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« on: August 26, 2014, 12:34:04 am »
After reading this thread I was inspired to reread the Dune series, they were always my favorite books growing up. I had not rea them since I started with the second apocalypse books although I recognized the influence when reading them, the homages are deeper and more numerous than I imagined.
Kellhus is mainly inspired by Leto II who has come to complete the work started by his father, where Paul turned away from the Golden Path because he could not bare the cost of being subdivided into the worms in an endless dream while Kellhus theorized that Moenghus will turn away from The Thousandfold Thought when he learns of his own damnation. Although this is fluid thing as in the triumvirate of Paul, Chani, and Irulan, with that of Kellhus, Esmenet, and Serwe. Esmenet seems to Chani the dark haired true wife of the prophets heart while his blonde haired public wife Serwe who is the daughter of a chief. The Anasurimbor are the new Atreides, that family that holds the destiny of humanity in its hands. Esmenet is in a similar situation as that of Alia, the regent of a toppling empire trying to hold it together from internal rebellion after the Prophet who created the empire departs, and in her distress she begins to listen to the counsel of a family member. In Dune it is Alia’s maternal grandfather Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, while in Esmenet’s case it is her son Kelmommas. Kelmommas is interesting because he is the possessor and the possessed, the voice that leads Esmenet to ruin and the one who is haunted by an internal monologue that leads him in his madness. He was born staring into the eyes of his twin like the birth of Leto and Ghanima where they looked at each other in the womb. In the case of Kellhus he controls the Legion within himself, like Leto controls the legions of inner lives of his ancestors. And the Circumfixion of Kellhus where he first grasps the TTT is similar to the introduced spice agony of Leto where he chooses the Golden Path. And in Shulloch where Leto takes on the sand trout skin and establishes the Golden Path, whereas in the abandoned mansion of Kyudea where Kellhus speaks to Moenghus and solidifies TTT. But unlike Leto who we have a viewpoint from in the books and can empathize with his ultimate designs, Kellhus gradually loses his viewpoint and becomes opaque as he grows in power and occludes his designs. Both Paul and Moenghus speak of the sleeping God, while the Divided God that was one is similar to the God shattered into a million slivers. I think Serwa is like Ghanima, could she give birth to a future royal line.
The similarities that struck me most were those of Stillgar and Duncan Idaho both helped the ascent of Paul Atreides. In Earwa Proyas brings to mind Stillgar, the old stalwart who is the first to discover Kellhus and helps in his ascent to Godhood, and then is the person entrusted with secret knowledge that is to help in a future without his living God. And Meppa who seems to be a riff on Hayt the ghola of Duncan Idaho. Both do not know their past identity, and is the confidant of a king, and while the ghola has metal Tleilaxu eyes that give him greater vision, Meppa has a silver shield over his missing eyes. The Bene Gesserit seems to be broken into two pieces, one is the Dunyain and the other seems to be the Mandate. There is a quote where someone says “the Bene Gesserit want what they always want, for the universe to leave them alone” which it is the same goal of the Dunyain. That along with all of the obvious physical and mental capabilities of a Reverend Mother. While the Mandate has the other memory in the form of Seswatha’s homunculus inside, giving them access to things coveted by their rivals. The Bene Gesserit call the Honored Matres the whores just as the Mandate call the Scarlett Spire the whores. Melange seems to be the Gnosis; the Honored Matres want the abilities that the spice agony gives new Reverend Mothers, while the Scarlett Spires want the Gnosis.
Farradan the grandson of Shaddam has similarities to two characters, one Fanayal the son of a deposed monarch trying to restore his line to the throne, and Sorweel who is an enemy of the Anasurimbor and yet can’t help to be seduced by them. Yet Sorweel seems also to be partly based upon Siona, who could disappear from the prescience of Leto who is like Sorweel who can disappear from the sight of Kellhus and his children. The relationship of Xerius and Conphas seems to be inspired by Baron Vladimir and Feyd Rautha, the young heir who wants kill the monarch to take their place yet who has a relationship of familial ambition.
And now for some other random observations, there is a part where Sheena and Odrade ride a sandworm into the desert, and Odrade thinks about the place where the God-Emperor fell to his death and muses that many people died there but the death of Leto marked this place. This brings to mind the death of the No-God and of the topoi in general. There is a place in Dune Messiah where the Fremen women of the southern sietch in reaction to Alia, in which they use the quote about witches which is very similar to the quote about whores. While reading a book about alchemy I came across the name of Abraham Eleazar the Jew, a mythical priest who brought the secrets of alchemy Nicholas Flamel, very similar to Eleazareas the grandmaster of the Scarlett Spires. In one conversation Leto states that prophecy creates events to bring itself about. In Dune Messiah at the beginning of the book, Bronso of Ix has written a book about Paul Atreides that has been banned as heretical much like the book of Achamian. And finally the Golden Lion Throne of Shaddam, which brings to mind the Golden Throne Room of Sil in the Ark.