At the end of Frank Herbert's sixth and last book in the Dune series, Chapterhouse: Dune, a ghola of Scytale is seemingly the only Tleilaxu Master left alive. Unbeknownst to all, he possesses a nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia. These cells include those of Tleilaxu Masters, Face Dancers (both regular and "perfect"), Paul Atreides, Chani, the original Duncan Idaho and Atreides reta...
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At the end of Frank Herbert's sixth and last book in the Dune series, Chapterhouse: Dune, a ghola of Scytale is seemingly the only Tleilaxu Master left alive. Unbeknownst to all, he possesses a nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia. These cells include those of Tleilaxu Masters, Face Dancers (both regular and "perfect"), Paul Atreides, Chani, the original Duncan Idaho and Atreides retainers such as Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck, Stilgar, and others.
In the 2006 sequel Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Scytale is a prisoner on the no-ship Ithaca, at the mercy of (among others) the latest Duncan Idaho ghola and the Bene Gesserit Sheeana. Due to Scytale's Tleilaxu regenerated DNA he is dying rather swiftly and his body is deteriorating. Out of desperation he trades his precious cell samples for permission to grow his own ghola; Duncan and the Bene Gesserit group subsequently grow gholas of Paul, Chani, Jessica and others.
Meanwhile, the thinking machines, led by the meta-computer-like AI Omnius, have been rebuilding for their continuing war on humanity. Erasmus, an amoral robotic AI savant with an independent twist of mind, obtains Paul's genetic material from a religious relic on Caladan. Erasmus, who serves Omnius but always has a hidden agenda of his own, uses the genetic material to create his own ghola of Paul, who is named Paolo. Erasmus has used Khrone and other Face Dancers to infiltrate humanity as spies and assassins and uses them as well as Paolo to advance Omnius's plans to take over the universe; however, Khrone intends for the Face Dancers alone to be victorious. As the various plots and countermoves unfold, Paulo is "conditioned" by Erasmus's sadistic ghola of Baron Harkonnen himself to become a sinister, sadistic version of Paul Atreides.
In 2007's Sandworms of Dune, the Paul ghola ultimately duels Paolo. Paul is mortally wounded, but the trauma restores his memories and he manages to heal himself. A power-hungry Paolo overdoses on ultraspice, an incredibly potent form of melange, and falls into a catatonic state.
Later on the recovering planet Dune, the awakened gholas of Paul and Chani go about restoring the planet to its former glory. They have reverted back to the ways of the ancient Fremen, resolving to lead simple lives and unafraid of the plots and schemes that had threatened them in their previous lives. Now able to devote all of his attention to her, Chani remarks that Paul has finally learned how to treat his wife. As the novel closes, Paul reaffirms his love for Chani, telling her he has loved her for five thousand years.
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