doing one's duty
union of Great Houses
all for the Spice
Stuck in a marriage of convience, Irulan bore no royal heirs to her husband, that honor belonging to his legal concubine Chani, of the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. But Irulan gave no indication to the populace that this bothered her, instead giving the impression of being cooly dispassionate, interested more in her histories, than in her hopeless and loveless situation. She was an historian/biographer, burried in her endless research, and consumed by her writing. Or was she?
royal marriage
wife in name only
"Guilded" cage
Consider: a woman neglected, given to factual writing, but badly in need of emotional release, authoring historical texts by day, and romantic poetry by night.
Paul Atreides aka Muad 'Dib
Portrait of Paul Muad 'Dib by 7ARS © 2000
Paul's portrait
blue within blue eyes
spice effects
Consider also, the family Irulan was so deliberately delivered into:
Duke Leto Atreides, head of House Atreides of Caladan, removed to Arrakis by the Padasha Emperor, Irulan's father. A man of great honor, brought down by enemies before both his wife and only son.
Red Duke
hawk crest hangs in the Keep
Caladan mourns
Irulan's husband, Paul Maud'Dib, in love with a native fremen, and living on Dune. The impetus of the holy war that was to sweep the universe.
beyond folded space
he beds another woman
Arrakeen sleeps
jihad
sand storm's
triumph
Paul's witch mother, a member of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, capable of the ultimate loyalty------and disobedience.
weirding ways
Reverend mother-in-law
use of the Voice
Paul and Chani's son, Leto, destined through deliberate self-sacrifice to enforce the Golden Path of peace upon the universe. She must have watched the child grow, horrified at his mutation. The mutation he chose, the one which would give him the ultimate power needed to control humankind's destiny:
living skin donned
irreversible sacrifice
historian's tears
boyworm becomes god
sympathy for the devil
Dune's God Emperor
Shield Wall by 7ARS © 2000
Finally, envision Irulan as a deeply creative, yet embittered individual, married to one who viewed her only as a political pawn used to achieve his goal. Alone and neglected in the wealthiest palace imaginable, knowing as she must, the intense love being shared by her husband and his concubine, light years away on a desert planet.
beside the quanat
they love beneath two moons
sand trout glisten
fremen wealth
she wears his water rings
twins in her belly
Perhaps, in her heart, Irulan loved her estranged husband. And so she wrote. By day, the histories and biographies for which she became forever famous, and by night, the secret poetry of which only she was aware, signed with a strange name, in an ancient language. A name whose curious meaning was--------------sand dune.
barren sand dunes
life's water expected
long thirsty wait
yearning
silence in my father's house
loneliness
(sakyu)
With an awed bow to the great Frank Herbert. And much appreciation to oino and ushi.
