" The essence of the meaning of "human," they believed, would open itself as a manifold creation exposing layer upon layer down to its beating heart It is this essence that a Reverend Mother had first to discover in her Self, testing and probing the outer layers of illusion, vanity, and fear. The diary of a founding Reverend Mother, Augusta Cserna, detailed her vision of the human, and the quest she and her sisteis were committed to carrying on It reads, m part: I could, at once, see UK eternal generation of ail living things, and die origin of die world in the womb of the Great Mother Therein, like a Sower of infinite layering was all Creation-the changeless and the changing, die internal and external, the spint and the flesh, the essence and the existence Tie light shown over the endless space of Time, as being and non-being wrestled with each other for supremacy The puny resistance of the ever-changing will-to-becorae was pitted against the perfect form of the immutably fixed What monstrous collisions I foresaw then The obedient, coldly efficient minions of the dark and the scattered but passionate protectors of the flame, the flame from which only the truly human can pierce the secret heart of the All Through the flame I could see back to Mother Jehanne for whom ALL was a vision of the possible, and forward to Mother Jessica whose destiny and mission it shall be to embody forth and preserve all human treasure The long line between, like a golden thread yoking them together, is an unbroken series of clasped hands dedicated to this purpose that the quest for the imperishable human spmt shall be an eternal hunger fed by discipline, by patience by devotion, by sacrifice, and by love " NOTES 'R M Lepidus Lileen Gwarren, ed , Athanor Proctrices, tr Zhaiva Gan, Bene Gessent Found Stud 5 (Diana Tevis), p 179 JR M Vanus Deborah Lommis, Exerci Ammae, tr KL Maur, Bene Gessent Found Stud 1 (Diana Tevis), p 5 3Ruuvars Shaigaf, ed . Fundamentals of the Way A Bene Gessent Mental Exercise Book (Grumman Lodni), p 78 "Juusepun Kazagrando, ed , Sancti Sermones (Work-in-Progress, Arrakis Studies Temp Ser 44 Lib Conf), p 72 TJ M Claudius Amarylla Sernovik, Sanctae Vitae, Rakis Ref Cat 4-BG779 ^Rakis Ref Cat 2 BG 3869, Area 16 7Shaigal, pp 45-57 *R M Gaius Edda Josefa, Journal Ratas Ref Cat, 1-BG2110 "Rakis Ref Cat 2 BG3S69, \rea 24 wLiber Ricanm, tr Zhana helun Bene Gessent Found Stud 4 (Diana levis), p 89 "R M Augusta Cserna, The Diary of a Bene Gessent, tr Virhn Loke (Centraha Kutath Brothers), pp 194-95 G E Further reference. BENE CESSERTT entries RICHESE. The fourth planet of the system of Endani A diameter at equator 55,000 kilometers, 60% land area, freshwater lakes 5%, salt oceans 35% Polar ice normal, mean annual temperature 180, average low 2, average high 29 Planet rich m minerals and metallic ores, sole source in seventeen sectors of Gallanium, used extensively in microminiaturization Planet serves as manufacturing center for Ix Capital Lugdunum Present population c 2,000,000,000 Rtchese is the planet which spawned the Butlenan Jihad The rebels from Komos, RTOULIAN CRYSTALS 437 RIDULIAN CRYSTALS nsing against the domination of their larger industrialized neighbor, discovered on Richese a society designed by self-programming and self-reproducing computers acting in concert with a few thousand technicians and scientists The alternations in the temperament and intelligence of the population, combined with the mutational experiments which had produced human beings unrecognizable as members of the species, transformed a rebellion into a jihad After the Jihad departed Richese, the planet was deserted for almost two and a half centimes Beginning in toe middle of the second century B G the inhabitants of Ix (formerly Komos) began to exploit the resources of Richese for manufacture of van ous technological products With the conclusion of the arrangement between Ix and the Impenum during the reign of Saudir I, Ix and Richese were left isolated, and became suppliers to the Impenum of what technology would be used for the next ten millennia and more Shortly after their agreement, Richese was colonized by an expedition from Ix The population of Richese was continually controlled by Ix throughout the period of the Impenum and during the reign of Leto n Even now it is only approximately forty percent of the pre-Butlerian Jihad level Further references: ix, THE BUTLERIAN JWAD, BUTLER JEHANNE RIDULIAN CRYSTALS.