El'hiim

"They say of E'hiim that he loves neither his father nor his stepfather, and that he is disloyal to his people."

- Comment made by Zensunni Elder, secondhand source

El'hiim [b. 174 BG] was the son of the legendary Selim Wormrider and his wife Marha. His father suggested his name shortly before his death and instead he grew with his foster father, Ishmael.

Childhood
Ishmael saved El'hiim's life during his childhood. El'hiim became stuck in a crevice with a group of scorpions. Ishmael saw this dilemma in a spice vision and rushed to find El'hiim. In the effort to save the boy; Ishmael was stung several times and was thought near death. He did recover, but as noted below, he and El'hiim only grew apart.

Rise to leadership
When El'hiim grew up, Marha died and she had made Ishmael swear to shelter and advise her son. But Ishmael perhaps had applied too much pressure, unwittingly forcing him to turn in another direction. El'hiim stowed aboard a VenKee ship that took him to distant worlds-including Poritrin. He returned but was forever changed by the new experiences and was radically different than his father. Naib El'hiim trusted offworlders and insisted that they should buy commodities by trading spice. While El'hiim offered his tribes' services as desert guides, Ishamel shunned outsiders,

Later, the village was assaulted by a group of slavers who had posed as spice merchants when dealing with El'hiim. Under the leadership of his foster father Ishmael, the Freemen repelled and killed the invaders. While El'hiim wanted to seize the slave traders' ships, Ishmael was incensed that his foster son would consider dealing with outsiders.

In an attempt to educate El'hiim in the ways of Selim, Ishmael took his foster son on a pilgrimage in the Tanzerouft desert while riding a sandworm. After returning home to their village, they found that it had been raided by slavers, who had kidnapped several young men and women. El'hiim found a fabric tissue and realized that the raiders were slavers from Zanbar.

El'hiim later traveled to Arrakis City to petition for justice. The Arrakis City security force promised to do more to enforce regulations against kidnapping. However, Ishmael distrusted the authorities and organised a kanla raid. A reluctant El'hiim accompanied his adoptive father on this raid. The Zensunnis caught the slavers by suprise. Despite El'hiim's pleas that the slavers be taken to Arrakis City to face justice, Ishmael ordered that the slavers be killed and their blood drained for water.

Following the kanla raid, El'hiim and Ishmael attended a meeting where they debated the future of the tribe. El'hiim was horrified by the slaughter of the slavers and feared that the authorities on Arrakis would no longer take their side. By contrast, Ishmael argued that they should return to the ways of Selim Wormrider and retreat into the deepest desert in order to avoid the slavers. Unable to reconcile their differences, Ishmael challenged El'hiim to a duel and renounced him as his adopted son. To invoke insult per Zensunni custom, Ishmael struck El'hiim twice across the face. When El'hiim refused to fight him, Ishmael instead challenged him to a sandworm duel in accordance with Zensunni law.

During the sandworm duel, El'hiim and Ishmael rode their sandworms against each other. El'hiim gained the upper hand when Ishmael fell of his sandworm. This allowed El'hiim's sandworm to drive Ishmael's sandworm into the desert. El'hiim's victory allowed him to take leadership of the Free Men tribe. Several of the villagers sought to move closer to Arrakis City while others set up secondary homes within the VenKee settlements. Unwilling to fathom the tribe abandoning Selim's ways, Ishmael and his supporters undertook a trek into the Tanzerouft. Before leaving, El'hiim tried to reason with his former adoptive father but Ishmael was determined to avoid the "corruption" of the outsiders and to preserve the Free Men ways.

Appearances

 * Dune: The Machine Crusade
 * Dune: The Battle of Corrin