D'murr Pilru: the Ixian Guild Navigator

Navigator D'murr Pilru (10136 AG to 10175 AG) was a skilled Spacing Guild Navigator of Ixian heritage who was instrumental in restoring House Vernius as the rulers of Ix. The son of an Ixian ambassador and a Guild banker, and the identical twin of the resistance fighter C'tair Pilru, he passed the rigorous trial that transformed him into a steersman and severed him from his family and from ordinary human concerns. His piloting carried the liberation army of House Atreides toward Ix before the false spice of Project Amal cost him his life. (Dune: House Atreides; Dune: House Harkonnen; Dune: House Corrino)

Early life#

D'murr was the son of Cammar Pilru, Ix's ambassador to Kaitain, and S'tina Pilru, a Guild banker. While Cammar attended to his diplomatic duties with the Emperor and a thousand functionaries on Kaitain, D'murr and his identical twin C'tair lived with their mother in one of the wings of the Grand Palais of Vernii. The brothers were mentored by the inventor Davee Rogo, who taught them to keep an open mind. As they grew, both groomed themselves to become Navigators. They each enjoyed flirting with Kailea Vernius, who played the twins against one another, and the two carried on a mock rivalry for her affections. (Dune: House Atreides)

At seventeen, through their mother's influence, the brothers entered the Guild Embassy Building to take the final rigorous test for acceptance into the Guild. They were immediately separated and placed in two sealed testing chambers, each sprayed with spice. D'murr opened his mind, feeling melange pressing into his every pore and cell, and envisioned himself as a revered Navigator expanding his awareness to the farthest reaches of the Imperium. C'tair could not open his mind, failed the test, and the two never saw each other again. (Dune: House Atreides)

As a Navigator#

Once D'murr passed, he was ushered into the hierarchy of the Guild and told he would have no contact with his family again. He was immediately set complex mathematical problems and immersed in an environment oversaturated with melange. After a few years, C'tair stole and improved a crude interstellar communicating device and managed to transmit messages to his brother, asking for help to free occupied Ix, by then renamed Xuttah. D'murr, his body and mind already adapted to the life of a steersman, promised to do what he could for the people of Ix but had come to feel that the problems of humankind were beneath his concern. (Dune: House Atreides; Dune: House Harkonnen)

Death#

During Project Amal, the Bene Tleilax Master Hidar Fen Ajidica developed a spice substitute called ajidamal. Count Hasimir Fenring chose to test the substance on two Guild Navigators without their knowledge, and one of the heighliners selected for the false spice was D'murr's. His craft, carrying the liberation army of Ix led by House Atreides, came out of fold space far off course, well beyond the boundaries of the Known Universe. Dying from exposure to the false spice, D'murr sensed the presence of the great enemy of mankind, the machine evermind Omnius. He communicated with Prince Rhombur Vernius aboard the ship, and the crew placed true melange into his chamber. With it, D'murr was able to pilot the ship to the Guild headquarters at the planet Junction, where he then died. (Dune: House Corrino)