#dune chapterhouse

Kind of made him into a “handsome” version of their communal form but still creepy enough. I really love his character in Messiah so much so I want to make him dateable. This covert warrior assassin on a mission, going to and fro the far reaches of the empire. Wise yet not an elder. Inhuman and unsettling.

Dune - Fremen stillsuit

I don’t know how to draw lol. Wanted to sketch a Fish Speak and Honored Matre, but then doodled kooky Sheeana. I… love… Dune 😩

What happened in the 1,500 years after Leto II's death?

Following the death of the Tyrant, a Fish Speaker Council—a democratic bureaucracy—took control of the core of the old Atreides Empire. However, the Bene Gesserit viewed themselves as superior to this Council, often implying that the Fish Speakers held no monopoly on Siona genes.

When Duncan Idaho, consort of Siona, revealed the location of the Tyrant’s hidden melange at Sietch Tabr, the Fish Speakers claimed most of it. However, they ultimately squandered this valuable resource through petty conflicts, poor judgment, and general mismanagement—events that history would largely forget. While the Fish Speakers and their formerly obedient priesthood continued to enforce reverence for Leto’s Golden Path, this eventually degenerated into a system of pervasive compulsion.

With the Bene Tleilax breaking the spice monopoly through axolotl tank-produced melange, the Fish Speakers allied with Ix, finding common cause with them. Even during the Scattering and the Famine Times, Fish Speaker auxiliaries and splinter factions persisted as an extension of Ix, supposedly upholding principles of truth and justice. However, during the Famine Times, the Fish Speakers were cast out, with some disappearing into the Scattering.

On Rakis, the Fish Speaker ritual of Siaynoq degraded into an overly energetic and meaningless spectacle known as the “Dancing Diversion.” Meanwhile, in the Scattering, certain Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers and exiled Fish Speakers, facing extreme circumstances, formed the Honored Matres—a tyrannical autocracy. Elsewhere, the Roxborough family of Lernaeus emerged from the union of Fish Speaker and Atreides bloodlines. Reverend Mother Janet Roxborough, a descendant of this lineage, was the mother of Bashar Miles Teg, who would go on to father Mother Superior Odrade.

What of the Present in Heretics of Dune?

The Tleilaxu have covertly infiltrated the highest councils of both Ix and the Fish Speakers, deploying new, undetectable Face Dancers. Meanwhile, the conditioning of the Rakian priesthood has deteriorated, and the Fish Speakers, having been distanced from their former devotions, now wield little influence. What influence they do retain has largely fallen under the subtle manipulation of the Face Dancers.

When Odrade released the Atreides Manifesto, both the Ixians and Fish Speakers were alarmed. However, she dismissed their concerns, remarking that they "hear the noise of God everywhere." On Rakis, the Fish Speakers maintain a small trading and espionage delegation, now composed of both men and women. Though men, including members of the Rakian priesthood, serve only in an advisory capacity. Odrade foresaw that both Ix and the Fish Speakers would decline together, predicting that they would be cast into a past that humanity would ultimately leave behind.

What of Their Mythology?

The Fish Speakers are remembered as the ancient army of God, cast out during the Scattering. They remain an all-female force, with men serving only in subordinate roles.

Other Stuff Lol

Gammu Keep was originally a Fish Speaker Command Center, abandoned during the Scattering.

The Tleilaxu reportedly captured a Fish Speaker who spat on Waff, condemning him as vile and pretentious.

The structure surrounding the Great Square of Keen, which now houses the Rakian priesthood, was once a Fish Speaker Center, later outfitted with Ixian technology.

The Scattering, the Honored Matres, the Tleilaxu.

I wrote this a year ago but probably forgot to post it. These are my thoughts immediately following the conclusion of Chapterhouse.

Out in the Scattering, the advanced Face Dancers (of this era) of the Tleilaxu had obtained so many identities from their targets/victims that they became liberated from the bindings of their Masters, developing their own sense of self. The Honored Matre descend from Bene Gesserit who fled Chapterhouse and out into the Scattering following Leto’s death. These Bene Gesserit, coupled with Fish Speakers, merged over time under extreme conditions that could have feasibly destroyed the two parties. They became an autocratic terrorist regime crutched on violent and sexual highs, who lost most of their Gesserit traits but obtained great reflexes and physical prowess. They chaotically wielded this power, unforgivingly, dominating many Scattered planets and populaces through sexual bindings and genocide (employing the use of atomics) — including the descendants of genetic Tleilax. They absorbed technocratic installations, likely renegade offshoots of Ix. They worshiped Leto II as Guldur, and… had their base of operations on the planet Dur? Not exactly a religious society, but casually spiritual.

Their greatest enemy were the Face Dancers who obtained autonomy. These Face Dancers seemed to have obtained the Tleilax knowledge of cloning and genetic manipulation, as these Face Dancers seemingly overwhelmed the Matre. They employed their own genetic slaves, feline-human hybrids, who they handled to hunt and kill Honored Matre. They also employed biowarfare to vegetate entire battlefields. This may have been in the form of a virus or bacteria. These Face Dancers nearly killed the Honored Matre, who retreated to the Old Empire to thus subjugate and absorb their resources, including weapons, ships, militant slaves, planets, and so forth. They were especially threatened by the Bene Gesserit, the technical ancestor of their order, as they effectively surpassed them save in numbers. Despite this contempt, they desperately sought knowledge on how to combat biological agents within the body (Bene Gesseri transmutations and immunities), as they had been largely defeated as a result of Face Dancers biowarfare. This inevitably led to the merging of these powers, wherein the Sisterhood sought to effectively convert and breed the Matre out of existence, if not purely in their numbers. Meanwhile, free and presumably prescient Face Dancers, Daniel and Marty, two elderly gardeners, had planned on capturing a potential Kwisatz Hadirach and Mentant — Duncan — as well as his party, wishing to put them on a planet. That, and a living Tleilaxu Master held the cells of individuals who could restore Tleilax. It almost seems like Daniel and Marty wishes to experiment or test Duncan. They would have likely killed the Master, but not before taking the information they needed. These liberated Face Dancers are extremely dangerous. They could view the tubing within his chest, although all Masters within the circle of the Master of Masters has this tube. D & M were watching Duncan, even from within his no-ship. It’s no wonder the Matre fled when they passed judgment on them.