| Reverend Mother | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Character Type | Major Character |
| Affiliation | Bene Gesserit Sisterhood |
| Status | Alive |
| Added in Version | 1.1.0.0 |
Reverend Mother
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| Reverend Mother | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Character Type | Major Character |
| Affiliation | Bene Tleilax |
| Status | Dead |
| Added in Version | 1.2.0.0 |
The Reverend Mother is the first character The Player meets in the game. She propounds a series of questions, whose answers dictate the player's Character Customization selections, such as planet of origin and social caste.
She sends the player character to Arrakis as an agent of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood with the mission of finding the Fremen and waking the Sleeper.
Spoilers ahead! You feel a compulsion to stay away. Proceed at your own risk.
Act 2 Revelations
At the end of The Assassin's Handbook, it is revealed that the Reverend Mother was in fact a Tleilaxu Facedancer, and not associated with the Bene Gesserit. The player is revealed to be a Ghola and 'The Voice' she uses is actually embedding a compulsion via hypno-ligation. She is killed by Zantara in the labs beneath Carthag, revealing her true form.
Dialogue
Upon starting a new game:
Reverend Mother: Approach, prisoner.
Player walks along a narrow platform towards the Reverend Mother.
Reverend Mother: Show yourself, child.
Player removes their hood, commencing character appearance customization.
Upon completion of Appearance Customization:
Reverend Mother: Have they told you what I am?
Player: Yes.
Reverend Mother: Then I will sift your words for lies. Let's begin.
Selection of character background traits commences, starting with Homeworld.
Upon completion of Character Customization:
Reverend Mother: Come here. Kneel! I hold at your neck the Gom Jabbar, the high-handed enemy. Don't pull away or you will die. Great plots are afoot in the Imperium, and the currents of intrigue run deeply. Arrakis is the key, and the Fremen... The Fremen are missing. You will go to Arrakis as our agent, prisoner. You have one task. Find the Fremen! Wake the Sleeper! Everything depends on this. Do you understand?
Player: Yes.
Reverend Mother: Good, you speak truth. But here is the rest of it... There is only one rule... Keep your hand in the box, and live. Withdraw it and die! An animal would gnaw off its own hand to escape the pain... And we can only be served by humans. Find the Fremen! Wake the Sleeper! You will know when it is done.
Spoilers ahead! You feel a compulsion to stay away. Proceed at your own risk.
Act 2
At the end of The Assassin's Handbook, the player confronts the Reverend Mother in the Tleilaxu lab beneath Carthag.
Our cat’s paw returns and brings a Desert Lion in tow. What is it you seek? The Sleeper is not here.
Zantara:
It is a strange thing to see a Bene Gesserit perched at the center of a Tleilaxu web.
Reverend Mother:
Curiouser and curiouser…
Zantara:
Tell me, if you are truly of the Sisterhood…
*Zantara and the Player draw their blades and advance toward the Reverend Mother*
Zantara:
… then command us to put our blades away.
*The Reverend Mother laughs, transforms her facial features, and responds with an altered voice*
Reverend Mother:
Clever children.
Zantara:
Talk. Or we will take turns degloving your skull of all its faces.
*The Reverend Mother restores her facial features and voice to their original*
Reverend Mother:
Be at peace, Desert Lion. I’m here to give answers.
Zantara:
What interest does the Bene Tleilax have with me?
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of Ariste Atreides and replies in her voice*
Ariste:
Speaking as someone who habitually hides behind other guises, perhaps we’re interested in the real you. The royal you.
Zantara:
Tell us what you know of the Sleeper.
*The Reverend Mother restores her facial features and voice to their original*
Reverend Mother:
Oh, yes. The Sleeper is our greatest experiment yet. However, I should like to talk about this one here.
Zantara:
How does this off-worlder relate to you and your plans?
Reverend Mother:
Have you not guessed?
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of Count Hasimir Fenring and replies in his voice*
Count Hasimir Fenring:
Amputees often complain of feeling their phantom limbs. Tell me, little homunculus, when you allowed yourself to be Count Fenring’s plaything…
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of the Glutton and continues in his voice*
The Glutton:
…when you murdered sibling…
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of the Paranoid and continues in her voice*
The Paranoid:
…after sibling…
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of the Water Shipper and continues in his voice*
The Water Shipper:
…did you feel nothing?
*The Reverend Mother transforms into the likeness of the Jackal and continues in his voice*
The Jackal:
Not even a tickle?
*The Reverend Mother restores her facial features and voice to their original*
Zantara:
A clone?
Reverend Mother:
Clones are grown from cells taken from the living. Gholas are harvested from the dead. They are walking mausoleums haunted by the memories of a corpse.
*The Reverend Mother turns to address the Player*
Reverend Mother:
Oh, my poor child of the tube. Your life is not yours. Your memories and identity are product, code, content. You are one of many, a ghoulish fractal, repeating and repeating and repeating. Every horror you’ve faced in this lab emerged from the same slime you congealed in.
*Zantara threateningly brandishes his blade*
Zantara:
Enough! That’s more than enough.
Reverend Mother:
You seem to have me at a disadvantage, Desert Lion. I do not possess the Voice. I am no Bene Gesserit. And yet… when it comes to our product, I may as well be.
Kill Zant—
*Zantara deftly slits the Reverend Mother’s throat — then gazes downward to see the Player’s blade protruding from his own abdomen — and falls*
*A glowing golden V is seen to be fading from the Player’s left cheek*
*The Player kneels beside Zantara*
Reverend Mother *gasping*:
You still don’t know what cadaver you were scraped from.
*The Reverend Mother dies*
Zantara *gasping*:
There’s… no time for masks now.
My name… my real name… is Bronso Vernius.
My… my mission is to find the Sleeper.
Listen. The Fremen are still out there. They will return once the Sleeper has awakened. You must find Stilgar.
Arrakis has sharpened you, Off-Worlder. But what will you do with that edge?
*Zantara passes*