" The needle, tipped with a drop of meta cyanide, which was used by Bene Gessent proctors in the human awareness test most often administered to students at the B G school on Wallach IX A single jab of the needle was sufficient to send the poison into its victim's system There was no known antidote The awareness test was, on its face ex ceedmgly simple The candidate was instruct ed to place her hand within a small box containing a number of nerve induccrs As soon as this was done, the proctor held a gom jabbar at the candidate s neck and stated that it would be used, immediately, if the candidate were to withdraw her hand from the box At the same time, the nerve mducers, activated by the presence of the hand, stimulated feelings of pain that began with mild discomfort and could continue, if allowed to build, through the most severe agony (The most common sensation was that of extreme heat, as though the hand were being slowly roasted) The crux of the test-far more important thdn discovering that the candidate could endure pain rather than invite certain death- was that it gave the proctor an opportunity to access the student's reaction to stress Any increase or decrease in the student s rate of advancement within the Sisterhood depended on the proctor s observations during the test On rare occasions, when their importance to the Bene Gessent indicated it, males were tested with the gom jabbar Paul Atreides, at age fifteen was one of them (That experience, on Caladan, left him with ail enmity for the Sibterhood which increased as he gained greater knowledge of their methods) Aside from its literal use, the term 'gom jabbar was sometimes applied to a certain kind of individual, as well a person who, either for personal reasons or because of adroit manipulation, became an analogue of the poisoned needle, used against an enemy GREAT CONVENTION 269 GREAT CONVENTION Perhaps the best example of the phenomenon was Alia Atreides, who as a child slew her maternal grandfather, Sindar-Baron Vladimir Harkonncn Her final words to him, on this occasion, are reputed to have been, "I'm sorry, Grandfather You've met the Atreides gom jabbar"-a pretty piece of irony, because a poisoned needle was the weapon used Further references. BENE OESSERIT; ASSASSIN'S HANDBOOK GREAT CONVENTION. The universal legal code framed during the Great Synod held between 330 and 340 on Urbanus H The Convention provided codification and a source of final authority for tenets Which had been accepted (to a greater or lesser degree) for several centuries, THE TREATY OF CORWN The history of House Comno's ascendancy is we