Everything about Paul Atreides totally explained
Paul Orestes Atreides (10,175-10,217 AG) is a
fictional character in the
Dune universe created by
Frank Herbert; he later takes the
Fremen name Paul
Muad'Dib and the
sietch name
Usul. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series,
Dune (1965) and
Dune Messiah (1969), and returns in
Children of Dune (1976). The character is brought back as two different
gholas in the
Brian Herbert/
Kevin J. Anderson novels which conclude the original series,
Hunters of Dune (2006) and
Sandworms of Dune (2007).
Paul was portrayed by
Kyle MacLachlan in
David Lynch's
1984 film adaptation, and by
Alec Newman in the
2000 Dune miniseries and its
2003 sequel. In both films, he appears much older and taller than Herbert describes him to be; in the beginning of the novel, he's fifteen and short for his age.
Dune
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 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's 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 from the Spice Agony, he 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.
Dune Messiah
In
Dune Messiah, Paul has been Emperor for twelve years. His
jihad has killed sixty billion people across the known universe, but according to his
prescient vision, this is a fate far better than what he's seen. Paul is beleaguered by a need he
sees — to set humanity on a course that doesn't lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time managing both the Empire and the religion built around him.
A Fremen conspiracy attempts to assassinate Paul using a
stone burner. The attempt fails: however the effects of the weapon destroy Paul's eyes. Although he becomes technically blind, his prescience allows him to "see" by tightly locking in reality with his prescient visions. Afflicted by despair as a result of his prescience, Paul faces another assassination attempt by a conspiracy of the
Bene Tleilax, the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild. This attempt, made using a
ghola (a resurrected clone) of Paul's friend and mentor Duncan Idaho also fails, but the ordeal seemingly helps the Duncan ghola to regain his memories. At the same time, Chani dies in childbirth, bearing twins: a boy,
Leto II, and a girl,
Ghanima (which means "spoil of war"). Paul, who didn't foresee the birth of twins, loses his prescience after Chani's death and becomes truly blind, although he conceals this. With a knife over the babies, the Tleilaxu
Scytale offers to make a ghola of Chani and restore her to life, in exchange for all of Paul's
CHOAM holdings and his effective abdication from the throne. However Paul, seeing through his newborn son's eyes, kills Scytale. Immediately afterwards, the dwarf Tleilaxu Master
Bijaz makes the same offer regarding the Chani ghola; Paul orders Duncan to kill Bijaz.
At the end of
Dune Messiah, Paul, a blind man, walks into the desert alone, in accordance with Fremen law. He leaves his children in the care of the Fremen while their aunt
Alia, Paul's sister, marries the Duncan Idaho ghola and rules the empire as regent.
It is revealed in
Children of Dune that Paul Atreides saw in his prescient visions that the human race was headed toward extinction in the near future. He saw a way to prevent this but felt the sacrifice he'd need to make was too terrible. That sacrifice though was made later by his son Leto II. Paul appears briefly in this book as an assumed memory of Leto.
Children of Dune
In
Children of Dune a mysterious figure known as
The Preacher emerges from the desert and preaches among the people of Arrakis. Led around by a boy, he discredits the religion that has been built around Paul Atreides, saying "The religion of Muad'Dib isn't Muad'Dib," and scorns Alia. It is strongly suggested that he's indeed Paul, which is confirmed when he walks past Alia and says, "Stop trying to pull me into the background once more, sister."
Paul meets with his son Leto in a desert, telling the boy that he'd hoped that Leto would just enjoy his life rather than take the steps needed to prevent the human extinction. Leto, of course, had decided otherwise; he's later the title character of
God Emperor of Dune.
Back in
Arrakeen, Paul (as the Preacher) speaks out against Alia to the crowd outside Alia's Temple; his words and the actions of Leto cause a riot. Reacting to his blasphemy, Alia's priests rush forward and stab Paul to death, as Alia and the remaining Atreides watch from above.
Later works
At the end of Frank Herbert's sixth and last book in the
Dune series,, a ghola of Scytale is seemingly the only Tleilaxu Master left alive. Unbeknownst to all, he possesses a
nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia. These cells include those of Tleilaxu Masters,
Face Dancers (both regular and "perfect"), Paul Atreides, Chani, the original Duncan Idaho and Atreides retainers such as Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, Stilgar, and others.
In the 2006 sequel
Hunters of Dune by
Brian Herbert and
Kevin J. Anderson, Scytale is a prisoner on the
no-ship Ithaca, at the mercy of (among others) the latest Duncan Idaho ghola and the Bene Gesserit
Sheeana. He trades his precious cell samples for permission to grow his own ghola; Duncan and the Bene Gesserit group subsequently grow gholas of Paul, Chani, Jessica and others.
Elsewhere, the Face Dancer
Khrone also obtains Paul's genetic material from a religious relic on Caladan, and uses it to create his own ghola of Paul, who is named
Paolo. Khrone and
Daniel and Marty plan to use Paolo in their plot to take over the universe; Paulo is "conditioned" by Khrone's sadistic ghola of Baron Harkonnen himself.
In 2007's
Sandworms of Dune, the Paul ghola ultimately duels Paolo. Paul is mortally wounded, but the trauma restores his memories and he manages to heal himself. A power-hungry Paolo overdoses on
ultraspice, an incredibly potent form of
melange, and falls into a
catatonic state.
Later on the recovering planet Dune, the awakened gholas of Paul and Chani go about restoring the planet to its former glory. They have reverted back to the ways of the ancient
Fremen, resolving to lead simple lives and unafraid of the plots and schemes that had threatened them in their previous lives. Now able to devote all of his attention to her, Chani remarks that Paul has finally learned how to treat his wife. As the novel closes, Paul reaffirms his love for Chani, telling her he's loved her for five thousand years.
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