Manion Butler the Innocent

Manion Butler 'the Innocent' (202 BG - 201 BG) was the only son of Serena Butler. His murder at a very young age and the hands of a thinking machine was pivotal to the start of the Butlerian Jihad.

Birth and Death
Manion was born on thinking machine-occupied Earth to Serena Butler after she had been captured by the forces of Omnius and taken as a slave by Erasmus. Manion was the illegitimate child of Serena and Xavier Harkonnen. He was named after his esteemed maternal grandfather Manion.

Though Manion's delivery was greeted with curiosity and excitement by Erasmus, he was quickly deemed by the robot to be a distraction to his mother. In an attempt to regain Serena's full attention Erasmus killed the infant Manion by throwing him from the top of a tower on his estate. But the action evoked the opposite reaction, and in a fit of rage and despair Serena destroyed a thinking machine guard.

The event was witnessed by Trustee Iblis Ginjo and the slaves under him. Ginjo was already planning to instigate a revolt; the shocked slaves exploded in a uprising that ultimately resulted in the beginning of the Butlerian Jihad.

Impact
Manion's body was spirited away on the Dream Voyager and taken to Salusa Secundus along with his mother, Vorian Atreides and Iblis Ginjo. There he became beatified as a martyr and the fulcrum of a ferocious and protracted war against the thinking machines. His crushed body was reformed and preserved during the Butlerian Jihad.

Altars and shrines were devoted to his memory and supposed relics belonging to him circulated the religious market. His primary shrine inside the City of Introspection, had his supposedly preserved body inside a crystalline coffin; however it was Ginjo's idea that a facsimile would be placed, in order to inspire the masses, something that his mother knew.

Idealized depictions of him as a saintly or angelic figure could be seen on shrines, statues and shrines. Images of Serena and Manion could be seen on battle banners during the Rebellion of Ix, whose names were shouted as battle-cries. The marigold was dedicated to him and was known as 'Manion's Flower'. Manion was also one of the Three Martyrs in the monument on Saulsa Secundus.

Appearances

 * Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
 * Dune: The Machine Crusade
 * The Faces of a Martyr
 * Dune: The Battle of Corrin