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diff --git a/local/share/fortune/dune-messiah b/local/share/fortune/dune-messiah deleted file mode 100644 index ce51993..0000000 --- a/local/share/fortune/dune-messiah +++ /dev/null @@ -1,222 +0,0 @@ -Such a rich store of myths enfolds Paul Muad'dib, the Mentat Emperor, and his -sister, Alia, it is difficult to see the real persons behind these veils. -But there were, after all, a man born Paul Atreides and a woman born Alia. -Their flesh was subject to space and time. And even though their oracular -powers placed them beyond the usual limits of time and space, they came from -human stock. They experienced real events which left real traces upon a real -universe. To understand them, it must be seen that their catastrophe was the -catastrophe of all mankind. This work is dedicated, then, not to Muad'dib or -his sister, but to their heirs -- to all of us. - - -- Dedication in the Muad'dib Concordance - as copied from The Tabla Memorium of the Mahdi Spirit Cult -% -There exists no separation between gods and men: -one blends softly casual into the other. - - -- Proverbs of Muad'dib -% -Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, -betray or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity. - - -- Tleilaxu Theorem (unproven) -% -The advent of the Field Process shield and the lasgun with their explosive -interaction, deadly to attacker and attacked, placed the current -determinatives, on weapons technology. We need not go into the special role of -atomics. The fact that any Family in my Empire could so deploy its atomics as -to destroy the planetary bases of fifty or more other Families causes some -nervousness, true. But all of us possess precautionary plans for devastating -retaliation. Guild and Landsraad contain the keys which hold this force in -check, No, my concern goes to the development of humans as special weapons. -Here is a virtually unlimited field which a few powers are developing. - - -- Muad'dib: Lecture to the War College from The Stilgar Chronicle -% -Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is -when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague -ritual. - - -- Words of Muad'dib by Princess Irulan. -% -"Once more the drama begins." - - -- The Emperor Paul Muad'dib on his ascension to the Lion Throne -% -Truth suffers from too much analysis. - - -- Ancient Fremen Saying -% -The Fremen see her as the Earth Figure, a demigoddess whose special charge is -to protect the tribes through her powers of violence. She is Reverend Mother to -their Reverend Mothers. To pilgrims who seek her out with demands that she -restore virility or make the barren fruitful, she is a form of antimentat. -She feeds on that proof that the "analytic" has limits. She represents ultimate -tension. She is the virgin-harlot -- witty, vulgar, cruel, as destructive in -her whims as a coriolis storm. - - -- St. Alia of the Knife as taken from The Irulan Report -% -The most dangerous game in the universe is to govern from an oracular base. -We do not consider ourselves wise enough or brave enough to play that game. -The measures detailed here for regulation in lesser matters are as near as -we dare venture to the brink of government. For our purposes, we borrow a -definition from the Bene Gesserit and we consider the various worlds as gene -pools, sources of teachings and teachers, sources of the possible. Our goal -is not to rule, but to tap these gene pools, to learn, and to free ourselves -from all restraints imposed by dependency and government. - - -- "The Orgy as a Tool of Statecraft," Chapter Three of The Steersman's Guild -% - Here lies a toppled god -- - His fall was not a small one. - We did but build his pedestal, - A narrow and a tall one. - - -- Tleilaxu Epigram -% -I think what a joy it is to be alive, and I wonder if I'll ever leap inward -to the root of this flesh and know myself as once I was. The root is there. -Whether any act of mine can find it, that remains tangled in the future. -But all things a man can do are mine. Any act of mine may do it. - - -- The Ghola Speaks Alia's Commentary -% -"You do not beg the sun for mercy." - - -- Maud'dib's Travail from The Stilgar Commentary -% -"I've had a bellyful of the god and priest business! You think I don't see my -own mythos? Consult your data once more, Hayt. I've insinuated my rites into -the most elementary human acts. The people eat in the name of Muad'dib! They -make love in my name, are born in my name -- cross the street in my name. -A roof beam cannot be raised in the lowliest hovel of far Gangishree -without invoking the blessing of Muad'dib!" - - -- Book of Diatribes from The Hayt Chronicle -% - Oh, worm of many teeth, - Canst thou deny what has no cure? - The flesh and breath which lure thee - To the ground of all beginnings - Feed on monsters twisting in a door of fire! - Thou hast no robe in all thy attire - To cover intoxications of divinity - Or hide the burnings of desire! - - -- Wormsong from the Dunebook -% -The audacious nature of Muad'dib's actions may be seen in the fact that He knew -from the beginning whither He was bound, yet not once did He step aside from -that path. He put it clearly when He said: "I tell you that I come now to my -time of testing when it will be shown that I am the Ultimate Servant." -Thus He weaves all into One, that both friend and foe may worship Him. -It is for this reason and this reason only that His Apostles prayed: "Lord, -save us from the other paths which Muad'dib covered with the Waters of His Life." -Those "other paths" may be imagined only with the deepest revulsion. - - -- from The Yiam-el-Din (Book of Judgment) -% -No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments -of life and society nor the complexity of the machine / human interface, there -always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very -future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single -individuals. - - -- from The Tlielaxu Godbuk -% -Production growth and income growth must not get out of step in my Empire. -That is the substance of my command. There are to be no balance-of-payment -difficulties between the different spheres of influence. And the reason for -this is simply because I command it. I want to emphasize my authority in this -area. I am the supreme energy-eater of this domain, and will remain so, alive -or dead. My Government is the economy. - - -- Order in Council The Emperor Paul Muad'dib -% -The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from -ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a man of -one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a -difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy. -Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of -power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on your energy." - - -- Addenda to Orders in Council The Emperor Paul Muad'dib -% - He has gone from Alia, - The womb of heaven! - Holy, holy, holy! - Fire-sand leagues - Confront our Lord. - He can see - Without eyes! - A demon upon him! - Holy, holy, holy - Equation: - He solved for - Martyrdom! - - -- The Moon Falls Down Songs of Muad'dib -% -Tibana was an apologist for Socratic Christianity, probably a native of IV -Anbus who lived between the eight and ninth centuries before Corrino, likely in -the second reign of Dalamak. Of his writings, only a portion survives from -which this fragment is taken: "The hearts of all men dwell in the same -wilderness." - - -- from The Dunebuk of Irulan -% -The sequential nature of actual events is not illuminated with lengthy -precision by the powers of prescience except under the most extraordinary -circumstances. The oracle grasps incidents cut out of the historic chain. -Eternity moves. It inflicts itself upon the oracle and the supplicant alike. -Let Muad'dib's subjects doubt his majesty and his oracular visions. -Let them deny his powers. Let them never doubt Eternity. - - -- The Dune Gospels -% -There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without -destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. -Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, -never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. -You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences. - - -- Muad'dib on Law, The Stilgar Commentary -% - There was a man so wise, - He jumped into - A sandy place - And burnt out both his eyes! - And when he knew his eyes were gone, - He offered no complaint. - He summoned up a vision - And made himself a saint. - - -- Children's Verse from History of Muad'dib -% -We say of Muad'dib that he has gone on a journey -into that land where we walk without footprints. - - -- Preamble to the Qizarate Creed -% - No bitter stench of funeral-still for Muad'dib. - No knell nor solemn rite to free the mind - From avaricious shadows. - He is the fool saint, - The golden stranger living forever - On the edge of reason. - Let your guard fall and he is there! - His crimson peace and sovereign pallor - Strike into our universe on prophetic webs - To the verge, of a quiet glance -- there! - Out of bristling star-jungles: - Mysterious, lethal, an oracle without eyes, - Catspaw of prophecy, whose voice never dies! - Shai-hulud, he awaits thee upon a strand - Where couples walk and fix, eye to eye, - The delicious ennui of love. - He strides through the long cavern of time, - Scattering the fool-self of his dream. - - -- The Ghola's Hymn -% |