Leto Atreides II, who would go on to become the God Emperor of Dune serves as a central
character for much of Frank Herbert’s saga.
In this video I’d like to talk about the life of Leto II, his rise to power as the
God Emperor, and how his rule fundamentally altered the course and fabric of humanity.
Spoiler warning as I will be talking about significant elements throughout Frank Herbert’s
Dune series.
In the book Dune Messiah published in 1969, Paul Atreides who had then become the Emperor
and his concubine Chani are on Arrakis.
Here they have twins, a girl who they name Ghanima and a son, named after Paul’s father,
Leto.
This was their second son, the first, who they had given the same name, was tragically
killed in his infancy during a Sardaukar attack.
Shortly after giving birth to the twins, Chani died from complications as a result of drugs
that had been given to her in secret by Paul’s wife Irulan.
Irulan had done this under the instruction of the Reverend Mother Gauis Helen Mohaim
in an attempt to prevent Chani from bearing children.
Although he had lost his vision as a result of an explosion from a nearby stone burner,
Paul was able to perceive the world around him through his prescience.
Therefore he was able to foresee the birth of his daughter but strangely was not aware
of his son.
Because of this, Leto’s arrival after Ghanima came as a surprise to him, further adding
to his doubts regarding his abilities.
This combined with the loss of his beloved Chani and the weight of the billions of lives
taken from his jihad pushed Paul to a breaking point.
He then wandered out into the desert, giving himself up to the sandworms as was the tradition
for blind fremen.
To counteract Irulan’s contraceptives, Chani had transitioned to an ancient fremen diet
eating foods containing high levels of the spice melange.
Due to their mother’s high level of spice saturation, the twins became pre-born in utero.
This meant that they were exposed to their genetic ancestral memories while still in
the womb.
This was considered Abomination by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood as such individuals would
not be able to control the ego-memories as they surfaced within them.
When combined with any psychological imbalances those who were pre-born could prove to be
volatile and dangerous.
This was the case with Paul’s sister Alia who eventually fell completely into Abomination,
succumbing to the ego-personality of her grandfather Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
After their father’s disappearance into the desert and presumed death, the twins became
the legal responsibility of Alia who had taken over as Imperial Regent of the Atreides Empire.
Because of Alia’s instability however, Ghanima and Leto received very little of her attention,
and were mostly looked after by Irulan, who felt remorse over her part in their mother’s
death.
The twins would eventually go on to discover their own way of managing their preborn nature
and ultimately avoided falling into madness.
Interestingly Leto would go on to construct a council of ancestral personalities within
himself which he adopted as his own, allowing none of them to possess him individually.
At the age of 9, their grandmother, Lady Jessica returned to Arrakis from Caladan to investigate
whether the twins had fallen into abomination.
Upon her inspection, Jessica sensed the emergence of their prescient capabilities.
Through visions and intuition, Leto II had begun to discover the Golden Path.
An optimum future in which the preservation of humanity would be guaranteed through a
massive expansion and diversification of the human race.
This future would also see the introduction of a specific genetic trait in humans that
would make them invisible to the foresight of other prescient beings.
However, in order to make this future a reality, humanity would need to come under an authoritative
stranglehold for thousands of years resulting in the loss of countless more lives.
Paul Atreides had also seen parts of this path and started to follow it, however it
presented a fate that was too terrible for him to accept, so he rejected it.
Leto however, developed a greater understanding of the Golden Path and its implications, and
over time became more aware of the full extent of the terrible steps that needed to be taken
to ensure its success.
For a while, Leto consulted with Ghanima on the formation of this path, however, eventually
he began to conceal aspects of it from her.
He did this in part to protect his sister, knowing that if she were to become aware of
the full extent of the path, out of compassion, she might try to prevent him from walking
it.
After a failed assassination attempt on the twins, they split up and in order to protect
her brother, Ghanima performed a conditioning ritual to convince herself of his death.
Leto then used the time thereafter to continue to gain the knowledge required to ensure humanity’s
traversal of the path.
In order to gain the ability to oversee this future, Leto would need to begin the process
of transforming himself into a human-sandworm hybrid, an incredibly powerful monster capable
of maintaining a tyrannical rule over the known universe for thousands of years.
He started by consuming large amounts of spice, resulting in his body becoming saturated with
high enough levels of the substance to fool sandtrout into merging with his cells.
Leto relied on his lifetimes of other-memory for the knowledge and ability to be able to
adjust his enzyme levels and to stave off an overdose during this process.
After having covered his body in these creatures, Leto felt the pulse of his blood against the
living membrane.
His skin was not his own.
This new skin became a living, self repairing exoskeleton and greatly empowered him, giving
him tremendous strength, reflexes, and speed.
The Fremen's efforts to terraform arrakis and turn it into a lush environment meant
the inevitable extinction of the sandworms along with the supply of the precious spice
melange.
In order to slow down this process, Leto had reversed their efforts by smashing the Fremen’s
water qanats, setting the transformation of Arrakis back an entire generation allowing
him space to develop a new timetable for the Golden Path.
While in the desert Leto came across his father who had been operating under the guise of
a prophet speaking in opposition to the Atreides Empire referred to as the Preacher.
Having both become aware of the Golden Path, Paul hopes that his son will enjoy his life
rather than commit to the path.
But ultimately Leto chose to continue his lengthy transformation into the sandworm.
Leto then returned to the city of Arrakeen to confront his aunt Alia who ended up taking
her own life in a moment where she was able to briefly overcome her possession.
As a result of his blasphemy, the Preacher Paul, was killed by Alia's priests and Leto
claimed the title of Emperor.
He then entered into a purely legal marriage with Ghanima to consolidate his hegemony.
Ghanima would take prince Farad'n Corrino as her mate with whom she would go on to bear
children who would carry the Atreides name.
This lineage through Ghanima was essential to Leto’s later plans as the Atreides blood
line carried prescience-cloaking genes and other unique traits that had been produced
from the Corrino and Harkonnen families as a result of the Bene Gesserit's multi-generational
breeding program.
At the beginning of the book, God Emperor of Dune, some 3,500 years have passed since
Leto II’s ascendancy to the throne.
At this point his transformation into a sandworm is almost complete and aside from his face,
he is practically invulnerable to physical damage, however like other sandworms his greatest
weakness is his vulnerability to water.
The Fremen's terraforming efforts are now nearly complete.
All that is left of the desert is an area called Sareer, which is set aside for the
God Emperor.
These 3500 years of his reign are known as Leto's Peace, a period of enforced peace that
was accomplished by maintaining strict control over the supply of spice, space travel, and
forcing humans to remain planet-bound.
During his reign, Leto maintained an all-female army of Fish Speakers who would act as priestesses
and keep order throughout the universe.
The God-Emperor’s repression forced upon the masses created a desire within them to
scatter across the universe running beyond the reach of consolidated tyranny.
This scattering combined with a humanity which carried the gene making them invisible to
prescient visions would ensure their long term survival.
Leto’s plan takes shape primarily through Siona (see-own-a) Atreides.
A descendant of Ghanima who carried the coveted gene that made her invisible to prescience,
however unlike others who held this trait, she was able to pass it on to her descendants.
Leto recognized that if he were to take his own life, his worshippers would follow suit
and do the same.
So he instead fabricated a revolution against himself, with Siona meant to be its leader.
It was also Leto’s purpose that she would be joined with the ghola of Duncan Idaho,
and that their descendants would produce the strain of humanity needed to ensure its evolution
and survival after the scattering took place.
Given that the God Emperor possessed the ego memories of his ancestors, he held a strong
affinity for those who represented the old Atreides quality of loyalty.
As such because of the Tleilaxu cloning, the God Emperor maintained a ghola copy of the
ever-loyal Atreides Swordmaster Duncan Idaho by his side throughout his reign.
Whenever one of the Duncans would inevitably die or rebel against him, he would be replaced
with another Duncan ghola and the cycle would repeat.
Duncan served as the leader of Leto’s Fish Speaker army and ultimately became Siona’s
partner in the final plot to kill the God Emperor.
As a result of his reign, the organizations and institutions that existed in the old imperium
had seen their power greatly diminished.
Subsequently, several of these institutions continued to plot and scheme against him.
One such scheme was in the form of the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree, a woman who was genetically
modified by the Ixians using technology they acquired from the Bene Tleilax she was bred
specifically to play on the God-Emperor's emotions and ultimately disrupt his Golden
Path.
Initially this ploy appeared to work as upon meeting her Leto found her irresistible.
When Leto and Hwi (hwee) were on their way to their wedding ceremony, they traversed
the bridge above the great Idaho River.
Siona’s fish-speaker guard Nayla, who had been instructed by Leto to follow her every
command, complied when told by Siona to target a portion of the bridge with a lasgun.
The damage caused the bridge to collapse which resulted in the death of Hwi and the fall
of Leto into the Idaho river where he decomposed and dissolved into thousands of sandtrout.
The release of these sandtrout once again began the process of transforming Arrakis
back into a desert planet.
Each of these sandtrout would live on, containing a pearl of Leto’s consciousness locked forever
in an endless dream.
Soon after the God Emperor’s death, Siona and Duncan married and had several children
together.
As Leto intended, their descendants all shared Siona's invisibility to prescience, serving
to free Mankind from the possibility of control by those who wielded clairvoyant abilities.
The peoples of the Imperium then immediately fell into famine and combined with their pent
up desire for liberty, they exploded into the unknown regions of the universe in an
event called the Scattering.
While the Dune saga was not yet over, Leto’s reign as the God-Emperor came to an end but
not before it forever shaped humanity granting it immunity to domination and saving it from
stagnation and annihilation.
But I’m curious to know what you think of the rule of the God Emperor.
Are there any parts of his reign or earlier parts of his life that stand out to you?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
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Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.