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Duncan Idaho was originally a Ginaz Swordmaster in the service of the honorable House Atreides during the last days of the Corrino Empire, and one of the Duke Leto's right-hand men, with Gurney Halleck and Mentat Thufir Hawat, and regarded as something of a ladies' man.

After falling in the Desert War on Arrakis[3], he grew in importance from this relatively obscure role through a series of Tleilaxu ghola incarnations over the next five thousand years, first playing a key role as a Mentat in the final plot against Padishah Emperor Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides[4], then becoming the husband of the Regent Alia Atreides[5], which was followed by his time as the Commander of the God Emperor's forces[6], and finally as an important figure in the war between the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres.[7]

In his final incarnation, he merged with the robot Erasmus and became a new Evermind Super-Being after the human victory in the great war of Kralizec, and established a New Order of mankind and machine in unity.[8]

Biography[]

Original life (10146-10191)[]

"Duncan Idaho. Killer extraordinary. Lover of many women. Swordsman soldeir. Atreides field-hand on the field of battle."
Bijaz describing ther original Duncan to Hayt[src]


Early life on Giedi Prime[]

Duncanidahoyoung

a young Duncan Idaho, by Dev Pramanik and Alex Guimarães, House Atreides Graphic novel

Idaho was born on Giedi Prime in 10146 AG. His parents were minor government office workers[9] descended from Anari Idaho, who had been the ancient leader of the great Butlerian movement ten thousand years ago[10], but at an early age he and his family felt the wrath of the Harkonnens: his family, parents, uncle and two cousins were captured in an afternoon in Harko City, and his sister was killed. Idaho was named Number 11368, and trained to be hunted for sport.

One time, Idaho managed to escape his captors. He entered a sunspensor tube where the guards could not use lasguns. When he saw a bullet-train approaching, he managed to fall in a hatch. There he was trapped, however the guards who found him later, told him that he "made it".

Duncan's family was visited by Glossu Rabban Harkonnen to be congratulated for his ingenuity and be taken for a second round with Rabban, who recently disappointed by a sandworm hunt on Arrakis. When he called the boy as "Number 11368", Duncan defiantly mentioned his true name; Rabban shot both his parents with a lasgun and his men forced Duncan outside.

The next time he was left outside in the open, armed only with a handlight, a rope and a knife. Duncan decided to use the knife and remove the tracer implanted on his shoulder. Using it as a bait, it lured one of the hunters in a rock opening, and then Duncan crushed him by pushing a boulder above him. Then, after cutting his throat he took a medpak and his lasgun.

With the medpak he managed to fix his shoulder wound, and then had some practice with the lasgun. He managed to drive away a gaze hound that attacked him. Using the handlight in the snow, he lured his trackers and shot some of them in a lasgun fray. With its charge running low, Duncan started to run towards a blinking light, which turned out to be a flitter. He entered it, only to be caught by Janess Milam, the woman who gave his family to the Harkonnens.

Atreides Service[]

In the Service of Duke Paulus[]

Wishing to repent, she planned to send Duncan to the Atreides; she arranged with Renno the Second mate of a cargo craft that Idaho could board the ship and escape the planet. He found his way to Caladan and he was determined to find Duke Atreides.

He started to work as a farm worker in the rice paddies and then as a net-rigger on a fishing boat from the Southern Continent. As they reached a port on the Western Continent. He began hitching rides on groundtrucks and cars, and sneaked aboard tube trains and cargo ornithopters until he drove close to Castle Caladan. In conversations with other travelers, he was shocked to realize that the people there loved and respected their ruler instead of fearing him, much unlike the situation on Giedi Prime.

Eventually (after denied entrance and spending a night in the courtyard), he was allowed audition to the Duke. He narrated his full story and pledged his loyalty to the service of House Atreides.

Initially he worked in the stables under Stablemaster Yresk. After exposing the successful assassination plot of Lady Helena Atreides against the beloved Duke Paulus Atreides.[9]

Training and Loyalty[]

Duncan came under the service of the Atreides after observing that they ruled in stark contrast to the Harkonnens.[3] In 10166, ten years after coming into their service, he began his training on Ginaz where he graduated as a Swordmaster in 10174, coinciding with the Moritani attack on the school in which the students of Grumman fought the others and were ultimately expelled after refusing to condemmn the Viscount Hundro Moritani's actions. Duncan tried to convince his friend Hiih Resser to come and serve the Atreides, but Resser unfortunately joined Moritani as his personal Swordmaster.[11]

The Atreides appeared to garner fierce loyalty from those who served them, and Duncan was no different. However, as the Atreides Swordmaster he maintained a hypervigilance against potential threats to the Atreides, even within their own ranks. As a result, he developed a distrust of the Lady Jessica, as he knew that her Bene Gesserit origins were likely to involve some secret scheme against the Atreides. However, Duncan underestimated Jessica's love for her Duke, which was so strong that she disobeyed her Sisterhood. Indeed, in matters regarding the Lady Jessica, Duncan's judgment was somewhat clouded, since he was secretly in love with her.

Duncan was charged by Duke Leto with training his son Paul (and possibly the Duke's armies) in the art of war. This involved hand-to-hand combat and military strategy. These skills Duncan imparted on the young Paul in conjunction with Thufir Hawat and Gurney Halleck, a man who was also been rescued from Giedi Prime by the Old Duke Paulus. When compared to Gurney, Duncan appeared to fight with more finesse but Gurney was regarded as more lethal, typically beating Duncan six times out of ten. This seemed to give Paul a well-rounded education.[3]

War of Assassins of 10,187[]

Main article: War of Assassins of 10,187 AG

During the final War of Assassins between House Moritani and House Ecaz, the Atreides family became involved as collateral damage when Ilesa Ecaz, the intended bride of Duke Leto, was killed just before marrying him. The entire planet went on lockdown, and Paul was left to Idaho's care in Castle Caladan. After Duke Leto left with an attack force to meet the Moritani's on their home planet of Grumman, Paul was attacked shortly thereafter in his bedchamber.

He and Duncan had to flee into the night, where they arranged through ornithopter flight to escape and travel to Caladan's sparsely populated Eastern Continent. While fleeing, Paul and Duncan were ruthlessly hunted throughout all of the continent's dense forest overgrowth. The two eventually made friends with the Caladan primitives, who helped them escape from the assassins over the course of the following week.

"I have no room for compassion toward people who are trying to slaughter us, Paul. I kill them so you don't have to."
―Duncan to Paul Atreides[src]

After two more nights in the jungle, Duncan arranged for he and Paul to gain entry to the abbey of the Sisters in Isolation, home in exile of Paul's grandmother, Lady Helena Atreides. The two rested and refreshed themselves, as Idaho re-met the cold-hearted woman who had killed Idaho's beloved Duke Paulus. After the Moritani assassins found Idaho and Atreides they bombarded and burned down the entire abbey, killing almost everyone inside, including Paul's grandmother. Swain Goire, the Lady's bodyguard, was present, as he had joined Helena years later as his punishment for his crime against Victor Atreides, Leto's first son. He fought the Moritani assassins single-handedly, and gave his life, in a last ditch effort to allow Duncan and Paul to escape. Later, in the deep jungle, the Caladan primitives set traps for the assassins, and killed the Moritani murderers, as they came to understand the kindness of the Atreides' family, and their just rule over the planet.

Attack on Grumman[]

When the time arrived for House Atreides to converge with House Ecaz at Grumman; Duncan, of course, went along. As House Atreides attacked the Grumman forces, with Ecazi re-inforcements, it seemed evident that Ritka, capital of Grumman would soon fall to Leto's and Armand's forces. As a way of acting as "the peacemaker", the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV himself, arrived with Sardaukar in tow, to end the War, and to enforce the cease-fire.

Hundro Moritani announced that he had all of the great pawns in the place where he wanted them. Leto, Armand, Shaddam, and even secretly, Rabban was there, fighting for an incognito House Harkonnen. Hundro announced that House Moritani was descended from disgraced House Tantor, whom had blown up Salusa Secundus almost 10,000 years earlier. He then told the entire delegation that he was going to kill himself, and all nobles and armies present, with the atomics stockpiled by his House. However, the Viscount's bodyguard, Hiih Resser, a friend of Duncan's from the Ginaz Aacademy, had decided to disobey Hundro, and had never set the charges to the detonators on the nuclear devices.[12]

Move to Arrakis[]

Later, when the Atreides gained the Arrakis fief under the order of the Emperor in 10191, Idaho became Duke Leto's ambassador to the Fremen, the people native to Dune that Leto hoped would ally with him in the feud against House Harkonnen. Idaho was so impressed with the Fremen, that he took dual allegiances, one to the Atreides, one to the Fremen.

Death[]

When the Emperor launched an attack on Arrakeen in the guise of Harkonnen troops, Idaho escaped the massacre. He initially met up with Planetologist Liet Kynes, Lady Jessica and Paul, hiding in a botanical testing station abandonded long ago. However, they were not there long before the station was attacked by Sardaukar. Duncan was killed by one by by a blow to the head, but not before he dispatched no less than nineteen Sardaukar soldiers single-handedly. In so doing, he rescued the Duke's son Paul Atreides, who later became the first Emperor in the dynasty of House Atreides, and Duke Leto's concubine, the Lady Jessica, allowing them to escape in an ornithopter.[3]

First rebirth (10193-10217)[]

After Paul's ascension to the throne in 10193, Idaho was returned to life as a ghola, a clone made by the Bene Tleilax and gifted to Paul Atreides, which was supposed to tempt the Kwisatz Haderach into becoming that which he despised. Known as Hayt in this first ghola incarnation, Idaho was trained as a Mentat and a Zensunni philosopher. He had no memory of his former life, but constantly felt vague hints and reminders of his previous incarnation that made him hope he could recover those memories (this had never previously been possible with gholas).

Failing to destroy the Emperor psychically, Hayt was programmed to kill Paul against his will. In ensuing the trauma imposed by his inability to reconcile his programming and his innate love for the Atreides, Hayt recovered his memories as Duncan Idaho, up to and including his death at the hands of Imperial Sardaukar. He stopped the attempt on Paul's life, and became once more a loyal Atreides servant. This became the crux of a Bene Tleilax plot to overthrow Paul by demonstrating that they could create an exact equivalent of his dead wife Chani, but only if he abdicated his throne.[4]

After Paul's "Death"[]

Immediately after Paul's "death" and disappearance of him "walking into the desert", Idaho became concerned for Paul's sister, Alia, and her assumption of Imperial Regent to Paul's children, Leto and Ghanima. Duncan secretly welcomed the Lady Jessica and her aide, Gurney Halleck, back to Arrakis, as they too expressed concern about Alia's paranoia against foes, real and imagined.

Even as Alia created the super-religious, fanatical Mahdinate, to deify the Atreides family, he found himself increasingly attracted to her. Idaho ignored her suppression of all forms of dissent and her execution of Paul's childhood friend, Bronso Vernius of Ix.[13]

Second death[]

8969-5459

Richard Jordan, as Duncan, from the Dune (1984 movie)

Idaho married Alia, Paul's sister and Imperial regent to Paul's children Leto II and Ghanima, in 10210. However, Alia became possessed by the memory-ego of her ancestor, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who sought to destroy the Atreides empire. Recognizing this, Idaho remained loyal to the Atreides and escaped to the desert to protect the children. In 10219, in order to get Stilgar to join the Fremen opposition to Alia's rule, Duncan killed Javid, Alia's secret lover, on the neutral ground of Sietch Tabr, then insulted the naib Stilgar so deeply that he was forced to kill Idaho. Ducan's second death, as Duncan knew it would, brought the Fremen into direct opposition to Alia.[5]

Incarnations under Leto II (10217-13725)[]

Idaho then reappeared as a series of gholas when Leto II ruled as a human-sandworm hybrid for 3,508 years. After the death of every ghola, Leto would have him replaced with a new one. Thus, Leto continually had an Idaho ghola to serve him as Swordmaster at all times, and as leader of the Fish Speakers. To Leto, Idaho represented loyalty, humanity and the spirit of the unknown, something which the God-Emperor, having perfect prescience and memories of all his ancestors, knew nothing of (Leto also implied that Duncan was needed for the Golden Path to come to fruition). The ego-memories of Leto I and Paul within Leto II loved Duncan, which was another reason why the God Emperor enjoyed Duncan's presence.

The Idaho gholas, with their memories restored, fought to deal with what the Atreides had become in Leto II, which Duncan saw as a corruption. Prior to Leto II's rule, the hallmark of Atreides rule was justice. However, Duncan believed that Leto II's reign was one of religious tyranny and oppression. Idaho's old-fashioned conscience would rebel, leading some of the Idaho gholas to attempt to kill Leto (who was invulnerable to all but water and the extreme violence of a sandworm).

Leto noted that only nineteen of "his" Duncans had survived long enough to die of what was considered "natural causes". In just about all of these rebellions, the Idaho ghola was killed by the God Emperor himself[6], and in at least one instance he died under the knife of a Fish Speaker assassin - in another, he died under a Sardaukar sword, when Leto still used them as his fighting force. In one anomalous occasion, Idaho died in a 'thopter crash.[14] In another even rarer occasion, Duncan had accidentally blew himself up after an attempt on Leto's life which he abandoned when the Emperor convinced him he was doing the wrong, causing him to toss the explosive, in which the materials were unstable, to the side.

After a brief period of mourning, the God Emperor would order another Idaho ghola from the Tleilaxu. The man usually showed up believing he had gone insane, in shock at how the Universe had changed since his "death" since most Duncans only possessed the memories of the original Idaho. If the new ghola survived Leto II's first interviews, he would serve the God Emperor until his almost inevitable rebellion.[6]

Suppression of Wallach IX[]

In 13650, Duncan was charged by Leto to travel to Wallach IX, where he would extinguish the Mentat School the Bene Gesserit thought they had hidden on the planet in order to enforce Leto's ban of the ancient Order of Mentats. This brought him great pain, as he, a Mentat, was forced to suppress a school that trained people the way he was trained. During the suppression, he talked to Sister Tersius Helen Anteac, one of the Mentat trainees[7] who escaped the planet shortly after, renaming herself Tertius Eileen Anteac, under the name of which she would later try and kill the God Emperor. Other Mentat-Sisters escaped as well, hiding their identities and continuing work for the Sisterhood. This incarnation of Duncan died just ten years after the suppression.

Penultimate Incarnation under Leto[]

In his penultimate incarnation still serving the God Emperor, the one after his life in which he suppressed Wallach IX, Duncan had two children with the Fish Speaker Irti in Goygoa; one in 13712, and another in 13720. In 13727 he made his last unsuccessful attempt on Leto's life after fifty-eight years of service, in which he attempted to kill him with a lasgun supplied to him by the Ixian Ambassador Iyo Kobat. This failed when Leto attacked and killed him.

Last Incarnation in Leto's Service[]

After this last time in which he was killed by the God Emperor, a new Duncan was given to Leto by the Bene Tleilax in 13728. This Duncan fell in love with Siona Atreides, a girl hidden from prescience who rebelled against Leto, and became good friends with Siona's father and Leto's majordomo, Moneo Atreides, despite him easily beating him in combat and thus shaming him later on. Ultimately, Duncan joined a final attempt on Leto's life with Siona and her assistant and co-conspirator Nayla. During the God Emperor's wedding with his love, the new Ixian Ambassador Hwi Noree, Siona ordered the bridge they were crossing to be cut by a lasgun by Nayla. Leto, Hwi and Moneo fell to their deaths into the Idaho River, named after Duncan In dying, the God Emperor released the dormant sandtrout from his body. These began to reverse the terraforming on Arrakis. The planet begin to revert into a desert world from the realized Fremen dream of a lush paradise.

After Leto's Death[]

After the assassination, Duncan had nine daughters and a thousand sons with Siona[6] - these children and these children's children, and so on, were hidden from prescience. The significant descendants of these many children, which were said to have "Siona blood", meaning they were shrouded from the prescient vision, included Hadi Benotto, Darwi Odrade, Miles Teg and Sheeana Brugh. Duncan and Siona also inherited a portion of Leto's empire, which rapidly detoriorated into the Famine Times and the Scattering.

Ultimately, long after the death of this incarnation, the Bene Gesserit became the consumers of Idaho gholas. However, the Bene Tleilax kept killing the gholas after only a few years. Not knowing exactly what purpose Idaho would serve, the Bene Gesserit suspected that the Tleilaxu were using the gholas to control the timing of his release upon the universe, implying some Tleilaxu purpose in addition to their own. However, the twelfth ghola, born in 15216, survived.

Final incarnation (15216-15264)[]

On Gammu[]

In 15229, on Gammu (formerly Giedi Prime), Duncan fled to an old Harkonnen no-globe with Miles Teg, the Bene Gesserit Bashar, and Reverend Mother Lucilla, after an attack on the Bene Gesserit Gammu Keep. Miles Teg was commissioned to restore Duncan's memories, and managed to do so. Duncan, Teg and Lucilla were ambushed during an operation with the general Burzmali. Teg was captured but Duncan managed to escape with Lucilla.

When Murbella, a captured Honored Matre, tried to bond with Duncan, the Tleilaxu plan came into play when he overwhelmed Murbella in combat, and all of the memories of the hundreds of previous Duncan Idaho gholas were released.

Duncan and Lucilla were located by Miles Teg and brough to Rakis with him and the now-hostage Murbella in a no-ship. Duncan, Murbella, Lucilla, Sheeana Brugh, Darwi Odrade and Tleilaxu Master Scytale were put in the no-ship with a sandworm while Teg launched a final suicidal defense of Rakis.[14]

Imprisoned on Chapterhouse[]

After the destruction of Rakis, the no-ship Ithaca was brough to Chapterhouse in a no-ship, which became their prison, as well as Scytale's, by the Bene Gesserit. Over the next ten years, Murbella and Idaho sired four daughters, Janess Idaho, Rinya Idaho, Gianne Idaho and Tanisia Idaho.. Idaho was then used to tutor and condition a young Miles Teg ghola. By this time, he had been allied with Reverend Mother Sheeana Brugh for some time, who stole the keys to Duncan's no-ship prison. Over the decade he spent imprisoned within the no-ship, he had continous visions of a pair of mysterious and powerful elderly-looking entities known as Daniel and Marty and something he began to call "the net". He was suspicious of these beings but could never truly work out who they were.

Escape from Chapterhouse[]

In 15240, after Murbella became both Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit and Great Honoured Matre of the Honoured Matres, and began the combination of the two groups, Duncan escaped with his ward, Sheeana and others aboard the no-ship Ithaca into unchartered space to escape from the now-combined Gesserit/Matres group, the New Sisterhood. Exhibiting prescience abilities, Idaho was the only person that could see the net that Daniel and Marty cast to ensare the no-ship. To escape this net, Duncan Idaho deleted all of the navigation records of the Ithaca, rendering those onboard truly lost.[7]

Alternate universe and Gholas[]

After escaping from the tachyon net of the mysterious pair, and entering another universe in 15243, Duncan Idaho continued to be the captain of the Ithaca. He was especially interested in the training of his friend, the ghola of Miles Teg in the arts of the Ginaz Swordmasters. After being in the alternate universe for 4 years, Idaho was contacted by the Oracle of Time - the guide of the Spacing Guild - and with her help, was able to make a blind foldspace jump, this time emerging back in the familiar universe.

It was during this time that Sheeana and the other Bene Gesserit sisters that she had brought along, decided to create gholas from the nullentropy tube that Scytale, the Tleilaxu Master, had brought with him. Gholas from Idaho's past; Chani Kynes, Paul Atreides, Jessica Atreides, Leto II, Thufir Hawat, Stilgar, Liet Kynes, and Wellington Yueh, were resurrected in a short period of time over the next few years.

Rikka's Planet[]

After another ten years had passed, bones of dead Reverend Mothers were found in a previously unexplored room of the no-ship. As the funeral ceremony for the Mothers commenced, Idaho once again saw the threads of the tachyon net once again thrown out by the Enemy. Both Teg and Idaho raced to the bridge of the Ithaca, and as Teg reached first, he was able to activate the Holtzman engines to escape.

The ship came out of fold-space again at a planet that had been heavily colonized by human-kind during The Scattering. All of the buildings on the planet were covered with ivy, and been over-grown with plant life. Once again, Duncan stayed on the ship as a crew went to investigate further. Sheeana and Garimi, leading the investigation, activated a holo recording of an Honored Matre leader named Rikka, who had contacted a dreaded plague. Rikka explained to those who watched that the plague came from those "with many faces". It was then that Sheeana realized that the planet had been devastated with a plague similar to the Omnius Scourge, and all human-kind on the planet had died. The group immediately went back to the vessel.

Planet of the Handlers[]

Sabotage began aboard the ship, as someone released water into space, which showed where the no-ship was. Duncan feared the return of the elderly couple, called the crew back onto the ship, and encouraged the ghola of Miles Teg to engage the engines, which he did, folding space again. The ship came out of fold-space above the planet of the Handlers, keepers of the genetically-engineered half-man, half-feline Futars. After some of the Ithaca crew, and Hrrm and his clan of futars bounded down to the planet, they met the leader of the Handlers, Orak Tho.

He divided the group into two, led them to observation towers, and together they watched a Futar-hunt of five Honored Matres. As Hrrm and his group killed some of the Matres, the last Matres remaining killed a Handler, who reverted to an Enhanced Face Dancer. It soon became apparent to all that most of the Handlers were nothing more than Enhanced Face Dancers.

The watching crew, having been split into 2 separate groups, raced back to the Ithaca, the first group led by Sheeana made it back quickly. The second, led by Hawat, had to make a death-defying jump onto the ship, as the ship pulled away from the planet's atmosphere. The Handlers tried to ram and board the ship, but were unsuccessful, as the ship folded space and disappeared again.[15]

Later years on the Ithaca[]

In his personal life, Duncan strongly wished to be free of the imprinting that Murbella had put upon him decades earlier. Still full of youth from the melange from the ship's storage, Sheeana broke Duncan free from the strong imprint-bond that Murbella had laid upon him. Idaho reflected upon his life, and the previous lives he had led, and realized that he truly felt sorry for all types of people, as he had accumulated lifetimes of memories to build up compassion for human-kind.

Over the next few years, the Ithaca was very careful in their travels, but the incidents of sabotage increased aboard the ship. Even though a ghola of Alia Atreides was birthed, someone killed the gholas of Xavier Harkonnen, Serena Butler, and Gurney Halleck, that Sheeana had decided to raise in their war, if needed, against the Enemy. Yueh, being tricked by the Jewish Rabbi, purposely killed a ghola of Leto I, being raised in the ships Axlotl Tanks. Tensions increased as air recycling systems and food storage units were ruined and destroyed on the vessel by the unknown saboteur(s). This increased Duncan's feelings of helplessness and loneliness, as the ship, what he now felt was his ship, forced into another random jump, to find a way to replenish supplies.

Qelso[]

Idaho was surprised, as were all aboard, as the Ithaca came out of fold-space above the fruitful, but dying planet of Qelso, and he began to wonder if he had prescience in the choosing of fold-space timing and direction. Qelso was a seed world that Mother Superior Odrade had sent sisters to, and had been seeded with sand-trout to begin a spice cycle. The inhabitants were openly hostile to the Bene Gesserit for this reason, and held hostage some of the crew that went down to the planet.  Duncan, who stayed invisible to the Enemy as long as he was on the ship, decided to lead a rescue team of the group.

The group, which consisted of Sheeana, Teg, and notable others was released; but Stilgar and Kynes stayed behind to help the bitter natives adapt to the encroaching desert and the ever increasing number of sandworms on the world. Idaho had made himself vulnerable to the watchful eyes of Daniel and Marty, and the Ithaca had to fold space again to safety.

Final Sabotage and Capture[]

Later, when Leto II went to commune with the sandworms that were in the hold of the ship, Hawat went to guard him should the giant beasts turn on the young man. The worms reared up when Hawat entered the hold, and immediately killed Hawat, and showed him to be an Enhanced Face Dancer. This led to a ship wide search for other saboteurs that might be involved in subversion. To question everyone aboard at the same time, all of the inhabitants of the Ithaca were called to the main assembly hall.

Scytale used the old Tleilaxu Whistling language, which caused all Face Dancers muscles and visages to momentarily become jumbled. It was revealed that the Rabbi was indeed an Enhanced Face Dancer, and the Dancer stole away to the vessel's bridge, and locked himself in. The Dancer immediately began to destroy the ship's navigation, cloaking, and engine systems; and the ship returned to visibility. Idaho remembered back, and realized the Dancers must have boarded years earlier, at the planet of the Handlers.

Immediately the tachyon net reappeared, and Thinking Machine starships began to surround the no-ship. Alia managed to sneak into the cockpit of the Ithaca, killing the Dancer, and opened the area. Idaho and Teg raced into the control room, Teg then went into hyper-movement, and raced around the ship at sonic speed, and repaired all of the ship's systems. As Duncan engaged the Holtzman Engines, a Machine starship rammed the Ithaca, and forced it into submission. Idaho signaled surrender, and the ship was brought to the Machine Capital of Synchrony, as the inhabitants of the no-ship realized that their Enemy were Thinking Machines.

Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach on the Day of Kralizec[]

As the Day of Kralizec began in the year 15264 AG, Omnius thought that Paul Atreides was the final super-being; Paul and his immediate family and friends, sans Duncan, were brought to the heart of the capital, in the Cathedral. There, Paul and a clone of him, Paolo, dueled to the death; with Paolo rendered into an irreversible Ultraspice coma, and Paul had to heal himself from Paolo's near-fatal stab wound. As Duncan decided to enter the Cathedral, Paul came back from the brink of death. Both Paul's recently restored power of prescience and the Oracle of Time revealed that Duncan was the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach!  Only Idaho had a multitude of a lifetime of experiences to refine his persona and abilities; not Paul, nor any other Atreides, nor any of their descendants.

The Oracle realized her life mission was to banish Omnius forever, and took Omnius with her to the alternate universe permanently, ending his rule as the Evermind. As a test of Duncan's powers, Erasmus ordered his killing robots to attack Idaho. Duncan used super-human speed to kill them, easily destroyed the units, and confirmed his future role as the final super-being. Overwhelmed by the unexpected revelations, Duncan decided to take Erasmus' advice to unite humanity and the thinking machines, rather than bring about the absolute destruction of intelligent technology for the second time in history.

Duncan assumed the responsibility of mediator between the two sides; with Erasmus' willing participation, the savant AI being the new Evermind. Erasmus then shared with Duncan all of the codes and sequences of the Machine Empire, and caused Duncan's human super-being to be endowed with all the aspects of the Evermind, as a type of human-machine hybrid. Erasmus then voluntarily "died", while remaining in Other Memory speaking to Duncan. Duncan became the final Kwisatz, and immediately caused a truce to occur between the Machines and Man, who were locked in bitter war over the planets of Junction and Chapterhouse.

New Evermind Super-Being[]

Duncan then forced peace between man and machine on all inhabitants of the Known Universe. Idaho had Murbella, the mother of his children, brought to Synchrony, where she could view the events of the truce, which allowed her to rest from her decades-long struggle against the former enemy. Then both Idaho and Murbella traveled back to Chapterhouse, where Duncan met his daughter, Supreme Bashar Janess Idaho. Sheeana was given Synchrony by Duncan, to be a place where she raised up a traditional Bene Gesserit school. Synchrony also became a place of the sandworms, where Leto II had released them during the Kralizec struggle.

Idaho visited the realms of the galaxies where he guided millions of Machine units into helping human-kind; and some machines forged their own civilization on barren, air-less worlds. One such helped place, for example, was Qelso; where Kynes and Stilgar were given hundreds of machines to help divide the world into a place of desert, and the other half a place of greenery that could support all human life. The future of mankind and machine was bright as Idaho guided them both, after several millennia of conflict, into a trustworthy destiny, the New Order which began to form of both man and machine.[7]

Abilities and skills[]

Note: As originally the memories of each rebirth of Duncan would pick up with his death on Arraksi, some incarnations had abilities which others did not. All of the following, however, were possessed by his final incarnation, who regained the memories of all of his previous lives.

  • Swordfighting: Duncan was trained as a Ginaz Swordmaster, which made him an adept at swordfighting, giving the Atreides a great warrior. Duncan's abilities in this area were demonstrated in multiple instances, perhaps the most notable being his killing of a full nineteen Sardaukar, the finest warriors in the Imperium, in a short time before his first death. This was one of the many motivations of the original taking of his cells by the Emperor's warriors, as well as one of the reasons why the God Emperor appointed him as Commander of his forces and continously brought him back and why the Bene Gesserit continued to resurrect him after Leto II's death.
  • Resistance to Voice: In his original lifetime, Duncan was taught by Paul Atreides the techniques used to resist the Bene Gesserit Voice of command, an ability which gave the Sisterhood less power over him, such as when the Reverend Mother Lucilla tried and failed to use Voice on Duncan in his final incarnation on Gammu.
  • Mentat training: In his first rebirth as the ghola Hayt, Duncan was trained by the Bene Tleilax as a Mentat in addition to a Zensunni philosopher. The God Emperor later trained him as a Mentat in a few of his later incarnations.
  • Truthsayer: Leto II also trained him as a Truthsayer in a few of his lives.

Relationships[]

Paul Atreides[]

"Duncan the moral."
―Paul's opinion of his teacher[src]

Duncan had a close bond with his beloved Duke's son Paul, who he taught in swordfighting from his earliest years, and Paul was greatly distraught when he fell in battle with Sardaukar on Arrakis, saving him and Jessica. When the first ghola of Duncan, "Hayt", was presented to Paul by the Tleilaxu in 10208 AG, Paul found himself unable to turn the gift down due to his previous friendship with his mentor and his guilt for Duncan's death, and grew a bond with Hayt almost as strong as that he had had with the original Duncan, whose memories were awakened in Hayt after he failed to kill Paul shortly before his walk into the desert and supposed death.

Stilgar[]

"Your water is ours, Duncan Idaho. The body of our friend remains with your Duke. His water is Atreides water. It is a bond between us."
―Stilgar shortly after the agreemenet of Duncan's duel alleigance[src]

When Duncan was sent by the Duke Leto to make contact with the Fremen, the first he befriended was Stilgar, Naib of Sietch Tabr, which was the first sietch which Duncan found. In the relatively short time the two knew each other, they grew great respect for each other, Stilgar aknowledging that Duncan measured well in his sietch and observed the customs and honor among the Fremen people. Because of this, when Stilgar met the Duke Leto they agreed that Duncan would have duel alleigance to the Atreides and the Fremen.

Eighteen years later, when Duncan's first ghola Hayt was presented to Paul, Stilgar initially mistrusted Hayt, declaring that Duncan was dead and this was not him, but ultimately grew a new friendship with the ghola, which grew even deeper when Hayt's memories were restored. At the last, however, Stilgar and Duncan were enemies once more; after Duncan murdered Javid and gave Stilgar the three greatest Fremen insults, he was forced by his honor to finally kill Idaho, an act which Duncan nevertheless called the right choice and one which forced him to subsequently move against the Regent Alia.

Bijaz[]

"We are like brothers. We grew in the same tank: I first and then you."
―Bijaz describes his connection with Duncan while imprisoned in Arrakeen[src]

Duncan first met the dwarf Bijaz as Hayt, before he regained his original memories. He took an instant dislike to him, mistrusting the dwarf and being wary in his presence and particularly distraught at Bijaz's provocative use of his original name of Duncan Idaho. However, Hayt and Bijaz also had a fundemental connection in that they had been grown in the same Tleilaxu axolotl tank, making Bijaz compare them to borthers.

During Hayt's conversation with Bijaz after their initial meeting, the ghola noted that he radiated a charismatic alertness that made the observor think of ancient idols and threatened to order a guard to strangle him in an attempt to indimiate the dwarf, who also was not fond of Hayt, calling him a callous lout. When Hayt asked what Bijaz planned to do with him, he said that he would do him a simple kindness. Following the reawakening of Duncan's memories in Hayt, Paul ordered him to kill Bijaz before he succumbed to the Tleilaxu plan, and Duncan obeyed without hesitation, saying that he had been the one to do Bijaz the 'kindness.'

Moneo Atreides[]

Over many ghola incarnations in the latter days of the reign of Leto II, the God Emperor's majordomo Moneo Atreides grew a great affection for Duncan, although after each rebirth Duncan experienced meeting Moneo all over again. Duncan's last incarnation under Leto II, the one which assassinated him, was at one point easily bested by Moneo in combat, embarrassing him and creating somewhat bitter feelings between them, although the majordomo later apologised.

Schwangyu[]

During the long training of his final incarnation in the Bene Gesserit Keep on Gammu, Duncan had many Bene Gesserit teachers, but he despised none above the Reverend Mother Schwangyu, who was a member of the faction who opposed Mother Superior Tararza and also became a traitor to the Sisterhood for the Bene Tleilax. He eventually repeated the private mantra, 'Damn Schwangyu!', and showed little if any regret for her murder by Honored Matres when the Keep was attacked.

Behind the Scenes[]

Idaho is the only character to appear in all of the six Original Dune novels, albeit in different incarnations. Despite only having a relatively minor appearance in the first book, the character became the focal point of the saga, and his existence as a series of gholas was to serve an ultimate purpose. Throughout the series, Idaho developed from a relatively minor role to that of one of the main protagonists.

In the 1984 Dune movie, Duncan Idaho was played by late actor Richard Jordan and is killed earlier in the story, during the attack on Arrakeen where he tried to save Paul and Jessica inside the palace. He was killed by a hunter-seeker which penetrated the shield and stabbed his head). In the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries he was portrayed by James Watson who was killed by weapons fire from a Harkonnen thopter, while the first Duncan Idaho ghola was portrayed in the Children of Dune miniseries by Edward Atterton.

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. "He had been told it was difficult to determine if his eyes were dark blue or dark green unless the light were just right" - Heretics of Dune
  2. The ghola incarnation known as hayt had "gray metal eyes"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Dune
  4. 4.0 4.1 Dune Messiah
  5. 5.0 5.1 Children of Dune
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 God Emperor of Dune
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Chapterhouse: Dune
  8. Sandworms of Dune
  9. 9.0 9.1 Dune: House Atreides
  10. Navigators of Dune
  11. Dune: House Harkonnen
  12. Paul of Dune
  13. The Winds of Dune
  14. 14.0 14.1 Heretics of Dune
  15. Hunters of Dune
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