Paul Atreides

This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune There are separate pages for this subject as it appears in the other canons, the reasons for this are explained here Paul Atreides in Expanded Dune Paul Atreides in the Dune Encyclopedia

Paul Atreides
Aliases	Muad'Dib, Usul, The Preacher
Political Information
Titles	Duke, Padishah Emperor, Kwisatz Haderach Mahdi
Great House	House Atreides
Biographical Information
Born	10175 AG
Died	10219 AG
Physical Characteristics
Eyes	Blue within blue
Hair	Black
Behind the Scenes
First appearance	Dune

Paul Atreides, aka Muad'Dib, Usul, and The Preacher (10175 AG- 10219 AG), is a central character to the Dune series. He was born on the planet Caladan as the son of Duke Leto Atreides I and his Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica. He was also the older brother of Alia Atreides.

He married Bene Gesserit trained Irulan Corrino, but did not produce an heir by her. With his Fremen concubine Chani Kynes, he was father of the twins Ghanima and Leto Atreides II, the God-Emperor.

Last Duke of House Atreides, leader of the Fremen, and first ruler of the Atreides Empire, Paul was considered the Kwisatz Haderach: the powerful prescient being, long sought by the Bene Gesserit and product of their lengthy breeding program.

Quick Answers

Who is Paul Atreides?

Paul Atreides is the first Kwisatz Haderach, the last Duke of House Atreides, the first and founding Padishah Emperor of the Atreides Empire, and the supreme religious leader of the Fremen.

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What is Paul Atreides' full name?

Paul Atreides' full name is Paul Atreides.

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What are some of Paul Atreides' aliases?

Some of Paul Atreides' aliases are Muad'Dib, Usul, The Preacher, and The Mentat Emperor.

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What is Paul Atreides' political faction?

Paul Atreides' political faction is the Atreides-Fremen alliance.

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What is Paul Atreides' affiliation and relationships?

Paul Atreides is loyal to House Atreides, the Fremen, and Sietch Tabr. He is the son of Leto Atreides I and Lady Jessica Atreides. He is married to Irulan Corrino and has children named Leto Atreides II and Ghanima Atreides.

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Life

Conception

The Bene Gesserit brought Paul's parents together with the intention of producing an Atreides daughter, who could then mate with the heir to House Harkonnen to produce the fabled Kwisatz Hadarach, or super-being. However, the plans of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood were thrown into disarray when Jessica, due to her deep love of Leto, bore a male heir to his House.

Upbringing

As the son of Duke Leto Atreides I, Paul grew up with a privileged background on the water-covered planet of Caladan, the ancestral home of House Atreides. Though he lacked companions his own age, he did receive tutelage from his teachers, men like Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck and Doctor Yueh, as well as education in Bene Gesserit methods and techniques from his mother. Shortly after his fifteenth birthday in 10191 AG, Paul's father revealed to him that Paul's training, through his teachers, had been geared toward turning Paul into a mentat. The theory was that when Paul succeeded his father as Duke of House Atreides, one of the most respected and moral Great Houses of the Imperium, a mentat-duke would truly be a formidable force in the Landsraad. Paul's latent talents also earned him the attention of the Bene Gesserit, who tested him with the Gom Jabbar as they hoped to salvage their breeding program through him.

The Rise of Paul Muad'Dib

Paul Atreides accompanied his parents when House Atreides was relocated to the desert world Arrakis to manage mining operations of the Spice Melange. However, when the deception of House Harkonnen and the Emperor Shaddam IV was revealed, he escaped into the desert with his mother and joined the Fremen. Upon proving to the desert people he was worthy to live among them, he took the name Muad'Dib.

Paul's union with the Fremen, coupled with significant exposure to the Spice Melange, triggered dormant prescient abilities within Paul's bloodline. These abilities, coupled with his leadership skills, his military training, and an ancient prophecy of the people of Arrakis, enabled Paul to become the leader of the formidable Fremen. It was on Arrakis that he discovered that his grandfather - the father of Jessica - was the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. He also drank the Water of Life and survived, expanding his consciousness and bringing his prescience near to perfection. He was the first and last male to drink the Water of Life and survive, showing himself to be the Kwisatz Haderach, although he claimed to be something else, something unexpected. Paul claimed, after converting the Water of Life that he could not only see the future and the past but also the present, which he called "the now." His vision allowed him to see Shaddam IV's great fleet in space above Arrakis, ready to attack.

During this period Paul met and fell in love with Chani, the daughter of planetologist and native Fremen Liet Kynes. Their first son, Leto Atreides II the Elder was murdered by Glossu Rabban Harkonnen, further fueling the existing enmity between House Atreides and House Harkonnen.

After spearheading a highly effective campaign of guerilla warfare against House Harkonnen's spice mining and their Sardaukar forces that had taken control of Arrakis, Paul conquered the powers in Arrakeen. With his marriage to Irulan Corrino, daughter of Emperor Shaddam IV, he successfully negotiated the end of the long-standing Corrino Empire and his own ascendancy to position of Emperor.

The New Empire

Upon crowning himself Emperor in 10193 AG, Paul enacted a strategy that had been revealed to him through his prescient abilities. This decision saw the theology (and many customs) of the Fremen thrust into the whole of the Empire. A result of this was that Paul Atreides himself a revered god-head on many worlds in the Known Universe. There was resistance, and Paul found himself increasingly isolated from his family and friends as he decided that the Jihad to place his view of the future of mankind in place, must be bloodthirsty and relentless. Whole planets were sterilized as some of the Great Houses put up a struggle against Paul's relentless Fremen armies.

Final Years as Emperor

After the bloody Jihad that lasted more than twelve years, and claimed billions of lives, Emperor Paul Atreides eventually subdued all outright rebellion. The order of the Known Universe was maintained through the replacement of Corrino imperial power, which was supported by Sardaukar military strength; with Atreides imperial power, supported by Fremen military strength.

Paul's interpretation of his prescient visions also necessitated that Arrakis be transformed from a barren desert planet into a lush and fertile world, with the exception of a small desert for the sandworm to remain alive and keep producing spice. By the end of his rule this plan was well on its way to succeeding. This program had begun under Pardot Kynes as an attempt to harness a planet; however, under Paul, it became part of a plan to save humanity.

Despite his strong leadership and formidable prescient abilities, Emperor Paul Atreides began to feel building pressure from discordant groups within the Empire: notably the Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax, fringe groups within the Fremen, and the dethroned but still powerful House Corrino. Among the schemes of his enemies were the detonation of a stone burner near where Paul and his forces stood in Arrakeen, which resulted in his physical blindness. Upon Paul's recovery from this incident, he shocked all by his ability to 'see' despite not having eyes. His perfect prescient abilities allowed him to perceive the world around him.

Death of Chani

Despite being able to 'see' through prescience, doubts began to surface in Paul's mind regarding his interpretation of the future. Feeling increasingly frustrated and out of control, he began to seek a way out. That escape route emerged through the combined treachery of his enemies, a plot conceived in the presence of a powerful Guild Navigator. The Bene Tleilax gave him a ghola of Duncan Idaho, who contained a secret trigger. Concurrently, and part of the plan, Irulan slowly poisoned Chani. As the Princesses' toxins slowly worked their way through Chani's body, the Emperor's Consort died during childbirth. Immediately, the Face Dancer Scytale, who had been posing as Chani's hand-maid sprung into action, and caused the Idaho ghola to remember his Tleilaxu mission, to kill Muad'Dib. As this caused a great mental conflict within Duncan, he remembered his past with House Atreides. Immediately, Scytale realized the great scope of change that had occurred, a ghola had recovered memories of its' former life. Scytale bargained with Paul that the Tleilaxu could bring back a ghola of Chani, complete with her life experiences, for Paul to enjoy in relative obscurity—if Atreides would abdicate. Instead, Paul killed Scytale.

Walk into the Desert

After the birth of his children, Ghanima and Leto, Paul became convinced he had lost his prescient abilities; he did not foresee the birth of his daughter, only his son. Therefore, as no more than a blind Fremen, Paul disappeared into the desert, offering himself up to Shai-Hulud, as was the Fremen custom for the blind.

This action made a powerful statement: it signified to the Fremen that Paul's interest was for the tribe, and that even he, Usul, Paul who was Muad'Dib, was not above Fremen law.

The Preacher

Many years after his apparent death alone in the desert, and while the Atreides Empire was under the regency of his younger sister Alia Atreides, a new figure, The Preacher, appeared from the deep desert.

By urging civil disobedience against the Atreides Empire, and warning of the consequences of a green Arrakis, The Preacher attracted an ever increasing number of followers. Many believed this thundering blind stranger to be Paul Atreides, as he was blind and led by a boy.

The Preacher eventually revealed himself to his son Leto, and the two of them travelled throughout Arrakis, breaching the water storage of every sietch so that it would spill out onto the sand. Eventually Leto and the Preacher returned to Arrakeen to confront Alia, who had clearly shown herself to be Abomination by this time. Eventually rising tensions saw Alia commit suicide in front of her mother and Duncan Idaho. During the ensuing chaos, The Preacher was assassinated in Arrakeen, but not before he had revealed beyond a doubt to Gurney Halleck and Jessica that he was indeed Paul Atreides.

Thus, the great Paul Atreides, son of Leto the Just and the first Atreides to ascend to the Golden Lion Throne since its inception more than ten thousand years prior, was dead, passing into legend for eons to come, laying the way forward for his son to take the Golden Path to its logical conclusion.

While Paul envisioned the Golden Path, the ultimate transformation that would see his humanity dissolve into a sandworm frightened him. Upon revealing himself to his son, Paul confessed that his desire to maintain his humanity, and the fear of abject loneliness that the Golden Path would bring, were too much for him. He related that he walked away from what he knew he had to do, and admired but lamented for his son who had taken on the mantle that would see humanity restored, but at the cost of his own.

Appearance

In his youth Paul was a small boy, with an oval face ,coal-colored and tousled hair and green eyes.After his time among the Fremen he grew to a a stringy whipcord of a youth, not as desiccated as the Arrakeen natives, but with ribs there to count, and sunken in the flanks so that the ripple and gather of muscles could be followed under the leathery skin... His oval face was like his mother Jessica’s, but he had stronger bones and a browline reminiscent of his maternal grandfather. He had a thin, disdainful nose,long lashes concealing lime-toned, directly staring green eyes, and a hardness in the expression like the old Duke his paternal grandfather.

Images

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Paul administers the Oath of the Fedaykin - Painting by John Schoenherr

Duel between Paul and Jamis in the 2000 TV Miniseries

Paul adressing the Jihadi

Stilgar and Paul -Dune Messiah Cover Art

Paus in Cryos 1991 Dune Game

Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides in the 1984 Dune movie

Paul Atreides -Concept art for the 2000 TV Miniseries

The Preacher addresses a crowded marketplace in Arrakeen, thundering against Alia's regency

Paul Contemplates Life with Chani's Ghola and the Twins

Paul becomes Emperor

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Paul riding his first Worm -Painting by John Schoenherr

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Paul Atriedes with sandsuit, concept by Ruben Karamañites

Alec Newman as Paul Atreides in the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries.

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Behind the Scenes

Biographical Notes

In Original Dune it is noted that Paul Atreides was born on Caladan, both in an excerpt from Princess Irulan's Manual of Muad'Dib, as well as through his own thoughts. However in Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's prequel novel Dune: House Corrino, his birth takes place on Kaitain.

In Paul of Dune, it is asserted that Irulan, through her history books, "streamlined the story for mass consumption". This alleviates any concern for inconsistency between the two accounts and maintains the canonical status of the original Dune.

In Other Media

In the 1984 movie Dune, the role of Paul was played by long time Dune fan Kyle MacLachlan. In interviews, MacLachlan related that when reading Dune for the first time as a teenager, he imagined himself as being Paul Atreides, and to be provided the opportunity to portray him in a big budget film was a dream come true for him.

In the 2000 and 2003 Sci-Fi Channel mini-series Paul was played by Alec Newman. The actor, who has a Scottish accent, reportedly adapted an American accent in a relatively short span of time just to land the role. In the 2000 miniseries, Paul was initially portrayed as a sort of "spoiled brat" in order to show the audience his growth from Atreides heir to Emperor of the Known universe.

In the upcoming 2020 Dune film, Paul will be played by Timothée Chalamet.

See also

• Muad'Dib (Paul Atreides)