God Emperor of Dune

Leto proclaims in an epigraph from The Stolen Journals that liberal governments inevitably turn into aristocracies and repeat patterns of domination.

Leto meets with Reverend Mothers Anteac and Luyseyal at False Seitch, a mock construction of the Fremen’s ancient abode. Leto bemoans the loss of tradition among Museum Fremen, but he admits that he is to blame for their displacement. Leto thwarts the Bene Gesserit’s plan to assassinate him with a vial of spice-essence, a concentrated, liquid form of melange that can kill a sandworm. He confiscates the poison and tells them that his pre-worm form protects him from the toxin. Leto spares them punishment and finds their attempt to harm him amusing. The women warn him that the Ixians have been secretly inventing a new machine that can transcend time and predict Leto’s actions. Leto is unperturbed by the rumors and tells them that human intelligence needs to confront the new. In return for their information, he renews the Bene Gesserit’s usual allotment of spice for the next 10 years. Moneo reports that the flogging of the ambassador has incited attacks in the City, and Leto says he is pleased to be among predators.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto describes the trance-like state of his prescient experiences, in which absolutes and permanence do not exist.

Leto’s infatuation with Hwi becomes so overwhelming that he fantasizes about giving up the Golden Path and reversing his metamorphosis to be with her in a human form. Knowing this is an impossibility, Leto wallows in self-pity, and the “mob” of ancestral voices in his mind accuse him of being selfish and straying from his oath. To distract himself from his anguish, he delves into one of the many ancestral memories available to him and is tempted to relinquish himself and drift in a memory forever. Realizing that there is no time in the past, present, or future in which he can be with Hwi, he weeps.

Leto explains in an epigraph from The Stolen Journal that the Golden Path is meant to teach humanity a lesson against apathy.

Leto orders Duncan away from the city for his safety, and Duncan rides in the same ornithopter that takes Siona to the Citadel. Duncan tells Siona that Paul Atreides was his best friend and that he remembers Leto only as a child. Siona convinces the pilot to take a detour to the small village of Goygoa, where a small boy runs up to Duncan excitedly and then, disappointed, tells him that he is not his father. Duncan realizes that Siona has chosen this site to shock him with his predecessor’s family, and Siona feels remorse for manipulating Duncan’s emotions. Duncan tells her he is loyal to Leto because Leto embodies all of the Atreides. Siona reminds him that she is an Atreides herself, and she despises Leto for being an “affliction” and a “sickness” (270) that imprisons humanity. Leto restricts travel and confines populations to small villages, and Duncan begins to reflect on his own suspicions of Leto’s motives. Under Leto’s orders, the two share the same room for the night, and Duncan mumbles that he is not Leto’s breeding stud.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto claims that religions strips people of curiosity, and without him, they must figure out how to act for themselves.

Duncan returns to Onn as Siona heads to the Citadel. He recalls the mutual respect they had for each other’s privacy in the shared room and Siona’s offer of friendship in the morning. Back at the Festival City, Duncan experiences the Siaynoq ritual for the first time. The spectacle overwhelms and disturbs him as thousands of Fish Speakers fill the plaza with a mixture of religious and sexual ecstasy. During the “Feast of Leto,” the followers, whom Leto calls his brides, consume a wafer and chant their love for Leto. Some of the guards hold their babies up to Leto with such extreme devotion that Duncan imagines Leto could easily convince them to kill their children. Leto displays the crysknife of Paul Muad’Dib and proclaims himself Shai-Hulud and God. The adoring masses alarm Duncan but also tempt him. Leto theorizes that people want chaos, and his rule will redirect their aggression towards fighting against apathy and injustice. He believes that women are essential to this redirection, and the Fish Speakers will domesticate men and help them mature. Leto instructs Duncan to walk into the crowd with him, and the Fish Speakers reach out their hands to touch them.

An epigraph from the Oral History quotes Paul Muad’Dib stating that the problem with leadership is that someone must play God.

Hwi meets with Leto in a sunken room designed to make his body appear less intimidating. She thinks about the man Leto was before his metamorphosis and admits to herself that she finds Duncan attractive. Leto reveals that the Bene Gesserit have engineered religion for different societies, and that the Fremen had conferred the status of God upon him. Hwi asks if he is not really a God, and he cryptically responds that he does not hide from death. When he dies, his body will fragment, and each sandtrout and sandworm that descends from him will contain “a little pearl” (303) of his awareness, but his consciousness will remain mute and imprisoned. Hwi understands that his transformation is part of a larger sacrifice for the future and weeps. She asks if the Ixians could invent a machine to record his thoughts from the pearls, but he insists that none of them would be him. He asks her to marry him and assures her he will not object to her need for children if he can choose the father.

Leto proclaims in an epigraph from The Stolen Journals that he has experienced every realm from birth to death and has been both mother and father.

Duncan confronts Leto and demands to know why he was part of the Siaynoq ritual. Leto explains that it was to test whether he would resist corruption. Duncan struggles to accept Leto’s rule. He accuses Leto of having created a theocracy where religion and sin replace the institutions of law and prisons. Leto claims he has more power as a God than a tyrant, and Duncan retorts that he refuses to worship him. Leto accepts his defiance and tells him that the only people he trusts were formerly rebels. He confides that the reason he has the Tleilaxu manufacture gholas is because the original Duncan was the “truest friend” (314) to Paul Atreides. Duncan considers Leto’s tyranny a betrayal of the Atreides name, and Leto explains that he is preserving life for the future. Leto informs Duncan that Hwi has chosen to serve him. Disbelieving, Duncan comments that he will investigate her, and Leto warns him to stay away from Hwi.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto evaluates the social order of cities, arguing that laws designed to correct injustices create their own means of oppression.

Moneo reports that the Tleilaxu provided the Ixians with technology to restructure cells. He believes that Hwi Noree is the product of Malky’s manipulated cells and was produced in a chamber that blocked Leto’s prescience. Leto has already drawn this conclusion and notes that Hwi is a perfect mirror of Malky in every opposite way. He forbids Moneo from sending Hwi away. Despite melange’s ability to lengthen the human lifespan, Moneo refuses to ingest it out of fear that he will awaken his ancestral memories. He considers the spice “the Atreides curse” (322).

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journal, Leto marvels at the “singular multiplicity” (324) of the universe.

Moneo warns Hwi never to forget that the God Emperor is a different person to different people. Leto informs Hwi of her origins and instructs her to tell Anteac everything she can remember about her upbringing. Leto explains that humanity’s survival requires both his long reign and his death. His reign, “Leto’s Peace,” deprives people of freedom, and as a result, he has engrained the desire for autonomy in the human psyche. To resurrect life, he must die four deaths—that of the flesh, soul, myth, and reason. The spice will dwindle, and famine and violence will follow his death, but the shared experience of adversity and survival will bring profound awareness to protect life. Leto describes his best administrators as men of principle, who have the integrity and initiative to make their own decisions. He knows how to find them because they are typically the same ones who rebel against him. Hwi adds that women can make decisions, too, and agrees to wed him. Leto admits he cannot guarantee the Golden Path’s success, but “brave good friends help” (334).

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journal, Leto remarks that groups survive by conditioning their surroundings, noting that men now tend the land instead of women.

Anteac meets with Hwi and learns about her upbringing and impending marriage to Leto. Hwi vows that her loyalty is to the truth and not to Ix, and—as instructed by Leto—she provides Anteac with all the details of her life. Anteac surmises that Leto is sending her and not Fish Speakers to investigate the Ixians because he does not want his guards to sense any weakness in their God. Anteac also believes that Hwi’s marriage to Leto will confirm the Tleilaxu rumors of his perversions and weaken his identity as a God.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto refers to himself as a myth-maker.

Three bombs explode in the City of Onn. Leto fears for Hwi’s safety and uses his massive body to crush the Tleilaxu and rebel forces attacking the Ixian embassy. The water from his victims’ blood sears his sandtrout flesh, and in agony, he returns to his cleansing room, a chamber that blasts hot air to dry and heal him. Deducing that only Malky could have organized the unanticipated attacks, he demands his capture or execution. Leto doesn’t know how the bombs were sourced but concedes that despite his bans on technology, people will always find a way to make weapons. Some of the Tleilaxu are kept alive to serve as scapegoats.

Leto reunites with Hwi and confesses his love for her. Tormented by the futility of their union, he offers her an opportunity to back out of their marriage, but Hwi agrees to share her life with him as “Worm and wife” (356). Leto references the original journals that will be found in Dar-es-Balat in the far future and describes them as his apologia. Hwi understands that he is neither a devil nor a god, but something entirely unique. Leto claims that Siona will threaten his life but not the Golden Path. For Siona to succeed, she must be Janus-faced and look both to the past and the future.