“Dune Messiah” changed the whole narrative of the “Dune” series by turning its characters into shadows of their former selves. The novel portrayed a new world created by Paul Atreides who led the religiously indoctrinated Fremen to war.
Paul Atreides
Role: Paul is the primary protagonist of “Dune Messiah.”
Key Info: After destroying his enemies and becoming Emperor, Paul unleashes a jihad that kills 61 billion people.
Background: With the jihad making Paul unstoppable, he becomes the sole controller of Spice production, making him the most powerful Emperor ever.
Personality: A wave of regret and solemness washes over Paul. He realizes he is unable to stop the jihad unleashed in his name even with his discipline.
Development: Being the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul sees into the future and discovers his jihad will be nothing compared to the doom that awaits humanity’s future. Now equipped with this information, he begins planning a golden path for humanity.
Significance: “Dune Messiah“ concludes the tale of the great Paul Atreides. It shows how the once great warrior crumbled under the weight of his success. “Dune” propped Paul and made everyone think he would become a mighty and untouchable hero. However, Frank showed that no matter how special they are heroes are humans bound to make mistakes.
Paul became a fallen hero after seeing the degradation of his beliefs and actions. He admitted that leading the Fremen jihad was a massive mistake that could have prevented excessive bloodshed. However, he knew he could do nothing as the flame set would burn even in his absence.
Paul starts to sense several plots against his leadership due to the tension of Chani not conceiving a child. Even with his knowledge of Princess Irulan’s deeds, he refuses to act because he sees the future of Chani dying if she gives birth to his heir.
Soon, his enemies start acting out their plan, and after a Stone Burner gets detonated, Paul becomes blind. Though blind, Paul uses his prescience to see perfectly. However, his powers fade as he does not see his son’s birth.
Now blind both prophetically and physically, Paul faces Scytale, a Tleilaxu face dancer who threatens to kill his children. With an assisted vision from his infant son, he kills Scytale and walks into the desert a blind man in line with the Fremen tradition.
Scytale
Role: Scytale is one of the conspirators planning to kill Paul.
Key Info: He connives with Edric, Reverend Mother Helen, and Princess Irulan to force Paul out of the Emperor’s throne.
Background: Scytale is a face dancer from the Bene Tleilaxu, an order of genetically modified humans who experiment on various biological aspects of the body.
Personality: He is an intelligent and cunning face dancer who can take the form of whoever he wishes. Scytale is also manipulative and can convince people to do his bidding.
Development: Scytale presents Paul with Hayt, Duncan Idaho’s ghola. He did this as part of the plan to usurp Paul from the throne and learn how to make a ghola regain its memories.
Significance: Scytale was one of the primary antagonists in “Dune Messiah.” As a Tleilaxu face dancer, he is neither a male nor female. After killing Lichna, he assumes her appearance and enters the Atreides’ keep on Arrakeen to try and pressure Paul into giving up the throne.
The Bene Tleilaxu are a weird order responsible for performing horrific acts of human experimentation. Their advances in human biology turned them into mysterious creatures that could alter their appearance. Scytale was one of these creatures, and his presence in the story almost changed everything.
After an atomic weapon called a Stone Burner blinds Paul, Scytale offers to resurrect Chani as a ghola. When he refuses, the face dancer becomes desperate and threatens Paul’s babies with a knife; this leads to a weird occurrence where Paul sees through his son’s eyes and kills Scytale.
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam
Role: Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is among the chief conspirators against Paul.
Key Info: She leads the matriarchal order, Bene Gesserit, and seeks to take the power of the Kwisatz Haderach to gain control over Melange production.
Background: After Paul becomes Emperor and unleashes the jihad on humanity, Reverend Mother Helen joins forces with Scytale and Edric to remove him from the throne.
Personality: The Reverend Mother is a strict, sneaky, and dominating woman who wants to stop Paul from gaining further control of the universe.
Development: Recruiting Princess Irulan, Paul’s embittered wife, Reverend Mother Helen, and her cohorts begin the plan to kill Paul. After Paul learns of Chani’s pregnancy, he meets with the Reverend Mother and tries negotiating Chani’s life by artificially inseminating Princess Irulan, but she refuses his proposal.
Significance: The Reverend Mother was one of the primary antagonists in “Dune Messiah.” Her plans to destroy Paul stemmed from the Bene Gesserit’s desire to gain more control over Melange.
Reverend Mother Helen was not evil though she opposed Paul Atreides. Her plan would have ended Paul’s tyrannical reign and be a net positive for the humans in the universe. But, on the other hand, it would have thwarted the Golden Path, as Leto II and Ghanima may have died. Ultimately, Reverend Mother Helen was a nuanced personality who tried to end a conflict she could only see on the surface. Alia eventually ordered her execution.
Edric
Role: Edric is a spacing guild navigator.
Key Info: He is the key conspirator in the plot to end Paul’s rule.
Background: As a guild navigator, Edric had prescience that shielded him from the all-seeing eyes of Paul’s clairvoyance.
Personality: Edric is a guild navigator who has evolved beyond the human form. He lives in a gas tank filled with Melange. He has a tall and humanoid fish-like appearance as his feet are finned and his hands are membranous.
Development: Edric’s role in the plot to dethrone Paul is crucial as he uses his prescience to hide the group from Paul’s powers. The plan eventually fails as Otheym reveals the plot against Paul.
Significance: Without Edric, the conspirators had no chance of fighting Paul. He was among the few people that could shield others from prescience.
The guild navigators were a secretive group controlling the most crucial aspect of the “Dune” universe, traveling. These beings could thread a needle through space and create an accident-free path for traversing beyond the speed of light. However, when Paul gains control over Melange’s production, the navigators know he has to die; this leads Edric to control the plot against the Emperor. Stilgar eventually killed Edric.
Irulan Corrino
Role: Princess Irulan is the daughter of Shaddam IV, Padishah Emperor of the known universe.
Key Info: She is Paul’s wife and the Queen Consort of the Empire.
Background: After Paul defeated the Sardaukar and Harkonnen troops, Princess Irulan became his wife, with Chani as his concubine.
Personality: Irulan is an elegant woman. She was trained in the ways of the Bene Gesserit but retained her personality to the dismay of Reverend Mother Helen, who wanted total control over her. Irulan is a beautiful and tall woman with green eyes and blonde hair.
Development: After becoming Queen consort, Paul refuses to father a child with Irulan; this embitters her, and she joins forces with Reverend Mother Helen, Edric, and Scytale. Irulan starts adding contraceptives into Chani’s food on Reverend Mother Helen’s orders to prevent her from conceiving for Paul.
Significance: Though she was unaware, Irulan helped Paul by adding contraceptives to Chani’s food. Paul knew what she was doing but said nothing as he foresaw his lover’s death during childbirth.
Though the plan to dethrone Paul fails, Irulan’s life is spared as Paul expresses gratitude to her for prolonging Chani’s life. After he walks into the desert, Irulan defects and sides with the Atreides line, swearing to serve as a teacher to Paul’s children.
Chani
Role: Chani is Paul’s Fremen lover.
Key Info: After Paul becomes Emperor, Chani stays by his side as his concubine.
Background: Scared that her genes may affect Paul’s bloodline, Princess Irulan begins adding contraceptives to Chani’s food to prevent her from getting pregnant.
Personality: Chani is a fierce lover who would do anything for Paul. She grudgingly agrees to become his concubine after he swears his love to her.
Development: After being unable to conceive, Chani switches to a Fremen fertility diet and becomes pregnant. She starts realizing the pregnancy is taking a toll on her body. Upon discovering Irulan is responsible for her inability to conceive, Chani tries to kill her, but Paul stops her.
Significance: Chani was the sole reason Paul could remain Emperor. His love for her gave him the strength to continue pushing. However, when Paul saw her death, he realized there would be no point in ruling with the love of his life gone; this must have been the reason he lost his prescience.
Chani was a fierce character beautifully written by Paul. She died giving birth to Leto II and Ghanima, and her demise shattered Paul, who eventually gave up the throne and walked into the desert.
Hayt
Role: Hayt is a ghola of Duncan Idaho.
Key Info: He was given to Paul by Scytale, one of the conspirators planning to end the Atreides’ rule.
Background: After returning to Paul, Hayt becomes romantically involved with Alia, who struggles with the genetic remnants of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Personality: Hayt is a ghola created by the Bene Tleilaxu. Though he looks like Duncan, he has weird mechanical eyes that upset the Fremen.
Development: Scytale places a hidden command in Hayt to activate and use him to kill Paul.
Significance: Though he was a ghola, Paul could not reject Hayt because he had a strong bond with Duncan; this showed that though Paul became the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul still cared for those he loved.
After Chani dies, Hayt’s trigger to kill Paul sets off, but he fights his programming and recovers his memories as Duncan Idaho. He then joins the Atreides’ fight against the conspirators.
Alia
Role: Alia is Paul Atreides’ sister.
Key Info: She gets romantically involved with Hayt, a ghola of Duncan Idaho, and they work together to uncover the conspiracy against the Atreides.
Background: Though she is still about 15 years old, Alia has heightened mental and sexual powers that make her a capable fighter.
Personality: Alia is strong-willed. Her heightened powers scare the Fremen, who think a demon possessed her.
Development: Alia works with Duncan to unravel the conspiracy against her brother. However, she slowly falls into the Abomination as the ego memory of her ancestors starts trying to take control of her mind.
Significance: Alia’s story is one of despair and pity. She was born with powers that corrupted and tormented her. However, her worst problem was people not understanding her.
After Paul walks into the desert, Alia is named Regent and becomes the guardian of Paul’s children. She orders the execution of everyone linked to the conspiracy against Paul except Irulan.
Otheym
Role: Otheym was a renowned fighter and follower of Paul.
Key Info: He was crucial in training the Fremen fighters in the Weirding Way.
Background: As a devoted follower of the Muad’Dib, Otheym became one of the first Fedaykin, a group of Fremen serving as death commandos for Paul.
Personality: Otheym is a fervent follower of the Muad’Dib and Paul’s close friend. He was one of the first Fedaykin to serve under Paul.
Development: Scytale kills Otheym’s daughter and takes her appearance to gain access to Paul’s children.
Significance: Otheym reveals the plot against Paul and the Atreides’ Empire.
Without Otheym, Paul would have been unable to stop his conspirators and died.
Bijaz
Role: Bijaz is a Bene Tleilaxu master and a dwarf.
Key Info: He had a secret goal to operate Hayt to kill Paul Atreides.
Background: Bijaz was a part of the conspiracy to destroy Paul’s control over Melange production.
Personality: Bijaz is a ghola who has lived many times. He is a Tleilaxu master and a dwarf. He also has prescient powers that make him immune to those with clairvoyance.
Development: When Bijaz meets Duncan’s unawakened ghola, Hayt, he is immediately distrusted.
Significance: While formulating a plan against Paul, the Tleilaxu made it seem like they had discarded Bijaz and given him up to Paul. However, they secretly tasked the dwarf with seeing through the plan of killing Paul.
Bijaz’s existence was an exception, as he had lived many lifetimes. When Duncan eventually killed him, the Tleilaxu likely resurrected him.
Leto II Atreides
Role: Leto II Atreides is Paul Atreides’ son.
Key Info: He and his sister, Ghanima, were born after Chani took a Fremen fertility diet.
Background: Like Alia, Leto II and his sister were born with powers.
Personality: Though an infant, Leto II and his sister inherited centuries of ancestral knowledge; this made them adults in infants’ bodies.
Development: Leto II and his sister were born on the last day of Paul Atreides’ reign as Emperor.
Significance: When Chani dies during childbirth, Scytale takes Leto II and Ghanima hostage, forcing Paul into a standoff. However, Paul sees through Leto II’s eyes as he inherits his father’s ocular powers; this enables Paul to stop Scytale.
Leto II’s birth signaled the beginning of a new era where the false hero Paul Atreides’ journey ended. His inheriting his father’s gift showed the change in the power dynamics of Arrakis.
Stilgar Ben Fifrawi
Role: Stilgar is the Naib of the Sietch Tabr.
Key Info: He is Paul’s great friend and was the one who welcomed him and Jessica into the Fremen society.
Background: Stilgar became the steward of Arrakis after Paul became the Emperor.
Personality: As with all Fremen, Stilgar is a fierce warrior and commander. He is a thin man with a full-lipped mouth, a thin nose, and a dark beard.
Development: Stilgar takes charge of Arrakis and takes in Leto II and Ghanima after Paul walks into the desert a blind man.
Significance: With Paul gone, Alia becomes regent and orders Stilgar to kill the conspirators. Though it was against Paul’s orders, Stilgar follows the order and ends the life of Reverend Mother Helen and Edric.
Stilgar was a fierce and loyal warrior who led the Fremen Jihad and served Paul faithfully even after he walked into the desert. His loyalty to the Atreides knew no bounds.
