Alia Atreides
Alia Atreides
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 was originally killed in Herbert's first version of the manuscript. At the suggestion of Analog magazine editor John Campbell, Herbert kept her alive in the final draft. Alia would next appear as a main character in both Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). The character is brought back as a ghola in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson conclusion to the original series, Sandworms of Dune (2007).
In the novels, Alia is the daughter of Duke Leto Atreides of Caladan and his Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica. She is the younger sister to Paul Atreides and, through their mother, a granddaughter to the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. During the events of Dune, Alia is born on the planet Arrakis in the year 10,191 A.G., eight months after her father's death. Later known to her followers as St. Alia of the Knife, to the Bene Gesserit Alia is an Abomination because of the unique nature of her birth; in the later years of her regency, her enemies and victims among the Fremen call her Coan-Teen, "the female death spirit who walks without feet." An adult Alia is described by Herbert in Dune Messiah:
