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- "The human mind, facing no real challenges, soon grows stagnant. Thus it is essential for the survival of mankind as a species to create difficulties, to face them, and to prevail. The Butlerian Jihad was an outgrowth of this largely unconscious process, with roots back to the original decision to allow thinking machines too much control, and the inevitable rise of the Omnius Empire."
- ―Princess Irulan, Lessons of the Great Revolt[src]
The Butlerian Jihad was the long and bloody human crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots, as represented primarily by the Synchronized Empire and the Titans, which began in 201 BG with a revolt on Earth and officially concluded in 108 BG in the Great Purge, despite the war essentially continuing much further on and the Butlerian movement continuing its work. After two generations of chaos, when mankind finally overcame the insidious control of machines[4], the god of machine-logic was overthrown by the masses and a new concept was raised: "Man may not be replaced."[5] The ramifications of the Jihad, perhaps the most important event in human history, lasted for tens of thousands of years.
History[]
The old war heightens (204-201 BG)[]
Main article: War of the League of Nobles and Synchronized Empire#The war heightens
The cause of the Jihad could be traced back to the decision by Omnius to push the centuries-old stand-off against the League of Nobles of free humanity to a heightened level. There had been a standoff for several centuries, with Omnius attacking League every few decades. (By the time of the attack on Salusa Secundus, the last attack was 100 years ago.) However, the Twenty Titans were dissatisfied with this situation: They still despised the free humans and longed for revenge upon them. Barbarossa made a bet with Omnius in 203 BG: A duel cymek vs. robot ensued, Barbarossa won, and Omnius agreed to start a war.
The first assault, the Battle of Zimia, was launched on Salusa Secundus, with Cymeks spearheading the forces, but they were beaten, when Xavier Harkonnen realized the invaders' goal and positioned his troops accordingly. The second attack, the Battle of Giedi Prime, was executed with brute force and proved to be successful. During the conflict on Giedi Prime, Serena Butler, the pregnant daughter of Viceroy Manion Butler, was captured by Omnius and enslaved on Earth in the service of Erasmus.[3]
Rebellion on Earth (201 BG)[]
- "The Butlerian Jihad arose from such stupidity. An infant was killed. The bereaved mother struck out at the nonhuman machinery that had caused the senseless death. Soon, the violence was in the hands of the extended mob and became known as a jihad."
- ―Primero Faykan Butler explains the beginning of the war in Memoirs of the Jihad[src]
Prelude to rebellion[]
Meanwhile, Erasmus had put a sort of bet-experiment with Omnius concerning the predictability of humans: Erasmus proposed to randomly select some loyal trustees and demonstrate that he could turn them against the thinking machines; this would prove whether reliable humans could be trusted.
Erasmus thenceforth, always with the consent of Omnius who watched the procedures of the experiment, started to spread rumors among the trustees on Earth about an instigation. Iblis Ginjo was a receiver of such messages and consulted Cogitor Eklo about its origins. Eklo told him that if someone would proceed to such a movement, the best way would be to unite the people under the concept of a "holy war".
Charismatic Ginjo reconsidered his role in the enslavement and embraced the concept, ignorant of the messages' origins. He started to spread seeds of rebellion and secretly igniting boiling restlessness across the planet. He also had prepared core groups at major sites with their respective leaders. Ginjo was in charge of the Victory of the Titans frieze construction, and had secretly implanted explosive devices constructed from construction explosives.
After Serena became one of Erasmus' slaves, much loved by them, her child was killed by Erasmus one night, this one outrageous event, seemed inconceivable by the slaves; heedless of her danger, Serena hurled herself against a sentinel robot, shoving it out of the balcony and slammed on the ground; she even pounded Erasmus with her fists and claws.
The simmering resentment of the human slaves boiled over; the slaves called out her name, as a woman who destroyed a robot with her own hands. Primed by Ginjo's instructions and subtle manipulations over the past months, the slaves exploded and began a revolt.
Beginning of the revolt[]
In the precinct of Erasmus' villa of the capital city grid, the future planet-wide rebellion blossomed and gained violent strength; slaves started to vandalize the villa taking in surprise the sentinel robots who never expected such response. Some slaves even ripped their weapon arms off, using them to open fire.
Ginjo on a vantage point, issued the much-anticipated command to his core groups and unit leaders by sending rebels carrying clubs, heavy tools, cutters, any weapon that might be effective against the thinking machines; and the revolt spread like an avalanche, taking along slaves who were reluctant to join the original underground movement. Ginjo meanwhile activated his explosive mechanism which destroyed the Titans' frieze revealing his hidden deadly arsenal. Embedded tubes in the frieze were used against neo-cymeks and hybrid machines rallying to attack a crowd.
Like a chain reaction that could not be stopped, mobs ran through the streets, increasing their vengeance moment by moment. Flames spread in empty buildings. Near the spaceport, an armory blew up in a tremendous explosion.
Death of Ajax[]
Titan Ajax from a cymek body-fabrication pavilion atop one of the capital city's seven hills, remembered the First Hrethgir Rebellion. With his best gladiator-form with flamethrowers and six legs, he descended and joined by a group of neos and sentinel robots in a defensive circle against a howling mob.
The humans swept toward them like waves after waves, even though they saw their certain death. While the line of neo-cymek defenders surged forward breaking the first charge of the frenzied rebels, and the sentinel robots moved back to a new position higher on the hill, Ajax climbed onto a flying construction platform and cruised toward the Forum Plaza where he saw the Titans' frieze controlled as a weapon by the trustee Ginjo; swarms of rebels with cables and small explosives tore down the pillars that held the majestic statues of the Titans.
Suddenly Ajax's platform was shattered by a rocket. Ginjo called the mobs to swarm the wounded Titan who fought them off with flailing artificial limbs, and finally levered himself onto his damaged legs. Mobsters crawled over the bodies of their fallen comrades and kept coming; before he could recalibrate his optic threads Ginjo removed a rocket from the damaged frieze and launched it manually damaging Ajax's leg who shifted and thrashed knocking the oncoming mobsters; he stomped on and plowed through anyone who stood in his path, hundreds of them who pummeled his cymek body with primitive weapons without harming him; he climbed the mural to reach Ginjo with his four limbs, while he thrashed with the remaining one.
Then a slave dropped an explosive that detonated on the sculptured wall, making the Titan tilt while more crawled onto his back and damaged his components with cutters and heat sticks. Then his neurelectric conduits were severed. The humans who mounted him snapped the control fibers leading from his protected brain canister, effectively paralyzing him.
He slammed to the ground crushing shouting slaves; Ginjo ordered where to peel the armor casing where his brain canister was removed; with a cudgel, Ginjo smashed the canister down, his followers rushing in to help, pounding and beating and smashing, until the canister and brain became a pulpy gray matter mixed with electrafluid. Witnessing the death of one of the Titans, word swept through the streets.
By three days later, the slaves in the main pens had been freed by the mobsters, flooding the ranks of the rebellion. the revolt had spread through the capital city and to other urban complexes across Earth. Ships and facilities had been overrun by slaves and many sectors had power shortages. Omnius core remained defended and he ordered all thinking machines divert to defensive perimeters and battle stations.
Vorian's change of allegiance[]
The Dream Voyager arrived bearing an Omnius gelsphere. The spaceport was overrun and Seurat and Vorian Atreides had to land on an older spaceport south of the capital still controlled by Omnius. There they witnessed mobs who tried to overrun that too. Vorian decided to separate from Seurat so that he would not interfere with him while Seurat would ferry the thinking machines to assist the defenses.
Hiding first behind a groundtruck, Vorian felt his allegiances shifting, already having learned the true history of mankind and the Titans, urged by Serena. He tossed his trustee suit and wore that of a dead slave and joined the crowd who set off incendiary devices in the old spaceport's control building. They also killed a skittering neo who tried to escape, splitting open his brain canister with a cellgun blast.
Erasmus' villa was barricaded by rebels who waited for Ginjo driving thinking machines off while holding Erasmus inside; Vor went there to look for Serena. Defensive installations on the crenellations fired scattered shots, trying to disperse the crowd. A group of rebels took up strategic positions and launched two crude projectiles, smashing the gun emplacements.
Then Ginjo returned and he commanded the rebels to break the heavy gate and enter the villa to punish Erasmus; however he escaped into a concealed cave high above the swirling whitecaps and boarded a hover capsule (accompanied by a watcheye) lifting off into the early evening. He flew to a subsidiary spaceport that was still controlled by the thinking machines in order to travel to Corrin.
Eventually Ginjo's mobsters broke in and started to destroy the villa. Vorian separated from the crowd looking for Serena; passing through Erasmus's greenhouses, he released the captives in his laboratories. He found her slumped on the dirty plazcrete floor at the back of the compound, in a sterile area that contained ominous surgical equipment. Then, Vorian persuaded Ginjo that while he wished Serena to stay with him and inspire the revolt, the rebellion here was doomed: it should be commanded from a different place from where they could send assistance to the rebels on Earth and then spread it from planet to planet.
Escape[]
Ginjo ordered Aquim to lead the rebellion and then took the body of little Manion who had kept in a sealant bag. Commandeering a passenger shuttle found at a landing port on the estate, Vor guided them towards a spaceport where he expected to find the Dream Voyager. With the familiar access codes he had always used, the robot sentries allowed the passage of the vessel into a drydock hangar.
As hoped, Vor found the Dream Voyager and feigning that he returned to aid Seurat, he disabled him and threw his body outside, joined by Ginjo and Serena. However not long after they left, Agamemnon seeking for his son, found the Dream Voyager missing. Reactivating Seurat, he understood that his son betrayed him. He burned a group of humans who attempted to board an interceptor, and boarded his brain canister on it to pursue Vorian.
The Dream Voyager had just passed Mars's orbit and closed towards Jupiter when hit by Agamemnon. Deciding that he could not outmaneuver him, but having more fuel, Vorian closed towards Jupiter, so that to slingshot around the planet by escaping the gravitational pull. Agamemnon's smaller interceptor, however, would be unable to escape. Behind them, the pursuing craft suddenly broke off, burning its engines to pull away from the gas giant in a sharp curve and turn back. Agamemnon enraged with his last son, returned to a long and frustratingly tedious journey back to Earth that salvaged momentum and conserved fuel; the Voyager accelerated for the League Worlds.
The Titans strike back[]
Juno, Dante and Xerxes were in a desert on another continent in a demonstration of torture-interrogation techniques on live human subjects by Juno. When they received an order of Omnius, they flew right into the heat of the rebellion, in a wide square strewn with debris and crowded with shouting rebels. The primitive weapons nor the mass of the bodies of the rebels could do any harm to the three Titans. The streets ran red of blood and Aquim ordered the crowd to stand back. Before the evening the three Titans were joined by Agamemnon.
Aquim tried to keep the resistance alive and organize them in the face of Omnius's increasingly violent retaliation. Fires raged across the city grids while saboteurs brought down the manufacturing and support capabilities of the machines; factories and maintenance buildings exploded, arson and vandalism spread across the continents from industrial centers to human settlements.
Omnius decreed the complete annihilation of all human life on Earth and activated his ranks of warrior robots. Cymeks marched into habitation camps and razed them to the ground spraying poison gas, acid plumes, and ribbons of molten fire; extermination squads moved from buildings to pens. Crops and food-distribution depots were burned and leveled down. 10000 slaves paid for every robot or cymek damaged. During that time, Juno paid her revenge against Eklo, destroying his monastery. Ajax's bloodbath on Walgis had been merely a brief prelude.
Omnius determined that had no further use for the humans or all of the other Synchronized Worlds at last he agreeing with Agamemnon, who had been urging such a final solution for centuries. The Titans and Cymeks assisted by modified robotic soldiers, spent months hunting down the planetary population in an unspeakable bloodshed until no single person on Earth survived.
Battle of Earth (200 BG)[]
- "You have all seen the shrine to my son, who was murdered by the thinking machines. Perhaps it is easier to comprehend the tragedy of a single victim than of billions. But that child only symbolises the horrors Omnius and the Synchronized Worlds wish to inflict upon us. We must declare a holy war - a jihad, in the name of my murdered son Manion. It must be... Manion Butler's Jihad."
- ―Serena Butler calls for war shortly before the Battle of Earth[src]
As soon as the Dream Voyager arrived to Salusa, the League Armada dispatched its fastest scout. After several weeks, the pilot returned with his terrible report, that only thinking machines remained on Earth. Every single rebel, slave or trustee was dead. At that time, Ginjo was in the interrogation room, and spoke about the concept of the jihad; since the rebels were motivated by the name and the pain of Serena Butler and would achieve all this, then a coordinated military assault would accomplish much more.
Serena made her plea in the League Parliament that victory over the Thinking Machines was the only way to ensure humanity's survival. The senators questioned the effectiveness of that move, but Xavier Harkonnen proposed to use atomics, a last resort doomsday weapon that had never been used until then. There was no dissent and the proposal formally passed.
Preparations[]
In the following 3 months, from their separate space navies, each League World dispatched ships in every kind; munitions factories on Vertree Colony, Komider, and Giedi Prime had worked beyond peak-production levels without rest. Humanity assembled the most powerful, concentrated military force for thousands years.
Just under half of the Armada ships had been equipped with the new Holtzman shield generators due to skepticism and limited time. Xavier had considered waiting for more, but finally decided that further delay would cause greater harm than the installation of extra mechanisms could justify.
Meanwhile, Omnius had dispatched the cymeks to other 'unstable' Synchronized Worlds to suppress any hints of new rebellion. Swelling with vessels and weapons and countless commanders from planetary defense systems, militias, and home guards, the unified Armada gathered at the orbital launch point above Salusa Secundus. Many of them were armed with atomics enough to sterilize Earth three times over.
The battle[]
Under the command of Xavier Harkonnen and with the help of Vorian Atreides, a human trustee with valuable inside information and machine thinking, the League Armada launched an all out strike against the Earth Omnius. Atreides was not much trusted and had to prove his loyalty to the humans in the battle.
When the armada started bombarding, Omnius Prime launched robotic vessels in a full-scale defensive cordon, as well as his watcheyes to observe all points of view. He ran more than 5000 simulations to determine the correct responses. However the Holtzman shields withstood the first hits, voiding therefore all of Omnius' plans. The first bombers streaked into the atmosphere with their old-style nuclear warheads.
Then Omnius realized he was doomed and sent an update ship carrying a gelsphere with a copy of himself for the other Synchronized Worlds, and orders about the extermination of humans. Atreides was the only one who noticed it and was faced with a grave choice. Having destroyed a dozen of robotic vessels and guarding bombers, he decided to abandon his post, condemning the ships under his protection. Although he risked his (already dubious) prestige towards his new allies.
In the process robotic guns tried to hit the nuclears in the midair however many could get through. At the height of the battle the robotic defenders careened into clusters of kindjals and other unshielded ships (although even shielded ones were destroyed due to malfunctions). The twenty largest Armada battleships hung in stationary orbit, dispatching wave after wave of small attackers. At the same time, five destroyers descended to dump patterns of guided nuclear missiles.
In a last vengeful attack, AI projectiles converged on the ballistas ignoring the smaller bombers and kindjals, they looped back to intercept any evasive trajectories the battleship captains might attempt, and disregarded defensive decoys that were fired to draw the robots off. 11 of the largest battleships were vaporized. Only 8 of the huge vessels (each one shielded) remained. A large percentage of the overall Armada fleet had already been annihilated. The thinking machines eliminated one League vessel after another, but Harkonnen kept sending his fleet forward. Only a fraction of the attacking human force had managed to reach their target points and drop cargo loads of nuclear bombs across the continents.
Meanwhile Vorian intercepted the update ship and board it at the edge of the diffuse cometary halo and managed to disable and board it; there he found Seurat, the robot he worked with when serving the machines. He neutralized him and apprehended the gelsphere.
Then, the atomics detonated; nuclear airbursts generated electromagnetic pulses that scoured the air and surface of the planet. Waves of energy spread, and in a flash obliterated every gelcircuitry network and thinking-machine mind along with Omnius. Planet Earth was completely irradiated and turned into a burnt husk and the machines on the planet were no more.
Aftermath of the Battle[]
Of the human fleet, the losses were larger than anticipated however the destruction of Omnius made useless the robotic fighters, making them a short work for the human weapons. Vorian Atreides, considered a coward and traitor for abandoning his post and condemning the bombers under his guard, returned and presented the captive Omnius gelsphere. His action prevented the Evermind to learn the last thoughts, orders and calculations of Omnius Prime, as well as the tactics and new shield technology used by the League and most importantly, the orders to eradicate all hrethgir in the Synchronized Worlds. Corrin-Omnius became the Omnius Prime
The captive gelsphere would provide some benefits to the League intelligence for some years. As for Seurat, he remained in his update ship floating aimlessly in the solar system. Earth became an uninhabitable lump in space, never to be inhabited again.
Early Battles of the Jihad (199-178 BG)[]
Battle of Bela Tegeuse[]
The attack on Bela Tegeuse was the first "official" human attack in the Jihad. In 196 BG, few years after the League Armada's devastation of Earth, Bela Tegeuse was a random Synchronized World chosen for attack. With much fanfare the warships had gone out, led by Xavier Harkonnen. The battle of Bela Tegeuse had destroyed many robots, attacked the Omnius stronghold and obliterated extensive thinking machine infrastructure, but the enemy fought back relentlessly. Vorian Atreides had distinguished himself in that battle, earned a higher rank, and proved his true fervor for the cause of humanity; but had suffered so many losses that they were forced to withdraw without a clear-cut victory.
Corrin-Omnius attacked Zimia on Salusa Secundus as a response to the Bela Teguese offensive. The newly formed Army of the Jihad however, led once more by Xavier Harkonnen, rebuffed the heavy machine fleet.
Honru Massacre[]
In 195 BG, the Army of the Jihad attempted to free the population of the Synchronized World of Honru. An armada of League warships was sent and started the attack. However Omnius used aggressive tactics for defense; 10000 robotic ships had lain in ambush and then engulfed the armada. The human fighters had responded with desperate combat measures, but suicide robot ships wiped out the Jihad battleships. Over five hundred thousand free humans are killed. Waves of combat robots on the surface exterminated villages of humans. The failure was blamed on inaccurate intelligence. Grand Patriarch, Iblis Ginjo assigned Yorek Thurr, an ambitious and intelligent young detective to investigate the matter. Thurr uncovered evidence that disloyal humans had been responsible for purposely supplying misinformation about the number of enemy forces waiting at Honru. That was the beginning of the Jipol.
Battle of Ellram[]
In 189 BG, the planet Ellram was captured by the forces of Omnius. This defeat was remembered long afterwards.
Battle of Peridot Colony[]
When the thinking machines attempted to attack Peridot Colony, Xavier Harkonnen's warship and a handful of troops were the only Army of the Jihad forces of the vicinity and the nearest Jihad forces could not receive the distress call before a week. Xavier driove back the Omnius forces and Zon Noret assisted in the defense of the colony. But the machines followed a scorched-earth policy, and the colony settlements are ultimately destroyed. Over a quarter of the Jihadi fighters and half of the Ginaz mercenaries were lost and not many survivors to be rescued who were transported to Giedi Prime.
Liberation of Tyndall[]
In 178 BG, Xavier Harkonnen liberated Tyndall from Omnius. Not much is known about the battle itself, but it was caused by Vorian Atreides's admonition to the League of Nobles that they should protect the Unallied Worlds as well. Tyndall was captured by Omnius recently in 181 BG, and it was chosen to practivce this new policy.
The war reaches its climax (177-174 BG)[]
Battle of IV Anbus[]
In 177 BG, Tlulaxa slaver Rekur Van visited the planet for capturing Buddislamic slaves. During preparing a raid, he noticed a machine fleet gathering around the planet. He notified secretly Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo who was a secret colleague of his in this business. Ginjo didn't reveal his sources and responded appropriately with sending a force to protect the planet.
Primero Vorian Atreides commanded the space defense while Primero Xavier Harkonnen commanded the land defense. During the campaign, Primero Harkonnen had been negotiating with the local Zenshiite Elder Rhengalid for their cooperation against the invaders. The negotiations yielded no agreement. While deploying his forces, Primero Harkonnen sent his foster brother, Terceros Vergyl Tantor and Hondu Crehg to set up an ambush for the Thinking Machines in two villages outside the Zenshiite capital.
However the villagers were equally reluctant to help: the ground troops were poisoned (non-lethally) by the villagers and their equipment sabotaged. With limited options remaining, Primero Harkonnen decided to use his Ginaz mercenaries to rig the local dam with explosives. When the Thinking Machine invaders approached, Primero Harkonnen blew the dam and destroyed the invaders under the massive flood waters from the dam breech. Part of the capital was destroyed along with holy relics and people who refused to leave.
Although IV Anbus was spared from atomic devastation, the Rhengalid cursed the Army of the Jihad and their leaders, primarily Xavier Harkonnen: swearing that him and his descendants will suffer for millions of years. To which Xavier Harkonnen replied they would be able to rebuild their city while alive and free.
The battle climaxed in space, above tha planet. Primero Vorian Atreides managed to drive off the machine fleet using a programmed signal which persuaded the machines that the Jihadi fleet was much larger. Vergyl's ballista in his over-enthusiasm, tried to attack a cymek fleet, who appeared when the Jihadi ships had to suppress the over-heated Holtzman shields. The ship suffered many hits and the crew ejected in lifepod, only to be collected by the cymeks.
Assault on Poritrin[]
In 176 BG, the thinking machines attacked Poritrin. The ensuing defensive plan was devised by Vorian Atreides, which used empty hulks of battleships and other defenses. The gambit worked and the machines were fooled and eventually retreated with out serious damage or loss of life on Poritrin.
Liberation of Ix[]
In 175 BG, Xavier Harkonnen assisted the Ixians who rebelled against the thinking machine occupation of their planet. When the Jihadi forces arrived on the planet, with a cannonball shuttle. Five separate teams fought their way through the tunnels beneath the central computer nexus of the Ix-Omnius, carrying a compact, city-killer warhead designed to deliver an intense localized vaporization pulse that will wipe gelcircuitry brains. Attention was taken so that the factories left intact so that they would be later used by the League.
A rebel called Handon led Jool Noret's team through the catacombs beneath the primary machine industries and computer centers. Despite his treachery, Noret disabled Handon and energized the warhead which destroyed Ix-Omnius. However the destruction did not cripple the autonomous machines. Xerxes wearing a pterodactyl-like cymek body, led the machine fleet against the Jihadi forces. Xavier's foremost ballistas shot defensive projectile fire, driving back the first robot assault, annihilating many of the machine suicide ships before they could get through.
This wave was followed by a squadron of neo-cymeks led by Xerxes. One ballista was lost with hundreds of lifepods ejected with survivors. Suddenly, when all was lost for the Jihad, Hecate's asteroid hurled against the machines and shoved Xerxes in far orbit. Kinetic spheres obliterated two of their largest battleships. After destroying half of the machine fleet she veered into space and vanished, allowing Xavier's forces to continue the retreat. The thinking machines would respond again later with an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Ix.
The waning years (174-164 BG)[]
As the years passed, many citizens of the League began to want an end to the war - they wished to cease the decades of endless fighting and go back to their everyday lives. The war grew stagnant and popular support began to dwindle. During these times, Serena Butler visited Hessra and tried to persuade the Ivory Tower Cogitors to join the aim of the Jihad.
Attempted peace[]
The Cogitors, pondering Serena's claims, proposed mutual truce between Omnius and the League in 164 BG, and there was a large majority of support for this. When confronted with this prospect, Priestess Serena volunteered as the League ambassador to Corrin. Officially she was to broker a truce, but secretly she and Iblis concocted a suicidal confrontation that would see her die at the hands of the thinking machines and thus create another martyr.
Serena 'met' Omnius in the Central Spire and apart from the truce; she demanded that Omnius release free all the human slaves. Omnius claimed it was not part of the truce, but Serena continued defiantly to provoke him. Eventually Erasmus showed up, whom she thought dead at the Battle of Earth. In her rage, she fell on him, but he pushed her away.
Eventually Omnius decided to execute the embassy. Erasmus however, having consumed historical archives, noticed her smile, and ordered the executor robots to stop. He explained to Omnius that Serena was bait, and planned to become a martyr. Niriem then, following the 'plan B' ordered by Ginjo, delivered a fatal blow, killing her and restarting outrage among the League, and left Ginjo all the power to the Jihad.
The conflict re-ignites[]
On Salusa Secundus, a set of fabricated images of Serena's 'execution' were created by Tlulaxa cooperatives of Ginjo. The images, as well as a burned body was supposedly discovered on a space drone, sent by the Machines but actually were planted by Ginjo himself. The images showed 'Serena' crucified and burned part by part by a Machine. This Serena was a clone body made by the Tlulaxa, out of her DNA taken during her visit on the planet. The memory of Serena Butler remained a powerful call to arms throughout the rest of the Jihad. Her death, and that of her child, was interpreted by many throughout the League as showing the immoral and brutal attitude of Omnius. This provided the needed spark to the Jihad which allowed it to continue onwards, driven by fanatics, at an extreme pace.
The Martyrists[]
During this new stage of the Jihad, Serena was made a saint and one of the Three Martyrs. Religious individuals prayed to them and hoped they would send their angels to protect them. This led to the phenomenon of the Martyrists - fanatics devoted to the Three Martyrs, that wanted simply to destroy thinking machines at every cost - but at this point, this destruction entailed only the hostile thinking machines being fought in the Jihad. They proved valuable manning the ships for the Great Purge, since the spacefolding technology used posed serious dangers and was in a percentage suicidal.
Battles of the re-ignited Jihad (164-108 BG)[]
Liberation of Parmentier[]
In 150 BG, the Army of the Jihad with lieutenant Quentin Butler liberated Parmentier. Butler beat an overwhelming force of combat robots with devious tactics assisted by his sons. After the battle, Niubbe, the capital of the planet, was built over a machine industrial complex. Butler appointed his eldest son Rikov Butler as temporary governor.
Battle at Ularda[]
Thinking machines fought with Swordmasters on Ularda in 129 BG. Swordmaster Borys was captured during this battle.
Battle of Ix[]
After the Liberation of Ix, Omnius attempted to recapture the planet in 123 BG. Quentin Butler was there and defended the planet although he regretted to have lost so many fighters and civilians. During the attempt he fought combat robots in the deepest cave channels with 7 of his companions until an explosion caused a cave-in; he was buried alive, until clawed and pushed, finally working his way upward to the amazed shouts of other jihadis who had never expected to find him alive. That battle fixed him as a hero and earned him many accolades.
Liberation of Honru[]
Eighty-seven years after the Honru Massacre, the Army of the Jihad decided it was about time to liberate the planet. The basic battle plan was to send down 500 kindjal fighters armed with a load of scrambler-pulse bombs in two separate waves, the first by Faykan Butler and the second by Rikov Butler for a precision strike on the evermind nexus.
Ground crews mainly Ginaz Swordmasters would root out the substations. Personnel transports landed soon after covered with Javelins. The large-scale atomics were left as the ultimate alternative but were not used. Slaves, prisoners and captives rushed out of their pens. Martyrists made an appearance, attacking to combat meks chanting to Serena Butler, although they managed to kill only one robot for every five of themselves that was killed. In the end, the Ginaz mercenaries detonated the Omnius citadel.
Conclusion (108 BG)[]
Omnius Scourge[]
In 108 BG, Rekur Van, a Tlulaxa working for Erasmus on Corrin, developed the Omnius Scourge. This disease was a retrovirus that resided in the victim's liver, which made it extraordinarily hard to locate and treat. The virus had a ~70% infection rate with an expected mortality of 43% with many additional casualties due to associated infections, infrastructure breakdown, general riots, and the like. The virus was airborne and entered the body via the mucous membranes and infected the liver, it produced large quantities of a protein that converted the body's own hormones into the Compound X similar to an anabolic steroid which caused striking mental and physical symptoms. The liver could not effectively break down the Compound X, nor could it be removed from the bloodstream, since natural hormones were depleted.
The symptoms could be categorized in two phases:
- The symptoms at first: slight weight loss and hypertension, yellowing of the eyes and skin, breakouts of acne and skin lesions, current of unruliness, distractibility, and undeniable paranoia that led to increased aggressive behavior.
- The next phase of the infection: severe and sudden weight loss, debilitating diarrhea, muscle weakness, tendon ruptures leading to many crippling injuries among the survivors, intensely high fevers that places most victims in a deep coma, then liver shutdowns that led to death. In some cases thyrotoxic crisis caused the body to simply shut down due to hormonal imbalances.
Multiple batches of torpedo-like canisters carried the virus toward the league worlds, first arriving on the planet Parmentier while governed by Rikov Butler. After the virus took hold, Butler dispatched several quick ships to Salusa Secundus to warn them of the virus. As a result, the Salusan defences were able to destroy incoming canisters in orbit and launch a program to warn the rest of the League. Emergency measures were taken, including the annexation of Arrakis into the League to accelerate the harvest of melange and resulted in the spice rush: Raquella Berto-Anirul, along with her associates, had discovered that melange slowed down the effects of the virus, and even cured them in some circumstances.
The virus eventually expended itself, taking approximately half of the League population with it. Twenty years after the suppression of the virus, the League Worlds had barely 1/3 of their former populations. Many noble lines had been wiped out, and new centers of power began to emerge as ambitious survivors gathered their own empires, declaring themselves a fresh branch of the noble tree and claiming rights and privileges. Families were encouraged to have many children, but a sufficient workforce to sustain previous levels of agriculture and industry did not exist. Everyone had to work twice as hard as before.
The Cult of Serena[]
Having seen her parents succumb to the Omnius Scourge on Parmentier and barely surviving herself, young Rayna Butler began her personal crusade against the machines in 108 BG at the end of the Butlerian Jihad. Claiming to have had a vision of Serena (possibly a hallucination caused by her illness), Rayna began destroying both electronic and mechanical machines, including innocuous devices and desperately needed medical equipment. The subsequent antitechnology mobs hampered the work and threatened the lives of Mohandas Suk and Raquella Berto-Anirul, doctors who had established the Hospital for Incurable Diseases. Suk and Berto-Anirul barely escaped the planet. She head been joined by the Martyrists, who instantly took Rayna’s mission.
Led by Rayna who was relocated on Salusa Secundus by her brother, the Cult of Serena caused more mayhem for humans than the thinking machines. After the Butlerian Jihad, machine destruction spread to the inhabited planets in renewed waves, wiping out most machine-based technology and also the majority of historical documents. Culture based on the production of highly developed machines survived only on Ix and Richese. The Cultists traveled to many devastated League Worlds to perform their crusade until they returned to Zimia in 88 BG. Interim Viceroy Faykan Butler, Rayna's uncle, asked her to control her masses and march in an "orderly fashion", not to devastating the city in their emotional fervor Rayna incited. Faykan promised to introduce appropriate legislation that would forbid the development of any devices or circuits that even remotely resembled the gelcircuitry computers of thinking machines, even punishing those who would refuse.
Some of the Cultist had infiltrated the ranks of the Zimia Guard while zealots had discovered infiltrators placed among them (perhaps by Faykan) and killed them quietly. Upon learning of it, Rayna ordered that such activities must stop, and her lieutenants grudgingly agreed (or they simply no longer intended to tell her about their secret murders). Despite inherent double standards (such as the destruction of some technology, but the continuous use of spaceships) within the group, the Cult’s legacy endured. One of the primary commandments in the Orange Catholic Bible, “Thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind,” is attributed directly to Rayna Butler. Furthermore, the group is responsible for the strict rules banning all thinking machines under pain of death (and sometimes torture). The Cult heavily assisted in the victory of the Battle of Corrin, Rayna herself destroying machines in the final assault.
Great Purge[]
Following the deployment of the Scourge, the League discovered that Omnius Prime was planning to follow up the disease with a quick military strike against Salusa Secundus, to effectively decapitate the coalition of free humans.
Cogitor Vidad suggested that Salusa Secundus should be evacuated. Vorian Atreides, at this point Supreme Commander of the Army of the Jihad, convinced the League to use spacefolders to launch a broad and coordinated nuclear strike against all of the Synchronized Worlds while this would happen. Corrin would be the last target, and by the time the robotic fleet arrived on Salusa, they would be mindless without the existence of Omnius.
Preparations[]
Spacefolding spycraft secretly darted back and forth from Corrin, bearing regular reports on the progress of the giant machine fleet; other scouts bore the news among the League Worlds and calling the survivors to action. These suicidal missions were mostly manned by Martyrists who longed to die for the Jihad and were considered expendable.
Vorian appointed Faykan Butler and his brother Abulurd Butler to evacuate the planet while pulse-atomics were constructed and new nuclear warheads were being manufactured frantically on all League industrial planets. Kolhar shipyards supplied the Jihadi capital ships with spacefolder engines. To reduce the spacefolding hazards Vorian Atreides secretly ordered Norma Cenva to install the last computerized navigation systems she had kept after they were banned. Vorian also conceived an innovative weapon: satellites armed with pulse-scrambler transmitters. They would be set around Corrin, preventing therefore an Omnius update gelsphere to leave the planet during the final assault.
Structure[]
The whole fleet, 1080 ships in all, was divided into 90 battle groups of 12 major vessels each, each group with its own list of targets. The Ballistas were loaded with hundreds of kindjal bombers (piloted by skilled veterans or by rapidly trained Martyrist volunteers) containing pulse-atomic warheads.
Omnius' reactions[]
The advantage of the Purge was the spacefolding technology, believing that no Omnius ship would be fast enough to notify Omnius about the attacks. However, Vidad, when he told Omnius about the Titans' hideout on Hessra, he also mentioned the plans of the Purge. Immediately, Omnius dispatched superfast "burnout" probes with enormous engines. They accelerated as fast as possible, overtaking the bulk of the fleet, transmitting Omnius' new orders and reprogramming the ships. The ships changed course and the fastest of them came back to Corrin at extreme speed, pushing their systems so furiously that some were overheated and damaged en route. Meanwhile, Omnius' industries produced weaponry and robotic fighters.
Execution[]
The attack, stretched the League's resources to their limit, and begun as soon as scouts reported that Omnius' extermination fleet left Corrin for Salusa Secundus. The first planetary systems would be lesser machine worlds, primarily military strongholds and resupply points; one of the first targets of Vorian Atreides was the Synchronized World in the Yondair system. Some of the worlds were unexpectedly fortified and had put up heavy resistance. Five of the groups had failed at specific targets, which would necessitate a second offensive to the same coordinates. When about 1/3 of the 543 worlds were destroyed, the fleet would redirect to the more important worlds, such as Quadra.
Inspired by the update method of Omnius, Vorian Atreides devised a network of scouts and messengers; flurries of the small ships bearing reports and records converged at established rendezvous points, dispatching buoys with their detailed data and logs. Other scouts from other battle groups would retrieve and disseminate them, keeping the commanders apprised of the progress. One by one the Synchronized Worlds were wiped of their Omnius incarnations, as well as most (and in many cases all) biological life. The human slaves of those worlds would never be freed and were obliterated along with the machines, as collateral losses. Near the end of the operation, estimates indicated that over a billion slaves and trustees perished during the attacks.
The biggest problem of the Purge fleet were the hazards of the spacefolding travel. Each space jump would result in a percentage loss of some ships which vanished now and then, one after the other. One of the 90 groups was left with 4 ships after some jumps, which eventually also vanished in a single space jump, and only two of their fast messengers had survived to deliver their fateful reports. Quentin Butler's group was left with only 6 ship before 3 of them were vanished in a single jump, forcing him with the remaining 3 to join Vorian Atreides' group.
Because of the spacefolder accidents, 266 capital ships remained, out of the initial 1080. These were converged into one single large battle group and headed for the final and most important target: Corrin
Ramifications[]
When the Purge fleet arrived near Corrin the first machine ships had already returned and the Jihad commanders realized their forces were not enough. Quentin Butler volunteered for a suicidal strike but was prevented by Vorian. The rest of the machine fleet was returning. As a last measure, they launched the scrambler satellites around the planet. When all of the machine fleet was positioned in defense above Corrin, Vorian ordered activation of the satellite network. As a result, no machine could leave without damaging itself and Omnius remained trapped, being able only to reinforce his existing forces, diminishing the resources of the now-isolated planet.
The Purge fleet remained there, also reinforced in the following years, blockading the planet and looking for weak spots to start an eventual strike. Though the Great Purge failed in its ultimate goal, it proved a crucial blow in the war against the Synchronized Worlds, and ended in Corrin being blockaded, and Omnius Prime effectively imprisoned. Grand Patriarch Xander Boro-Ginjo officially ended the Jihad.
In the following years, philanthropist Porce Bludd asked the League to support and receive the human survivors of the former Synchronized Worlds, but his request got a negative response. With his old friend Quentin, they traveled on Bludd's private ship and supplied the re-emerging primitive communities with food, medicine and tools to ease their lives. Meanwhile, the remianing Titans not only reclaimed Richese and Bela Tegeuse but expanded their cymek empire on the devastated former Synchronized Worlds.
Battle of Corrin (88 BG)[]
Though the Jihad was deemed officially over following the Purge, the armies of the League remained busy guarding the planet of Corrin - the last haven of Omnius. The deadlock continued for some 20 years, with the thinking machines unable to break free and the League of Nobles unwilling to use sufficient force to deal a final blow.
Two key events rekindled humanity's interest in destroying Corrin once and for all. First, and most significantly, the arrival of Piranha Mites - non-gelcircuitry machines which attacked humans on Salusa Secundus and Rossak; secondly, the cymek attack led by Supreme Commander Vorian Atreides. After the League came to the realization that the thinking machines could still strike at humanity Vorian Atreides used the situation to push for a final strike against Omnius.
After a formidable League of Nobles' military force arrived at Corrin via conventional space travel, and joined up with the existing 'watchdog' fleet, the battle began. The combined League's battle group was three times larger than the watchdog fleet, and included large space-faring battleships, smaller kindjal vessels, conventional ground troops, fanatics of the Cult of Serena, and Ginaz mercenaries.
The thinking machines, under the control of the two Omnius incarnations SeurOm and ThurrOm and the consultation of Erasmus, were hard-pressed to fend off the fleet after more than two decades of attrition. With Corrin having been strip-mined, few natural resources remained, which limited their ability to regenerate combat equipment and personnel. In a desperate bid to repel the League forces Erasmus recommended that some 2 million human slaves (including a clone of Serena Butler) be put into orbit and linked with the pulse satellites that keep the thinking machines on Corrin. Erasmus then warned the human forces that should they pass the limit, the cargoes would explode, making them responsible for the; deaths of two million innocents.
Erasmus' had hoped that this "shield", the Bridge of Hrethgir, would weaken the resolve of the free humans. But Vorian Atreides' determination to defeat Omnius at any cost saw him order the forces through the defense network, a decision that was protested by a horrified Abulurd Harkonnen. His disgust led him to disobey direct orders and disable the automated weaponry of the fleet.
After discovering their lack of artillery, the furious Atreides decided to use Pulse Atomics against the defense forces and push forward. Upon crossing the threshold that should trigger the death of the 2 million slaves, the fleet is happily surprised to see nothing occur. The trigger had been defused by Erasmus upon his discovery that his human ward Gilbertus Albans had joined his beloved Serena Butler clone in orbit. The League battle group progressed through three lines of space defense before gaining clear access to the surface of Corrin. After defeating ground-based defenses they descended to the planet's central city to destroy the Omnius incarnations.
Descent to the surface[]
Rayna Butler with some Cultists descended prematurely in the heat of the battle to fulfill their "mission", along with mercenaries and Swordmasters including Istian Goss. When the orbital battle opened a way, Supreme Bashar Vorian Atreides guided his command shuttle toward the center of the main square of Corrin's primary city; the remnants of the mechanical army massed in a protective formation around a central shielded dome. He sent a wave of kindjal attack flyers against the last stronghold of Omnius, softening it up and removing any ground robot defenses. However the dome "healed" itself with each blast, sealing a flowmetal layer over the gap, but finally it crumbled under the massive detonations by Ballistas.
The next move after Vor landed was for the Ginaz mercenaries to complete their surgical strike. Viceroy Faykan Butler had also landed and was strutting around the battlefield, surrounded by other nobles (who wanted history to record that they had been there personally), while enraged Cultists of Serena raced through the city in an orgy of destruction.
Then, Vor learned that Rayna was buried under the citadel he just bombarded, so engineers and soldiers supported by Ginaz mercenaries went to the rescue when suddenly the plaza cracked open, like a snake bursting out of its hole, the silvery, tentacular growth of the Central Spire lunged out of the rubble and shot skyward. It formed a parabolic dish and vomited a flash of light through the atmosphere out into space and splattered into puddles across the broad, rubble-strewn plaza. After Rayna was found alive, the mercenaries arrived at their target with three surgical pulse-warheads. Vor and Viceroy Butler retreated with all of the other personnel standing at a safe distance. The battle concluded with the destruction of the last surviving thinking machines and the liberation of many of the surviving slave humans.
Legacy (88 BG - 15264 AG)[]
This long century of human history proved to have many profound impacts on the socio-political and technological development of humanity throughout the new empires that emerged, The most dramatic long-lasting result was the ensuing commandment from the Orange Catholic Bible held sway to humans against the creation of machines which bore the human mind's exact image: Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind, after the destruction of the man-made intelligent machines throughout the human worlds.
This lack of thinking technology created a severe gap in humanity's quality of life, revolving around a need for humans to perform complex logical computations and calculations. This gap led to the creation of the mentat order (which would be later outlawed by Leto Atreides in an attempt to realize the Golden Path strategy), the Bene Gesserit, and the Spacing Guild. Non-thinking machines, however, were still utilized. As centuries passed, two fringe worlds, Ix and Tlulax, brought technological heights of the Ixians and the Tlulaxa. Ixians specialized in the creation of non-thinking mechanical devices; while biological technology was provided by the Tlulaxa to replace the mechanical thinking technology used prior to the Jihad.
The Butlerians[]
When Rayna Butler died, Manford Torondo adapted her Cult into a new Butlerian movement and led Swordmaster Anari Idaho and millions of people across the Imperium to cleanse humanity of its reliance on convenient technologies, often exploiting religious paranoia to advance his agendas.
Despite the core of the movement remaining, there were subtle distinctions between the old Cult of Serena and this new movement. Despite the clear fanatacism and strict rules of the old Cult, it had ultimately presented itself as a temporary and necessary movement to rid humanity of dangerous thinking machines and complex devices which served as a crutch for humanity. Torondo attempted to make it seem relevant and lead it to a permanent group of the new Empire, with the power to destroy any technology which he deemed at all dangerous by any means possible - which often meant the most destructive methods such as the use of atomics.
The defeat of the machine empire left the movement searching for enemies and it had no trouble finding them. Initially the movement focused on attacking defunct machine technology whereever it could find them. The movement quickly turned its attention to attacking those who excused the existence of any technology for the conveniences that it provided. It also heavily confronted those who sought to repurpose the remnants of the machine empire like Josef Venport.
The Butlerians were ultimately essentially defeated by House Corrino in the Battle of Lampadas in 1 AG.
The new galaxy[]
The last major impact of the Jihad was the rise of a new system, a feudal-arranged galactic order that lasted for several thousand more years, mostly under the rule of House Corrino before Muad'Dib's Jihad and the rise of God Emperor Leto Atreides II. This order, known as the Corrino Empire, was comprised of several new and powerful groups, including the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, CHOAM, the Landsraad League of Great Houses replacing the old League of Nobles.
Possible Butlerian revival[]
Toward the end of the reign of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II, there was talk on Parella and the planets of Dan about another Butlerian Jihad. These "empty dreams", as Leto called them, never came to pass.[6]
Final Struggle and Unity with Machines in Kralizec[]
Over fifteen thousand years later years later, after the Scattering was initiated by the God Emperor, Łeto II, a subtle process began in which mankind began to allow machines back into human life. no-ships equipped with Ixian navigation devices were used by mankind to thrust outward from the Old Atreides Empire into uncharted galaxies. These navigation devices were largely able to replace Guild Navigators to some degree. Later, the Ixians were able to perfect the navigation device completely, and rendered the Navigators obsolete. However, the Ixians were still well aware of the fear that mankind had of thinking machines, and called the stewarding devices, 'mathematical compilers'.[7]
As the end of the age occurred with the unfolding of Kralizec, mankind was forced again to confront not only thinking machines, but their same reborn leaders, Omnius and Erasmus, on the machine capital of Synchrony. Omnius had not progressed at all in thinking, and still wanted to genocidally eliminate humankind. Erasmus had evolved, however, and greatly admired mankind, and had learned from them.
Kralizec unfolded, and Omnius was banished to another universe by the Oracle of Time, Norma Cenva. In the heart of the reborn thinking machine empire, the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach was revealed to be Duncan Idaho. Erasmus gave Duncan the evermind codes to thinking machines throughout the Known Universe, and then died peacefully. Idaho then announced that the proscriptions of the Butlerian Jihad had gone too far, that man and machine had to unite and work cooperatively in the future.[8]
Politics[]
Viceroy Manion Butler retired from his office, Serena Butler was voted as interim Viceroy for the rest of the war. The leaders of the Jihad were the Grand Patriarch Ginjo and High Priestess Serena Butler.
Although the Jihad could not be supported by the Unallied Worlds, an important contribution was when the Jihad was joined by Ginaz mercenaries 192 BG.
Ginjo founded the Jipol, assigning his trustee, Yorek Thurr as leader. Eventually seven League representatives who were political rivals of Iblis Ginjo were captured by Jipol. Ginjo also founded the Seraphim order to protect the High Priestess who suffered several assassination attempts. In 187 BG Ginjo also proposed a Jihad Council as a governing body to runs the war to administer both Jipol and the Army of the Jihad affairs. Medical issues were concerns of the Jihad Medical Commission.
VenKee Enterprises gained much profit from the war since a lot of the war materials and supplies were transported by their merchant ships. When Norma Cenva came up with the spacefolding technology, Serena Butler preassured Aurelius Venport to donate the technology to the Jihad. Although Venport realised the financial setbacks, he accepted, asking the technology to remain his property after the War.
Religion[]
The war was named a Jihad although it was not explicitly based on Islam or any other particular religion. Rather, it was an attempt to unite all humans spiritually and politically. It was considered holy, as the struggle between Life/Humanity and the 'demonic' machines. The dead soldiers were considered martyrs and believed to enter some Heaven. Manion Butler the Innocent was the first martyr and sanctified, with altars and relics dedicated to him. Meanwhile Ginjo used to inspire the populace claiming that the War, as well as the ultimate victory of humanity, had been prophecized by ancient texts.Omnius, demanded from Erasmus to try and understand the concept of religion on humans in order to understand the situation better but he didn't go much further to help.
Name[]
Etymology[]
The term Butlerian Jihad was originally derived from the word signifying religious crusade and the name of the martyr Manion Butler the Innocent, but its usage was cemented with Serena Butler's further martyrdom and the role of her granddaughter Rayna Butler.
Names[]
The Jihad was originally referred to as Manion Butler's Jihad[3], and later in the time of the Jihad itself the terms Serena Butler's Jihad or the Holy Jihad[1] entered usage. Much later on, it was also called the Great Revolt[5] or Machine Crusade[1] later on, as well as commonly shortened to the Jihad.
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 Dune: The Machine Crusade
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Dune: The Battle of Corrin
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
- ↑ Dune: House Corrino
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dune
- ↑ God Emperor of Dune
- ↑ Heretics of Dune
- ↑ Sandworms of Dune
Appearances[]
- Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
- Whipping Mek
- Dune: The Machine Crusade
- The Faces of a Martyr
- Dune: The Battle of Corrin
- Sisterhood of Dune (mentioned only)
- Mentats of Dune (mentioned only)
- Red Plague (mentioned only)
- Navigators of Dune (mentioned only)
- Dune: House Atreides (mentioned only)
- Dune: House Harkonnen (mentioned only)
- Dune: House Corrino (mentioned only)
- Dune: The Duke of Caladan (mentioned only)
- Dune: The Lady of Caladan (mentioned only)
- Dune (mentioned only)
- A Whisper of Caladan Seas (mentioned only)
- Dune Messiah (mentioned only)
- Children of Dune
- God Emperor of Dune (mentioned only)
- Heretics of Dune (mentioned only)
- Chapterhouse: Dune (mentioned only)
- Hunters of Dune (mentioned only)
- Sandworms of Dune (mentioned only)