Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho is a male literary character who features in Dune.
Contents |
Biography
Duncan Idaho was a male human who came to live in the time of the Imperium that ruled much of the unknown universe under the Padishah Emperor.
He came to be a Swordmaster of the Ginaz where he found himself in the service of House Atreides and came to be the right-hand man of its Duke Leto Atreides.
Later on, the Emperor decided to place the desert world of Arrakis under the fief of the Atreides and to maintain the production of the Spice Melange. Duke Leto decided to send Duncan to Arrakis to become an ambassador to the native Fremen who lived deep in the deserts of the world. Leo Atreides had hoped to form an alliance with the Fremen so that they could become part of a united front against the Harkonnens. Making the journey alone, Idaho after much time came to find the Fremen and became impressed by them. Such was his commitment to them that he formed dual allegiances with one to the Atreides and the other to the Fremen. When Duke Leto took charge of Arrakis, Duncan arrived to report his findings to his lord. During this time, the capital of Arrakeen came under a sneak attack by the Harkonnen's who had a spy lower its defences. Bolstered by the Emperor's Sardaukar warriors, the Harkonnen's came to massacre their ancient enemies in the ambush. Duncan Idaho himself came to engage the Imperial Sardaukar and managed to kill 19 of the elite solders single-handedly before dying from a blow to the head.
After Paul's ascension to the throne in 10196 AG, Idaho was returned to life as a ghola, a clone made by the Bene Tleilax and gifted to Paul Atreides, which was supposed to tempt the Kwisatz Haderach into becoming that which he despised. Known as 'Hayt' in his ghola incarnation, Idaho was trained as a Mentat and a Zensunni philosopher. He had no memory of his former life, but constantly felt vague hints and reminders of his previous incarnation that made him hope he could recover those memories. Failing to destroy the Emperor psychically, Hayt was programmed to kill Paul against his will. In the ensuing trauma imposed by his inability to reconcile his programming and his innate love for the Atreides, Hayt recovered his memories as Duncan Idaho, up to and including his death at the hands of Imperial Sardaukar. He stopped the attempt on Paul's life, and became once more a loyal Atreides servant. This became the crux of a Bene Tleilax plot to overthrow Paul by demonstrating that they could create an exact equivalent of his dead wife Chani, but only if he abdicated his throne. Idaho later came to marry Alia Atreides who was Paul's sister and served as Imperial regent to Paul's children Leto II and Ghanima, in 10210. However, Alia became possessed by the memory-ego of her ancestor, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who sought to destroy the Atreides empire. Recognizing this, Idaho remained loyal to the Atreides and escaped to the desert to protect the children. In 10219, in order to get Stilgar to join the Fremen opposition to Alia's rule, Duncan killed Javid, Alia's secret lover, on the neutral ground of Sietch Tabr, then insulted the Naib Stilgar so deeply that he was forced to kill Idaho. Duncan's second death, as Duncan knew it would, brought the Fremen into direct opposition to Alia.
Idaho then reappeared as a series of gholas when Leto II ruled as a human-sandworm hybrid for 3,508 years. After the death of every ghola, Leto would have him replaced with a new one. Thus, Leto continually had an Idaho ghola to serve him as Swordmaster at all times, and as leader of the Fish Speakers. To Leto, Idaho represented loyalty, humanity and the spirit of the unknown, something which the God-Emperor, having perfect prescience and memories of all his ancestors, knew nothing of. The ego-memories of Leto I and Paul within Leto II loved Duncan, which was another reason why the God Emperor enjoyed Duncan's presence. The Idaho gholas, with their memories restored, fought to deal with what the Atreides had become in Leto II, which Duncan saw as a corruption. Prior to Leto II's rule, the hallmark of Atreides rule was justice. However, Duncan believed that Leto II's reign was one of religious tyranny and oppression. Idaho's old-fashioned conscience would rebel, leading some of the Idaho gholas to attempt to kill Leto. Leto noted that only nineteen of "his" Duncans had survived long enough to die of what was considered "natural causes". In just about all of these rebellions, the Idaho ghola was killed by the God Emperor himself, and in at least one instance he died under the knife of a Fish Speaker assassin - in another, he died under a Sardaukar sword, when Leto still used them as his fighting force. In one anomalous occasion, Idaho died in a 'thopter crash. In another even rarer occasion, Duncan had accidentally blew himself up after an attempt on Leto's life which he abandoned when the Emperor convinced him he was doing the wrong, causing him to toss the explosive, in which the materials were unstable, to the side. After a brief period of mourning, the God Emperor would order another Idaho ghola from the Tleilaxu. The man usually showed up believing he had gone insane, in shock at how the Universe had changed since his "death" since most Duncans only possessed the memories of the original Idaho. If the new ghola survived Leto II's first interviews, he would serve the God Emperor until his almost inevitable rebellion.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Duncan Idaho was a male human who had dark skin, a round face and curly hair like the fur of a black goat. The first ghola clone of himself came to be given the name Hayt.
Powers and abilities
In his original lifetime, Duncan was taught by Paul Atreides the techniques used to resist the Bene Gesserit Voice of command, an ability which gave the Sisterhood less power over him, such as when the Reverend Mother Lucilla tried and failed to use Voice on Duncan in his final incarnation on Gammu.
Despite his death, Idaho came to be resurrected as a clone ghola created by the Bene Tleilax.
Notes
- Duncan Idaho was created by Frank Herbert where he featured in the setting of the Dune universe.
In other media
Television
Films
- In Dune, Duncan Idaho appeared in the setting of the 2021 live-action remake where he was portrayed by actor Jason Momoa.
Video games
Appearances
- Dune: (1965)
- The Winds of Dune: (2009)
External Links
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