Serena Butler
Encyclopedia
Serena Butler is a character in Brian Herbert
and Kevin J. Anderson
's Legends of Dune
series, a trilogy of novels set during the Butlerian Jihad
, the war against thinking machines
only vaguely referred to in Frank Herbert
's original Dune
series.
.
Serena, the daughter of League of Nobles Viceroy Manion Butler and his wife Livia, was a strong voice for the human rebellion at a young age. She was romantically involved with Xavier Harkonnen
, who led the military force on the League capital world of Salusa Secundus
. As the story began, Xavier was repelling an attack on the planet by Omnius' army of cymeks, fearsome weaponized machines controlled by disembodied human brains.
In 203 B.G., Serena was captured by the machines and put under the watch of Erasmus, an independent robot on Synchronized Earth who sought to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines could be truly superior. Unfortunately, his methods of study often entailed human vivisection and torture. Erasmus took a liking to Serena, as did the young Vorian Atreides
, a human trustee working for the machines. Serena realized she was pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Manion (after her father). Erasmus eventually found this distraction inconvenient; he not only removed Serena's uterus, but killed her young son in front of her and his slaves by dropping the child from a high balcony.
This single event incited the entire Jihad against the machines. Seeing Serena subsequently attack and destroy a sentinel robot with her bare hands encouraged Erasmus' slaves, already groomed for rebellion by slave leader Iblis Ginjo, to rise up. Vorian, witnessing the murder and realizing the lie he lived as a machine trustee, betrayed his machine masters and fled with Serena and Ginjo. Young Manion was soon labelled the first martyr, Manion the Innocent. The first human victory of the so-called Butlerian Jihad was the destruction of Earth and the Earth Omnius using atomics.
began, Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) had become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, and Xavier and Vorian its two generals. Xavier, thinking Serena was dead instead of a captive, had married her sister Octa and started a family. In 191 B.G., Ginjo created the "Seraphim", an elite force tasked with protecting Serena. She became interim Viceroy in 190 B.G. on her father's retirement, but was later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidated his power.
In 164 B.G., the humans were tired of war, but Serena and Ginjo knew that true peace was not possible — the machines had to be destroyed. Serena visited machine leader Omnius on Corrin as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace; secretly she planned to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stopped Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, killed her instead. Ginjo manufactured images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, using a Serena clone manufactured by the Tlulaxa
. The plan worked; dissenters fell silent and the Jihad was galvanized back into action.
Led by Rayna, the Cult of Serena caused more mayhem for humans than the thinking machines. After the Butlerian Jihad, machine destruction spread to the inhabited planets in renewed waves, wiping out most machine-based technology and also the majority of historical documents. Culture based on the production of highly developed machines survived only on Ix
and Richese.
Despite inherent double standards (such as the destruction of some technology, but the continuous use of spaceships) within the group, the Cult’s legacy endured. One of the primary commandments in the Orange Catholic Bible
, “Thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind,” is attributed directly to Rayna Butler. Furthermore, the group is responsible for the strict rules banning all thinking machines under pain of death (and sometimes torture).
; their grandson Faykan established House Corrino
and became the first Padishah Emperor
of the Known Universe after the Battle of Corrin ended the Jihad. The Butler bloodline extended itself for millennia through Houses Corrino, Harkonnen and eventually Atreides
(and no doubt others).
Brian Herbert
Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert....
and Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
's Legends of Dune
Legends of Dune
Legends of Dune is a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe.* Dune: The Butlerian Jihad * Dune: The Machine Crusade * Dune: The Battle of Corrin...
series, a trilogy of novels set during the Butlerian Jihad
Butlerian Jihad
The Butlerian Jihad is an event in the back-story of Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. Occurring over 10,000 years before the events chronicled in his 1965 novel Dune, this jihad leads to the outlawing of certain technologies, primarily "thinking machines", a collective term for computers...
, the war against thinking machines
Thinking machines (Dune)
Thinking machines is a collective term for artificial intelligence in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. The Butlerian Jihad a human crusade against thinking machines is an epic turning point in the back-story of the Dune universe...
only vaguely referred to in Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
's original Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
series.
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
A beautiful and ambitious woman, Serena Butler (b. 221 B.G.) and her murdered baby Manion Butler inspired the Butlerian Jihad, and became its namesakes in Dune: The Butlerian JihadDune: The Butlerian Jihad
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad is a 2002 science fiction novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. It is the first book in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy, which takes place over 10,000 years before the events of Frank Herbert's...
.
Serena, the daughter of League of Nobles Viceroy Manion Butler and his wife Livia, was a strong voice for the human rebellion at a young age. She was romantically involved with Xavier Harkonnen
Xavier Harkonnen
Xavier Harkonnen is a character in the fictional Dune universe. Xavier's role existed in the Legends of Dune series, in the books Dune: The Butlerian Jihad and Dune: The Machine Crusade. He was also referenced in Dune: The Battle of Corrin....
, who led the military force on the League capital world of Salusa Secundus
Salusa Secundus
Salusa Secundus is a fictional planet appearing in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. With harsh conditions rivaling those of the desert planet Arrakis, Salusa is used as the Imperial Prison Planet, and is one of two planets on which shigawire is grown .-Dune:In "Terminology of the Imperium," the...
. As the story began, Xavier was repelling an attack on the planet by Omnius' army of cymeks, fearsome weaponized machines controlled by disembodied human brains.
In 203 B.G., Serena was captured by the machines and put under the watch of Erasmus, an independent robot on Synchronized Earth who sought to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines could be truly superior. Unfortunately, his methods of study often entailed human vivisection and torture. Erasmus took a liking to Serena, as did the young Vorian Atreides
Vorian Atreides
Vorian Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. The ancestor of Paul Atreides, Vorian is a key character in the Legends of Dune trilogy created by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.-Family history:...
, a human trustee working for the machines. Serena realized she was pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Manion (after her father). Erasmus eventually found this distraction inconvenient; he not only removed Serena's uterus, but killed her young son in front of her and his slaves by dropping the child from a high balcony.
This single event incited the entire Jihad against the machines. Seeing Serena subsequently attack and destroy a sentinel robot with her bare hands encouraged Erasmus' slaves, already groomed for rebellion by slave leader Iblis Ginjo, to rise up. Vorian, witnessing the murder and realizing the lie he lived as a machine trustee, betrayed his machine masters and fled with Serena and Ginjo. Young Manion was soon labelled the first martyr, Manion the Innocent. The first human victory of the so-called Butlerian Jihad was the destruction of Earth and the Earth Omnius using atomics.
Dune: The Machine Crusade
As Dune: The Machine CrusadeDune: The Machine Crusade
Dune: The Machine Crusade is a 2003 science fiction novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. It is the second book in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy, which takes place over 10,000 years before the events of Frank Herbert's...
began, Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) had become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, and Xavier and Vorian its two generals. Xavier, thinking Serena was dead instead of a captive, had married her sister Octa and started a family. In 191 B.G., Ginjo created the "Seraphim", an elite force tasked with protecting Serena. She became interim Viceroy in 190 B.G. on her father's retirement, but was later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidated his power.
In 164 B.G., the humans were tired of war, but Serena and Ginjo knew that true peace was not possible — the machines had to be destroyed. Serena visited machine leader Omnius on Corrin as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace; secretly she planned to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stopped Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, killed her instead. Ginjo manufactured images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, using a Serena clone manufactured by the Tlulaxa
Bene Tleilax
The Bene Tleilax or Tleilaxu are an extremely xenophobic and isolationist society in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. Genetic manipulators who traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and "twisted" Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium...
. The plan worked; dissenters fell silent and the Jihad was galvanized back into action.
Cult of Serena
The fanatical Cult of Serena was founded in 108 B.G. by Rayna Butler (b. 119 B.G), the great-granddaughter of Xavier Harkonnen and Serena's sister, Octa. Rayna's father, Rikov Butler governed the planet Parmentier (a former Synchronized World recolonized by the League), which was being ravaged by the Demon Scourge, a catastrophic virus genetically engineered and unleashed by the Thinking Machines to destroy humanity. Having seen her parents succumb to the plague and barely surviving herself, young Rayna began her personal crusade against the machines. Claiming to have had a vision of Serena (possibly a hallucination caused by her illness), Rayna began destroying both electronic and mechanical machines, including innocuous devices and desperately needed medical equipment. The subsequent antitechnology mobs hampered the work and threatened the lives of Mohandas Suk and Raquella Berto-Anirul (granddaughter of Vorian Atreides), doctors who had established the Hospital for Incurable Diseases on Parmentier. Suk and Berto-Anirul barely escaped the planet. A new group known as the Martyrists, who venerated The Three Martyrs (Serena Butler, Manion the Innocent, and Iblis Ginjo), were instantly taken up by Rayna’s mission. In 88 B.G., the Cult started destroying machines on Salusa Secundus.Led by Rayna, the Cult of Serena caused more mayhem for humans than the thinking machines. After the Butlerian Jihad, machine destruction spread to the inhabited planets in renewed waves, wiping out most machine-based technology and also the majority of historical documents. Culture based on the production of highly developed machines survived only on Ix
Ix (Dune)
Ix is a fictional planet featured in the Dune series of science fiction novels written by Frank Herbert, and derivative works. In Dune it is noted that Ix is classed with the planet Richese as "supreme in machine culture," and that Ixian solido projectors "are commonly considered the best." In...
and Richese.
Despite inherent double standards (such as the destruction of some technology, but the continuous use of spaceships) within the group, the Cult’s legacy endured. One of the primary commandments in the Orange Catholic Bible
Orange Catholic Bible
The Orange Catholic Bible is a fictional book from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert...
, “Thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind,” is attributed directly to Rayna Butler. Furthermore, the group is responsible for the strict rules banning all thinking machines under pain of death (and sometimes torture).
The Great Houses
Xavier and Octa's grandson Abulurd resurrected House HarkonnenHouse Harkonnen
House Harkonnen is a powerful noble family in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. The Harkonnens are featured prominently in the original 1965 novel Dune, and are also a major presence in both the Prelude to Dune and Legends of Dune prequel trilogies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
; their grandson Faykan established House Corrino
House Corrino
Imperial House Corrino is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. The Corrinos come to power after mankind's victory against the thinking machines at the Battle of Corrin , and rule until deposed by Paul Atreides approximately 10,000 years later during the events...
and became the first Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor
Padishah Emperor is the title given to the hereditary rulers of the Old Empire in the science fiction Dune universe created by Frank Herbert.-Original series:...
of the Known Universe after the Battle of Corrin ended the Jihad. The Butler bloodline extended itself for millennia through Houses Corrino, Harkonnen and eventually Atreides
House Atreides
House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series. It is suggested within the series that the root of the Atreides line...
(and no doubt others).