Heretics of Dune

How it opens

On the planet Gammu, two Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit, Schwangyu and Lucilla, look down from a parapet of the Keep at a child playing alone on an enclosed lawn. The child is a Duncan Idaho ghola, the twelfth by Schwangyu's count, and Schwangyu, who commands the Keep, protests the ghola project openly. Lucilla is an Imprinter, sent by the Mother Superior Taraza to teach the boy love in all its forms. On Chapter House Planet, Taraza interviews Darwi Odrade, who is to go to Rakis with her own part in the ghola project.

Who you meet early

• LucillaLucilla, a full Reverend Mother whom Taraza calls one of the finest Imprinters, is at the Keep on Gammu under orders to imprint the Duncan Idaho ghola. Taraza has warned her that Schwangyu is not to be trusted where the ghola's safety is concerned.
• SchwangyuSchwangyu, an old Reverend Mother, commands the Keep on Gammu where the Duncan Idaho ghola is held. She protests the ghola project openly and calls the eleven gholas before this one failures.
• Duncan IdahoThe Duncan Idaho ghola on Gammu is a child who appears to be about twelve, not yet awakened to his original memories. Schwangyu counts him the twelfth of the series and says all of his play is training, on the orders of the Bashar Miles Teg.
• Alma Mavis TarazaAlma Mavis Taraza is the Reverend Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, receiving Darwi Odrade in her morning room on Chapter House Planet. She has given both Odrade and Lucilla assignments in the ghola project and withholds its full design from each.
• Darwi OdradeDarwi Odrade, a Reverend Mother of the Atreides line, stands before Taraza on Chapter House Planet and is to be sent to Rakis. She and Taraza have known each other since school, where they called each other Dar and Tar. When Odrade asks whether Taraza has found her flaw, Taraza answers with one word, Gammu, the planet where Odrade was hidden as a child.