Anirul

A Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank and wife of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, Anirul was the mother of Princess Irulan (Saint Irulan-The-Virgin) and the grandmother of Harq al-Ada (Farad'n Corrino). Anirul is little more than a footnote in Dune, but is a major character in the Prelude to Dune trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.  In Dune: House Atreides, she is described as having "short bronze-brown hair," and it is said that her "features were long and narrow, giving her a doelike face, but her large eyes had a depth of millennia in them." She took her name from the first Bene Gesserit Mother Superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul.

 

Anteac

In God Emperor of Dune, the Truthsayer Tertius Eileen Anteac comes to Arrakis in 13,725 A.G. with Luyseyal for an audience with the God Emperor Leto II that coincides with the Royal Festival held every ten years. They receive a message from Othwi Yake, Assistant to the Ixian Ambassador, that Face Dancers have infiltrated the Ixian Embassy, and are planning to assassinate Leto II. They try to warn Leto, but the message doesn't reach his convoy in time; however, the plot fails, as Anteac and Luyseyal knew it would. They achieve little in their meeting with Leto II, and he takes the priceless vial of spice-essence with which they hoped to test his mortality. He reminds Luyseyal of the lesson learned from past over-machined societies: "The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines." Later, Leto enlists Anteac's aid in detecting the Face Dancers, who by that time have replaced everyone in the Ixian Embassy except the new Ambassador, Hwi Noree. In particular, Anteac identifies the duplicate of Hwi's assistant Othwi Yake, who has been killed and replicated since the original sent his warning to Anteac. Leto's chief minister Moneo Atreides suggests to the God Emperor that Anteac is a secret Mentat, a skill prohibited in the Empire by Leto himself; Leto agrees but says that it amuses him. Hwi shares her knowledge of the environment in which she was brought up with Anteac, who has been conscripted by Leto to lead a Fish Speaker assault on Ix, to wrest the secret of Hwi's origins. Anteac is shocked at the knowledge that Hwi is to marry Leto, and at the same time annoyed that her order had allowed so talented a woman as Hwi to pass through their training program without turning her into one of them. With Anteac's faithful assistance, Leto's forces successfully invade Ix and capture Malky, but Anteac is killed.  Some 1,500 years later in Chapterhouse Dune, the Duncan Idaho ghola recalls his past incarnation from the time of Leto II, noting that he met with Anteac on orders from the God Emperor to suppress the Mentat school the Bene Gesserit had hidden on Wallach IX. It is revealed that Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac's.

 

Bellonda

In Chapterhouse Dune, during a conversation with the Duncan Idaho ghola it is revealed that Bellonda is a descendant of Anteac, an important Reverend Mother from the time of the God Emperor Leto II.

 

Chaola

Before the events of the Prelude to Dune series, Chaola Fenring (also known as Cirni) is lady-in-waiting to Habla, the fourth wife of Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX, and serves as wet nurse to both her son Hasimir Fenring and Crown Prince Shaddam. According to one source, Chaola may also have been a sister to Elrood IX. Chaola's son Hasimir proves to be a failure for the Bene Gesserit breeding program; as Paul Atreides himself notes in Dune, "Fenring was one of the might-have-beens, an almost Kwisatz Haderach, crippled by a flaw in the genetic pattern — a eunuch, his talent concentrated into furtiveness and inner seclusion." Nonetheless, the bloodline manipulations of the Bene Gesserit produce a supremely intelligent and perceptive killer in Hasimir Fenring, who later serves as Emperor Shaddam's chief counsellor.

 

Chenoeh

As related in God Emperor of Dune, Quintinius Violet Chenoeh, specially trained as an oral recorder, is sent (with Tawsuoko) by Syaksa to Arrakis on a fact-gathering mission in 13,725 A.G. She is invited to converse with the God Emperor himself, and he is uncharacteristically indulgent of her questions and somewhat generous with his own information, however cryptic. Lord Leto tells Chenoeh that he plans to restore "outward spiritual freedom" for mankind, and then refers to Siona Atreides as his "achievement" (which the Sisterhood correctly interprets as being related to Leto's own breeding program). Leto then says, "You will return to your Superiors with my message, but these words keep secret for now. I will visit my rage upon your Sisterhood if you fail." Chenoeh complies, following Syaksa's own warning: "You must do nothing which will bring down his wrath upon us." Leto relates how he and his sister Ghanima were able to escape the disaster of Abomination, and also makes one of the earliest references to his secret journals, later found at Dar-es-Balat. He knows he will ultimately be perceived as a tyrant, and wishes to preserve his "feelings and motives ... lest history distort them too much." At the same time, he warns "Beware of the truth," and shares what he calls "the greatest mystery of all time" by which he composes his life: "The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you." Leto tells Chenoeh that by virtue of his taking her into his confidence, "You will become here an integral part of my myth. Our distant cousins will pray to you for intercession with me!" He also foretells her later death during her attempt at becoming a Reverend Mother through the Spice Agony. Chenoeh's account of their secret conversation is found after her death, and it is later noted that "the persistent Cult of Sister Chenoeh assumes new significance because of the journals' disclosures." Chenoeh and Tawsuoko also bring back to Chapter House proof (in the form of a written eyewitness account of Leto's statement) that, as rumored, Leto executed nine historians in 12,333 A.G.  In Heretics of Dune, she is quoted via epigraph: "Life cannot find reasons to sustain it, cannot be a source of decent mutual regard, unless each of us resolves to breathe such qualities into it." — Chenoeh, Conversations with Leto II

 

Corysta

In the short story Dune: Sea Child, Corysta is a Reverend Mother who, out of love for the child, would not hand over to the Sisterhood the baby they had tasked her to conceive. It is taken from her anyway, and as punishment, Corysta is banished to Buzzell to work in the operation harvesting valuable soostones. The Honored Matres later conquer the planet, enslaving the Bene Gesserit there. Corysta nurtures a foundling Phibian until it, too, is taken from her by the Matres when she refuses to tell them the secret location of Chapterhouse.  When Murbella's forces retake Buzzell in Hunters of Dune, Murbella shares minds with Corysta, learning all she can about the situation on Buzzell but also experiencing Corysta's past. She recognizes Corysta's value and loyalty and puts her in charge of the soostone operation. Corysta manages to improve the efficiency and output of the operation, which is the Sisterhood's only source of revenue besides melange and essential to their plan to amass arms for a final battle with the Unknown Enemy.

 

Doria

Ambition leads Doria, an Honored Matre, to reluctantly join the Bene Gesserit as Murbella hopes to unite the opposing organizations. Though Doria seeks to learn the impressive skills of the Bene Gesserit, her Honored Matre impulsiveness and resistance to authority are difficult to shake. A chief advisor to Murbella in Hunters of Dune, Doria is one of the few assimilated Honored Matres with access to sensitive Bene Gesserit breeding Records. Doria and Bellonda are on opposite sides from the beginning. Hoping to force them to at least respect each other's differences, Murbella makes them partners managing the spice operations on Chapterhouse. Thirteen years after the escape of the no-ship Ithaca, Doria kills Bellonda in a final confrontation. An outraged Murbella forces Doria to share minds with Bellonda, and makes her the sole Spice Operations Director. Six years later, driven to the brink of insanity by Bellonda's incessant chatter within her mind, Doria is eaten alive by a sandworm.

 

Dortujla

In Chapterhouse Dune, Dortujla is the the head of the Sisterhood keep on Buzzell, having been sent to the cold aquatic planet years before as punishment for the so-called "Jessica crime" — a love affair, forbidden by the Bene Gesserit as a weakness that could compromise their performance. Dortujla comes to Odrade at Chapterhouse, reporting that Handlers and their half-man/half-cat enslaved Futars have offered alliance against the Honored Matres, who have yet to make a move on Buzzell. Dortujla's Mentat analysis, however, suggests that the Handlers somehow intend dominance, and that the Matres intend to colonize Buzzell. Odrade sees an opportunity; she orders Dortujla to return to Buzzell and make contact with the Matres, brokering a meeting between Odrade and the Honored Matre leader (in which the Bene Gesserit will supposedly surrender) on Junction — the old Spacing Guild complex above Gammu — which the Matres control. Dortujla is tortured by the Honored Matres and forced to watch her party be murdered and fed to captive Futars; however, she witnesses a Futar using its immobilizing scream (which has "qualities of Voice") against the Matres. Later, Dortujla accompanies Odrade, Tamalane and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. Dortujla and her party are eventually slain by the Honored Matres, but the Bene Gesserit conquest proves successful with Murbella left as leader to both the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres.

 

Farad'n

Farad'n's mother is Princess Wensicia Corrino, the third daughter to the former Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV; his father was Count Dalak Kenola — apparently a relative of Count Hasimir Fenring — who was killed in a suspicious ornithopter accident in 10,204 when Farad'n was four years old.  Unlike his mother and most of the other members of the Imperial House Corrino before him, Farad'n prefers history and books to the idea of becoming an Emperor, making him very much like his aunt, Princess Irulan.  Farad'n is aware of his mother Wensicia's plan to assassinate Leto Atreides II and Ghanima Atreides using two trained and mechanically-controlled Laza tigers. The tigers are later killed by Leto and Ghanima, and Leto uses the opportunity to escape from his aunt Alia Atreides (who has been co-opted by the ancestral memory-persona of her malevolent grandfather, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) by faking his own death. Ghanima uses self-hypnosis to actually believe Leto was killed to avoid discovery by Bene Gesserit Truthsayers. She promptly vows to kill Farad'n, believing that he had masterminded the death of her brother.  In the meantime, Duncan Idaho and Lady Jessica are delivered to Wensicia on Salusa Secundus at the request of the mysterious Preacher, where Jessica teaches Farad'n the Bene Gesserit prana-bindu training, just as she and Irulan taught her grandchildren. In the end, Jessica succeeds in making him the second male Bene Gesserit in history (after her son, Paul Atreides), which also causes a rift between Farad'n and his mother. Wensicia is later banished, and Farad'n assumes the powers of the Imperial House Corrino.  Alia tries to use Ghanima's vow of kanly to kill Farad'n, by arranging for a false marriage between the two when she knows that he will be killed by his would-be wife. Farad'n is saved by the reappearance of Leto II, clad in his new sandtrout skin, who drives Alia to suicide. Upon his ascension to power, Leto II commands Farad'n to take Ghanima as his wife in a marriage, appoints Farad'n to be Royal Scribe and renames him 'Harq al'Ada', or the 'breaker of habit'. Farad'n also relinquishes his control of the Sardaukar to Leto, thus giving up his rights to the throne.  As Leto's joining with the sandworm effectively made him sterile, Ghanima and Farad'n would thus ensure the continuation of the Atreides line, and Leto would tend this bloodline over the next three and a half millennia. The non-canon Dune Encyclopedia invents an extended biography for Ghanima which states that she and Farad'n had 10 children, named Trebor, Lliwis, Regor, Tismenus, Boris, Eleanor, Helene, Elaine, Jeunne and Noree.  In Children of Dune, many of the chapter epigraphs are from the later writings of Farad'n (as Harq al'Ada) in his role as Royal Scribe, chronicler of the reign of Leto II.

 

Geasa

In Heretics of Dune, the Duncan Idaho ghola remembers Luran Geasa, his first chief instructor. She had become very attached to him, but was sent away after allowing him to discover (at age eight) that he was a ghola.

 

Harishka

Harishka is the Mother Superior in the Prelude to Dune trilogy, as the Sisterhood nears the fruition of its breeding program.

 

Hesterion

In Heretics of Dune, Hesterion is Archivist councillor and advisor to Mother Superior Taraza and one of the few sisters with access to sensitive breeding records. Hesterion is the first advisor to suggest that the Tleilaxu ambition is to produce a complete prana-bindu mimic, and she is correct.

 

Iriel

Iriel is tasked to cultivate the Cult of Sheeana on Gammu; in Hunters of Dune, she discovers the Honored Matre plan to send Obliterators on a Spacing Guild heighliner to destroy Chapterhouse. She and some of her followers barely escape Gammu with their lives, but manage to reach Chapterhouse and warn Murbella in time. Soon after, Iriel is killed in the Bene Gesserit takeover of Gammu.

 

Irulan

Irulan is the eldest daughter of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV and the Lady Anirul Sadow-Tonkin Corrino, the most famous Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Proctor Superior of the Hidden Noble Rank and Kwisatz Mother. Irulan has four younger sisters named Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa and Rugi, and no brothers.

 

Janess

Janess and Rinya are rare exceptions to the Bene Gesserit rule that daughters must not know their true parents. Murbella chooses to disclose her identity to them because she feels that of her children, these two had the most promising talents.  In Hunters of Dune, Janess and Rinya are prodigies, ambitious, impatient, and unquestionably talented, but Janess possesses just a hint more caution. Janess is obsessed with learning more about her father Duncan Idaho, and she often quotes his philosophical works. Rinya always has to be first for everything, and thus she demands to be allowed to undergo the Spice agony, wanting to become a Reverend Mother at the age of fourteen, just like Sheeana had done. During the ritual, Janess rushes forward and cries out that her sister isn't ready for the test, that Rinya herself told her so. She attempts to stop the proctors from inserting the poison but is blocked by Bellonda. Rinya fails and dies, Murbella not knowing whether Janess's prescience had forseen it, or if she had caused it.  Janess swears she will only undergo the Agony when she is certain she is ready. Her time arrives at age 17, and she becomes a Reverend Mother without any problems. Murbella gives her the rank of Lieutenant, and her first assignment as is to clean out a renegade Honored Matres group who controlled a portion of Gammu. Janess suggests to her mother that a small groundforce be sent to strike fear into them, but Murbella insists that the Matres can never be trusted back into the New Sisterhood. Janess agrees, suggesting they be exterminated like insects, and Murbella orders it. Janess is later promoted to Regimental Commandant, and adopts her father's last name.

 

Janet

Janet Roxbrough, the mother of Miles Teg, taught him the Bene Gesserit ways.

 

Jessica

In accordance with Bene Gesserit protocol, Jessica was conceived by unnamed parents as part of the Bene Gesserit breeding program; she was raised to be a legal concubine to the Duke Leto Atreides I, and instructed to produce for him a daughter, but no sons. This daughter was to be bred to Feyd-Rautha, nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and heir to House Harkonnen, healing the generations-old rift between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and producing the Kwisatz Haderach for the Bene Gesserit. The Kwisatz Haderach is the long-sought-after male Reverend Mother-equivalent who possesses the Other Memory of his male line (something the all-female Bene Gesserit lack), as well as the female line.  However, Jessica falls in love with Leto, and produces a son for him, Paul (there is some indication that Jessica believed she could achieve the Kwisatz Haderach herself, one generation early). Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, and eventually sets the Imperium on a course lasting thousands of years in the person of his son, Leto Atreides II. Much to the frustration of the Bene Gesserit, they do not control Paul, and the events of the coming millennia leave Jessica noteworthy as a figure of history who committed a great wrong (according to the Bene Gesserit); in the coming centuries, for a Bene Gesserit to choose her love over the instructions of her order is known as "the Jessica crime".  In Dune, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Jessica's former instructor) is still furious over Jessica's insubordination, but is somewhat intrigued by the potential she sees in 15-year old Paul. House Atreides is given the planet Arrakis in fief-complete, taking possession (from House Harkonnen) of the only melange-producing world in the Imperium. The change of fief is a trap, however; shortly after committing themselves there, the Atreides are overcome by a Harkonnen invasion with the tacit support of the Emperor (using the Emperor's Sardaukar disguised as Harkonnen soldiers). The plot is made possible by the betrayal of the Duke by the family's doctor, Dr. Wellington Yueh; Duke Leto is killed, and House Atreides is essentially destroyed. Paul and Jessica narrowly escape to the desert, finding refuge with the Fremen thanks to the legends planted there by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva, which practices religious engineering. Jessica casts Paul as the Lisan al'Gaib, the messiah, and herself as the Reverend Mother who shall bring him, even though she has not yet experienced the spice agony that transforms an acolyte into a full Reverend Mother.  Paul soon molds the Fremen a massive army with which he can retake the planet and restore his House. The Fremen have their own 'wild' Reverend Mothers, women who undergo their own version of the spice agony to awaken their Other Memory. With the Reverend Mother of their home sietch about to die and the group about to travel into the desert, Jessica accepts the ritual of the spice agony and becomes the Sayyadina of the tribe. Unfortunately, Jessica is pregnant with the Duke's daughter, Alia Atreides. For a fetus to undergo the spice agony results in what the Bene Gesserit call Abomination: because the ordeal awakens the ego-memories of one's ancestors, these children (also called "pre-born") experience this heightened awareness before they have formed a personality of their own. This makes them vulnerable to eventually being overtaken by one of their ancestral personalities. It is revealed that Jessica's father is none other than the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; in Children of Dune, his is the ego-memory that possesses Alia, leading her to attempt the complete destruction of the restored House Atreides while she rules as regent.  By the time of Dune Messiah, Jessica has returned to Caladan, the ancestral home of the Atreides. She has also, by some accounts, returned to the Sisterhood following the death of her Duke, and while she cannot influence Paul, she does act as distant counselor. It is also mentioned briefly that she and Gurney Halleck become lovers.  In Children of Dune, Jessica returns to Dune to inspect Paul's children, Leto Atreides II and Ghanima, to see if they can be returned to the control of the Sisterhood. Leto notes the identity of Jessica's birth mother: Tanidia Nerus. Realizing that Alia is fully possessed, Jessica survives an assassination attempt by Alia and flees to the desert once more, taking refuge with Fremen leader (and old friend) Stilgar in his sietch. A civil war has divided Arrakis, with Fremen revolting against the transformation of the desert started by Pardot Kynes. Alia's husband, Duncan Idaho, also realizes that Alia is possessed. When Alia instructs Duncan to make her mother disappear, Duncan kidnaps her on the orders of the Preacher, a mysterious desert figure that some suspect is Paul Atreides, who disappeared into the desert. Duncan takes her to Salusa Secundus, the home of House Corrino and the previous Emperor, where the Preacher has told Jessica, through Duncan, to train the pupil she finds there: Prince Farad'n Corrino. She trains him in the Bene Gesserit way, and at the end of Children of Dune, he becomes Ghanima's concubine and Leto's Royal Scribe.

 

Lucilla

In Heretics of Dune, Reverend Mother Lucilla is a young and attractive Bene Gesserit Imprinter sent by Mother Superior Taraza to Gammu, where the Bene Gesserit are bringing up a new Duncan Idaho ghola. Lucilla's task is to teach this ghola and bind his loyalty to the Sisterhood; this is made difficult by internal divisions within the Bene Gesserit. The Sisterhood is fiercely divided on the issue of the Duncan Idaho gholas: a strong minority faction believes that they are dangerous to the Bene Gesserit, and owing to the Byzantine nature of Sisterhood politics, they have placed one of the factional leaders, Reverend Mother Schwangyu, in charge of the ghola project. Lucilla has the additional agenda of repairing any damage created by Schwangyu, who has been subtly encouraging its failure, and even protecting Idaho from Schwangyu should it prove necessary.  Ghola-Idaho has already been tarnished by Schwangyu by the time Lucilla arrives on Gammu. He nurses hate for the Bene Gesserit, hoping only to escape their control of his life. He is extremely precocious and has already divined the fact that he is a ghola. Duncan soon blossoms under the training of Lucilla (and Bashar Miles Teg, brought out of retirement in part to protect the ghola). Schwangyu has used all her wiles to seduce Lucilla to her side but is coming to realize that she has much underestimated Lucilla.  An attempt is made on Duncan's life, and though Teg is able to defeat it, he realizes that he can no longer protect his charge at the Bene Gesserit keep, Teg flees with Duncan and Lucilla into the countryside. With secret knowledge from his aide-de-camp Patrin, who was born on Gammu, Teg locates a forgotten Harkonnen no-globe which Patrin found as a boy. In the no-globe, Teg proceeds to awaken Duncan's original memories. As Teg is facially the spitting image of Duke Leto Atreides I, the original Idaho's master, he uses this semblance (and a variety of relentless physical and mental attacks) to awaken Duncan to his pre-death memories. He does so before Lucilla can imprint Duncan and thus tie him to the Sisterhood. Lucilla is unhappy with this, and is unable to use her wiles to imprint Duncan afterward because the now-awoken Idaho is aware of her agenda. He even tells her that if she tries it, he will attempt to kill her.  In the meantime Taraza, via Teg's finest pupil Burzmali, has been searching for Teg and his party, having little success. Finally, in a flash of inspiration, Burzmali realizes where Teg must be, and establishes contact with him and arranges to bring his party to safety. During the extraction operation, however, Teg and his companions are ambushed. Teg sacrifices himself to capture while Lucilla and Duncan escape with Burzmali.  Duncan attempts to get off of Gammu undetected in the guise of a Tleilaxu Master, but is ambushed and taken hostage. Lucilla and Burzmali arrive at a Bene Gesserit safe house, but discover that it has been taken over by the Honored Matres. Luckily, the young Honored Matre, Murbella, stationed at the safe house is fooled by Lucilla's stolen Honored Matres robe, and accepts her as an observer. Murbella proceeds to seduce the captured Duncan Idaho. However, as she starts the seduction procedure, hidden Tleilaxu conditioning kicks into action and Duncan responds with an equal technique, one that overwhelms Murbella in sexual pleasure, draining her energy. Overwhelmed with a desire to feel such euphoria again, Murbella finds herself unable to kill Duncan, though she recognizes the danger he poses to the Matres. Taking advantage of Murbella's post-coital exhaustion, Lucilla knocks her unconscious.  After escaping his Honored Matre captors, Teg finds a groups of ex-soldiers who have formed a resistance group to the Honored Matres. He brings them together and attacks a no-ship, and captures it. He locates Duncan and Lucilla, and they escape with the captured Honored Matre Murbella as their prisoner.  In Chapterhouse Dune, Lucilla manages to escape Lampadas, a center for Bene Gesserit education where she had served as vice chancellor, before it is completely destroyed by the Honored Matres. She carries the salvation of Lampadas: the shared-minds of its millions of murdered Reverend Mothers. Unfortunately, Lucilla's ship is damaged by a mine and she makes a forced landing on Gammu.  Lucilla seeks refuge with an underground group whom she knows will be sympathetic to the Bene Gesserit: Jews. Long ago, Jews went underground to escape the repeated pogroms against them. They continued to practice their religion in secret, under cover as "religious revivalists," to conceal their unbroken connection to ancient history. They were so successful that they have survived for 26,000 years while history believed them long since annihilated. The Bene Gesserit — with their memories of the past — were not deceived, and have developed a relationship with the Jews.  Their leader, trapped in the web of mutual obligation, gives Lucilla temporary sanctuary, but in order to save his organization he must deliver Lucilla to the Honored Matres. To Lucilla's shock he reveals Rebecca, a "wild" Reverend Mother who has gained her Other Memories without Bene Gesserit training. Lucilla shares minds with Rebecca, who promises to take the memories of Lampadas safely back to the Sisterhood. Lucilla is then "betrayed" to the Honored Matres.  Lucilla is taken before the Great Honored Matre Dama, and to her surprise she is not killed outright. A game of words begins, and the Matre tries to persuade her to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets. It becomes known that the Matres dearly want to learn to modify their biochemistry as the Bene Gesserit do. It is speculated that the Matres were driven from The Scattering by an enemy who used biological weapons. Lucilla's word battles continue for weeks. When she reveals to Dama that although the Bene Gesserit know how to manipulate and control the populace, they practice and believe in democracy, Dama's desire to destroy the sisterhood is redoubled; the Bene Gesserit teach dangerous knowledge and believe in ridiculous ideas like democracy! Dama kills Lucilla.  As deceased Taraza's replacement Odrade meets with Dama under the guise of negotiations, a newly-awakened ghola of Miles Teg leads the Bene Gesserit forces in an attack on Gammu. In the midst of this battle, the Jews (including Rebecca with her precious memories) take refuge with the Bene Gesserit fleet. Rebecca is able to share these memories with the Bene Gesserit before Duncan, Teg and Sheeana flee Chapterhouse a no-ship, with Rebecca and the Jews still aboard.

 

Luyseyal

In God Emperor of Dune, the Truthsayer Marcus Claire Luyseyal comes to Arrakis in 13,725 A.G. with Anteac for an audience with the God Emperor that coincides with the Royal Festival held every ten years. They receive a message from Othwi Yake, Assistant to the Ixian Ambassador, that Face Dancers have infiltrated the Ixian Embassy, and are planning to assassinate Leto II. They try to warn Leto, but the message doesn't reach his convoy in time; however, the plot fails, as Anteac and Luyseyal knew it would. They achieve little in their meeting with Leto II, and he takes the priceless vial of spice-essence with which they hoped to test his mortality. He reminds Luyseyal of the lesson learned from past over-machined societies: "The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines."

 

Margot

Margot is the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring. She is featured in Frank Herbert's Dune, and is a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and House Corrino). Later in Dune, it is made clear that Margot has shared some of her training with her husband: "The Count focused on Paul, seeing with eyes his Lady Margot had trained in the Bene Gesserit way, aware of the mystery and hidden grandeur about this Atreides youth." Hasimir subsequently refuses Emperor Shaddam IV's command to kill Paul.

Miles Teg

In Heretics of Dune, Miles Teg is introduced as the former Supreme Bashar of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. He is charged with the weapons training of ghola Duncan Idaho by Taraza, the Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit. His mother Janet Roxbrough, a Bene Gesserit, taught him some of the ways of the Sisterhood before he was sent to Lampadas to train as a Mentat.  Teg was later tortured by the Honored Matres using a T-Probe. His mentat abilities learned the T-probe before it could learn him, and this created a deadly reaction within Teg. He was able to move faster than the eye could see, at the cost of incredible energy expenditure; he had to consume huge amounts of carbohydrates to regain his energy. At the end of the book, he sacrificed himself on Rakis as the Honored Matres turn it into a charred ball. At the beginning of Chapterhouse Dune, a ghola of Teg was birthed, and the Bene Gesserit later reawakened him to his full memories. Under the intense stress of sexual imprinting, Miles Teg's latent Atreides abilities were unlocked; he moved with blinding speed, had a unique form of prescience, could sense immediate danger from people, and also had the ability to see no-ships.  Miles Teg represents an exquisite product of the eugenic program of the Bene Gesserit and their meticulous training. Miles Teg is an Atreides and bears a striking resemblance to Duke Leto Atreides I not only in his appearance but in his strict sense of honor. Mother Superior Darwi Odrade is his daughter.

 

Mohiam

As Dune begins, the Reverend Mother Mohiam comes to Caladan to "test" young Paul Atreides before his departure for Arrakis. Having trained Paul's mother Lady Jessica at the the Bene Gesserit school on Wallach IX decades before, Mohiam now holds a lethal gom jabbar to Paul's neck. If he withdraws his hand from a box that inflicts pain through direct nerve induction, the gom jabbar will kill him instantly. Mohain explains to Paul that the purpose of the test is to discover whether Paul is "truly human", by requiring him to endure pain and still act rationally. He passes the test, and Mohiam (though still furious over Jessica's choice to disobey the Sisterhood and bear a son instead of a daughter) is somewhat intrigued by the potential she sees in 15-year old Paul.  Later, Mohiam accompanies Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV to Arrakis in her role as Imperial Truthsayer; there she is faced with Paul's four-year-old sister, the pre-born Alia, whom she calls an Abomination. Mohiam is frther alarmed as she witnesses the ritual battle-to-the-death between Paul and Feyd-Rautha.  Paul is victorious, and seeing the inevitability of the situation he has orchestrated, she compels Shaddam to give in to Paul's demands, allowing Paul to depose him and become Emperor in his place.  In Dune Messiah, the Reverend Mother joins the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides after he ascends the Golden Lion Throne and unleashes his Jihad upon the Empire. She, along with the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale, the Spacing Guild Navigator Edric and Paul's embittered consort (and Shaddam's daughter) Princess Irulan Corrino, plot to insinuate the Tleilaxu ghola Hayt into the court to weaken Paul's confidence in his prescience and thereby ruin him.  Forbidden to ever return to Arrakis, Mohiam is taken into Paul's custody when it becomes known that she is on a heighliner in orbit above the planet. Aware of the Bene Gesserit desire to acquire his genetic material for their breeding program, Paul seeks to negotiate with Mohiam. In exchange for the guaranteed safety of his concubine Chani, and the Sisterhood's acceptance of his decision to father no heirs with the Princess Irulan, Paul offers something of the utmost value: his sperm. This is a complicated proposition for Mohiam, however, because artificial insemination is forbidden in the wake of the Butlerian Jihad.  When the conspiracy ultimately fails and Scytale is killed, Mohiam and Edric are executed in 10,207 A.G. by Fremen Naib Stilgar, on orders from Alia.

 

Murbella

When she tries to imprint (sexually condition) the young Bene Gesserit loyal Duncan Idaho Ghola she is confronted by the power the Tleilaxu have secretly built into him. His power is the male equivalent of the powers of the female Honoured Matres, so Murbella and Duncan Idaho become sexually addicted to one another, and have four daughters.  This addiction enables the Bene Gesserit to start her training.  Duncan Idaho and Murbella are living together. The bond created by their mutual imprinting in Heretics has made them somewhat reluctant lovers. The Bene Gesserit have accepted Murbella as a novice and are training her to be a Sister, despite their belief that she intends to steal their secrets and escape back to the Honored Matres.  Murbella collapses under the pressure of Bene Gesserit training and pregnancy, giving in to "word weapons" that the Bene Gesserit planted to undermine her earlier Honored Matre identity. Murbella realizes that she really admires and wants to be Bene Gesserit, and sees her former Matres as ignorant children. The words of her initiation are repeated with an emphasis not in the original.  Finally it is decided that Murbella is ready to become a Reverend Mother. Odrade relaxes the strictures, and for the first time ever, a man — Duncan — is allowed to watch a spice ceremony. Duncan is filled with trepidation, first because he fears Murbella will not survive the ritual, and second because he wonders whether she will still love him after going through such a life changing experience. Odrade watches with equal trepidation because Murbella is vital to her plan to deal with the Honored Matres and to reform the Sisterhood. Odrade believes that the Bene Gesserit made a mistake in fearing emotion, and that in order to evolve, the Bene Gesserit must learn to accept emotions. Murbella, Odrade is pleased to find, takes and survives the hard path to becoming a Reverend Mother.  Murbella goes through a manic phase after becoming a Reverend Mother, and her feelings for Duncan are not the same — a fact that worries Odrade as much as Duncan. Whether it is a temporary effect of the experience or a permanent one is unknown.  Odrade calls a Convocation (a meeting of all the Bene Gesserit) announcing her plan to attack the Honored Matres. She tells them that this attack will be led by Teg. She also announces candidates to succeed her as Mother Superior; she will share with Murbella and Sheeana before she leaves.  The attack seems headed for failure, and Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can and they begin to withdraw to Chapterhouse. The potential failure of the Bene Gesserit attack was planned for by Odrade, who left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble. Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honored Matre who has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit in the confusion with all their secrets. She arrives on the planet and immediately announces her intentions by killing an overeager Honored Matre with a blinding speed enhanced by Bene Gesserit training that makes her faster than any Honored Matre before her.  Murbella is taken to the newest Great Honored Matre and immediately declares herself hostile. Logno cannot help herself and attacks, Murbella disposes of her and some allies. Odrade is killed in the melee. Murbella shares with Odrade and takes charge of the Honored Matres, who are awed by her physical prowess.  Murbella's ascension to the leadership of the Honored Matres and, by necessity, the Bene Gesserit as well, is not accepted as victory by all the Bene Gesserit. Some feel that she will suborn the spirit of the Bene Gesserit and many worry that her plan of merging the two orders into a New Sisterhood is doomed to failure. Some then decide to escape, notably Sheeana, who has a vision of her own. They ask Duncan and Teg whether they wish to join them and they flee Chapterhouse in the giant no-ship, with Scytale and the Jews from Gammu still aboard.  Murbella recognises their plan at the last minute, but is powerless to stop them, realizing at the same time that Duncan's departure solves many problems for her.

 

Odrade

The "wild talents" of Atreides bloodline that Odrade displays intermittently are what the Bene Gesserit both fear and desperately need. The suspicious — mainly Bellonda — scrutinize her continually, looking for reasons to terminate her, while Mother Superior Taraza senses that the Sisterhood needs Odrade's limited Atreides prescience to avert imminent destruction at the hands of the Honored Matres.  An anonymous document surfaces, referred to as the Atreides Manifesto, that attacks all religions in the Known Universe except for that of the Bene Tleilax. This creates a furor with the intensely religious Tleilaxu, who have long nursed dreams of hegemony, dominating the universe with their religion. The Tleilaxu council decides to treat the Manifesto as a gift from God, and they spread it far and wide. It is later revealed that the Manifesto was written by Odrade.  When Taraza is killed after a showdown on Arrakis, Odrade becomes Mother Superior.  Odrade tours Chapterhouse with Tamalane to visit and to consider a promotion for Sheeana, and check the progress of the planet's conversion to desert.  Odrade is accompanied by Tamalane, Dortujla and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. With the Gammu about to fall, the Honored Matres activate their "weapon of last resort", turning victory into defeat and holding Odrade captive. Tamalane, Dortujla and Suipol are killed. As planned with Odrade previously, Murbella travels to Junction alone, pretending to have escaped the Bene Gesserit with their unique abilities and the location of Chapterhouse. Murbella is brought before the new Great Honored Matre Logno, who has Odrade standing nearby unrestrained in a gesture of contempt. Murbella provokes and kills Logno, while simultaneously the Honored Matre Elpek kills Odrade. With both of their deaths, Murbella becomes the new Mother Superior as well as Great Honored Matre, fulfilling Odrade's intentions.

 

Ramallo

Ramallo first appears in the Dune chronology in Dune: House Harkonnen, part of the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In House Harkonnen, Bene Gesserit Lady Margot Fenring seeks out the Fremen on Arrakis, looking for a group of Bene Gesserit sisters working on the Missionaria Protectiva there who had disappeared in approximately 10,070 A.G. (Reverend Mother Ramallo among them).  Ramallo is the spiritual leader of the tribe of Fremen that Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica meet when they escape into the desert of Arrakis in Dune, the first novel in the series. Jessica soon realizes that Ramallo is a 'wild' version of a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. When she knows her own end is near, Ramallo has Chani administer the Water of Life to Jessica so she may also become a Reverend Mother/Sayyadina, inadvertently making Jessica's unborn daughter Alia what the Bene Gesserit call an Abomination. Ramallo shares minds with Jessica, passing on her own life experience (and presumably her collective Other Memory), and then dies.

 

Raquella

Raquella Berto-Anirul (born 137 B.G.), grand-daughter of Vorian Atreides and Karida Julan, is the founder of the Order. During the events of Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Raquella establishes the Humanities Medical Commission with fellow doctor (and her lover) Mohandas Suk in 107 B.G. after the burnout of a catastrophic virus (the Demon Scourge) genetically engineered and unleashed by the thinking machines to destroy humanity. In 88 B.G., Raquella travels to Rossak with Suk in their roles as doctors to help fight another outbreak of this plague. After being infected herself, Raquella makes a miraculous recovery due to "healing water" found on the planet. Paranoid and feeling that the doctor might somehow usurp her power, the leader of the Sorceresses of Rossak poisons Raquella with the Rossak Drug. Rather than killing her, the ordeal awakens Other Memory within Raquella. Her body changed by her ordeal with the Scourge, she manages to internally convert the poison into a harmless substance, thus being the first to undergo what would later become the Spice Agony. Soon thereafter, Raquella also discovers the new ability to command others with Voice. She conceives a daughter with Suk, but remains on Rossak to continue her work as he pursues his goal to form the greatest medical school ever seen (later known as the Suk School). Raquella assumes authority over the Sorceresses and their breeding programs, and founds the Bene Gesserit school of thought.  In Dune: House Atreides, Raquella's namesake Anirul Sadow-Tonkin stands on the spot where "the first Mother Superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul ... had delivered her legendary orations to the embryonic Sisterhood. Raquella had forged a new school from a group of desperate and pliable acolytes still stinging from centuries under the yoke of thinking machines."

 

Rebecca

Rebecca is a "wild" Reverend Mother discovered by Lucilla in Chapterhouse Dune. Lucilla, fleeing the destruction of Lampadas by the Honored Matres (and carrying the priceless shared-minds of all the planet's Reverend Mothers), is forced to land on Gammu. Once there she seeks out the hidden Jews, whom she knows will give her sanctuary. They are obligated to turn her over to the Honored Matres for their own survival, but before they do, Lucilla Shares with Rebecca, transferring the knowledge of the "Lampadas horde." Rebecca and the Jews eventually escape Gammu with the Bene Gesserit forces, and Rebecca is able to pass on the 7,622,014 Lampadas shared-minds to the Sisterhood.  In Hunters of Dune, Rebecca is on the no-ship Ithaca when Sheeana and Duncan Idaho use it to make their escape from Chapterhouse. She later offers herself as a volunteer to become one of the axlotl tanks used to produce the important gholas of Paul Atreides, Leto II and others.

 

Rinya

Rinya is the eldest daughter of Murbella and Duncan Idaho, born a few minutes before her twin sister Janess. She and Janess are rare exceptions to the Bene Gesserit rule that daughters must not know their true parents. Murbella chooses to disclose her identity to them because she feels that of her children, these two had the most promising talents. In Hunters of Dune, Rinya is a prodigy, ambitious, impatient, and unquestionably talented. Her twin sister shares the same qualities, but with just a hint more caution. Rinya always has to be first for everything, and thus she demands to be allowed to undergo the Spice agony, wanting to become a Reverend Mother at the age of fourteen, just like Sheeana had done. During the ritual, Janess rushes forward and cries out that her sister isn't ready for the test, that Rinya herself told her so. She attempts to stop the proctors from inserting the poison but is blocked by Bellonda. Rinya fails and dies, Murbella not knowing whether Janess's prescience had forseen it, or if she had caused it.

 

Sabanda

Sabanda is a young Reverend Mother in Chapterhouse Dune who is captured and interrogated by the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction. Sabanda dies without revealing anything to the Honored Matres (except the fact that Sheeana is alive and, to Sabanda's amusement, the fact that Mother Superior Odrade calls the Matre leader "Spider Queen").

 

Schwangyu

In Heretics of Dune, Schwangyu is in charge of the Duncan Idaho ghola project on Gammu. As the leader of a faction of the Sisterhood who believe that such gholas are a danger to the order and its goals, she has been subtly encouraging the ghola's failure. By the time Lucilla arrives to teach Ghola-Idaho and bind his loyalty to the Sisterhood with sexual imprinting, he has already been tarnished by Schwangyu and nurses hate for the Bene Gesserit, hoping to escape their control of his life. Despite Schwangyu's efforts to seduce Lucilla to her side, Idaho blossoms under the training of Lucilla (and Miles Teg), and Schwangyu begins to realize that she has much underestimated Lucilla.

 

Sheeana

Sheeana lives in the desert of the planet Dune, now known as Rakis, until her village — situated on top of a spice blow — is destroyed by a sandworm. Sheeana then unintentionally displays an ability to control sandworms when she causes the creature to stop harmlessly in front of her. The worm takes her to Keen (once Arrakeen), the capital city of Rakis, where she is soon recognized as the sandrider predicted by Leto II. She becomes the youngest Reverend Mother ever (with the possible exception of Alia Atreides, technically a Reverend Mother before birth). When Rakis is destroyed, Sheeana travels to Chapterhouse, where her abilities continue to develop. She becomes a full Reverend Mother but remains a very independent character with mysterious depths, such as reflected in the piece of art called 'The Void'. At the end of Chapterhouse Dune she chooses to escape Chapterhouse on the no-ship together with Duncan Idaho. When the no-ship has left Murbella realizes that Sheeana is going to be a bitter medicine for the universe, indicating that she is going to play an important role in the future.

 

Suipol

In Chapterhouse Dune, Suipol is an acolyte chosen to serve and accompany Odrade on her voyage with Tamalane and Dortujla to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. Odrade describes her as a "dark little thing with a round, calm face and manners to match. Not one of our brightest but guaranteed efficient." Suipol and her party are eventually slain by the Honored Matres, but the Bene Gesserit conquest proves successful with Murbella left as leader to both the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres.

 

Syaksa

As related in God Emperor of Dune, Syaksa sends Chenoeh and Tawsuoko to Arrakis on a fact-gathering mission in 13,725 A.G. Her warning to Chenoeh that "You must do nothing which will bring down his wrath upon us" encourages Chenoeh to obey the God Emperor's command to withhold certain of his statements from the Sisterhood. Syaksa and four other Reverend Mothers (Yitob, Mamulut, Eknekosk and Akeli) incorporate information gleaned from this mission into an "assessment of the state of the Empire" for that year (before the subsequent assassination of Leto II). Syaksa believes that the religious character of the Fish Speakers is slowly being devolved under Leto II. She further attributes to him a motive based on the concept of hydraulic despotism, in which a government structure maintains power and control through exclusive control over a basic resource needed to live (in this case, melange), proposing that he is building the Empire toward an even greater dependence on the spice.

 

Tamalane

Tamalane is one of the Duncan Idaho ghola's first chief instructors on Gammu in the events before Heretics of Dune. In Chapterhouse Dune, she tours Chapterhouse with Odrade to visit and to consider a promotion for Sheeana, and check the progress of the planet's conversion to desert. Tamalane accompanies Odrade, Dortujla and the acolyte Suipol to meet the Great Honored Matre Dama on Junction, as Miles Teg leads a force to attack Gammu. Tamalane and her party are eventually slain by the Honored Matres, but the Bene Gesserit conquest proves successful with Murbella left as leader to both the Bene Gesserit and the Honored Matres.

 

Taraza

Alma Mavis Taraza is the Mother Superior in Heretics of Dune who brings Bashar Miles Teg reluctantly out of retirement to guard the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. Taraza blackmails Tleilaxu Master Waff to find out all he knows about the new threat to the Old Empire known as the Honored Matres, as well as the fact that the Bene Tleilax have included their own agenda within the ghola. She also manages to divine that Waff is a secret Zensunni, which finally gives the Sisterhood a way to manipulate the Tleilaxu. Assigned to take command of the outpost on Rakis by Taraza, Odrade makes an alliance with Waff using this very knowledge of his religious beliefs. This alliance plays into Taraza's master plan: to destroy Rakis and free humanity from Leto II's own plan. An alliance with the Tleilaxu, the only remaining source of melange, would be essential after such a scenario. Taraza then considers a secondary plan of seeding other planets with sandworms with the help of the "sandrider" — a girl named Sheeana who has the power to control the worms. But when the Honored Matres finally attack Rakis, Taraza is killed with the first attack, cut down by lasguns. Luckily, Odrade has time to merge minds with her before escaping with Sheeana into the desert on a worm.

 

Tawsuoko

As related in God Emperor of Dune, Tawsuoko is sent (with Chenoeh) by Syaksa to Arrakis on a fact-gathering mission in 13,725 A.G. In addition to the record of Chenoeh's somewhat enlightening conversations with the God Emperor, she and Chenoeh bring back to Chapter House proof (in the form of a written eyewitness account of Lord Leto's statement) that, as rumored, Leto executed nine historians in 12,333 A.G.

 

Tessia

In the Prelude to Dune series, Tessia is the Bene Gesserit wife of Rhombur Vernius of Ix.

 

Wanna

Wanna Marcus (born 10,092 A.G.), the wife of Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, was instructed not to bear him any children; she told him she was infertile due to an industrial accident. Immediately prior to the events transpiring in Dune, she is kidnapped by the Harkonnens, who use the threat of her death to break Yueh's Suk conditioning and force him to betray Leto Atreides I. Yueh gives in to their demands, and then finds out (as he suspected) that Wanna had already been killed (presumably in 10,186 A.G., per the Dictionary of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan, as referenced via epigraph in Dune).