleilaxu.

"Tylwyth" is a word from the Welsh Language which typically means "family", "tribe" or "ancestry", hence "Tylwyth Waff" provides a subliminal clue early on that Waff was indeed based on earlier ghola incarnations. In Welsh mythology "Tylwyth" is typically associated with "Tylwyth Teg" (tr. "the Fair Folk") a term used to describe faeries, gnomes and such like. Again probably hinting at Waff's Tleilaxu origins. As with most Masheikhs, Waff had lived for thousands of years, thanks to successive ghola replacements. Waff had spent an unknown number of years guiding the Tleilaxu's secretive religious agenda for power.

Ghola Leader on Rakis
After the return of the Honored Matres, Waff saw his own power and the wider Tleilaxu civilization threatened with destruction. He subsequently allied himself with the Bene Gesserit, thinking they were true believers of the Zensunni faith. However, his efforts were ultimately fruitless; and the Tleilaxu, including Waff, were almost entirely destroyed by the Honored Matres.

Created in Bandalong
Over thirty years later, the Great Honored Matre Hellica told the Tleilaxu Scribe Uxtal about the gholas of Waff being kept in a basement at the Administrative Building in Bandalong. The rebel Matre leader, and the Enhanced Face Dancer leader Khrone, told Uxtal to create eight gholas of the former leader. After Uxtal raised the Waff gholas he prematurely matured them over the course of only six years to adulthood.

Awakened
As the Spice shortage became acute amongst the Navigators of the Guild, their leader Steersman Edrik arrived on Tleilax to observe the awakening of the Waff gholas. As Uxtal scrambled frantically to find the right catalyst that would force ond of the Waff gholas to remember its' former life, Hellica ordered her assistant, Ingva to stab each one randomly. It was Hellica's belief that the trauma would cause a cascade effect, unlocking of the gholas' past. As the seven duplicates were subsequently killed, the eight ghola, had his memories partially awakened, but not enough to remember the ability of synthesizing melange.

Creating the Seaworms
Less than a year later, the New Sisterhood, with a clandestine group of Valkyries, led by Janess Idaho and Kiria; and a star fleet, led by Wikki Aztin, attacked Tleilax, and then Bandalong. Ingva, Hellica, and Uxtal all ended dead, but Waff managed to escape, and was granted permission to enter the Guild heighliner, which orbited the planet. It was piloted by Edrik, who granted the diminutive Tlielaxu, sanctuary; provided that Waff help create a synthesized sandworm.

Waff was able through genetic manipulation to create a new sub-species of sandworms, one that could exist and flourish in water. Testing these seaworms, as they came to be known, Waff dumped undeveloped worms into the seas of Buzzell. Later, the worms in just a few short years begun to take over the eco-system of the planet, and Waff re-visited his experimental creatures. When the huge seaworm was harvested by Waff and his Guild assistants, one of the liver-like organs of the seaworms produced a concentrated form of melange, known as ultraspice. Waff quickly delivered the ultraspice to Edrik, and demanded that Edrik take him and his other experiment on sandworms to Rakis.

Armored Sandworms of Dune
Concurrently, as Waff worked on creating the seaworms, also developed an armor-enhanced version of the sandworms. With a team of six Guildsman loaned to him by Edrik, Waff and enhanced sandworms were dropped off on Dune. After meeting with teasure-seeker Guriff, and his men, Waff secretly released his creations into the Rakian soil, which they burrowed deep into. Waff hoped to bring the Prophet, the remnant of Leto II, back to his ancestral home on Dune.

Later, as the rest of the Known Universe experienced the Day of Kralizec, Waff checked on his genetically altered sandworms. Filled with grief, after a short amount of time, however, the Waff-enhanced worms died, leaving Waff confused and forlorn.

Sandworms on Dune
After a week of sadness, soon afterwards, to Waff's great happiness, deep rumblings came from deep within the Rakian surface. The original worms of Rakis, each containing the pearl of essence of the God Emperor, had pre-sensed the Honored Matres attack on Dune decades before, and had burrowed deep down into the planet's surface. Waff was overjoyed when found that the worms had survived. As Waff was about to die of natural causes anyway, he decided to allow himself to be engulfed and eaten by the newly found sandworms, and gave his life to his Prophet.

Appearances

 * Heretics of Dune
 * Hunters of Dune
 * Sandworms of Dune