“As each day passes, you become increasingly unreal, more alien and remote from what I find
myself to be on that new day. I am the only reality and, as you differ from me,
you lose reality. The more curious I become, the less curious are those who worship me. Religion
suppresses curiosity. What I do subtracts from the worshipper. Thus it is that eventually I will
do nothing, giving it all back to frightened people who will find themselves on that day
alone and forced to act for themselves.” ~Frank Herbert - God Emperor of Dune
A major message woven into the fabric of the Dune legendarium is a warning to humanity against
their tendency to blindly follow powerful and charismatic leaders, whether they be in religious,
commercial, political or other areas of society. In the early parts of Frank Herbert’s saga, this
lesson is taught primarily through the journey and actions of Paul Atreides. However the most
dramatic example of the dire consequences of blind faith and unquestioning belief can be found with
the rise of the mighty and terrible God Emperor who successfully forced a religion of his own
design upon the known universe. In this video I’d like to examine the religion of the God Emperor
and the vital role it played in saving humanity from its otherwise inevitable destruction.
Spoiler warning if you are unfamiliar with Frank Herbert’s Dune saga.
At the time of the birth of the twin children of Paul Atreides, the Imperium stood on the ashes of
Muad’dib’s jihad, a bloody conquest that saw the forceful conversion of the known universe to the
ever-adapting religion of the fremen then referred to as the Golden Elixir of Life,
with the Emperor Paul serving as their godhead. As a being who wielded a tremendous level of
prescience, Paul’s son Leto II saw the need to guide humanity to the only future that ensured
their long-term survival. This was the Golden Path. Leto’s inner strength made him the best
candidate to accept the agony of this Path and the necessary transformation into a hybrid sandworm
monster that would tyrannically enforce peace across the Imperium for many thousands of years.
Though his physical transformation was intended to make him functionally immortal,
his merging with the sandworm would also encourage the allegiance of the fremen who
referred to the worms as Shai-hulud, believing them to be the physical manifestation of god.
After Paul was made to realize the necessity of Leto’s Golden path, he took on a role similar
to John the Baptist. Paul, then disguised as a preacher, quoted that ancient Bible character’s
words as he attempted to pave the way for the ascendency of his son, telling his listeners that
they would be led by Shai-Hulud. Paul’s martyrdom at the hands of his own worshippers cemented
Leto’s vision of the future as Muad’dib’s body was enshrined and his water was used ceremonially to
represent the vanishing of the Golden Elixir religion and the transfer of worship to the
newly anointed seed of Muad’dib, Leto II, the new living Emperor of the known universe.
In Leto’s words his godhood began when he told the Fremen that he could no longer give their
tribes the water which had been reclaimed from the dead. It would instead be consecrated to a
Supreme nameless Deity for whom Leto stood as a delegate. He then maintained a loose control of
the death-water for nearly 300 years. Then when it came time to consecrate the water of his sister,
Ghanima, Leto staged a miracle, emitting the voices of all of the Atreides from her urn,
This miracle proved to solidify Leto’s status among the Fremen as their Supreme deity.
Like his father, Leto despised and was disgusted by the religion that had been built around him,
referring to it as a holy obscenity. Regardless, his religion remained as it was the only means
to achieve his multi-thousand year peace. Much in the same way the Bene Gesserit used
religion to manipulate the masses, the God Emperor’s religion was relied upon
as a means to maintain order and control over the known universe.
Acting as the enforcers of the God Emperor’s religion were his legions of Fish speaker warrior
priestesses. These were women that Leto had bred from the Fremen of Arrakis and the Emperor’s
Sardaukar, the two armies which had previously dominated the universe. Like their ancestors,
Leto's Fish Speakers were also driven by religion. But one major distinction was that his new army
was entirely female. The God Emperor believed that the primary difference between a male and a female
army was the focus of their loyalties. Through his massive collection of ancestral memories, Leto
observed that all-male armies were too dangerous to their civilian support bases. When they were
denied an external enemy, such a force would always turn against its own population. While
male armies tended to fasten their loyalties onto the army itself, Leto observed that females tended
to fasten their loyalty onto their leader. This difference between the sexes was key to the God
Emperor’s plan to enforce his multi-thousand year peace in which there would be no external enemy.
In the earlier parts of the Dune saga, it can be said that the weaknesses of male dominated
armies were on full display. For instance in the years leading up to the events of Dune, it was
noted that the religious fervor of the Emperor’s mighty Sardaukar had been sapped by widespread
and growing cynicism. And in the aftermath of Muad'dib's Jihad the largely religious society
of the Fremen was also noted to have softened in many aspects. However, with the passage of
time Leto’s all female army proved itself to be increasingly more resilient and zealous in
their worship of the God Emperor even after their forces had been in power for thousands of years.
Leto believed that his priestesses would avoid the male tendency to create a layered society
and would instead make a common cause which transcended class and caste. Over the eons of
human history, women had intricately learned the process of domestication. Consequently,
after being put in power by the God Emperor, these females became
experts in overseeing the transition of adolescent boys into breeding males.
In founding his Fish Speakers upon his religion, he eliminated the corruption that was inevitable
for most police forces. Laws and prisons were of little use unless the breaking of the law
was viewed as a sin. Thus the primary sins of the religion of the God Emperor
were the attempt to corrupt a member of the government, and the corruption by a member of
the government. Which essentially boiled down to the failure to observe and worship the holiness
of the God Leto. Under the rule of the God Emperor, these sins were severely punished
throughout the Imperium by the Fish Speakers who served as judge, jury and executioner.
While the monotheism of the God Emperor came to dominate the universe, Leto was
well aware of the persistence of the original pantheon although it had been largely hidden
and disguised. Whenever religious cults reached a certain point and threatened to gain a foothold,
Leto’s fish speakers took delight in suppressing any such dissenting groups.
The multi-thousand year despotism of the God Emperor proved to fill mankind with
a longing to travel and explore. Because the people of the Imperium had been forced
to serve the autocracy of the God Emperor, upon his death a terrible process of natural
selection by famine would play out through the Imperium. This triggered an explosion
of humans who scattered across the universe as they ventured into the unknown regions of space.
Ultimately, it can be said that the religion of the God Emperor was the vehicle for which the
next cycle of humanity was shaped. It was the manifestation of the warnings of Paul
Atreides regarding the dangers of stagnation and eager reliance on charismatic leaders and their
institutions. With his maintenance of such a tight grip on Imperial power, Leto forced mankind to
wallow in pointless decadence like pigs in their own filth. He made them live through a hand picked
nightmare scenario that was only made possible by their refusal to think for themselves and their
insistence on sheltered safety. This lesson taught through the dominion of the God Emperor’s religion
is one that mankind would remember in their bones. In time, it proved to be the foundation for the
fierce spirit of independence and curiosity that would enable mankind’s long-term survival.
But I’m curious to know what you think of the religion of the God Emperor. Are
there any particularly relevant lessons in his manufactured tyranny that stand out to you? Let
me know your thoughts in the comment section below. I hope you enjoyed this video. Leave
a like if you did and be sure to subscribe for more Dune and other sci-fi and fantasy
news and lore. Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.