Bene Gesserit

The Sisterhood denies in private that it is a religious order, while conducting itself behind a screen of ritual mysticism whose training, symbolism and teaching are religious through and through. It grew out of the turmoil after the Butlerian Jihad and has been a power ever since, preferring to work behind imperial politics rather than in front of them, with agents at court and in the Great Houses, noble daughters trained, disputes mediated. Women rule it absolutely. A Mother Superior holds the order, and under her the Reverend Mothers who have survived the Spice Agony serve as advisors, faculty, historians and geneticists, with Proctor Superiors over the chapter houses, Truthsayers taught the truth trance, Sisters sent out as agents, and Acolytes still in training.