The Golden Path
by SuperString01
The Golden Path is probably something I dont understand completely. I can hypothesize about it, but rememberits all conjecture! The notions that I have about exactly WHAT the nature of the Golden Path is have been influenced greatly by the brilliant people hear at DoD and much more; therefore, it is hard for me to take full credit for my ideas, as they are not all mine. Credit belongs in great part to SisterArtemis and CogitaVera (a non-active member).
The Golden Path was the ultimate object lesson: its goal was, in shortsurvival; the survival of the human species. Nothing more, nothing less. The details of it are so fine that the man who created Dune was a genius. The brilliance of the God Emperor who, concordantly, enforced created the Golden Path within the tales is almost impossible to imagine as well. I dont know that even I can explain them. But to begin an understanding of the Golden Path, one must understand the nature of the Kwizats Haderachas they (Paul and Leto) and as they were supposed to have been.
At some point shortly after the inception of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood they began to tap into the multitudes of female memories which stretched from their time all the way back to the dawn of humanitymillions of years. Though women throughout a great portion of history had (and indeed in our time this is still true) been relegated to secondary roles, the Bene Gesserit took to heart all feminine knowledge. As Ive always said: never underestimate the quiet power behind the throne. Though women are often forgotten in the history books, the Bene Gesserit were lucky enough to NEVER have a need for history books, and thus had a unique view of history. The Bene Gesserit had almost perfect knowledge of history and thus, had the ability to track historical events with nearly perfect accuracy. Patterns. Patterns within patterns, is what they saw.
Empirical Analysis by definition is the faculty of judging the future by the events of the past. Having the entire stockpile of history from the dawn of time up until the time in which they inhabited, gave the Sisterhood the ability to follow historical trends to a T. What the Bene Gesserit discovered, I believe, is that humanity was doomed. In their typical human fashion (once confronted with eminent doom) the Bene Gesserit began to look for a way out. Survival of humanity, it would seem, was the first driving force of the Bene Gesserit plan. Noble.
One lesson, I believe, that he Sisterhood took away from history is the feminine notion of subservient dominance. Women throughout history have been relegated to secondary roles, and have thus been forced into a historically submissive position. As I stated, never forget that it is the quiet powers behind the throne that really hold the power. The Bene Gesserit, I believe, allowed for this and created a niche for themselves within the feudal system of the Old Imperium. This niche gave them an edge on the one thing that they needed in order to save humanity: bloodlines.
Having come to the conclusion that humanity was ultimately doomed, the Bene Gesserit began breeding for a male messiah (to fit the need of the Old Imperiums need for a male ruler and to see the male other memories). A messiah, however, cannot come in where there is not a void in the hearts of man that needs to be filled; thus was born the Missionaria Protectiva. The protective missionary was a service that worked on the small scale to secure a place of safety for any Sister(s), should they find themselves in need of on one of the many worlds of the Old Imperium. The Missionaria Protectiva also worked on the LARGE scaleso large in fact that it was scarcely detectable until it was too late. The point of the Missionaria Protectiva was to create tailor made religions to suit individual cultures on individual worlds. The one uniting factor of the Missionaria Protectiva that was the same throughout the Old Imperium, was the notion that one day a savior would come of a Bene Gesserit mother and set the oppressed masses free. But free from what?
Earlier I stated that the Old Imperium was a grand feudal society. I believe that the Bene Gesserit desired a feudal society of caste and culture. Any society where there were oppressed masses was a society that was ripe for a messiahand a messiah is what the Bene Gesserit were intent on producing. But, the feudal society served not only the empty heart yearning to be free position that a people need in order to welcome a messiah, it also served the inherent need of the Bene Gesserit in breeding a messiah. In a society such as ours, or a communist society, or in a fascist society, it is next to impossible to create a notion of importance about blood lines. To be certain there are always popular families, there is always a family that has prominence and fame for a time but such things always fade. ONLY in a feudal society does blood and heritage count. By creating a feudal society and by supporting it as the good Stepford Wives, the Bene Gesserit and all their powers controlled BOTH the Imperium (with none of the blame) and all of the bloodlines (their most desired goals).
All this is based, however, on the notion that the Bene Gesserit would be the wives of the nobility. Therefore the Bene Gesserit had to be the most desirable women in the universe. Ergo they gave their adepts the best traits of a desirable woman: sexual prowess, education, beauty, language, culture, epicure, romance, creativity, perceptiveness and all other traits that a great man would desire. Only by creating the most desired women in the universe, could he Bene Gesserit guarantee that the bloodlines of those men who they wished to secure would, indeed, be theirs.
And thus, tightened the plan.
The goal was set: dominance of humanity. But the Bene Gesserit were far too wise to create a messiah and risk that he would be killed in a brutal upheaval. Therefore, they manipulated politics to allowed for a series of events that would create a smooth change of power from the Corrinos to the Bene Gesserits Kwizats Haderach.
The wife of Shaddam IV would bear him no sons. The rules as established were simple: only a male could inherit the throne of the Imperium. The daughter of the Corrinos (Irulan or her daughter) would wed the Kwizats Haderach. Jessica Atreides would bear the Sisterhood a daughter who would wed the Harkonnen, Feyd Rautha. The son of that union would be the Kwizats Haderach (and, consequentially seal the breach, too). This son would wed Irulan (or her daughter) and by that time Shaddam would be old and decrepit. The Kwizats Haderach would slide neatly into power having married into it. At the same time he would also fulfill the many prophesized predictions of the many religions planted neatly in place by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and their Missionaria Protectiva. No blood. No toil. Just power to the Bene Gesserit and their messiah.
The Bene Gesserit misjudged greatly, but NOT on the part of their dire predictions for humanity.
Finally, a male was born with the male memories but also the female memories. Not only did the Kwizats Haderach have the powers of a Mentat, but he also contained prescience on a level that the Bene Gesserit had never planned for. With the prescience to predict the future of humanity instead of with empirical analysis, Paul and Leto II saw the destruction that their entire existence was intended to prevent.
Paul MuadDib Atreides, indeed, saw the end of humanity but saw ONLY one path to save it: the Jihad. His Jihad, to wipe out all resistance to his rule. To give up all vestiges of his humanity and the wife he loved. Paul was born into a human life but the thirst for his humanity drove him mad and derailed his plans to save humanity. Paul, in his own eyes, failed but he actually played his own part in humanitys salvation. Though he saw death and destruction in humanitys future and only a slim path that would lead it to salvation, he could not bring himself to make the sacrifice.
Then Leto II and Ghanima Atreides were born. Both prescients. Both potential Kwizats Haderach like their fatherall they needed was spice. Leto II chose the sacrifice. His sacrifice created what we now call The Golden Path. In a way, he fulfilled the Bene Gesserit plan to save humanity but NOT in the way they predicted or wished.
What MuadDib and Leto II predicted was dire. What was worse was the fact that the demise of humanity was so multi-pronged as to be all but unavoidable.
Imagine having the ability to see the future of humanity and only seeing death and destruction. Out of ALL of the possible futures, only one proved capable of salvaging humanity as a race that would exist forever.
It is obvious that the Golden Paths first goal was to save humanity from some horrible force that invades and destroys it. Some smarties (like my dear Sis) believe the force to be composed of some Tleilaxu experiment that had gone haywire or escaped their control. I like this one. It fits the possibilities and would be a great twist. There are others who believe that it may just be an un-earthly intelligence spawned by evolution on another world. Though this does not fit the Herbert model it may be what Frank Herbert envisioned (though, I seriously doubt it). Lastly, there is the belief that the invading force is comprised of escaped thinking machines. These thinking machines fled to the farthest reaches of the universe to rebuild and advance themselves beyond the reach of humanityfor over 15,000 years. This last course is what I believe. It also fits the Herbert model and rings of a truism: humanitys mistakes coming back to haunt them.
By this, and my belief, the Butlerian Jihad never ended it merely went on a 15 millennia hiatus. The thinking machines ran and hid from humanity in the farthest reaches of the universe and waited and grew and waited until they met again.
During Pauls and Leto IIs visions they saw this future. The threat from this future was so grave as to be nearly insurmountable. The Old Imperium was huge believe me when I say, it was huge on a scale that dwarfed any sci-fi epics imperial dreams. Populations in the mega-trillions. Galaxies probably in the hundreds and planets in the many, many millions. So the Old Imperium was big. But no matter how large it was from our perspective, the Old Imperium was tiny and stagnant. But therein lies one of the points- no matter how huge the space, if the size is fixed and does not grow, then humanity will stagnate. Even the huge space that was the Old Imperium was not large enough to prevent humanity from dieing out from its own stagnation.
The stagnation of the Old Imperium was caused by its leash-like attachment to the energy world of Dune. Since the sandworms of Dune were un-transplantable, the citizens of the Old Imperium could not dunify many worlds into energy planets. The spice, as it was, was also impossible to synthesize. All things considered, presumably, it can be dangerous to live in any universe where space travel depended on a substance that was also a narcotic. Indeed, no matter what the course, humanity was in peril.
And thus grew the plan of Leto II. By removing the spice from the Imperium and oppressing the people (oppression is always the best mother of invention) for long enough, he created a longing to be free of him. The periods of time we are talking about then would number in the millennia. By the novels count- 3,500 years. But, to oppress the people long enough to create this longing as well as light the fire of inventiveness, he also created a need and desire for his very own godhead. Such a strong desire for a Kwizats Haderach-styled ruler was counterproductive to his plans. To put it simply: Leto knew that he had to be the first, last and eternally ONLY human to rule with such power. The problem with that notion is this: Once opened, this type of Pandoras Box could rarely be shut.
Therefore he added what would be the crowing achievement to his great Golden Path: the Siona Genes. By any measureit can not be refuted that prescience was a force that was destroying humanity along with its very need to guide it. The very same Oracle that was ruling humanity for 3,500 years was also creating a blood-thirst for its usage. The Siona Genes forever ligated that path. By the advent of Siona, it became clear that she and all her descendents would not only HAVE invisibility to prescience, but would need it in the far-off future.
Letos Golden Path took its shape. The Golden Path, as I will show, created THREE great hybridizations. The Golden Path, and the shape of it, began with the combining of human and sandworm bloodlines
One of the great requirements of a person who wants to live many millennia is the need to find a form that would support this quest. Though grotesque and undoubtedly painful, Leto II found a way to combine his body with that of the sand trout and grow into a sandworm. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly, over the creeping of 3,500 years his body transformed into a hybrid of human and sandworm biology. The first of three great hybrids. The obvious benefit if this is his long lifespan. The not so obvious effect of this combination is the gift to the sandworm of human adaptability.
The fates of sandworms and humans had been tied together for millennia and would thus be tied even closer. By killing off all of the sandworms of Dune and keeping himself as the only one, Leto II was forcing all sandworms that would ever be, to be his descendents. Leto II always lamented his inability to have children and thus he created his own descendents. Though imbuing the sandworm with more ganglia (nerve tissue) he made them more cantankerous he also made them adaptable to new worlds and habitats. The sand trout could then be transplanted to other planets throughout the universe, just like it was shown in Heretics of Dunethe spice cycle could begin anew anywhere where there was ample water for the sand trout to grow in. Once the sand trout were at certain numbers and with ample dryness caused by the encysting of it beneath the surfacethe sandworms would appear. And the spice cycle would begin.
During this time, Leto II took from the Bene Gesserit their prized breeding plan. Over the period of the 3,500 years of his life, he manipulated multiple mutations to breed into the Atreides (first and foremost) total invisibility to any all-seeing prescience. Thus, during the far-off future, no person, no matter how prescient, would ever be able to track down ALL humans and wipe them out. Some would escape some would live. More than thatinto the Atreides were bred greater nobility, honor, passion and other wild talents. These were wild talents that, when combined with the scattering and the Honored Matres, would produce some of the great wealth of talents that would be needed in the distant future.
Taken on the surface each of these talents were enormous gifts to humanity, but considering the future that awaited humans, it is obvious how necessary they would become. Prescient invisibility, transplantable sandworms, passion for living, desire for freedom, and the added tools to move its people throughout the universe, were just peripheral blessings of the Golden Path. Throughout their millennia long search for a Kwizats Haderachthe Bene Gesserit became drunk on their dreams of future power. Power for Powers sake is always self destructive. Even so, though they were childlike in their quest for power, the Bene Gesserit (Leto II saw) were so close, yet so far from what they needed to be. And Leto made it his plan to make them into a people fit to rule. No matter how much the Bene Gesserit lament their horrible times under the rule of Leto II, it can never be denied that he saved them from themselves. No matter how mature the Bene Gesserit werethey were too selfish to be the fair-minded, proud, and self-sacrificing rulers of humanity.
The second great hybridization that the God Emperor created was the most hidden one of them all: the blending of Atreides and Bene Gesserit. Whereas the Atreides were too small and feudal to rule humanity, the Bene Gesserit lacked a desire to get their hands dirty, or the passion to rule (which the Atreides, consequently, had). It may seem like a convenient choice based upon desirable bloodlines; but the reason why the God Emperor also included such nobility into his breeding scheme is so that ONE DAY in the future (during the conquest of the Old Imperium by the Honored Matres) the Bene Gesserit would all be children of the Atreides. We are presented with the greatest face of this in Mother Superior Darwi Odrade. Odradea woman descendent of Siona was the bearer of a name that was, itself, a descendent of the name Atreides. No more were the Bene Gesserit short sighted crafters and schemers who did their work behind the throne. No more were the Atreides guided by their passion for justice and the feudal nobility. That is why the God Emperor finally compels (in the caves on Rakis) the Bene Gesserit to act and take the sward by its handle. Where once there was a secret society (the Bene Gesserit) and a macho ruling family (the Atreides) there was born the noble, purpose-driven, proud, yet wizened Bene Gesserit sisterhood whose members were all children of the Atreides.
The last great hybrid that Leto II gave humanity came from the Fish Speakers. What was originally a desire to create a horde of submissive warrior women to oppress humanity became one of Leto IIs greatest gifts to humanity. By flooding the scattering with his Fish Speaker warrior fanatics he was actively seeding the universe with nascent Honored Matres. The God Emperor could easily see that the Bene Gesserit would be the only hope of saving humanity. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, however, was too slow to grow and did not cover enough space to be numerous enough to actively defend humanity. By Odrades accounts, the Honored Matres really were Good for them [the Bene Gesserit]. By seeding the universe with trillions and trillions of Honored Matres that would one day hybridize themselves and their wild talents with the Bene Gesserit, Leto II gifted the Bene Gesserit with enough numbers to finally think big and act upon those thoughts. In short- the scattering was an enormous Bene Gesserit boot-camp, created to train new and talented sisters who would one day save humanity.
The other results of the rule of Leto II were present in the patterns of science in the Tleilaxu and the Ixians (both in the scattering and at home in the Old Imperium). By oppressing the Tleilaxu and the Ixians, Leto II drove their inventiveness. One reason that I believe the enemy of the future will not originate with the Tleilaxu and the Ixians in the scattering is this: the God Emperor would have seen the results that caused this destruction and could have easily destroyed each people before the scattering began, and thus, freeing humanity from its greatest threat. But he didnt. Leto II kept each peopleTleilaxu and Ixianalive for a reason, they (and their resulting creations) actually help save humanity. By driving their oppressiveness, Leto II, forced Ix and Tleilax to become inventive in ways that they never thought possible. The fruits of this oppression appeared in the Ixian navigation device and the Tleilaxu artificial spice. More than that, their people who were sent out into the scattering also invented and created, and the results of that were shown in Chapterhouse Dune: super face dancers, futars, the secret Honored Matre weapon. All of these things, I believe, will be used to defend humanity from the enemy beyond.
Hybrids. Weapons. Tactics. People. Ideas. The theme of the books has always been the same: What does it mean to be human? By driving and creating the Golden Path, Leto II creates the greatest thing that is encompassed within the very essence of the meaning of life to a human: survival. No matter what is said, no matter what I say- the Golden Path is simply that survival. Nothing more, nothing less.
~String
by SuperString01
The Golden Path is probably something I dont understand completely. I can hypothesize about it, but rememberits all conjecture! The notions that I have about exactly WHAT the nature of the Golden Path is have been influenced greatly by the brilliant people hear at DoD and much more; therefore, it is hard for me to take full credit for my ideas, as they are not all mine. Credit belongs in great part to SisterArtemis and CogitaVera (a non-active member).
The Golden Path was the ultimate object lesson: its goal was, in shortsurvival; the survival of the human species. Nothing more, nothing less. The details of it are so fine that the man who created Dune was a genius. The brilliance of the God Emperor who, concordantly, enforced created the Golden Path within the tales is almost impossible to imagine as well. I dont know that even I can explain them. But to begin an understanding of the Golden Path, one must understand the nature of the Kwizats Haderachas they (Paul and Leto) and as they were supposed to have been.
At some point shortly after the inception of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood they began to tap into the multitudes of female memories which stretched from their time all the way back to the dawn of humanitymillions of years. Though women throughout a great portion of history had (and indeed in our time this is still true) been relegated to secondary roles, the Bene Gesserit took to heart all feminine knowledge. As Ive always said: never underestimate the quiet power behind the throne. Though women are often forgotten in the history books, the Bene Gesserit were lucky enough to NEVER have a need for history books, and thus had a unique view of history. The Bene Gesserit had almost perfect knowledge of history and thus, had the ability to track historical events with nearly perfect accuracy. Patterns. Patterns within patterns, is what they saw.
Empirical Analysis by definition is the faculty of judging the future by the events of the past. Having the entire stockpile of history from the dawn of time up until the time in which they inhabited, gave the Sisterhood the ability to follow historical trends to a T. What the Bene Gesserit discovered, I believe, is that humanity was doomed. In their typical human fashion (once confronted with eminent doom) the Bene Gesserit began to look for a way out. Survival of humanity, it would seem, was the first driving force of the Bene Gesserit plan. Noble.
One lesson, I believe, that he Sisterhood took away from history is the feminine notion of subservient dominance. Women throughout history have been relegated to secondary roles, and have thus been forced into a historically submissive position. As I stated, never forget that it is the quiet powers behind the throne that really hold the power. The Bene Gesserit, I believe, allowed for this and created a niche for themselves within the feudal system of the Old Imperium. This niche gave them an edge on the one thing that they needed in order to save humanity: bloodlines.
Having come to the conclusion that humanity was ultimately doomed, the Bene Gesserit began breeding for a male messiah (to fit the need of the Old Imperiums need for a male ruler and to see the male other memories). A messiah, however, cannot come in where there is not a void in the hearts of man that needs to be filled; thus was born the Missionaria Protectiva. The protective missionary was a service that worked on the small scale to secure a place of safety for any Sister(s), should they find themselves in need of on one of the many worlds of the Old Imperium. The Missionaria Protectiva also worked on the LARGE scaleso large in fact that it was scarcely detectable until it was too late. The point of the Missionaria Protectiva was to create tailor made religions to suit individual cultures on individual worlds. The one uniting factor of the Missionaria Protectiva that was the same throughout the Old Imperium, was the notion that one day a savior would come of a Bene Gesserit mother and set the oppressed masses free. But free from what?
Earlier I stated that the Old Imperium was a grand feudal society. I believe that the Bene Gesserit desired a feudal society of caste and culture. Any society where there were oppressed masses was a society that was ripe for a messiahand a messiah is what the Bene Gesserit were intent on producing. But, the feudal society served not only the empty heart yearning to be free position that a people need in order to welcome a messiah, it also served the inherent need of the Bene Gesserit in breeding a messiah. In a society such as ours, or a communist society, or in a fascist society, it is next to impossible to create a notion of importance about blood lines. To be certain there are always popular families, there is always a family that has prominence and fame for a time but such things always fade. ONLY in a feudal society does blood and heritage count. By creating a feudal society and by supporting it as the good Stepford Wives, the Bene Gesserit and all their powers controlled BOTH the Imperium (with none of the blame) and all of the bloodlines (their most desired goals).
All this is based, however, on the notion that the Bene Gesserit would be the wives of the nobility. Therefore the Bene Gesserit had to be the most desirable women in the universe. Ergo they gave their adepts the best traits of a desirable woman: sexual prowess, education, beauty, language, culture, epicure, romance, creativity, perceptiveness and all other traits that a great man would desire. Only by creating the most desired women in the universe, could he Bene Gesserit guarantee that the bloodlines of those men who they wished to secure would, indeed, be theirs.
And thus, tightened the plan.
The goal was set: dominance of humanity. But the Bene Gesserit were far too wise to create a messiah and risk that he would be killed in a brutal upheaval. Therefore, they manipulated politics to allowed for a series of events that would create a smooth change of power from the Corrinos to the Bene Gesserits Kwizats Haderach.
The wife of Shaddam IV would bear him no sons. The rules as established were simple: only a male could inherit the throne of the Imperium. The daughter of the Corrinos (Irulan or her daughter) would wed the Kwizats Haderach. Jessica Atreides would bear the Sisterhood a daughter who would wed the Harkonnen, Feyd Rautha. The son of that union would be the Kwizats Haderach (and, consequentially seal the breach, too). This son would wed Irulan (or her daughter) and by that time Shaddam would be old and decrepit. The Kwizats Haderach would slide neatly into power having married into it. At the same time he would also fulfill the many prophesized predictions of the many religions planted neatly in place by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood and their Missionaria Protectiva. No blood. No toil. Just power to the Bene Gesserit and their messiah.
The Bene Gesserit misjudged greatly, but NOT on the part of their dire predictions for humanity.
Finally, a male was born with the male memories but also the female memories. Not only did the Kwizats Haderach have the powers of a Mentat, but he also contained prescience on a level that the Bene Gesserit had never planned for. With the prescience to predict the future of humanity instead of with empirical analysis, Paul and Leto II saw the destruction that their entire existence was intended to prevent.
Paul MuadDib Atreides, indeed, saw the end of humanity but saw ONLY one path to save it: the Jihad. His Jihad, to wipe out all resistance to his rule. To give up all vestiges of his humanity and the wife he loved. Paul was born into a human life but the thirst for his humanity drove him mad and derailed his plans to save humanity. Paul, in his own eyes, failed but he actually played his own part in humanitys salvation. Though he saw death and destruction in humanitys future and only a slim path that would lead it to salvation, he could not bring himself to make the sacrifice.
Then Leto II and Ghanima Atreides were born. Both prescients. Both potential Kwizats Haderach like their fatherall they needed was spice. Leto II chose the sacrifice. His sacrifice created what we now call The Golden Path. In a way, he fulfilled the Bene Gesserit plan to save humanity but NOT in the way they predicted or wished.
What MuadDib and Leto II predicted was dire. What was worse was the fact that the demise of humanity was so multi-pronged as to be all but unavoidable.
Imagine having the ability to see the future of humanity and only seeing death and destruction. Out of ALL of the possible futures, only one proved capable of salvaging humanity as a race that would exist forever.
It is obvious that the Golden Paths first goal was to save humanity from some horrible force that invades and destroys it. Some smarties (like my dear Sis) believe the force to be composed of some Tleilaxu experiment that had gone haywire or escaped their control. I like this one. It fits the possibilities and would be a great twist. There are others who believe that it may just be an un-earthly intelligence spawned by evolution on another world. Though this does not fit the Herbert model it may be what Frank Herbert envisioned (though, I seriously doubt it). Lastly, there is the belief that the invading force is comprised of escaped thinking machines. These thinking machines fled to the farthest reaches of the universe to rebuild and advance themselves beyond the reach of humanityfor over 15,000 years. This last course is what I believe. It also fits the Herbert model and rings of a truism: humanitys mistakes coming back to haunt them.
By this, and my belief, the Butlerian Jihad never ended it merely went on a 15 millennia hiatus. The thinking machines ran and hid from humanity in the farthest reaches of the universe and waited and grew and waited until they met again.
During Pauls and Leto IIs visions they saw this future. The threat from this future was so grave as to be nearly insurmountable. The Old Imperium was huge believe me when I say, it was huge on a scale that dwarfed any sci-fi epics imperial dreams. Populations in the mega-trillions. Galaxies probably in the hundreds and planets in the many, many millions. So the Old Imperium was big. But no matter how large it was from our perspective, the Old Imperium was tiny and stagnant. But therein lies one of the points- no matter how huge the space, if the size is fixed and does not grow, then humanity will stagnate. Even the huge space that was the Old Imperium was not large enough to prevent humanity from dieing out from its own stagnation.
The stagnation of the Old Imperium was caused by its leash-like attachment to the energy world of Dune. Since the sandworms of Dune were un-transplantable, the citizens of the Old Imperium could not dunify many worlds into energy planets. The spice, as it was, was also impossible to synthesize. All things considered, presumably, it can be dangerous to live in any universe where space travel depended on a substance that was also a narcotic. Indeed, no matter what the course, humanity was in peril.
And thus grew the plan of Leto II. By removing the spice from the Imperium and oppressing the people (oppression is always the best mother of invention) for long enough, he created a longing to be free of him. The periods of time we are talking about then would number in the millennia. By the novels count- 3,500 years. But, to oppress the people long enough to create this longing as well as light the fire of inventiveness, he also created a need and desire for his very own godhead. Such a strong desire for a Kwizats Haderach-styled ruler was counterproductive to his plans. To put it simply: Leto knew that he had to be the first, last and eternally ONLY human to rule with such power. The problem with that notion is this: Once opened, this type of Pandoras Box could rarely be shut.
Therefore he added what would be the crowing achievement to his great Golden Path: the Siona Genes. By any measureit can not be refuted that prescience was a force that was destroying humanity along with its very need to guide it. The very same Oracle that was ruling humanity for 3,500 years was also creating a blood-thirst for its usage. The Siona Genes forever ligated that path. By the advent of Siona, it became clear that she and all her descendents would not only HAVE invisibility to prescience, but would need it in the far-off future.
Letos Golden Path took its shape. The Golden Path, as I will show, created THREE great hybridizations. The Golden Path, and the shape of it, began with the combining of human and sandworm bloodlines
One of the great requirements of a person who wants to live many millennia is the need to find a form that would support this quest. Though grotesque and undoubtedly painful, Leto II found a way to combine his body with that of the sand trout and grow into a sandworm. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly, over the creeping of 3,500 years his body transformed into a hybrid of human and sandworm biology. The first of three great hybrids. The obvious benefit if this is his long lifespan. The not so obvious effect of this combination is the gift to the sandworm of human adaptability.
The fates of sandworms and humans had been tied together for millennia and would thus be tied even closer. By killing off all of the sandworms of Dune and keeping himself as the only one, Leto II was forcing all sandworms that would ever be, to be his descendents. Leto II always lamented his inability to have children and thus he created his own descendents. Though imbuing the sandworm with more ganglia (nerve tissue) he made them more cantankerous he also made them adaptable to new worlds and habitats. The sand trout could then be transplanted to other planets throughout the universe, just like it was shown in Heretics of Dunethe spice cycle could begin anew anywhere where there was ample water for the sand trout to grow in. Once the sand trout were at certain numbers and with ample dryness caused by the encysting of it beneath the surfacethe sandworms would appear. And the spice cycle would begin.
During this time, Leto II took from the Bene Gesserit their prized breeding plan. Over the period of the 3,500 years of his life, he manipulated multiple mutations to breed into the Atreides (first and foremost) total invisibility to any all-seeing prescience. Thus, during the far-off future, no person, no matter how prescient, would ever be able to track down ALL humans and wipe them out. Some would escape some would live. More than thatinto the Atreides were bred greater nobility, honor, passion and other wild talents. These were wild talents that, when combined with the scattering and the Honored Matres, would produce some of the great wealth of talents that would be needed in the distant future.
Taken on the surface each of these talents were enormous gifts to humanity, but considering the future that awaited humans, it is obvious how necessary they would become. Prescient invisibility, transplantable sandworms, passion for living, desire for freedom, and the added tools to move its people throughout the universe, were just peripheral blessings of the Golden Path. Throughout their millennia long search for a Kwizats Haderachthe Bene Gesserit became drunk on their dreams of future power. Power for Powers sake is always self destructive. Even so, though they were childlike in their quest for power, the Bene Gesserit (Leto II saw) were so close, yet so far from what they needed to be. And Leto made it his plan to make them into a people fit to rule. No matter how much the Bene Gesserit lament their horrible times under the rule of Leto II, it can never be denied that he saved them from themselves. No matter how mature the Bene Gesserit werethey were too selfish to be the fair-minded, proud, and self-sacrificing rulers of humanity.
The second great hybridization that the God Emperor created was the most hidden one of them all: the blending of Atreides and Bene Gesserit. Whereas the Atreides were too small and feudal to rule humanity, the Bene Gesserit lacked a desire to get their hands dirty, or the passion to rule (which the Atreides, consequently, had). It may seem like a convenient choice based upon desirable bloodlines; but the reason why the God Emperor also included such nobility into his breeding scheme is so that ONE DAY in the future (during the conquest of the Old Imperium by the Honored Matres) the Bene Gesserit would all be children of the Atreides. We are presented with the greatest face of this in Mother Superior Darwi Odrade. Odradea woman descendent of Siona was the bearer of a name that was, itself, a descendent of the name Atreides. No more were the Bene Gesserit short sighted crafters and schemers who did their work behind the throne. No more were the Atreides guided by their passion for justice and the feudal nobility. That is why the God Emperor finally compels (in the caves on Rakis) the Bene Gesserit to act and take the sward by its handle. Where once there was a secret society (the Bene Gesserit) and a macho ruling family (the Atreides) there was born the noble, purpose-driven, proud, yet wizened Bene Gesserit sisterhood whose members were all children of the Atreides.
The last great hybrid that Leto II gave humanity came from the Fish Speakers. What was originally a desire to create a horde of submissive warrior women to oppress humanity became one of Leto IIs greatest gifts to humanity. By flooding the scattering with his Fish Speaker warrior fanatics he was actively seeding the universe with nascent Honored Matres. The God Emperor could easily see that the Bene Gesserit would be the only hope of saving humanity. The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, however, was too slow to grow and did not cover enough space to be numerous enough to actively defend humanity. By Odrades accounts, the Honored Matres really were Good for them [the Bene Gesserit]. By seeding the universe with trillions and trillions of Honored Matres that would one day hybridize themselves and their wild talents with the Bene Gesserit, Leto II gifted the Bene Gesserit with enough numbers to finally think big and act upon those thoughts. In short- the scattering was an enormous Bene Gesserit boot-camp, created to train new and talented sisters who would one day save humanity.
The other results of the rule of Leto II were present in the patterns of science in the Tleilaxu and the Ixians (both in the scattering and at home in the Old Imperium). By oppressing the Tleilaxu and the Ixians, Leto II drove their inventiveness. One reason that I believe the enemy of the future will not originate with the Tleilaxu and the Ixians in the scattering is this: the God Emperor would have seen the results that caused this destruction and could have easily destroyed each people before the scattering began, and thus, freeing humanity from its greatest threat. But he didnt. Leto II kept each peopleTleilaxu and Ixianalive for a reason, they (and their resulting creations) actually help save humanity. By driving their oppressiveness, Leto II, forced Ix and Tleilax to become inventive in ways that they never thought possible. The fruits of this oppression appeared in the Ixian navigation device and the Tleilaxu artificial spice. More than that, their people who were sent out into the scattering also invented and created, and the results of that were shown in Chapterhouse Dune: super face dancers, futars, the secret Honored Matre weapon. All of these things, I believe, will be used to defend humanity from the enemy beyond.
Hybrids. Weapons. Tactics. People. Ideas. The theme of the books has always been the same: What does it mean to be human? By driving and creating the Golden Path, Leto II creates the greatest thing that is encompassed within the very essence of the meaning of life to a human: survival. No matter what is said, no matter what I say- the Golden Path is simply that survival. Nothing more, nothing less.
~String
