Paul Atreides

[close] The son of Duke Leto Atreides I and the Lady Jessica, Paul Atreides is the heir of House Atreides, a nuclear-armed aristocratic family that rules the planet Caladan. Jessica is a Bene Gesserit and an important key in the Bene Gesserit breeding program. According to the breeding program, she was to produce a daughter, who would marry Feyd-Rautha, a nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. However, Jessica falls in love with Leto and grants him a son.

Although Paul is a boy, he receives a Bene Gesserit training, giving him among other things, great control over his metabolism, heightened senses and knowledge of martial arts. He is also trained in weapon use by Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, and receives training as a Mentat from Thufir Hawat.

When Paul is fifteen years old, the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam Corrino IV, orders the family to leave Caladan and govern the desert planet Arrakis (known as Dune), though Paul's father, Duke Leto, is in full knowledge that the Emperor is colluding with House Harkonnen to destroy the Atreides as a perceived threat to the throne. On Dune, the family is betrayed by their Suk doctor, Wellington Yueh. He disables the House defensive shields, allowing the Imperial Sardaukar troops, dressed in Harkonnen uniforms, to capture Duke Leto and Thufir Hawat and to kill most of the Atreides army. Duncan Idaho sacrifices himself while attempting to hold off the Sardaukar and ensures Paul's escape. Yueh's betrayal was motivated by the Baron's capture and torture of his Bene Gesserit wife; he implants a poisonous gas capsule concealed within a false tooth on Duke Leto after his capture and instructs him to use it to kill the Baron. Shortly afterwards, the Baron has Yueh murdered. Upon meeting Baron Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat Piter De Vries, Leto bites down on the capsule. He succeeds in killing De Vries — and himself — but not the Baron. The Baron captures Thufir Hawat, feeding him a poison for which only he has the antidote, and forcing him to serve as his new Mentat. Paul and Jessica escape, with some help from Dr. Yueh, into the desert.

They flee to the Fremen, who see in Paul the Lisan al-Gaib, the Mahdi, a prophet who will ensure a green, lush Dune. They take shelter in Sietch Tabr, a Fremen settlement led by the Naib, Stilgar. Paul and his mother train the Fremen in weapon use and martial arts, creating a formidable army. Under his Fremen name Muad'Dib, Paul leads a Fremen campaign of resistance against Harkonnen rule. He and Chani, daughter of Liet Kynes, take each other as mates and produce a son, named Leto in honor of Paul's father. Paul also reunites with Gurney Halleck, who had sought refuge with smugglers after the Harkonnen attack. In a bid to unlock his latent powers, Paul undergoes the process of spice agony via the consumption of the Water of Life. He survives, although barely, and the ordeal gives him knowledge of his male and female ancestors; this proves Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach.

Awakening, Paul launches an attack on the Harkonnen and Imperial troops with his Fremen army (and with his personal bodyguard, the Fedaykin), riding the enormous sandworms indigenous to the planet. In the attack, he learns that his son, Leto, has been killed in a Sardaukar raid. They win and Paul requests an audience with Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. He threatens to destroy the spice melange, thus making transport between the planets impossible and effectively destroying civilization. In return for preserving the spice, he asks for the hand of the Emperor's daughter, the Bene Gesserit-trained Princess Irulan as well as the Emperor's abdication in favor of Paul. Urged by the Spacing Guild, Shaddam accepts his terms.