Paul Atreides

Paul had his mother's facial structure and his father's coal-colored hair. He was trained without his knowledge as a Mentat, and the lessons he took from Thufir Hawat and from Jessica gave him mnemonics, a focusing of awareness, muscle control and sharpened sensitivities, along with the study of languages and the nuances of voices.

At fifteen, at Castle Caladan, he was subjected to the gom jabbar test by the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. He endured phantom pain without withdrawing his hand from the box, and he showed an intuitive perception of truth that the Reverend Mother took note of. Afterward he withdrew to the Meditation Chamber, and when he came out he was wary and changed, speaking to the Reverend Mother as an equal rather than a boy before an examiner.

In that conversation he described prophetic dreams of a blue-eyed girl in a desert cavern, a girl who calls him Usul, or whom he might call by that name. When the Reverend Mother spoke fatalistically of his father being doomed, Paul angrily rejected the idea.