Skip to main content

frank herbert - Dune: Appendix III Who/What controlled the higher dimensional plan?


Appendix III: Report on the Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes
On the surface it would seem that the Golden Path of Leto II was that plan and he was in charge, but he was not alive during the Arrakis Affair. Also one might think that it's Paul himself but Mr Herbert seems to indicate that it started before even Paul's birth.



The Lady Jessica was ordered to produce an Atreides daughter. The plan was to inbreed this daughter with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a nephew of the Baron Vladimir, with the high probability of a Kwisatz Haderach from that union. Instead, for reasons she confesses have never been completely clear to her, the concubine Lady Jessica defied her orders and bore a son.


This alone should have alerted the Bene Gesserit to the possibility that a wild variable had entered their scheme. But there were other far more important indications that they virtually ignored:



The Report is a scathing criticism of the Gesserit multi-generational plan and ends the book with the hair raising:




In the face of these facts, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that the inefficient Bene Gesserit behavior in this affair was a product of an even higher plan of which they were completely unaware!



In many years of (re)reading the original books I don't see an answer, did I miss it, or is there an answer in the subsequent works not written by Mr Frank Herbert?



Answer



If you look at the entirety of the Dune books from not just Frank Herbert, but also his son, one character in particular has an expansive capability in the higher order dimensions that surpasses Leto II's: Norma Cenva.


She has existed in the expanded Dune timeline from the beginnings of the Bulterian Jihad against Omnius (born 218 B.G), all through the Arrakis Affair (culminating 10,193 A.G.), and up until the final (2nd) battle against Omnius at the Kralizec (eliminated Omnius 15,263 A.G.). A total of 15,000 years.


After transforming in 174 B.G. then becoming the first Navigator in 88 B.G., she evolves and grows in powers far beyond a normal Navigator during her 15,000 years of existence. She is eventually revealed to be the Oracle of Time in "Hunters of Dune" that has been planning and guiding humanity until the final battle at the Kralizec. According to published canon, Norma is that higher level planner/power that Frank Herbert alluded to in his original novels.


"Hunters of Dune" and "Sandworms of Dune" were written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson based upon Frank Herbert's own 1,000 pages of notes and a 3 page outline (note the accepted answer says a 30 page outline but I listened to the interview, and Kevin states "a three page or maybe a two-and-one-half page outline"). There is considerable fan debate about how many of the plot details in those two books were originally from Frank's own ideas. It is not publicly known in those 1,000 pages of Frank's notes if Frank defined the Oracle of Time character or if Frank specified that Norma Cenva would fill that role.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...