Quentin Butler

Expanded Dune

This article or section refers to elements from Expanded Dune.

Quentin Butler - fanart

Quentin Butler (174 BG - 88 BG) was a military commander and a Primero during the Butlerian Jihad. He while his rank was equal to that Vorian Atreides (during the latter's career early in the Jihad), his reputation was not.

Military career

Quentin Vigar had undergone basic command training under Vorian Atreides - as a young Jihadi engineer he helped Porce Bludd build New Starda. Quentin earned his early reputation when the Army of the Jihad conquered Parmentier. Though only a lieutenant at the time, Quentin beat an overwhelming force of combat robots with devious tactics, and thus became known as the "Liberator of Parmentier."

Wandra Butler herself had pinned on his medals during a ceremony. They loved each other and after marrying her, he followed her lead and adopted her mother's prestigious surname. The two had three sons, Rikov, Faykan and Abulurd. On Abulurd's birth, Wandra suffered brain damage and fell into a permanent vegetative state. This caused the boy to be effectively shunned by his father and brothers.

Quentin distinguished himself during the Jihad with his strength and tactical abilities. At one point he served with Rikov and Faykan.

At some point in the past, he'd escaped the Titan Juno when he commanded a scouting foray to rescue people on Bela Tegeuse—who turned on him and surrendered him to the Titan; and then the battle of Ix, where he almost buried himself alive after an explosion. After that experience, Quentin felt uneasy forever after in confined places.

With his sons, he liberated Honru, 85 years after the failed attempt of the Jihad.

During a patrol in kindjals around the planet with his son Faykan, the pair of officers detected a spycraft sent by Omnius. They manage to intercept and board it. They realized that Omnius was spying on Salusa Secundus and other League Worlds, and they prepared a final strike after the Scourge. After they brought the data to the Jihad Council, father and son volunteered to fly a spacefolder scout ship to Corrin. There, they witnessed the amassed extermination fleet gathered by Omnius, preparing to strike Salusa Secundus.

Quentin participated in the Great Purge alongside Vorian Atreides. His group was obliterated by the dangerous space jumps and eventually joined Vorian's. Together they purged Quadra. The ruthless destruction of human slaves along with machines on the Synchronized Worlds heavily concerned Quentin; all the weight of responsibility and survivor's guilt felt unbearable burdens.

When they arrived to Corrin for the final strike, they found Omnius's fleet had regrouped. Quentin volunteered for a hopeless suicidal strike but was prevented by Vorian.

Life with the Titans

After his retirement Quentin traveled with the philanthropist Porce Bludd, seeking out and aiding human victims of the earlier atomic blitz against Omnius. The thinking machines were pinned back by the League of Nobles, but another often overlooked group - the Titans - was still in existence, and looking to expand their influence.

Quentin was captured by the Titans during a routine inspection of devastated Wallach IX. After realizing who he was, the Titans transferred the mortally wounded Primero's brain into a preservation canister.

Quentin unwillingly revealed to the Titans the unknown reaction of the Holtzman shields when hit by lasers. Lasers had been considered obsolete in battle for centuries, so the probability of such an accident had been negligible. Armed with this knowledge, the Titans were able to devastate a whole Humanity squadron with a single laser hit.

Quentin's first military mission had been under Dante, near Relicon, against a Humanity squadron sent to investigate the planet. Quentin in his terror realized that the Javelin was commanded by his son Faykan. But he was able to use a secret Jihad military frequency and warn him to turn off the shields of the ships. This saved their lives and allowed them to withdraw from the field. Quentin then proceeded to hit Dante's flying body with his own bulk but was soon disabled and moved back to Hessra.

Faykan, however, guessed that the mysterious benefactor was his father, still alive and among the cymeks.

The Titans spent the next few years trying to indoctrinate Quentin, but with limited success. Eventually he was discovered by his old friend and colleague Vorian Atreides, who had sought out his father, the Titan Agamemnon, with the intention of destroying them from the inside and for this purpose had volunteered to become a cymek.

In the surgical chamber prepared for Vorian's conversion, Juno explained the surgery to her "pet". Quentin got a surgical laser in his grasp, and when Juno was distracted, he broke the protective panel and severed her Thoughtrodes with the laser device. Juno was initially paralyzed, then was unable to speak or feel.

Quentin removed her brain from the canister and put it on the surgical table. He then dissected it into smoking gray pieces with surgical instruments, while the secondary-neos watched without reacting. Afterwards, they agreed to help Quentin and installed his brain canister on Juno's body. Quentin then started the turmoil.

Meanwhile, Vorian was grooming Agamemnon's body, intending to kill him. Quentin in the Juno form entered the chamber the moment Vorian was about to cut Agamemnon's brain with a dagger, insisting that it could be "too quick" for the ruthless tyrant, demanding a far more painful end for him. After a brief argument, Vorian, pulling his Supreme Bashar rank, ordered a quick but humiliating death for the former general. Quentin broke a tower window, and Vorian threw Agamemnon's canister out of it. The canister broke on the rocky ground, spilling the brain and its electrafluid out, giving Agamemnon a humiliating end.

Quentin and Vorian then escaped from the citadel.

Death

Quentin helped Vorian escape on the Dream Voyager while Dante, the last of the Titans, went to seek reinforcements.

While Vorian kept Dante at bay in space above Hessra, Quentin mounted his preservation canister on Agamemnon's gigantic flying body. He explained to Vorian that as soon as all the Titans were killed, the failsafe mechanism that kept their subject neos faithful and alive would fail; this would trigger the death of all neos—including himself. Quentin knew that he could never get his human body back and could not return to the League as a machine. He pursued Dante until they collided, killing both.

The Titans were no more, and by the following year all the cymeks were dead.

Discrepancy

In The Dune Encyclopedia Abulurds parents are named Harkonnen Obeshev and Lisia Pozzo di Borgo instead of Quentin and Wandra Butler.Also Obeshev is considered the first named Harkonnen in history and the Harkonnens disputed relationship to the Corrinos is via Obeshevs supposed father Palaigo Corrino

Appearances

• Dune: The Battle of Corrin