Chani Kynes

Mixed Canonicity

This article or section refers to elements from both Original Dune and Expanded Dune.

Chani in the Dune (video game)

Chani Kynes, also known as Chanisihayah, (10,178-10,209) was the Fremen bound concubine of Paul Atreides, and the mother of his three children: Leto Atreides II the Elder, and the twins Leto Atreides II and Ghanima Atreides.

Upbringing

Chani was born on Arrakis, the daughter of the half-Fremen planetologist Liet Kynes and his full-Fremen wife. She gradually developed into a formidable fighter, and by the time of her father's death was serving under naib Stilgar.

Introduction to Paul

When Paul and his mother Jessica escaped from Arrakeen after the invasion of House Harkonnen they quickly found themselves in the deep desert of Arrakis. There, while sheltering in a cave system from a sandworm they were intercepted by a group of traveling Fremen, which included Chani.

Her introduction to Paul came during a tense stand-off. Chani was familiar to the Atreides heir because of her appearance in his prescient visions prior to his arrival on Arrakis. But to her Paul was initially a stranger.

Life with Paul

Chani (left, played by Barbora Kodetová) threatens Irulan (played by Julie Cox) in the Children of Dune miniseries.

After the integration of Paul and Jessica into the Fremen by Stilgar, Chani began her long-lasting love affair with the young Duke, and eventually bore him a son, Leto. However, their first born was murdered by a House Harkonnen raiding party while Paul, Chani and Jessica were away visiting another sietch.

After the defeat of House Harkonnen and House Corrino on Arrakis, and Paul's subsequent ascent to Emperor and marriage to Irulan Corrino, Chani became his official concubine and remained his exclusive partner.

Pregnancy and Death

When Chani became pregnant once again, Irulan sought to usurp her and become the bearer of Paul's children. She found support with the Bene Gesserit, who feared the impact of Chani's largely-unknown bloodline on their breeding program.

However, Irulan's attempts to terminate Chani's pregnancy through drugs failed. After a traumatic pregnancy, (the pregnancy was accelerated by Spice, taking only five months instead of nine) Chani gave birth to twins, who Paul named Leto and Ghanima.

Irulan's treachery did, however, bring a secondary result. Chani died shortly after giving birth to the twins, due to complications stemming from the drugs Paul's titular wife had been surreptitiously feeding her.

The Tleilaxu Scytale offered immediately to resurrect Chani in an Axlotl Tank. Yet despite the temptation, Paul refused, knowing the impact such an event would have on the Golden Path.

As a Ghola Re-Born

In Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, Chani made a re-appearance over 5000 years later, during the time of Kralizec -- the great struggle at the end of the age. Chani was re-born as a ghola aboard the no-ship Ithaca, as the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Sheeana desired to have as many possible strong characters from human-kind's past, in the great fight against the unknown Enemy that was pursuing them.

Chani was resurrected, as well a her husband Paul Atreides, her mother-in-law Jessica Atreides, her father Liet Kynes, and her son Leto Atreides II. As she and Paul matured, she served primarily as a helper and strengthener, as it believed that Paul would face an upcoming great challenge when the ship would be inevitably captured. This belief was re-inforced as Paul kept having the same prescient vision over and over -- of him bleeding from a deep knife wound, as he himself looked down upon his bleeding body.

Kralizec on Synchrony

When Chani was in her late teens aboard the ship, the Ithaca was ensnared by the Enemy, who was revealed to be Omnius and Erasmus, of the re-born Thinking Machine Empire. The ship was brought to Synchrony, and the leaders of the crew, including Chani, were brought to heart of the flow-metal machine world, the Cathedral.

Omnius and Erasmus then arranged a forced duel between Paul versus a Vladimir Harkonnen-raised clone of himself, named Paolo. Omnius strongly believed that the victor would emerge as the ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. Paul lost the duel, and his vision was fulfilled, as he slowly bled to near death.

As Paolo, after over-dosing on the enhanced melange Ultraspice, starved and thirsted to death on one side of Cathedral, Paul fought for his life on the other. As Chani cried over the body of Paul, and encouraged her loved one to stay alive, Jessica was able to tell Paul to mend his body on the cellular level, as he was akin to a full Reverend Mother. Paul succeeded in mending his body and bringing his life fluids back into his vital organs.

The events of Kralizec played themselves out over the next few hours -- the banishment of Omnius by the Oracle of Time; the galaxy wide killing of the Enhanced Face Dancers by Erasmus; the releasing of the Ithaca's Sandworms onto Synchrony and their subsequent destruction of the city; the ending of the war between mankind and the machines; and the revelation of Duncan Idaho as the ultimate super-being, with Erasmus dying and making Idaho the new Evermind.

As Chani and Paul both had their full memories back, both were relieved that Paul was not the ultimate Kwisatz, and that the great burden of being such, would fall upon Duncan. They would be allowed to live lives of near obscurity. As the years passed, Chani and Paul decided to round out their relationship as husband and wife in happiness, and re-explored the now re-born planet Arrakis, and the galaxy, together.

Behind the Scenes

In the original Dune novels, Chani's birth year was 10,178. However, in the Dune prequel novels, her birth year was given as 10,174, making her older than Paul.