The conspiring parties, intent on ending the Atreides Empire, give Paul a gift he cannot resist: Hayt, a ghola of Duncan Idaho, his childhood teacher and friend. But his hopes are put into question after Chani switches to an ancient Fremen fertility diet, and subsequently conceives. Though Paul is aware of this scenario, he has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and he does not want to lose her. Chani, his lover and concubine, is secretly given contraceptives by the Princess Irulan Corrino, Paul's wife in title only. The Atreides dynasty is unstable because Paul has not produced an heir. The situation is further complicated by the conspiracy of powerful interests who hope to reverse the events that brought House Atreides to the throne, including the remnants of the displaced House Corrino, the Bene Gesserit who have lost control of their Kwisatz Haderach, the Spacing Guild, who now are utterly beholden to Paul, and the Bene Tleilax. However, Paul shies away from committing to the Golden Path, refusing to sacrifice his own mythology and humanity by tightening a brutal grip on humanity over the course of thousands of years. Paul's prescience reveals to him the Golden Path, a complex and perilous path for the future that would eventually save humanity from stagnation and extinction. While Paul is the most powerful Emperor ever, he is ironically powerless to stop the lethal religious excesses of the juggernaut he has created.Īlthough sixty billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity.

Twelve years after the events described in Dune, Paul Atreides rules as Emperor of the Known Universe, following Muad'Dib's Jihad which he unleashed by accepting the role of Mahdi to the Fremen. Synopsis ' Once more the drama begins.' ―The Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, on his ascension to the Lion Throne

Dune the messiah