Reverend Mother (Dune)

The Reverend Mother is a title that features in Dune.

History

Reverend Mothers

They had been involved in the creation of a male that could survive the transformation and become the fabled Kwisatz Haderach though all the children died in the process. However, there was an unexpected result of their program that became a success led to the birth of Paul Atreides. Paul Atreides' sister, Alia, was accidentally transformed (or, pre-born) into a Reverend Mother while inside the womb of Lady Jessica.

Overview

It was said that they had to combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with that of the untouchable majestic qualities of a virgin goddess. These two traits needed to be held in unison for as long as possible with this only diminishing as they grew older. Once their youth was gone, their beauty was said to had departed and they occupied the position in-between where they had learnt both cunning along with resourcefulness.

Acolytes achieved the level of Reverend Mother once they had undergone the spice agony and survived with her thus receiving the memories of their female ancestors. At the end of their training, the Bene Gesserit undergo a ritual involving a significant amount of one of a class of awareness spectrum narcotics. The drug enters her body as a poison. If she survives this, by a conscious transformation of the drug on a molecular level to a non-poisonous substance, she gains the memories of all the preceding Reverend Mothers in her line, resulting in great knowledge and power. The particular narcotic used by the lines of Reverend Mothers on Arrakis is contained in the Water of Life, the liquid exhalation of a sandworm produced at the moment of its death by drowning. This ritual would be fatal for normal males. In an extensive breeding program, the Bene Gesserit have tried to produce a male who could survive the transformation, the so-called Kwisatz Haderach.

The Fremen had their own independent tradition that produces wild Reverend Mothers from the Bene Gesserit perspective, called Sayyadina. These Sayyadina go through the spice agony and have access to their ancestral female memories; they however lack the other skills that the Bene Gesserit have developed.

Members

•  :

Notes

• Reverend Mothers were created by Frank Herbert where they featured in the setting of Dune.

Appearances

• Dune:

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