Khrone

Khrone was the true leader of the Tleilaxu Enhanced Face Dancers' Myriad, though they purported to be controlled by the Thinking Machine rules, Omnius and Erasmus.

History of the Enhanced Face Dancers
During the Time of the last Padishah Emperors under Shaddam Corrino IV, the crazed Tleilaxu scientist Hidar Fen Ajidica believed that the time of the ascendancy of the Tleilaxu race had arrived. Believing so, he launched colonies of Face Dancers into deep space, as a type of the Dancers preparing the way for his rule. Ajidica proved to be wrong, and his plans of came to be undone, and contact was lost with the galactic colonizing space farers. No word was heard from them for over 4000 years.

While these Tleilaxu were colonizing, they came across the reborn Thinking Machine Empire, led by Omnius and Erasmus. These Tleilaxu, and especially their Face Dancers, were considered a major "find" for Erasmus. Erasmus had always been fascinated by human behavior, and furthered his research through absorbing his human-impersonating Enhanced Face Dancers' life experiences data into his flow metal matrix.

During the time of The Scattering after the death of the God Emperor Leto II, and some of the Scattered Ones subsequent return, some who returned were the inter-mingled Tleilaxu colonists. The whole returning group were called by the established Tleilaxu of the Empire—The Lost Ones, and later, the Lost Tleilaxu. The Enhanced Face Dancers maintained a separate secret identity, however, under their leader, Khrone.

Both groups were not entirely trusted by the Old Imperium Tleilaxu masters. One main reason for this untrustworthiness was that Enhanced Face Dancers were perfectly able to mimic their human counterpart, so that even a Bene Gesserit sister could not tell the difference between the two. Using this ability, Khrone-led Face Dancers, especially; had begun to infiltrate many power centers the Old Imperium.

Preparation for Genocide
Iit was strongly acknowledged by all power groups of the era, that great war and change was coming to the human race, as the Return of the Honored Matres occurred, and the desturction that they brought to human-kind.

As Erasmus had convinced Omnius through his "mathematical projections" that the super-being Kwisatz Haderach was aboard the no-ship, the Ithaca, the Thinking Machines attempted to capture the ship in a tachyon net, but subsequently failed. The ghola of Duncan Idaho, the ghola of Miles Teg, Sheeana, and crew escaped from Chapterhouse aboard the vessel.

On Tleilax, Khrone appeared as the leader of the Face Dancer contingent, and killed the last Lost Tleilaxu Elder Burah, believing that it was no longer necessary for the Face Dancer contingent to pretend to be inferior to the ancient Tleilaxu Masters. Khrone with Omnius and Erasmus's full secret approval, planned to move the Face Dancers to the forefront of human existence, and to be the only survivors when the Thinking Machines eliminated human kind.

The Kwisatz Plans
He and the Enhanced Face Dancers continued to try to find the Ithaca, believing Daniel/Omnius and Marty/Erasmus's projections about the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach super-being to be infallible, and to be aboard the ship. He had been told by Omnius and Erasmus in their Daniel and Marty guise, that the Ithaca contained the necessary fulcrum [or individual] to influence the battle at the end of the universe, a conflict known as Kralizec. As a back up plan to capturing the Ithaca, the Thinking Machine rulers also wanted Khrone to create a ghola of the first Kwisatz Haderach mankind had known, Paul Atreides.

Khrone first ordered the last Lost Tleilaxu Elder, Uxtal, to produce the ghola of Vladimir Harkonnen from a partially recovered nullentropy tube found inside a partially burned Tleilaxu Master in Bandalong. A few years later, Khrone found out from his minions that genetic material of Paul Atreides was on the cells of the Emperor's Blade found in a hidden shrine on Dan. Khrone and Uxtal visited the shrine, killed the Blade's guardian Ardeth; and ordered the Scribe to create a ghola of the former Emperor in Bandalong on Tleilax, whom he called Paolo. After a few short years, he had both gholas whisked away to Dan, where he could alter their personalities free from the Honored Matres Matre Superior Hellica. Khrone had Harkonnen raise Paolo with a corrupted and perverted personality, unlike the nurturing parents who raised the original Paul Atreides.

The Tachyon Net
This was all done under the watchful eye of Omnius and Erasmus, as they communicated with Khrone by way of the tachyon net and by sending augmented humans, who were in fact, spies of Erasmus. When the Machine leaders felt that Khrone deserved punishment, they would punish him through pain inflictors in the tachyone net. Constantly over the upbringing of Paolo, Erasmus' augmented humans would gather data, and send the data back to Synchrony.

Infiltrating the Old Empire
Concurrently, Khrone led the ever increasing infiltration of the Old Empire by Face Dancers. He placed Dancers at the starship foundry planets of Ix and Richese, de-stabilizing the war effort against the Thinking Machines. He tricked the Ixians into accepting the secretly built mathematical compilers, leading the Ixians, especially Chief Fabricator Shayama Sen, to believ they had developed the device themselves. In a secret guise as an Ixian, he then helped Sen introduce the device to CHOAM, the Guild, and the New Sisterhood. The device de-stabilized the Guild, as Khrone took advantage of the ever widening chasm between the Administrator branch and the Navigator branch of the organization.

Very importantly, he had the Face Dancers infiltrate Honored Matres leadership, the most notable being that of a duplicate of Hellica, overseeing the Matres base from Bandalong on Tleilax. From that base, Khrone had her launch an Obliterator attack on Richese itself, reducing the planet to uninhabitable slag. Khrone put Face Dancers at each and every level of human authority.

Double Agent
But Khrone was a type of double agent for the Thinking Machine rulers. Since the beginning of the ramp-up to Thinking Machine's War on humanity, Khrone had an alternative agenda to that of helping Daniel/Omnius and Marty/Erasmus. He and the Face Dancers would help the Machines near conquer and near eliminate human kind, and then spring a type of trap of their own. He envisioned that once the Machines and humanity had exhausted their resources in a major conflict, the Face Dancers would be free to mop up the remains, and take their place as rulers of the Known Universe.

Khrone brought the finished ghola Paolo to Synchrony, capital of the Machine empire, awaiting the capture of the Ithaca. Meanwhile, Omnius had released the vast million star ship armada of the machines against humanity. This machine armada conquered and eliminated billions of human beings star system by star system as it advanced deep into the Old Empire. Humanity made one last stand above Chapterhouse, led by Murbella, leader of the New Sisterhood.

Khrone's planning and leadership of the sabotage of humanity's star ships soon became apparent. The vast majority of the ships of Ixian manufacture were found to be unworkable, as their weapon systems had been rendered useless by their infiltrated Face Dancer manufacturing crews. Those ships that did function were sabotaged during the actual battle itself by infiltrated Face Dancer crews, placed in part by Khrone and his sub-ordinates.

Day of Kralizec
On the other side of the galaxy, deep in the Machine Empire, the Ithaca was finally snared and brought to Synchrony. As the events of Kralizec unfolded on Synchrony, Khrone dispassionately watched, and bided his time. The duel between Paul and Paolo, led to Paolo's complete lapse into a coma as he was reduced an infinite loop of pondering absolute prescience; and rendered Paul temporarily handicapped, as he sustained a near mortal wound during the fight. Soon after, as Omnius gloated over his apparent and complete victory, the Oracle of Infinity/Norma Cenva appeared, and banished Omnius permanently to another plane of existence.

The Thinking Machines were caught off guard by this development, as well as an ensuing battle in the streets of their capital led by a ghola of Leto II, Sheeana, and their Sandworm army. Not as effective or as ruthless as Omnius, Erasmus took over much of the role of the Evermind temporarily.

Khrone, observed that humans and machines had weakened themselves considerably, and had battled to a type of standstill in Synchrony, and decided to "make his move". Khrone stepped to the forefront of those assembled, and spoke of the vast infiltration of humanity in the Old Empire, and how the Thinking Machines were in a vast battle in their own major city. He announced his decades long plan, and declared that the time of the Face Dancers ascendancy had arrived.

Erasmus and the Kill Switch
Erasmus laughed long and loud, and declared that he had long foreseen that the Enhanced Face Dancer leader could not be trusted. Declaring that all Face Dancers were unworthy, Erasmus gave forth the oft spoken human quote, "Who can Ever Trust a Face Dancer?". To Khrone's complete and utter surprise, Erasmus announced that long ago, he had placed a "Kill switch" into the genetic make up of the his altered Face Dancers, including Khrone's. To Khrone's, and everyone gathered, amazement, Erasmus activated the killing "off switch" throughout the galaxies using the tachyon net. Khrone, and each and every Enhanced Face Dancer instantly died.

Back in human space, millions of duplicates instantly collapsed and died throughout the Old Empire, astounding many leaders of humanity as literally, countless Face Dancers died all around them.

Behind the Scenes
The great controversy over the publishing of what was originally called Dune 7, has led many to believe in changes that Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, may have altered the intent of the final chapter of the Dune Universe. The role of Khrone as a manipulating, independent Face Dancer would mesh well with the description of Daniel at the end of Chapterhouse: Dune; and that perhaps Khrone originally had an assistant or spouse named Marty.

The elder Herbert's intention from the last few pages of Chapterhouse: Dune may have been to have a strong Face Dancer character such as Khrone acting on his own will, be part of the conclusion.

Appearances

 * Hunters of Dune
 * Sandworms of Dune