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Chapterhouse Dune is a Science Fiction novel by Frank Herbert, last in the series of six Dune novels. It is also known variously as Chapterhouse: Dune, Chapter House Dune, Chapter House: Dune, etc.

The "long night of the whores" has set in. The Bene Gesserit have been forced into finishing up what the God Emperor of Dune had started; and are now a part of his Golden Path. Now it remains for them to find a way to fight the Honored Matres, who would conquer the old universe and put it on a path of self-destruction, while carefully threading their way through the myriad failures that await them. Along the way, they face the question: to survive, must one survive whole? Secreted away on their own Dune-in-the-making, the Bene Gesserit, led by Mother Superior Darwi Odrade, begin heading down a path that may lead them to victory and will certainly change the sisterhood forever.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler This situation is desperate for the Bene Gesserit. The Honoured Matres have swept all before them and control the area of space that was once the Old Empire, except for a few planets the Bene Gesserit have managed to keep secret from all. But the Bene Gesserit are not safe, the Honoured Matres are relentlessly seeking their so called 'last enemy in the million planets' and are wiping the Bene Gesserit out planet by planet as they are discovered. Given the seemingly endless resources of the Honoured Matres it seems only a matter of time before the Bene Gesserit are no more, unless they can find a way out of their apparently hopeless predicament.

Not that the Bene Gesserit have given up hope, it is after all not really in their character, but they consider their situation worse than when they were under the domination of the God Emperor. Darwi Odrade has managed to make her temporary leadership of the Bene Gesserit (upon sharing with the dying Taraza) permanent and so responsibility lies in her province. Her sense of the danger the Bene Gesserit is in is all the more heightened by her limited prescience with which she sees herself being ever more closely pursued by an unknown axeman. But she is still resolute and is not without hope: if anyone is to find the creative solution to the problem of the Honoured Matres then it is she.

The Bene Gesserit are also well on the way to creating a new Dune on their home planet Chapterhouse and Sheeana - now in charge of the Worm project – hopes to see worms anyday. And as backup the Bene Gesserit have been scattering groups of Bene Gesserit with sandtrout and axolotl tanks to ensure something of their order survives the current conflict.

The Honoured Matres in their conquest of the Old Empire also wiped out the Bene Tleilax, who assumed that their control of their spice guaranteed their protection, but the Honoured Matres surprisingly and perhaps illogically cared little for the Spice. The Bene Gesserit fortuitously rescued a Tleilaxu master from the destruction and he in gratitude and as payment provided the Bene Gesserit with the secret to the axolotl tanks. In doing so he dirtied the hands of the Bene Gesserit, because the Tleilaxu solution was to use the original – the female womb – and turn women into "tanks". Reluctantly the Bene Gesserit found "volunteers", and the first ghola they decided to produce was a new Miles Teg, whose military genius they felt was utterly necessary given their desperate struggle with the Honoured Matres.

The Bene Gesserit have three important prisoners on Chapterhouse — Scytale (the Tleilaxu master they captured), Duncan Idaho and Murbella (the only Honoured Matre they have ever captured). The Bene Gesserit agenda with Scytale is to wear down his resistance so that he provides more of the secrets of the Bene Tleilax, the most important being that of how to create spice from the axolotl tanks.

Duncan Idaho and Murbella, are now living together, the bond created by their initial sexual meeting has proved impossible for either to withstand and they are somewhat reluctant partners. The Bene Gesserit watch these three with the utmost attention, trying to mold all three to their subtle needs. The Bene Gesserit have accepted Murbella as a novice and are training her to be a Bene Gesserit, in spite of the fact they are aware that she plans to steal their secrets and escape back to the Honoured Matres.

The Bene Gesserit wonder about Idaho's capabilities and potential, they are increasingly sure that he remembers more than one ghola existence, because they see signs that he is a mentat, a talent lacked by the original. Their suspicions about Duncan Idaho are correct. He does remember more than one ghola existence, indeed he amazingly remembers them all, which mystifies him, because he realizes that the Bene Tleilax could not have included all in his genetic make up, which means his existence is linked somehow outside of time. As well as this he has developed a new vision which allows him to see something new…

The action then moves on a few years later when circumstances are even more desperate for the Bene Gesserit. Lampadas, the jewel of the planets of the Bene Gesserit, their teaching planet, has fallen to the Honoured Matres, and there were apparently no survivors. Despair grips the Bene Gesserit.

There was actually one survivor. Lucilla managed to escape the disaster of Lampadas, in a small no-ship. She is desperate to reach Chapterhouse because she carries a treasure beyond price to the sisterhood, she carries the minds of all the Reverend Mothers of Lampadas, who in extremis had merged minds until one carried them all. Unfortunately, Lucilla's ship does not escape the attack on Lampadas without cost; badly damaged by a mine, she is forced to land on Gammu, and seek safety with some long term allies of the sisterhood.

Lucilla sought refuge with Jews. Long ago, the Jews decided on a new response to the repeated pogroms against them, and disappeared from sight in the planets of humanity. So successful were they in this respect that it was believed by historians that they were annihilated thousands of years ago. Of course, the Bene Gesserit with their memories of the past were not fooled by this, and decided to create a relationship of mutual benefit with the Jews. Over the centuries this bond has become a powerful thing for both groups and most honoured.

So, pursued by the Honoured Matres Lucilla feels the secret Jewish settlement on Gammu is her best chance. The Jewish Rabbi, trapped in the web of mutual obligation gives Lucilla sanctuary, but the Honoured Matres' search is remorseless, and so in order to help Lucilla he is forced to reveal a secret that he would much rather keep secret. Lucillla herself is beyond saving, he admits, but her knowledge is another thing, and to Lucilla's shock he reveals Rebecca, a wild Reverend Mother. Lucilla and she merge minds and Rebecca promises to take the minds of Lampadas safely back to the sisterhood. Lucilla is then "betrayed" to the Honoured Matres.

Back on Chapterhouse, Odrade's plans are reaching fruition, and so as step one in her plan she confronts Duncan Idaho, and forces him to admit that he is a mentat, and thus in possession of many ghola lives. To some degree this is a relief to Duncan, as he no longer has to disguise his abilities, but he realizes this makes his position still more precarious.

Scytale chafes under his imprisonment with the Bene Gesserit. He regrets bitterly supplying the Bene Gesserit with the ability to make gholas, but still has many more secrets within his mind and body, The Bene Gesserit do not know that within his body he has a nullentropy tube containing the cells of all the other Tleilaxu masters, Tleilaxu servants, Tleilaxu experiments, and all the important people of the last few millennia. Scytale is capable of wholly recreating the Bene Tleilax by himself, and thus still retains his sense of destiny.

Lucilla is taken before the Great Honoured Matre, leader of her people, and much to her surprise she is not killed out of hand. She begins a game of words with the Great Honoured Matre, who tries to get her to join the Honoured Matres, and surrender Bene Gesserit secrets. The Honoured Matres actually only want one secret from the Bene Gesserit, they want their ability to modify their body chemistry and hence protect themselves from illness and disease. The Honoured Matres fled biological weapons out in the Scattering.

Meanwhile Murbella collapses under the pressure of Bene Gesserit training and pregnancy. This is precipitated when the 'word weapons' that the Bene Gesserit have planted to undermine her earlier Honoured Matre training finally do their work, and Murbella realizes that she really admires and wants to be Bene Gesserit, and sees her sisters in the Honoured Matres as ignorant children. The words of her swearing-in day come back to her and this time she repeats them with an emphasis not in the original.

Dortujla, the head of a sisterhood keep on Buzzell arrives on Chapterhouse in a personal no-ship. She reports that Handlers and Futars have come to Buzzell and offered 'alliance', though Dortujla's mentat analysis suggests they intend dominance. She also reports that if the Handlers have found Buzzell then obviously the Honoured Matres would share this knowledge as well, because smugglers would have sold their information indiscriminately, so it is something of mystery why the Honoured Matres have not already attacked. Odrade sees this situation as an opportunity, and suggests that Dortujla return with the Sisterhood's offer of surrender, as the second stage of her plan, Dortujla's mission is to make sure the meeting point will be Junction, the huge old Spacing Guild complex above Gammu, which the Honoured Matres control in force, and of which the Bashar Miles Teg has the complete plans in his head.

Lucilla's battles of words with the Great Honoured Matre continue for weeks but finally she pushes too hard and reveals to Dama that the Bene Gesserit know how to control the populace, but actually practice democracy. Dama's desire to destroy the sisterhood is redoubled - they teach dangerous knowledge, and believe in ridiculous ideas like democracy!

Odrade decides that the job of awakening Teg is best suited to Duncan Idaho, and so he and Murbella take over Teg's training. It is a job that Duncan excels at, but he is not satisfied with the traditional way of awakening a ghola, remembering the pain he went through to release his own memories.

Odrade and Tamalane go off on a tour of Chapterhouse and a visit to Sheeana to assess her suitability for promotion. Arriving at the inland sea of Chapterhouse, Odrade is dismayed to see how small it has shrunk. She has a swim in the shrunken sea, and decides that that some decisions must be ruthless, and returns to the shore with the decision to accelerate the terraforming, by removing the last sea on the planet.

Arriving at Desert Watch, Odrade confronts Sheeana as a test of her suitability for promotion. But Odrade is undermined by her lingering affection for Sheeana and so does not force the full truth out of her. Odrade discovers that Duncan and Sheeana have been allied together for some time and have swapped far more information than has been previously thought. But Sheeana does not reveal that they have been considering the option of reawakening Teg's memory through imprinting. Nor does Odrade discover that Sheeana has the keys to the no-ship prison of Duncan.

While Odrade is away on her tour, Bellonda – a chief adviser to Odrade – decides that this is her opportunity to get rid of Duncan Idaho whom she believes is too dangerous to let live. However she totally underestimates Duncan's capabilities, and when she confronts him, he protects himself with Teg, pointing out to Bellonda what little chance they would have of getting Teg to serve them if he were to see Bellonda kill Duncan for no good reason? With Bellonds defanged, Duncan then goes on the attack and using the knowledge and awareness of centuries of living manipulates Bellonda's responses, at the same time revealing his genius as a mentat, showing that he is too useful a tool to waste. He chides the sisterhood pointing out things that they refuse to face. He suggests that their whole policy of scattering is fatally flawed, pointing out the message revealed by the fact that none of the scattered has ever returned, ergo they are being trapped, each and every one of them. Bellonda leaves, much chastened by Duncan's ability to manipulate her, the fact that Duncan is a better mentat, and the realization that Odrade has manipulated her into this precise situation. She releases the blocks on Duncan's information flow; if you have a tool, use it properly, she admits to herself!

Odrade's moulding of Scytale continues apace. She points out to him that his dream of Scytale's great revival is fatally flawed, because the Tleilaxu who scattered are no longer true to his beliefs and indeed serve the Honoured Matres. Scytale's mind is stretched to breaking point when Sheeana arrives with a baby worm, which had been attracted to the first spice blow. The Bene Gesserit have their long term supply of spice, they no longer absolutely need his ability to make spice with the axolotl tanks.

Teg is awakened by Sheeana using imprinting techniques at Duncan's suggestion. His mother had implanted in him a resistance to imprinting and so under Sheeana's sensual assault his old conditioning clicks in and his memories are awakened. In his awakening he can't help but reveal the new physical abilities given to him by the T-Probe the Honoured Matres used to torture him. Odrade is unsurprised and decides that if she can't trust Miles Teg then who can she trust and gives him his freedom, and control of the military forces of the sisterhood for the assault on the Honoured Matres

Finally it is decided that Murbella is ready to become a Reverend Mother, and they begin the spice ceremony. Odrade relaxes the strictures and for the first time ever a man - Duncan - is allowed to watch the proceedings. Duncan is filled trepidation, firstly that Murbella will not survive the ceremony, and secondly he wonders whether she will still love him after going through this life changing experience. Odrade watches with equal trepidation because Murbella is vital to her plan to deal with the Honoured Matres. Murbella, Odrade is pleased to find, takes and survives the hard path to becoming a Reverend Mother.

Murbella goes through a manic phase after becoming a Reverend Mother, and her feelings for Duncan are not the same, a fact that worries Odrade as much as Duncan. Whether it is a temporary effect of the experience or a permanent one is unknown, but certainly she doesn't care for Duncan as much as she did.

Odrade calls a convocation - a meeting of all the Bene Gesserit - and announces her plan to attack the Honoured Matres. She tells them that this attack will be led by Teg. She also announces who she considers are the candidates to succeed her as Mother Superior, by saying she will share before she leaves with Murbella and Sheeana.

Odrade goes to meet the Great Honoured Matre with Dortujla, Tamalane and Suipol (an acolyte). They are treated with disdain but finally Odrade meets with Dama, the leader of the Honoured Matres. To Odrade's surprise Dama does actually try to negotiate with her, and Odrade wonders whether she was wise to have prearranged the attack, but while talking to Dama, she realizes that Dama intends no reasonable negotiation.

Under cover of Odrade's diplomacy the Bene Gesserit forces under the leadership of Teg, and using technology developed by Duncan, attack Gammu with tremendous force. Teg uses his ability to see no-ships to secure control of the system. Survivors of the attack flee to Junction, and Teg follows them there and carries all with him. Victory for the Bene Gesserit seems inevitable. In the midst of this battle, the Jews including Rebecca with her precious memories take refuge with the Bene Gesserit fleet.

In the confusion of dealing with Odrade, and the unexpected and very successful attack Logno – chief adviser to Dama - manages to kill Dama with poison, and assume control of the Honoured Matres. Her first act surprises Odrade greatly - she surrenders to Odrade. Teg arrives, and reports come in. Too late Odrade and Teg realize it is a trap, and the Honoured Matres use the "Weapon" a secret weapon they have managed to salvage from their defeat in the Scattering, and turn defeat into victory. Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can and they begin to withdraw to Chapterhouse.

However, the failure of the Bene Gesserit attack was not unanticipated by Odrade and she left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble to win victory from the jaws of defeat. Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honoured Matre who has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit in the confusion, with all their secrets. She arrives on the planet and immediately announces her intentions by killing an overeager Honoured Matre with a blinding speed enhanced by Bene Gesserit training which makes her faster than any Honoured Matre before her.

Murbella is taken to the Great Honoured Matre and immediately declares herself an enemy of the Great Honoured Matre. She insults Logno, until Logno cannot help herself by attack, Murbella disposes of her easily as well as a couple of Logno's allies. Odrade sacrifices herself in the struggle. Murbella shares with Odrade, and then takes charge of the Honoured Matres.

Murbella's ascension to the leadership of the Honoured Matres and, by necessity, the Bene Gesserit is not accepted as victory by all the Bene Gesserit. Some feel that she will suborn the spirit of the Bene Gesserit and many worry that her attempt is doomed to failure. Some then decide to escape, notably Sheeana who has a vision of her own. They ask Duncan and Teg whether they wish to join them and they flee Chapterhouse in the giant no-ship, taking also Scytale and the Jews.

Murbella realizes their plan at the last minute and is powerless to stop them, realizing at them same time that Duncan's departure solves many problems for her.

Analysis

A proper conclusion to the Dune saga?

So Chapterhouse Dune ends on a cliffhanger. What happens to the escaped ship? Does Murbella successfully manage to merge the Honoured Matres and Bene Gesserit? What role will Scytale play in the future? What are Duncan Idaho's new powers? How will Teg develop? Who chased the Honoured Matres back to the old Empire and what will they do when they get to the Old Empire? What role will the Jews play?

Some readers may feel these unanswered questions assuaged by some wisdom from Dune:

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife—chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here."

—from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Some (but by no means measured) readers speculate that Frank Herbert would end the series on a cliffhanger. There is no stopping point to life, all endings are new beginnings. The lives of our heroes don't end because a book ends, they go on in our imagination and that is a wonderful gift.

This ending also fits neatly into the grander scheme of the novels. The Bene Gesserit are poised for a revival. A small group has set out on their own to redevelop the similar ideals, and have also escaped the influence of godlike beings. This is Leto II's golden path: humanity never again will be controlled by a single interest.

However, it does seem we will find out what happens. Frank Herbert left notes for Dune 7, and when Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have completed the prequels to Dune, they intend to work on Dune 7. It is not known whether this is a dying wish of Frank Herbert.

The old couple who Duncan "sees" in the web

One of the controversies of Chapterhouse Dune is who the two people in the web are. They are Face Dancers became somehow able to break control from — or at least live independent of — a Tleilaxu Master. Little else is described about them, but much is speculated.

• At one level the old couple could be Frank Herbert and Beverly his wife.
• At another level, they reveal the true insignificance of the Old Empire, by revealing two 'godlike' powers who seem beyond human concerns.

What happened in the Scattering?

One of Frank Herbert's concerns was with habits of thoughts. One is the difficulty of understanding infinity. The Scattering is a metaphor for infinity in some sense, though literally it is probably intended as the name for a mass program of human colonisation of other galaxies/universes made possible by the invention of the no-ships which apparently exist outside of the universe. No one thing happened in the Scattering, rather millions of stupid, crazy, amazing, fabulous, barbarous things happened there. The Honoured Matres did not rule the Scattering, they ruled one small part of it, which was much bigger than the Old Empire.

The series:

• Dune
• Dune Messiah
• Children of Dune
• God Emperor of Dune
• Heretics of Dune
• Chapterhouse Dune

See also

• DUNE, 7th book
  • Detailed and interesting speculation about the seventh book from an analysis of Chapterhouse Dune