In Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert

Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...

's fictional Dune universe

Dune universe

Dune is a science fiction franchise which originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Considered by many to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time, Dune is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history...

, Kwisatz Haderach (ˈkwɪsɑːts ˈhɑːdəræk) is a term which refers to a prophesied messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

 and superbeing. In the series, the Bene Gesserit

Bene Gesserit

The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious, and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and...

, a matriarchal

Matriarchy

A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....

 secret society

Secret society

A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

, hope to create a male who can survive the deadly ritual spice agony that changes a capable female acolyte into a Reverend Mother. A female Bene Gesserit is limited:

She ... was confronted immediately with a cellular core, a pit of blackness from which she recoiled. That is the place where we cannot look, she thought. There is the place the Reverend Mothers are so reluctant to mention — the place where only a Kwisatz Haderach may look.

The Sisterhood theorize that such a male would possess absolute prescience, seeing all possible futures thus being able to cause select threads of time to be realized through manipulation. The Bene Gesserit intend to use their Kwisatz Haderach to make their order more powerful than the other factions within the Old Empire

Old Empire (Dune)

The Old Empire is a fictional galactic empire in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. The term has been applied to two distinct eras in the fictional history of the Dune series.-The Padishah Empire:...

.

In the texts, Herbert also refers to the Kwisatz Haderach as "the one who can be many places at once." The phrase "Kwisatz Haderach" bears close resemblance to the Hebrew phrase "Kefitzat Haderech

Kefitzat Haderech

Kefitzat Haderech is a Jewish term that literally means "contracting the path". It refers to miraculous travel between two distant places in a brief time....

" (literally: "The Way's Jump"), a Kabbalic term related to teleportation

Teleportation

Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...

. Herbert provides the following definition in Terminology of the Imperium, the glossary of the 1965 novel Dune

Dune (novel)

Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...

:

KWISATZ HADERACH: "Shortening of the Way." This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.

Dune

The Bene Gesserit breeding program had been conducted for centuries to preserve important bloodlines, but with the Kwisatz Haderach as its primary goal. A product of the program herself, Lady Jessica, concubine to the Duke Leto Atreides

Leto Atreides I

Duke Leto Atreides I is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He features in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert and in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson....

, had been instructed to bear him a daughter, but no sons. This daughter was to be wed to Feyd-Rautha

Feyd-Rautha

The na-Baron Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.The younger nephew of the cruel, powerful and cunning Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the dark-haired, 16-year old Feyd is as lean and muscular as the Baron is morbidly...

, nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

Vladimir Harkonnen

The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, in which he is the secondary antagonist, and is also a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...

 and heir to House Harkonnen

House Harkonnen

House Harkonnen is a powerful noble family in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. The Harkonnens are featured prominently in the original 1965 novel Dune, and are also a major presence in both the Prelude to Dune and Legends of Dune prequel trilogies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...

, healing the generations-old rift between House Atreides

House Atreides

House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series. It is suggested within the series that the root of the Atreides line...

 and House Harkonnen. Their son would be the Bene Gesserit's long-awaited Kwisatz Haderach. However, Jessica fell in love with Leto, and produced for him the son he desired: Paul Atreides

Paul Atreides

Paul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...

.

As Dune begins, the Sisterhood is still furious over Jessica's insubordination; the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam

Gaius Helen Mohiam

Gaius Helen Mohiam is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. She is a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and initially appears in the 1965 novel Dune and its 1969 sequel, Dune Messiah. Mohiam also has a major role in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert...

, Jessica's former instructor, confronts her:

"You were told to bear only daughters to the Atreides."

"It meant so much to him," Jessica pleaded.

"And you in your pride thought you could produce the Kwisatz Haderach!"

Jessica lifted her chin. "I sensed the possibility."

"You thought only of your Duke's desire for a son," the old woman snapped. "And his desires don't figure in this. An Atreides daughter could've been wed to a Harkonnen heir and sealed the breach. You've hopelessly complicated matters. We may lose both bloodlines now."

And yet Mohiam is somewhat intrigued by the potential she sees in 15-year old Paul. Unknown to them at first, Paul is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach, a generation earlier than expected. After later surviving the spice agony himself, Paul further explains the divide between the female Reverend Mother and the male Kwisatz Haderach:

There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed ... The greatest peril to the Giver is the force that takes. The greatest peril to the Taker is the force that gives. It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking ... I'm at the fulcrum ... I cannot give without taking and I cannot take without ...

Unprepared for his early arrival, the Bene Gesserit fail to control the young man as planned; by seizing control of the planet Arrakis

Arrakis

Arrakis  — informally known as Dune and later called Rakis — is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is...

 and the all-important spice melange, Paul manages to seize control of the Known Universe. The very superbeing for whom the Bene Gesserit had schemed and waited becomes the instrument by which their order is diminished.

The extended series

In Dune Messiah

Dune Messiah

Dune Messiah is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, the second in a series of six novels. It was originally serialized in Galaxy magazine in 1969. The American and British editions have different prologues summarizing events in the previous novel...

(1969) and Children of Dune

Children of Dune

Children of Dune is a 1976 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, third in a series of six novels set in his Dune universe. Initially selling over 75,000 copies, it became the first hardcover best-seller ever in the science fiction field...

(1976), Paul and his Empire set the Imperium on a course that will ultimately last thousands of years. Much to the frustration of the Bene Gesserit, they do not control Paul or his son, Leto Atreides II

Leto Atreides II

Leto Atreides II is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Born at the end of Dune Messiah , Leto is a central character in Children of Dune and is the title character of God Emperor of Dune . The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...

, also a Kwisatz Haderach, and even their breeding program is taken from them. Jessica's infraction becomes notorious to the Sisterhood; in the coming centuries, for a Bene Gesserit to choose her love over the instructions of her order is known as "the Jessica Crime."

Leto II becomes effectively immortal by transforming into a sandworm

Sandworm (Dune)

The sandworm is a fictional form of desert-dwelling creature from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. They first appear in the 1965 novel Dune, considered to be among the classics in the science fiction genre, and are iconic of the Dune series.In the series, the sandworms called Shai-Hulud...

 hybrid, and oppresses humanity during his 3,500 year reign. The Bene Gesserit are subsequently terrified of accidentally producing another Kwisatz Haderach. They believe that being able to see the future fixes the future along a certain path; to avoid this, the Bene Gesserit provoke the Honored Matres

Honored Matres

The Honored Matres are a fictional matriarchal organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. They are described as an aggressive cult obsessed with power, violence and sexual domination...

 into destroying most of the remnants of Leto II, whose prescience had locked the human race into such a fixed path. The Bene Gesserit also kill a number of offspring of the Atreides line in order to prevent another Kwisatz Haderach from controlling their destiny ever again.

In Dune Messiah, the Face Dancer Scytale

Scytale (Dune)

Scytale is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. In the novel Dune Messiah , Scytale is a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who participates in the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides. He later returns as a ghola and Tleilaxu Master in Heretics of Dune and...

 reveals that the Bene Tleilax "once bred a kwisatz haderach of our own." When asked how this individual was "overcome," he notes that "A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation." Mohiam realizes that the Kwisatz Haderach had committed suicide.

Dune 7

In Sandworms of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

Sandworms of Dune is the second of two novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to conclude Frank Herbert's original Dune series of novels. They have stated that it is based on notes left behind by Frank Herbert for Dune 7, his own planned seventh novel in the Dune series...

(2007) (written by Brian Herbert

Brian Herbert

Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert....

 and Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...

), Duncan Idaho

Duncan Idaho

Duncan Idaho is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Introduced in the first novel of the series, 1965's Dune, the character became a breakout character as the readers liked him and was revived by Herbert in 1969's Dune Messiah...

 is revealed to be the final Kwisatz Haderach destined to bring together humans and thinking machines. While he is not a product of a breeding program, his multiple rebirths and deaths as a ghola throughout the series had given him the opportunity to gain experience and develop himself as no other human could. After the Oracle of Time

Norma Cenva

Norma Cenva is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Mentioned briefly in Herbert's God Emperor of Dune , she plays a large role in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...

 banishes Omnius to an alternate dimension, Erasmus shares all his knowledge with Duncan, making Duncan the new evermind of the Synchronized Empire as well as the Kwisatz Haderach of the humans.