God Emperor of Dune

The central action in the novel takes place at the end of Leto’s millennia-long reign, roughly 3,500 years after the events of Children of Dune. Most chapters begin with an epigraph from The Stolen Journals followed by events documented in the excavated journals. Chapter 1 opens with an epigraph from The Stolen Journals where Leto describes his various incarnations and laments the loss of vigor in his present surroundings.

Siona is a descendant of the Atreides and the Fremen—a desert people of the planet Arrakis, long ago known as Dune. The Fremen of antiquity had worshipped Leto’s father as a messiah, but Siona and her compatriots view Leto II as a tyrant. Leto has reigned for 3,500 years and has terraformed the former desert planet into a verdant habitat. The sandworms that produce spice have died out, and Leto hoards what remains of the highly prized commodity to maintain his power. Siona’s rebels are thousands of years removed from their heritage as desert dwellers. However, they still retain Fremen traditions of loyalty and perseverance, which they learn from books and commodified versions of their culture proffered by “Museum Fremen” (6).

Siona and her team of rebels steal plans to Leto’s Citadel to uncover his stockpile of spice, also known as melange. Leto’s fortress is in The Last Desert of the Sareer, and along with the plans, the rebels steal two texts that will become known as The Stolen Journals. D-wolves, Leto’s monster guardians, attack and kill Siona’s last remaining companions, but she manages to escape. Siona remembers her companions who have died and vows to personally avenge their deaths and destroy Leto.

The chapter ends with two excerpts: one from the Benotto translation of the excavated journals, and the other a transcript of a dialogue between Siona and her father, Moneo.

In the excerpt from the excavated journals, Leto recalls his lineage and asserts that his rule brings peace and creates the conditions that will allow humanity to survive. This “Golden Path,” a course outlined in his prescient mind to prevent human extinction, required that he transform himself from a human into a sandworm to attain longevity and ultimate control over the production of spice, the sandworm’s byproduct. Leto initiated his transformation at the end of the third book, Children of Dune. At the beginning of God Emperor of Dune, he is in the “pre-worm” (19) stage of his metamorphosis. Leto’s lower limbs have atrophied, and he has silvery arms and hands below his face, the only remaining human skin exposed. At five tons and seven meters long, Leto is covered with interconnecting sandtrout, the larval stage of the sandworm’s life cycle. The sandtrout continue to merge with his body, eventually transforming him into the giant sandworm the Fremen call Shai-Hulud or “the God of the desert” (23).

Leto explains that his absolute rule has kept former competing powers in check for the past three millennia. The Spacing Guild, who rely on the spice for navigation, and the Bene Gesserit, a clandestine sisterhood who require the spice for the ritual that allows them to access ancestral consciousness, are both at Leto’s mercy. Leto also describes the Ixians, inhabitants of the planet Ix who are known for their technological innovations. Leto uses Ixian machines such as the dictate, a device that records his thoughts on paper, and the Royal Cart, a vehicle customized for his body. Although he has the power to foretell the future, Leto chooses to not predict when his final transformation into a giant sandworm will occur, comparing the impending change to death. Leto records that he witnessed Siona stealing his journals and refrained from interfering.

The excerpt from Siona and her father’s conversation takes place when Siona was a young student at the Fish Speakers’ School, an institution that trains soldiers for Leto’s all-female armies. Moneo serves as a majordomo to Leto II and refutes his daughter's claim that Leto is a murderer. Moneo believes that the Worm part of Leto is God and has the authority to kill. In contrast, Siona believes that Leto is a false deity and refuses to regard his hybrid form as the true God of the Desert.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto watches a Fremen, a fifth-generation descendant of his father’s esteemed ally, Stilgar, and laments how the contemporary Fremen lack the perception and skills of their ancestors.

Leto meets with his Commander of the Royal Guard, Duncan Idaho. Duncan is a ghola, a duplicate regrown by the Tleilaxu from the remains of the original Idaho, who died serving House Atreides under Leto’s grandfather. Leto refers to each version as “the Duncan” and recounts how many of them have attempted to resist his absolute rule and assassinate him. Leto suspects the current Duncan plans to kill him and relishes the idea of being surprised. Duncan warns him that rebellions are dangerous and require suppression. Leto regards Duncan’s views as tedious,  arguing that radicals are ordinary and simple-minded in their dichotomous views of good and evil. He views rebels as hypocrites who merely repeat old patterns of domination, asserting that even the promise of a benevolent messiah, such as his father, only ends in failure. As Leto suspects, Duncan attempts to kill him with a lasgun, and Leto leaps from his Royal Cart and crushes Duncan to death.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto describes his wonder at the people and landscapes he has encountered in his inward travels and the transience of human life.

In the City of Onn, Leto’s spy, Nayla, sends an encrypted message that reports on Siona’s activities. Nayla types the message on a hidden screen in a wall. She also has a device implanted in her head for direct communication with Leto. Although the decree known as the Great Convention has banned “thinking machines”—computers and other devices that mimic the human mind—since the ancient Butlerian Jihad period, Leto frequently uses Ixian tools that blur the definition of prohibited technology to his advantage. Leto has instructed Nayla to vow complete obedience to Siona. Siona reveals that she found a dried flower, a strand of hair, and an elegy for Ghanima, Leto’s twin sister, pressed between the pages of the journals. The items are evidence of Leto’s sentimentality, and the revelation serves as a strategic clue for Siona: Leto’s ability to love may be his ultimate weakness.

An epigraph from The Stolen Journals describes Leto’s joy in reliving the memories of his ancestors, noting that academic biographies on these individuals pale in comparison to his intimate knowledge.

Moneo Atreides, Siona’s father and Leto’s majordomo, disposes of Duncan’s body and dutifully prepares for his replacement. Leto has taken over the Bene Gesserit breeding program that produced his father, Paul Muad’Dib, the Kwisatz Haderach. Moneo and Siona are his creations, and Leto believes Siona may be the culmination of his efforts. He regards Siona as both his enemy and his greatest achievement—the “clean slate” (50) that will bring about great change. Siona’s new and unique attributes are that prescient minds cannot detect her, and she is not prescient herself. Leto explains to Moneo that he hopes to be the last in a long line of history’s aggrandized rulers, each of whom was nothing more than “a little Pharaoh” (55). He considers himself a “myth-killer” and is critical of the religious hero worship and weaponized technology that prop up authoritarian governments—including his own 35 centuries of rule (55). In Siona, Leto sees a way to end to his despotic rule while remaining on the Golden Path, and he vows to protect her.

The chapter opens with an inscription from the storehouse at Dar-es-Balat where Leto describes prescience and godhood as a “holy boredom” (58).

The Tleilaxu, also known as “Face Dancers” who can change their appearances, revive the new Duncan from an axolotl tank. Duncan has memories of his original death on Arrakis, but no awareness of the previous gholas’ experiences. The Tleilaxu provide him with a history of the past 3,500 years and explain that Leto is a tyrant. They transport Duncan to the City of Onn, where two Fish Speakers prepare him to serve Leto as Commander. Duncan is incredulous that the Royal Guard is composed only of females and expresses discomfort that they refer to him as “his Duncan” (63). He is suspicious of the guards’ fanatical obedience to Leto, but he tempers his doubts by acknowledging his own unwavering loyalty to the Atreides.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journal, Leto hopes that future generations will read his journals and understand that his behavior was based on the belief that enemies generate strength.

Siona meets with her fellow rebels in a hidden underground room. Her assistant, Topri, participates in a ritual called “Showing” (67), in which she brandishes a replica of the Fremen’s sacred weapon, the crysknife. Siona helped Topri purchase the knife on the black market from a Museum Fremen, and she regards the copy as an inauthentic, commodified relic of a once mighty culture. Iyo Kobat, the Ixian ambassador, informs the rebels that Leto has banished him for providing the lasgun used in the assassination attempt. He also tells them that Leto is aware of a conspiracy Ix has made with the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit to create a navigation system that does not rely on spice. Rather than punish the Ixians, Leto requested that they continue their experiments and send him daily reports of their progress. Siona exposes Topri as one of Leto’s spies but remains ignorant of Nayla’s deception.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journal, Leto emphasizes that his conscience is rooted in his ancestral memories, thereby making him holy.

This chapter is a transcript of the question-and-answer session between the Inquisitors of Ix and their new candidate for ambassador, Hwi Noree. In the interview, Hwi claims to have a fuller understanding of Leto’s motivations, arguing that his metamorphosis is a sacrificial act to prevent a catastrophic event. She believes, like all the Atreides before him, he is serving his people. Hwi bases much of her defense of Leto on the observations her Uncle Malky provided as a former ambassador. Malky regarded Leto as a civilized ruler who was justified in executing historians for lying about the past. Hwi believes her sympathies for Leto will dissuade the inquisitors from appointing her ambassador to Arrakis, but they do so anyway.

In an epigraph from The Stolen Journals, Leto attests that he was once human and that his ancestral memories of war haunt him.

As part of his breeding program, Leto intends to have the latest Duncan ghola mate with Siona. Leto believes an older human form like Duncan will help him produce humans who can make long-lasting decisions. He compares himself to a predator who will force humans to adapt and improve themselves. He explains that even though he kills people, he does not hate them. Leto plans to introduce Siona to Duncan after she passes a test that involves envisioning the Golden Path. Having undergone a similar test himself, Moneo fears for his daughter’s safety. Leto believes that the Atreides blood in Siona will convince her of her duty. Throughout their conversation, Moneo nervously stares at Leto’s body and hands for signs of his violent transformation into a giant sandworm.

In an epigraph from the Oral History, Lord Leto tells a repentant follower that rage and anger can silence one’s soul.

This chapter takes the form of a Bene Gesserit report on the state of the Empire during the 3,508th year of Leto’s reign. During Sister Chenoeh’s visit to Arrakis, Leto complained that the universe was too enclosed and lacked exploratory freedom. He made an obscure reference to Siona as an achievement and instructed Chenoeh to report back to her superiors that he planned to restore “outward spiritual freedom” (96). The remainder of the report provides exposition on the universe under Leto’s rule. The Great Houses, prestigious family lines, have lost their power, and only six remaining Houses Minor still exist. The poor have food, but family life has become homogenized throughout the universe. Leto gives the Spacing Guild meager allotments of spice, causing space travel to stagnate and producing sedentary lifestyles. The report notes theories about Leto’s vulnerability to water, his murder of several gholas, and his use of banned technology. However, due to Leto’s prescience, the Bene Gesserit have maintained a position of appeasement to his superior powers. The report also reveals suspicions that Hwi Noree and Malky were genetically designed and confirms that earlier in his reign, Leto burned nine historians at the stake for lying. The Museum Fremen no longer possess the magnificence of their ancestors and have become paid informants for the Bene Gesserit.