Alia Atreides
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Alia Atreides is a fictional character featured in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She is featured in the first three novels in the series: Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.
An adult Alia is described by Herbert in the Dune Messiah:
Her features lay exposed — blue-in-blue "spice eyes," her mother's oval face beneath a cap of bronze hair, small nose, mouth wide and generous.
Alia was portrayed by Alicia Witt in David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation, by Laura Burton in the 2000 Dune miniseries and by Daniela Amavia in its 2003 sequel, Children of Dune.
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Alia was born in year 10,191 A.G. (after the foundation of the Spacing Guild) on the planet Arrakis to the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica; her father Duke Leto Atreides had died eight months earlier. She was younger sister to Paul Atreides, and through their mother, a granddaughter to the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Known to her followers as St. Alia of the Knife, to the Bene Gesserit Alia was an Abomination; in the later years of her regency, her enemies and victims among the Fremen called her Coan-Teen, "the female death spirit that walks without feet."
[edit] Dune
In the original novel Dune, Alia is born a full Reverend Mother when she is exposed to the Water of Life (the bile of drowned sandworm) in the womb as Lady Jessica undergoes the Spice agony. Children born this way, called Abominations, are killed by the Bene Gesserit whenever possible because they have little defense against the personalities contained in Other Memory, the Bene Gesserit ability to access ancestral egos and memories. Without the existence of a strong personal identity, a child awakened to consciousness in utero is highly susceptible to becoming possessed by one of their ancestors. Jessica, despite her awareness of this likelihood, brings her baby to term, and Alia slowly learns to control the powers she has been granted as Reverend Mother and sister of the Kwisatz Haderach.
Alia is raised in a community of Fremen, led by her brother in an effort to control the planet and its production of melange. Since her mother, as the Sayyadina, is often away from the sietch, Alia was left with her nephew, Paul and Chani's son Leto, in the care of Harah, Paul's personal servant. Alia is captured and Leto killed in a Sardaukar raid on the sietch; she is presented to the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who notes that she had been "in command of one of the attacking groups" of Fremen rebels ("mostly of women, children, and old men") that nearly decimated his raiding party. Mature far beyond her four years, Alia escapes during the final battle of Arrakeen, but not before poisoning her grandfather, Baron Harkonnen, with a deadly gom jabbar.
Alia uses her limited prescience in a unique way, projecting thoughts and images into the mind of the horrified Imperial Truthsayer, Gaius Helen Mohiam. Bene Gesserit Mohiam tells the Emperor that it is "Not telepathy. She's in my mind. She's like the ones before me, the ones who gave me their memories. She stands in my mind! She cannot be there, but she is!" Alia further explains that she cannot do this with everyone: "Unless I'm born as you, I cannot think as you."[1] Alia soon communicates with Paul the same way:
Of all the uses of time-vision, this was the strangest. "I have breasted the future to place my words where only you can hear them," Alia had said. "Even you cannot do that, my brother. I find it an interesting play. And ... oh, yes — I've killed our grandfather, the demented old Baron. He had very little pain."
[edit] Dune Messiah
The character is further explored in Dune Messiah through her relationship with the ghola Hayt, who is a clone of Paul's teacher, Duncan Idaho. Throughout the novel, there are hints of sexual tension between them as they work together to unravel the conspiracy against the Atreides. Hayt even steals a kiss from Alia, which upsets her; he responds by saying that he took nothing more than what was offered. Alia eventually agrees. When a blinded Paul departs into the desert, as is the Fremen custom for the blind, Alia is named Regent and the guardian of Paul's children: the heir, Leto Atreides II, and his sister, Ghanima. Shortly after, Alia marries Hayt, who had regained his full memory and was thus completely restored as Duncan Idaho.
In 10,207 A.G., Alia gives the order to Fremen leader Stilgar to execute the Reverend Mother Mohiam and Spacing Guild Navigator Edric after the failure of their conspiracy (with the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale and the Princess Irulan Corrino) to topple the rule of Paul Atreides.
[edit] Children of Dune
In Children of Dune, Alia becomes progressively more devious and power-hungry as she slowly succumbs to Abomination. Falling under the influence of the persona of her deceased grandfather, the Baron Harkonnen, Alia abuses her powers as Regent and becomes a ruthless tyrant. She allows the Baron access to her senses in exchange for his help fighting off the other personalities within her, but his sexual proclivities soon control her, compelling her to engage in sexual acts with her aides. During the exercise of his Mentat powers, Duncan comes to the realization that Alia has fallen into Abomination, and helps Jessica escape Alia's murderous plot. Alia then decides to kill Duncan, but he soon recognizes the signs of this decision and escapes himself.
The Preacher, actually Paul Atreides, returns once more to the steps of the temple and exposes Alia's conversion to Abomination to the Fremen. Her priests soon murdered him, as Alia's nephew Leto II returns from hiding, his sister Ghanima in tow. The twins offer Alia their help conquering her inner lives, as they had. Leto realizes that the Baron's hold over her is too strong, and provides two options: to the Baron, a Trial of Possession, an ancient ritual that would guarantee the Baron's undoing; and to Alia, the open window, high above the temple steps. As a helpless Jessica looks on, Alia regains control of her body long enough to leap out the window to her death.
[edit] References
- ^ This hints at the genetic link between Alia and Mohiam, later established in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
