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This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune |
Edric [d. 10210 AG] was a third-stage Spacing Guild Navigator, ambassador and conspirator in a failed plot to assassinate Emperor Paul-Muad'Dib and topple his newly risen Atreides Empire.
Biography[]
Conspiracy[]
In light of Emperor Muad'Dib's galactic jihad and twelve-year stranglehold on the Guild's coveted spice market, Edric allied himself with an elaborate plot against the hated monarch - his fellow conspirators being the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, Paul's embittered wife, Princess Irulan of House Corrino, and a number of Fremen defectors headed by the Qizarate High Priest Korba.
Edric's involvement served to shield their conspiracy from the Emperor's prescient foresight, since oracles had difficulty seeing each other in the timescape. He was also tasked with traveling to Arrakis as a Guild Ambassador to deliver the Tleilaxu's Mentat-ghola of Duncan Idaho as a gift to the young Emperor - a means to destabilize Paul and eventually kill him once Hayt's secret trigger phrase was spoken. Meanwhile, Irulan was tasked with spiking Chani Kynes' meals with contraceptives to prevent Paul from fathering heirs devoid of Corrino blood. This treachery caused the Fremen concubine to consume large quantities of melange to restore her fertility at the cost of her own health.
The group's plot was discovered and revealed to Paul by his Fremen friend and faithful follower Otheym, who introduced him to an eccentric and prescient dwarf named Bijaz - a human distrans containing the names of every conspirator. After Paul was blinded by a nearby stone burner, he traveled to Sietch Tabr to oversee Chani's birth, which ended up being fatal. Triggered by the phrase "she's gone," Hayt attempted to assassinate Paul but willed himself against it, causing his Duncan Idaho memories and persona to resurface completely. Scytale, assuming the visage of Otheym's daughter Lichna, used this opportunity to offer Paul a restored ghola of his dead lover at the cost of his Imperial throne and CHOAM holdings, but Paul refused and promptly killed the Face Dancer. Duncan followed suit with Bijaz after the dwarf revealed himself as a Tleilaxu Master and repeated Scytale's tempting offer.
With the conspiracy now in ruin and Paul exiling himself into the deep desert like all blind Fremen before him, Stilgar executed the surviving traitors: Korba the Panegyrist, Reverend Mother Mohiam, and Guild Navigator Edric. Irulan Corrino, however, was spared in light of Paul's mercy and remorse over his treatment of her, as well as her own sincere remorse and grief over losing him to the desert, passionately renouncing her own Sisterhood while vowing to protect Chani's newborn twins like her very own children.
Later eras[]
Following his execution, Edric's lineage survived for many centuries, even after the Famine Times and Scattering. The Jewish Rabbi who gave sanctuary to the fugitive Reverend Mother Lucilla informed her that the Honored Matres had under their command a Navigator who was "one of the Edrics," suggesting a possible breeding plan or Edric-based ghola copies.
Trivia[]
- In the opening scenes of David Lynch's 1984 film, Edric is classified as a Third-Stage Navigator and has a small but vital role in the story. Traveling to the Imperial capital of Kaitain with a large entourage of attendants, he visits Emperor Shaddam's palace and interrogates him on his plot against House Atreides. After Shaddam's explanation, Edric has only one demand: Paul Atreides must be killed - the mention of his name alerting Reverend Mother Mohiam to the fact that Lady Jessica had a male child against their Sisterhood's orders. After his departure, Shaddam is left confused and Mohiam travels to Caladan to test Paul's humanity. Later in the film, a Guild Navigator - possibly Edric himself - transports House Atreides to Arrakis.
- In the Syfy miniseries Children of Dune, Terrence Stone voiced Edric. Acting as ambassador of the Spacing Guild like his literary counterpart, Edric offers the Tleilaxu ghola of Duncan Idaho as a gift to Emperor Paul Atreides and tries to intervene in favor of Reverend Mother Mohiam's imprisonment, but his claims are rejected by Alia Atreides. After Paul's blindness and Chani's fatal childbirth, he is executed by Fremen soldiers who shatter his spice chamber with a hammer, causing his immediate and fatal drug withdrawal.
Appearances[]
- Dune Messiah
- Chapterhouse: Dune (mentioned only)