Everything You Need to Know About the Bene Gesserit in Dune: Prophecy

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Dune: Prophecy.

Set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides and his rise as the prophesied messiah known as Lisan-al-Gaib, HBO's new Dune: Prophecy series chronicles the early evolution of the Bene Gesserit order from a fledgling school for gifted young women to the superpowered mystical sisterhood that's pulling the strings of the imperial government at the start of Dune.

Dune: Prophecy is based on 2012's Sisterhood of Dune, the first book in the Great Schools of Dune prequel trilogy written by Brian Herbert, the son of Dune author Frank Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson following Frank's death. Showrunner Alison Schapker's series centers on Harkonnen sisters Valya and Tula (played as adults by Emily Watson and Olivia Williams and in flashbacks by Jessica Barden and Emma Canning). Born approximately 60 years after the end of the great machine wars known in the Dune universe as the Butlerian Jihad—a crusade by the last free humans in the universe that wiped out all machine-based technology—the sisters are distant ancestors of the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, his nephews, Feyd-Rautha and Beast Rabban, and, as was revealed in the Dune Part II movie, Paul's mother Jessica and Paul himself.

As the Imperium's history books tell it, House Atreides forerunner Vorian Atreides led the humans to victory over the machines during the final days of the wars while Valya and Tula's great-grandfather, Abulard Harkonnen, deserted the fight and was branded a coward. This resulted in House Harkonnen being disgraced and exiled to the desolate planet of Lankiveil. However, Valya contends that the history the Atreides wrote was built on lies and resolves at a young age to upend the status quo by gaining power through the Bene Gesserit.

A rift within the sisterhood

When we're introduced to Valya and Tula as young siblings in Prophecy's premiere, Valya is being primed as the successor to the Bene Gesserit's first-ever Mother Superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson), in place of Raquella's own granddaughter, Reverend Mother Dorotea (Camilla Beeput). Raquella, who was a hero during the wars, originally founded the order to train its members to work as Truthsayers, those who could wield the power of truthsense and be assigned to the Great Houses to help them sift truth from lies.

However, as an older Valya explains in a voiceover, at that time, there was contention in the Bene Gesserit ranks over Raquella's desire to create a secret breeding program that the sisterhood could use to foster the right royal unions and cultivate rulers the Bene Gesserit could control. While Valya was of the same mind as Raquella, Dorotea, whom Valya refers to as a "zealot," viewed the breeding program as heresy and believed the order was meant to guide the Imperium, not rule it. (This is the same breeding program the Bene Gesserit are using 10,000 years later to try to achieve their goal of producing the chosen one known as the Kwisatz Haderach, an unparalleled Bene Gesserit male capable of accessing all of his ancestral memories and seeing all possible futures.)

After summoning Valya to her side on her deathbed, Raquella relays a prophecy that makes Valya even more firm in her beliefs. "Red dust. It's coming. Titan-Arafel," she says, using a phrase that refers to a reckoning in the form of a holy judgment brought on by a tyrant. "You will be the one to see the burning truth and know."

When Dorotea then attempts to destroy the breeding index despite her grandmother's final words, Valya uses a new ability she's been cultivating called the Voice—a skill that allows the user to speak in such a way that another person must obey anything they say—to force Dorotea to kill herself with her own blade.

Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen

As the inventor of the Voice and Mother Superior Raquella's protégée, Valya is the natural heir to the Bene Gesserit's top position once Dorotea is out of the way. And 30 years later, it's clear she's progressed the order's hold on the Imperium quite extensively.

Having schemed for Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina), the daughter of Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) and heir to the Imperial throne, to come study to become a sister following her arranged marriage to the child heir of House Richese, 9-year-old Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior), Valya is close to achieving her goal of setting up one of the Bene Gesserit's own to rule as the first-ever empress of the Imperium. That is, until the death of Pruwet—as well as House Corrino's truthsayer, Reverend Mother Kasha (Jihae)—at the hands of Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel). Desmond, a previously-presumed-dead soldier in Emperor Corrino’s army who returns from serving on the desert planet Arrakis claiming he has been gifted a "great power," signals to Valya that "the burning truth" Raquella spoke of is finally being revealed.

"[Desmond is] tied to the prophecy that sort of sparks the series," Schapker told IGN. "He really is a mystery of the show. And who has empowered him or what has empowered him is a central mystery that our sisters have to find out."

The remaining five episodes of Dune: Prophecy will air weekly on HBO at 9 p.m. ET on Sundays, the same time they become available to stream on Max.