Hwi Noree
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Hwi Noree is a fictional character in Frank Herbert's fictional Dune universe. She is a major character in God Emperor of Dune.
Hwi Noree enters the story as the new Ixian ambassador to the God Emperor Leto II. Hwi Noree is a highly empathic and intelligent woman, who has hugely admired Leto from afar, and almost immediately understands him. Hwi Noree and Leto have a bond of mutual understanding from the first. Leto is immediately attracted to her, as she is exactly the kind of woman that if he was still a man would have wanted as a mate. As such, she is a kind of delicious agony for him because his sexual organs have long since disappeared. He is aware that she is quite obviously some kind of Ixian trap, since clearly someone must have deliberately created and trained her to be such a perfect fit for him, but he cannot resist the pleasure of her company even so. Furthermore, he possessed no foreknowledge of her, which meant that somehow the Ixians had managed to hide her existence from his prophetic dreams.
When Hwi Noree and Leto meet for the second time, she is hurriedly called to audience with Leto. When she arrives, she learns that her embassy had been overrun by face dancers and the only reason she had survived was because they needed the time to perfect their mimicking of her in order to fool the God Emperor. Shocked by this, she wonders why the God Emperor hadn't wiped out the Face Dancers. He answers that they have their uses and furthermore that the only political group Leto ever actually considered destroying were the Bene Gesserit, because they are so near to what they should be, yet so far. As if this is not enough for one meeting he asks Hwi Noree to be his bride, though he 'reassures' her that he is incapable of being her physical lover and tells her that she can have children with a discreet lover if she so wishes. Finally, he suggests she goes away to think about it.
Moneo, Leto's chief minister, meets with Leto with news. He first suggests that Anteac is a secret mentat, a skill prohibited in the Empire. Leto agrees but says that it amuses him. Moneo goes on to say that they have pressured the Bene Tleilaxu into giving him information about Hwi Noree. The Bene Tleilaxu played a role in her birth, by supplying the Ixians with technology to do a cellular restructuring. Leto suggests that it is interesting that Hwi Noree seems the total opposite in character to Malky, the previous Ixian ambassador crafted by the Ixians as a being of pure cynicism and amorality, who Leto had had a close friendship with.
Hwi Noree and Leto talk again. Leto explains the shape of his Empire and what he is trying to produce. He talks about how in human affairs each cycle is a reaction to the previous cycle. He explains what will happen when he goes into the sands and his empire falls apart. Basically, he believes that the process will make humankind more mature, through being confronted by the same desperate experience of the disasters his death will cause. Hwi Noree, unlike Moneo and the Duncans understands what Leto means, which pleases Leto greatly. At the end of the audience Leto asks her if she has given any thought to his proposal, and she answers that she has chosen to marry him.
Upon leaving Leto, Hwi goes to see Anteac and shares her knowledge of the environment she was brought up in. Anteac has been conscripted by Leto to lead a Fish Speaker assault on Ix, to wrest the secret of Hwi's secret origins. Anteac is shocked at the knowledge that Hwi is to marry Leto and at the same time annoyed that her order had allowed so talented a woman as Hwi to pass through their training programme without turning her into a Bene Gesserit.
Later, the city of On rises in rebellion against Leto. Leto is completely surprised, which is interesting in itself. The rebels attack the Ixian embassy, which, because of the threat to Hwi, sends Leto into a rage. He leaps out of his cart, and attacks the rebels. The Fish Speakers, using the confusion and panic his assault causes, wipe out the rebels. Regaining his calm upon discovering Hwi is safe, Leto regrets his intervention because he has created a dependency among his Fish Speakers. Now they know that he awaits in the wings, a seemingly invincible death machine. Leto realizes it will take generations to erase this dependency. Leto also realizes that this attack must have been planned by Malky, hidden away within the Ixian machine that protects people from his vision.
The announcement that Leto is marrying Hwi Noree upsets Moneo immensely. Moneo believes the wedding will bring Leto's enemies in alliance against him. He asks Leto for an explanation for why Leto must do this. Leto tells him that it is because of emotions. He says the Hwi provokes glorious emotions within him that he had long thought he had lost. She restores his sense of humanity. During the conversation we learn more about Moneo's abilities and limits. Leto tries to raise Moneo's level of awareness but ultimately fails. Moneo's idea of himself limits him from being all he could be.
After the frustration of having to deal with Moneo, Leto answers Duncans calls for audience. Duncan, Leto realizes, is suffering from what he call 'Since Syndrome', something which happens to most gholas, but with this one had happened much earlier than ever before. Duncan feels out of sync with this time and place. Duncan is also upset by the news Leto is marrying Hwi, a woman he finds intensely attractive also. Leto orders him not to spend time with her.
Some time later Moneo and Leto discuss Duncan. Leto is irritated that Duncan is courting Hwi Noree. However, Moneo informs him that it is Hwi Noree herself who is initiating the meetings. He says that Hwi feels a great deal of sympathy for Duncan because he is so out of his time and place. But this does not calm Leto because he says Duncan is very clever with women. Leto asks when a new Duncan ghola can be provided by the Tleilaxu. Moneo says that the Tleilaxu claim they are having problems and that it will be a year. Leto orders that his marriage to Hwi be hurried along.
Moneo and Duncan talk. Moneo tries to get Duncan to call off his pursuit of Hwi Noree. The conversation becomes very heated and Duncan says a number of critical things about the God Emperor, within the hearing of Fish Speakers. When Duncan finally returns to his room he finds Hwi waiting for him. She had been told of his latest outbursts by some sympathetic Fish Speakers and had rushed to calm him down. However, things do not get any calmer. Hwi says to him that she was produced to seduce the God Emperor, to seduce an Atreides, and that he, Duncan, is as much the Atreides ideal as any. In the heat of the emotional interchange, Hwi Noree and Duncan have passionate sex. But afterwards, to Duncan's great disappointment, she tells him that she is still going to marry the God Emperor. When Duncan asks why, she says it is because he has the largest needs of the two of them, the largest need in all the Empire.
Duncan and Moneo meet. Duncan wants to know where Leto is. Moneo explains he is in the desert with his daughter. Duncan is also upset he discovered that the some of the Fish Speakers are lesbians. Moneo's grows impatient at Duncan's 'puerile' questions and treats him in an offhand way. The conversation goes from bad to worst and he accuses Duncan of not having the courage to fulfill Leto's expectations. Duncan is enraged by Moneo comments and attempts to strike him a blow but, to his utter shock, Moneo not only avoids the blow, but with amazing quickness hurls Idaho to the floor. Idaho looks up in shock, 'How?' is all he can say. And the angry Moneo utters words he later regrets 'Leto has been breeding us for generations. You're just an older model.' Duncan is upset beyond words, and retires to his rooms in shock.
After a day of contemplation, Duncan's mood is interrupted by a Fish Speaker relaying Moneo's requests for Duncan's presence. Duncan is uninterested until he is told Hwi is there. On his arrival it is clear that they have been discussing him before he arrives. They are both worried by the fact that the warrior Duncan arrives without his knife. Moneo apologises for his actions and words in front of Hwi Noree. Duncan takes this well and apologises himself. Duncan experiences a weird feeling that only Moneo, Hwi, and himself are the only real humans in existence. Duncan asks about Siona's experience in the desert. Moneo explains his experience and explains that the reason he serves Leto so faithfully is that after seeing the prophetic visions he is relieved that he never had to make the decision Leto made to become a worm and is free just to serve. Duncan seems unconvinced by this argument and indeed flies into a rage at the fact that he and Hwi cannot see each other. This exasperates Hwi and Moneo, but as Duncan leaves we realize that for once his actions do not reflect his true feelings, and that he had deliberately made himself pathetic for Hwi's sake, so that she can be happier in her choice to put Leto first. After this meeting Moneo and Duncan have a more productive meeting, and Moneo tries to save Duncan from Leto by sending him and Siona away for the time of the wedding to Tuono village.
When Leto learns of this, he is amused that Moneo is attempting to save Idaho and changes the location of his wedding to Tuono. Malky has been captured by the Fish Speakers. Anteac died capturing him. When Leto moved against Ixians, Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilaxu struck just before in order to steal the secret of the device. The secret of the Ixian device has been scattered far and wide. Malky is escorted into Leto's presence. Malky and Leto talk about old and new times. At the end of this conversation, Moneo does what Leto cannot and kills Leto's friend at Leto's behest. Leto, Hwi Noree and his convoy set off to Tuono village.
Duncan and Siona talk at Tuono village after a difficult start, and realize that they both still believe that the God Emperor needs to be killed and overthrown, so they plan to kill the God Emperor. Coming to the realization that Leto can be killed by water, Duncan and Siona hatch a desperate plan to kill the God Emperor. Idaho climbs a high cliff by himself without ropes, using the experience he learned in his youth. From there he lowers a rope down for Siona and Nayla. From the cliff they await the arrival of Leto's convoy. When the convoy does arrive, Siona orders Nayla to fire her lasgun at the bridge and Nayla, having been directly ordered by Leto to obey Siona's every order, obeys, fully expecting it to be a religious test of Leto's. The shot shatters the bridge and Leto is hurled into the water. He escapes to the shore, but it is his death and sandtrout desert his dying body into the sands. Hwi Noree is accidentally killed by the blast sitting as she was in the same carriage. Duncan is distraught, and kills the utterly shocked Nayla. Leto leaves Duncan and Siona stewardship of his Empire by telling them where he has hidden his spice reserves before he breathes his last.