Re:Otheym: Friend or Foe?
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Great topic. I havent read Dune Messiah in a few years though, will start again tonite maybe.
The Ency(if I could spell it I would)paedia is dang cool if it’s the one I’m thinking of.
It came out a loong time ago, before Herbert decided to write the last 2-3 books. But it contains some really great stories, and ironically mentions things that later DID become part of the greater Universe. Like House Ordos is mentioned as a minor house and later became an integral part of the video game series.
I always hate their explainations of the BT and Scytale, glad Herbert fixed that =) But it is a must read if it’s still circulated.
As for Otheym, he’s kinda the Jack Falstaff of Dune Messiah. In some ways I think like Falstaff, he was loyal to the person but not the office.
Otheym was not a part of the conspiricy I think. He probably thought he was, but like many conspiricies there’s only 1-2 people who know the truth, and everyone else THINKS they are a part of it, but they are told different things entirely, and are really tools for the real masterminds. Think JFK and Ruby/Oswald.
If you havent read Heretics of Dune, it explains pretty clearly that the Bene Tlielax like the Bene Gesserit have LONG reaching plans. The only flaw of this, is that this is the first generation of BT Immortals. And it’s clear to me in Heretics of Dune the BT never wanted to “publicly” be in charge, they wanted to run things from behind the scenes.
I personally believe that the Bene Gesserit, the Guild, and Irulan were manipulated from the start. Their conspiricy had no chance of suceeding, and the BT knew this. So they put several contingincies in from extortion, to outright cloning of the Royals.
The key is in the beginning. The Conspiricy (Irulan, Mohium, Edric) are told that Hayt is a gift to soften Paul. This is an outright lie. Scytale told them that, and manipulated them to think that, I believe he even is the narrator of that chapter, and says in his head that there will be nothing for any of them, just the Bene Tlielaxu.
The true purpose was twofold. The grand plan was to use Hayt, with a different name, even inhuman eyes to instill in Paul over time that once Chani died (Remember Scytale knew Chani would die, Irulan told him in the first chapter about the poison contraceptive) Paul would realize Chani could be reborn just like Duncan had. But only the BT control this knowledge and he would’ve forever become a slave. This is clearly laid out at the end of the book.
The backup plan which Bijaz was doubly used for, was to condition Duncan to kill Paul after Chanis death. If he succeeded the BT could’ve cloned them both and no one would be the wiser. If he failed, they could still fall back on extortion. Of course the BT sort of forgot that Duncan was still around after his use, and became the foil of their plan. But in the long run it still succeeded, they retrieved Chani and Pauls cells, they found the secret to clinical immortality, etc….
But my question is how did they do this? They couldent of reawakened Scytales Ghola back on Bandalong, without the method.
😈 (Wrote this in a rush, out to a BBQ, will edit later) 😈