The formation of the Cults may well have been a reaction against the rale of the Lord Leto. Humanity by this time understood that they were being ruled by a being who would outlive their most distant posterity, and many found the idea repellent Turning to the worship of an older, safely dead goddess was one way of rebellion against die new deity. It could also be a dangerous one, if word of an individual's membership in the Cult got back to one of Leto's priests or priestesses. The heresy was not encouraged, The Book of Alia is believed to have been composed by Cyns Nels (10942-11013), a failed candidate for the God Emperor's society of priestesses. Whether or not Nels was truly the author of the Book, whoever wrote it had access to considerable historical data concerning both Alia and the rest of her family, Leto II included. This familiarity would point to authorship by someone affiliated with the religion of the God Emperor; by this point in Leto's reign, these were the only persons allowed access to the written histories, and the Oral History did not contain the wealth of detail present in the Book. The Cult's view of the relationship between Alia and her brother was unorthodox Noting that Paul Atreides often denied his own divinity while not denying that of his sister, the Book of Alia offers its own interpretation; Muad'Dib, we see, was a messenger, a prophet. Great powers of divination and prophecy were his, but not for use on his own behalf: it was his glorious duty to prepare the way for the Womb of Heaven." If the seeker doubts this and would see Maud'Dib as a god in his own right, let the prophet's own life provide instruction. He was unaware at birth, an infant like any other. While some degree of prescience was within his power from his youth, not until Blessed Mother Jessica gave birth to his sister did he realize how dim were his feeble peenngs into the future. He submitted to the Water of Life to brighten them Even wilh the knowledge of the future thus gained, he permitted himself to be blinded, made a widower, and abandoned to the desert where he wandered for eleven years before his return to Arrakeen and his execution by his sister's priests. Contrast this pitiable existence with that of our Lady, divine and aware from her earliest months in the Blessed Mother's womb, dying only to return when the cleansing of her people is completed, and it can clearly be seen by all that Muad'Dih was rin god. Woe to those who persist in believing that he was! On the subject of Alia's death the Book departs furthest from theological norms. It is ATRETOES LADY ALIA 45 ATREIDES LADY ALIA now known that the body of Alia Atreides was removed from the courtyard of her Tern pie following her suicidal leap and processed through the nearest deathstill The water thus obtained was earned into the desert and allowed to evaporate m the fierce sun This Fremen way of disposing with the water of one convicted of Possession indicates the low opinion held of the Regent at the time of her death In The Book of Alia, a far different explanation is given Her servants, all unknowing, were performing the Lady's wilt m en&urag that neither her body nor its water would be preserved For when the lime of Thai is ended and die Usurper removed from his position of slaveraaster to her people, the Womb of Heaven will return to sit in judgment over all in a divine form bearing no relation to that she occupied in hie Remind en of that shell of tesh would serve no purpose The true nature of Aha Atreides-*-Abomination, goddess, victim of history-may never entirely be known The possibility exists, too, that she had no one distinct nature and that Lady Alia was'capable of encompassing each of the contradictory personalities with which she has been credited in The' Dune Catastrophe, Harq al-Ada makes this very point, citing the opinion of Ghamma Atreides "My aunt chose her own course at many junctures, but the opportunity to choose was not always given her Leto and I pitied her even as we feared her, and I believe mat she often felt the same mix of emotions toward herself" JAC Furtfeer reference: ATREIDES PAULMAUp"E,ATRfiiDEs OHAN1MA, ATRH)6S, LETO n MOfflAM, REVEREND MOTH ER OAIUS HELEN, Anon, The Azhar Book, ed K R Barsux, Arrakis Studies 49 (Gnimtmin: United Worlds), Pyer Bmzvur, ed , Summa ofAnaem Belief and Prac nee (Botehef Collegium Tamo), K M Lucius Ellen Caltea and R M Haflus Deborah Seates, eds Report on Aim Amides Lib Conf Temp Series 169, Nels, Cyris (>), The Book of Alia Ub Conf Temp Series 242 ATREIDES, AUA.