Chapter 11


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Freakzilla
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Chapter 11

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Your Lord knows very well what is in your heart. Your soul suffices this day as
a reckoner against you. I need no witnesses. You do not listen to your soul, but
listen instead to your anger and your rage.

-Lord Leto to a Penitent,
From the Oral History


This chapter is an assessment of the state of the Empire by the Bene Gesserit in year 2116 of Leto's reign.

Leto has burned nine historians on pyres made of their own works because they lied about history. Leto told their colleagues that he preys on drama, not to stand proudly on their lies and not to speak of this. His reference to himself as a predator alerts the BG.

Sister Chenoeh has the priviledge of conversing with Leto durring one of his peregrinations. He tells her he wants his words recorded at Chapterhouse. He says most humans are not strong enough to seek spiritual freedom within and he will restore the outward view. He warns the BG of trying to breed for a specific genetic goal. They achieved Paul and got the unexpected, himself, and he has achieved Siona.

Fish Speakers: Leto has increased their non-military role and improved local appreciation of their presence, attempts to form an alliance with them have failed.

Priesthood: Slowly taking over the religious character of the Fish Speakers.

Breeding Program: It appears random. Leto refuses to involve the BG in his breeding program. His Fish Speakers weed out unwanted BG births.

Economics: The BG have had to reduce their use of spice and have increased charges for their services. They have made a killing with CHOAM star jewels. Their Giedi Prime spice hoard has been written off.

Great Houses: They continue to dissapear into the background.

Family Life: Continually grows similar from planet to planet, families are well fed but life is increasingly static. They suspect Leto is usinging his control of spice as hydrolic despotism. They fear he's trying to increase the dependance on melange and may even introduce diseases which only spice will cure.

Guild: Transportation around the empire, with the exception of Ix, has adopted the style of Arrakis: On foot, by air or Guild Transport. They think this is to accelerate the static lifestyle. The Guild has entered into a joint project with the Ixians to produce a navigation machine.

The God Emperor: He's grown a little. They suspect his aversion to water. He still orders things from Ix. He's ordered a new Duncan Idaho ghola. They believe he's using computers. They hope to blackmail Leto with evidence of this to regain control of their breeding program. They do not deny his prescience.

Ix: They've sent Hwi Noree, Malky's niece to Arrakis as the new ambassador. Both are believed to have been specifically bred for this.

The Museum Fremen: They are the primary source of information about the goings on of Arrakis and an increasin payments to them must be budgeted for. They continue to mimic the Fremen ways but are a relic of what they once were.

The Tleilaxu: They offered to produce a totally female society without the need of males for the BG. The offer was refused.
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Re: Chapter 11

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Revised
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Re: Chapter 11

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This can't be year 1...
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Re: Chapter 11

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Edit: year 2116 of Leto's reign.
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Re: Chapter 11

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The Tleilaxu: They offered to produce a totally female society without the need of males for the BG. The offer was refused.
And the BG informed Leto about the offer. This entry above the others had me wondering. What would the Tleilaxu gain by helping the BG to achieve this? If the BG ceased using males for breeding it would actually be the nail in the coffin of their breeding program, so maybe Leto had the Tleilaxu offer them this as a joke, since he had already stopped their breeding program by force. Also, in order to allow females to breed asexually genetic engineering would be required, which would be a direct breach of the Great Convention. Further, since the BG put such a high value in the purity of human genetics, allowing for breeding but not direct manipulation, the Tleilaxu would surely know this and any offer of this sort might be a maneuver other than a kind offer. Maybe rubbing in the BG's face the fact that Leto allows them to conduct such research and the BG can't do anything about it? Leto does, after all, permit forbidden research on Ix such as it suits him, so perhaps he is also encouraging various forbidden Tleilaxu projects as well. In any event the Tleilaxu would surely know that the BG would report their offer to Leto (or that he'd simply know about it already), which might mean the offer was meant more as a message to Leto than to the BG. 'Look what we can offer you, without officially claiming to have broken the Great Convention.' Since Leto has an all-female army perhaps the Tleilaxu were thinking more along the lines of allowing that army to self-sustain in numbers, and the BG were merely a convenient party through whom to bring the message to Leto since they happened to also be a female-based society. Now that I think about it, if the Fish Speakers could reproduce without men it might actually be a burden on them since the restriction of having to deal with a mate would be removed and they might become pregnant in great numbers.

Lots of possibilities, I found this to be a weird passage. For those who've read the next two books, I wonder whether this passage has any relevance. I am increasingly feeling that FH wrote this book with full knowledge of some of what would be included in the next two. It seems there is evidence he didn't actually intend to write any more books, but he may well have created the scenario and certain content just to have something for Leto to glance forward at.
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Re: Chapter 11

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georgiedenbro wrote:
For those who've read the next two books, I wonder whether this passage has any relevance. I am increasingly feeling that FH wrote this book with full knowledge of some of what would be included in the next two. It seems there is evidence he didn't actually intend to write any more books, but he may well have created the scenario and certain content just to have something for Leto to glance forward at.
Knowing what we learn about the BT in the next two books, I've always assumed it was an attempt by them to perpetuate their false stereotype of being vile, predictable, stupid, etc...

Or maybe they were offering to make gholas for them, giving them a hold over the BG.
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Re: Chapter 11

Post by pcqypcqy »

I don't have the hard copy to review against, but the pdf I have does say year "I" as well, which is obviously incorrect.

I thought the execution of the historians took place roughly around the year you've quoted, and that Chenoeh conversed with the God Emperor not long before the events of GEoD. There has to be some overlap as the BG report discusses the Geidi Prime incident which Duncan and Leto discuss at the beginning of the book. Hwi Noree and Siona are also mentioned in the report.

From memory that would make the year approx 3500 of Leto's reign.
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