Bene Tleilax

The Bene Tleilax or the Tleilaxu are an organization from the fictional universe of the novel saga based on the Dune Universe created by Frank Herbert. It is a closed society of religious fanatics steeped in secrecy, whose specialty is genetic engineering, what they call "The Language of God." The Bene Tleilax are despised by all factions, due to their wicked and amoral reputation, stemming from the Butlerian Jihad and promoted by themselves.

History

The Tleilaxu originate several hundred years before the Butlerian Jihad and the creation of the Spacing Guild and the Empire of the Known Universe. Their home planet, Tleilax, is located in the Thalim star system. The capital of Tleilax is the sacred city of Bandalong.

The Tleilaxu in Jihad

In the Legends of Dune trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Dune: The Crusade of the Machines and Dune: The Battle of Corrin, the Tlulaxa, as they were called at the time, appear as a merchant society based on Tlulax, the only planet in the Thalim system. The tlulaxa are expert geneticists, making a name for themselves by supplying the League of Nobles with bio-synthetic human organs for the vast number of soldiers and citizens injured during the Jihad. In the later times of this period, the amorality and perversion of the tlulaxa manifests itself, since it is shown that the high productivity of their "organ farms" is due to the fact that most of the organs come from hunting and capturing. of humans from non-aligned worlds, especially Zensunnis, and even some planets of the League of Nobles, according to Iblis Ginjo and the Jipol organization —Jihad police—, although the latter is not in the public domain.

They are religious fanatics and the citizens of the upper caste, the Masters, are Buddhist Zensufis. They also create gholas of their best scientists and leaders as a form of immortality and preservation and gholas for other "powindah" (impure) organizations.

Society

The Tleilaxu are a eusocial meritocracy. Access to the upper caste is achieved by merit, demonstrating superior capabilities. In this way, the character of Scytale, the dancing face that confirms the possibility of awakening the memories of a ghola in The Messiah of Dune, could be explained. Later, in Heretics of Dune he appears as a Tleilaxu Master, serving on the high council of the Bene Tleilax, and later as the last living Master, a refugee among the Bene Gesserit.

As in certain insects, the phenomenon of reproductive specialization occurs in the Tleilaxu. In a sense, the Tleilaxu are socially asexual. From the beginning of its history, women were relegated to being mere mindless reproductive receptacles. Upon reaching reproductive age, a chemical brain coma is induced and they are connected to support and maintenance equipment, becoming the so-called axlotl tanks, one of their biotechnological milestones.

The upper caste, the Masters, are the ones who control the genetic and social heritage of the community, and reproduce using the ghola process, perpetuating their memories over the millennia. A genetically engineered human subspecies, face dancers are a large, sterile caste serving the community. In between, the domel, the general population, an intermediate caste of humans.

Honored Matres

In Hunters of Dune it is explained that a combined group of Bene Gesserit and Fish-Speakers from the Scattering capture a Tleilaxu planet. Upon discovering the axlotl tanks and their true nature, they free them and manage to get some of them back. Tleilaxu women join the group, and upon discovering their own history, the thirst for revenge against the males who enslaved them takes hold. The slaves in power make slave masters, and to the asexual society of the Tleilaxu they respond by enslaving men through sexual imprinting. In memory of generations of Tleilaxu women, martyrs throughout their history, they decided to call themselves Honored Matres.

Tleilaxu Technology

Genetic engineering

The Tleilaxu are brilliant scientists in genetic engineering. They see their science as The Language of God, the tool that will raise them above the impure. Therefore, they always intentionally create minuscule errors in their clones, never to match the perfection of their God. They have developed a number of human servants and tools, such as the gholas, clones developed from human cells that can retrieve the memories and personality of the original, and the Face Dancers, morphochanging hermaphrodite eunuchs.

Axlotl Tanks

An axlotl tank is a woman who has undergone a chemical brain coma and other operations to kill her brain and allow manipulation and control of her womb like a tank to create gholas. The extensive use of their women in this sense explains why no foreigner has ever seen a Tleilaxu woman. The Bene Tleilax have jealously guarded all of her secrets, and especially her axlotl technology.

The main use of axlotl tanks is clone decanting. When these clones are produced from the cells of a dead person they are called ghola. From axlotl tanks came the face dancers and other creatures developed by the Tleilaxu.

In the Prelude to Dune trilogy, a Tleilaxu researcher, Hidar Ben Ajidica, uses axlotl technology to try to create synthetic mélange. Instead, he gets the Ajidamal or Amal, a similar substance that proves to be ineffective.

In Heretics of Dune, it is revealed that the Tleilaxu have developed the ability to produce melange in axlotl tanks, thus breaking the monopoly on the spice that Arrakis has held for thousands of years and which it has served to strongly control the economy and politics of the Empire. Subsequently, in Dune Chapterhouse, the Bene Gesserit have acquired axlotl technology from Master Scytale, though he reserves the necessary modifications to produce spice. Thus, the best kept secret of the Tleilaxu is revealed: that the tanks are horribly mutated and modified women. With their own tanks, the Bene Gesserit develop the ghola of the late Bashar Miles Teg.

In Hunters of Dune, it is discovered that Tleilaxu women, restored from their axlotl tank status by Bene Gesserits and Fish-Speakers, are at the origin of the terrible Honored Matres. Despite this, rogue Honored Matres use their axlotl tanks, developed from female Bene Gesserit prisoners, to produce the adrenaline-based substance they take. They also keep eight clones of the Tleilaxu Master Waff, transformed into a male axlotl tank, as a reserve of Tleilaxu sperm.

The axlotl tanks are similar to the reproduction tanks in another Herbert novel, Project 40 (Hellstrom's Hive), from 1973.

Synthetic Melange

During the Prelude to Dune trilogy, the Tleilaxu, with the support of Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, attempt to break the Arraken monopoly on melange, initiating a research project to produce synthetic melange using axlotl technology, the Amal project. They manage to develop a compound similar to melange, called amal or ajidamal, but the researcher in charge dies before revealing the secret. Furthermore, blemishes in the drug cause the loss of a spaceship when its pilot is affected while making the jump, unaware that the spice has been substituted for the new compound in an attempt to test its full compatibility.

However, after Heretics of Dune it is confirmed that the Tleilaxu have been able to modify axlotl technology to produce synthetic melange, chemically the same as the original and with identical properties. Later, in Sandworms of Dune, Master Waff's ghola develops for the guild a new species of worms, these aquatic ones, which they introduce into Buzzell to produce "Ultraspice", a compound similar to spice but much more concentrated.

Bibliographic reference

• Frank Herbert, Dune. Barcelona: Editions Debolsillo, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-682-4
• Frank Herbert, The Messiah of Dune. Editions Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-667-1
• Frank Herbert, Children of Dune. Editions Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-432-5
• Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune. Editions Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-748
• Frank Herbert, Herejes de Dune. Editions Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-731-9
• Frank Herbert, Dune Capitular House. Editions Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-770-8
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Atreides House. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-316-8
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Harkonnen House. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 978-84-9759-347-2
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Corrino House. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2004. ISBN 978-84-9793-246
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2005. ISBN 978-84-9793-672-9
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Crusade of Machines. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2007. ISBN 978-84-8346-365-9
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune: The Battle of Corrin. Best Seller Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2007. ISBN 978-84-01-336-2
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune Hunters. Plaza & Janés, Barcelona, 2008. ISBN 978-84-01-33679-9
• Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Dune sandblas. Plaza & Janés, Barcelona, 2009. ISBN 978-84-01-33727-7