Fish Speakers

The Fish Speakers were an army raised during the rule of God Emperor Leto Atreides II and composed entirely of women, with men holding no role in their lives other than that of husband. Men were shut out of the combat forces, the sole exception being the Duncan Idaho gholas. The Fish Speakers were trained as fanatical, disciplined soldiers and police, and were also used in Leto's breeding program to take advantage of their speed and strength.

Founding and purpose#

Leto II founded the Fish Speakers to enforce his rule over the known universe, having found the existing Fremen and Sardaukar forces unsuitable to his needs. He believed that male-dominated military forces were essentially predatory and would turn against the civilian population once no external enemy remained, whereas a female force would tame and calm the peoples it governed. He also required a reliable religious organization to enforce what became known as Leto's Peace and to ensure the unfolding of the Golden Path.

Aside from the legendary nomadic Amazons said once to have ruled part of the Asian steppes of the Old Earth, the Fish Speakers were just about the only effective all-female army known throughout the history of the known universe. In terms of worlds ruled and historical longevity they were the most effective military force ever known, though males were still employed as house guards. Leto named his army the Fish Speakers because his first priestesses spoke to fish in their dreams.

Organization and equipment#

The Fish Speakers were not only an army but also Leto's bureaucracy, serving as pages, courtiers, archivists, and teachers. Some were priestesses who acted as judge, jury, and executioner in one, and Leto also used them as secret agents and assassins, apart from the official Fish Speaker Guard and such elite units as the Imperial Guard. Errant Fish Speakers were isolated and made to serve as death commandos or berserkers. Men originally served only in an advisory capacity and became Fish Speaker auxiliaries only later, a development generally regarded as a sign of the degeneration of the original schools.

The Fish Speaker Guard carried stun clubs, Elacca whips, long knives, silver-blades, and stun grenades, along with heavier weapons, while lasguns were fielded only by specially trained forces. The army also used aircraft, generally large ornithopters but also smaller guardships, and relied on suspensor-sleds to support its infantry. They typically wore skintight one-piece uniforms or uniform-robes bearing the hawk symbol on the left breast, with cloaks, high boots, and, for commanders, heavy black armor and face masks. The common color was a rich dark blue; acolytes and trainees wore short green robes, Imperial Guards wore Atreides green, and commanders wore black uniforms with gold piping. Fish Speakers who left the Guard wore ceremonial white, while agents who wished to conceal their identity sometimes used Cibus masks.

Rule after the God Emperor#

After Leto II's death, control of the Fish Speakers passed to the ghola of Duncan Idaho and to Siona Atreides. Their influence waned greatly compared with that of the Bene Tleilax, the Ixians, and the Bene Gesserit. A Fish Speaker council still controlled some areas of space that had once fallen under Leto's rule, but by this time the Fish Speakers had admitted men into their ranks and held little in common with the force Leto had maintained, in either philosophy or practice. Many of their leaders had also been replaced with Tleilaxu Face Dancers, making the Fish Speakers, and the realms under their domain, puppets of the Tleilaxu.