 |
This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune |
The last conspiracy against Muad'Dib, which took place from 10208 to 10210 AG, was the result of an alliance formed against the Padishah Emperor Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides, shortly after his Jihad concluded. It was the final plot against the Emperor as it ended with him walking into the desert, presumed dead, and the beginning of the regency of his sister Alia Atreides.
History[]
The conspiracy was formed from the remnants of the displaced House Corrino, the Bene Gesserit who had lost control of their Kwisatz Haderach, the Spacing Guild, who had become utterly beholden to Paul, a few Fedaykin, the soldiers of the Emperor, as well as some of his other close Fremen, and the Bene Tleilax. Its major members were the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, the leader of the conspiracy, the Guild Navigator Edric, who prevented Paul from seeing the conspiracy through prescience, the Face Dancer Scytale, the Princess Irulan Corrino, Paul's wife, and a Tleilaxu Master, Bijaz. These individuals met on Wallach IX to arrange matters.
The conspiring parties, intent on ending the Atreides Empire, gave Paul a gift he could not resist: Hayt, a ghola of Duncan Idaho, his childhood teacher and friend. The conspirators hoped the presence of Hayt would undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and his empire he has created. Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakened Paul's support among the Fremen who saw the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean. Additionally, the Bene Tleilax, who created the ghola, hoped that it would provide them extra insight and control through espionage orders embedded into its psyche.
Paul demanded to see Mohiam, who feared she would be killed, but instead discovered Paul wanted to bargain with her: Paul offered to produce a child by artificial insemination in return for the survival of Chani and her child. Mohiam, desperate to regain the Atreides genes for the Bene Gesserit breeding programme, would have to violate Butlerian Jihad taboos against the use of machines. Furthermore, she realized no child born in this way would be a candidate for the Golden Lion Throne, and that the Bene Gesserit could never admit the existence of such a child without risking their position in the Empire. She decided that she had to consult with her Bene Gesserit counterparts on Wallach IX. Meanwhile, the Princess Irulan introduced contraceptives into the system of Paul's true lover, the pregnant Chani Kynes. Paul was given Bijaz by Otheym, a Fedaykin. Shortly after, his soldiers attacked the conspirators, and the Tleilaxu set off a stone burner that destroyed the vicinity and blinded Paul. Paul was able to continue in leadership by fixing his actions precisely in line with what his previous oracular visions showed him; by moving through his life in lockstep with his previous visions, he could see even the slightest details of the world around him. The disadvantage of this was his inability to change any part of his destiny so long as he wished to appear sighted.
The unraveling of the conspiracy revealed that Korba, high priest of Paul's church, was among Paul's enemies, and while Korba tried to deny this, persuading the Fremen Naibs of his innocence, Paul arrived to confront him directly and Korba was put into Stilgar's custody. Hayt interrogated Bijaz, but the dwarf used planted conditioning words and whistled tunes to control the ghola, and programmed Hayt to offer Paul a bargain when Chani would die: Bijaz offered Chani's return as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho might be reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile. Unknown to Hayt, this also activated a hidden compulsion that would force him to kill Paul given the appropriate circumstances.
News emerged that Chani had died giving birth to two healthy children, Leto and Ghanima. The twins were pre-born due to their father's prescient nature and Chani's encounter with the spice essence while pregnant. News of the birth was delivered to Paul, who foresaw Ghanima's birth, but had not had any prescient warning of Leto's possible existence. His reaction to Chani's death triggered the compulsions in Hayt's mind, and he attempted to kill Paul. But reacting against its own programming, Hayt's body remembered itself, and a new consciousness arose that was a mix of Duncan Idaho and Hayt unconditioned by the Tleilaxu programming. Paul was unsurprised by this, having foreseen it.
As Paul neared a crucial decision point in time, causing his prophetic visions to fail and rendering him totally blind, he was thrust into a deadly standoff. Scytale, disguised as Otheym's daughter, held a knife to the necks of Paul's children. He offered to revive Chani as a ghola in return for Paul's abdication. Refusal of the offer would result in the murder of Paul's new-born children. However, Paul received a prescient vision from the perspective of his newborn son, and using his son's eyes, he was able to throw a dagger and kill Scytale.
With Paul's visions gone, he was now blind, and he chose to walk into the desert in the Fremen tradition, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, of whom Leto II would inherit his mantle of Emperor. Paul left Alia as regent for his children, who ordered Stilgar to execute the leaders of the conspiracy, Korba, and a few others. Because the key players of the conspiracy were now dead, Paul's children were left in an apparently safe situation.
Gallery[]
Illustrations[]
