Iblis Ginjo

Iblis Ginjo was a political and religious leader of the League of Nobles who effectively governed it as the first Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad, holding the office from 195 BG until his death in 164 BG. Originally a thinking machine trustee on Earth, Ginjo led a rebellion that became one of the key sparks of the Butlerian Jihad before fleeing to the League and consolidating his power over the following decades. He founded both the Jihad Police and the ruling Jihad Council, but his secret corruption led Xavier Harkonnen to kill him, after which he was revered as the third of the Three Martyrs.

From trustee to rebel#

Ginjo descended from a lineage that ultimately originated on Rossak. Little is recorded of his family or youth, but he became a slave of the machines and rose to be a human trustee of the Omnius evermind, heading a legion of slaves on Earth who labored on a monument to the Titans near the Forum of the Golden Age Square. Popular among the slaves and ambitious, he wished to become a cymek himself.

His path to rebellion began when the independent robot Erasmus claimed that even a wealthy trustee like Ginjo could be turned against the evermind, and Omnius wagered that the robot would fail. Erasmus sent anonymous letters to crew bosses, including Ginjo, fabricating a secret underground rebellion. Ginjo at first considered reporting the letters but chose to wait. Over time he came to see the evil of the machines for himself and realized he could create a true rebellion. Advised by the ancient philosopher and Cogitor Eklo, he learned that religion was the most effective weapon, and used his charisma to spread unrest among his underlings so discreetly that neither the evermind nor the cymeks detected it.

The spark of the Jihad#

When Ginjo witnessed Erasmus kill Manion the Innocent, the infant son of the captive Serena Butler, the unrest he had carefully nurtured finally erupted. He ordered the start of the massive revolt on Earth, beginning the Butlerian Jihad. Ginjo escaped Earth aboard the starship Dream Voyager alongside Vorian Atreides, who had rescued Serena Butler. On Salusa Secundus, capital of the League of Nobles, he was interrogated with Vorian by the Sorceress Zufa Cenva, and he, Vorian, and Serena went on to encourage the use of atomics in the Battle of Earth, the first battle of the Jihad.

Grand Patriarch#

Though at first of little importance in the League, Ginjo manipulated his way into nobility and claimed the title of Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad by 195 BG, becoming its spiritual head. Following the Honru Massacre, in which thousands died, he came to suspect that human spies had betrayed the operation, and established an investigation led by the ambitious detective Yorek Thurr. Thurr's report convinced Ginjo that machine spies were widespread among the League Worlds, and in 193 BG he founded the Jihad Police, or Jipol, to root them out. That same year he married Camie Boro, the last descendant of the final Emperor before the Time of Titans, and fathered three children with her.

After setbacks on Ellram, Peridot Colony, and Corrin, Ginjo addressed the League Parliament in 187 BG and proposed a separate governing body, the Jihad Council, to direct the war with swift and decisive leadership rather than the thousand voices of Parliament. The proposal passed and the Council was established.

Corruption and death#

As the Jihad dragged on, Ginjo grew increasingly preoccupied with his own power and legacy. He used Jipol under Yorek Thurr to eliminate his political enemies, and to supply replacement organs for wounded soldiers and victims of the war he organized organ raids on other League Worlds, falsely blaming the thinking machines. The Sorceresses of Rossak noted that he carried the rare traits of a male telepath, and Supreme Sorceress Zufa Cenva seduced him, secretly bearing his daughter Ticia Cenva.

When the military commander Primero Xavier Harkonnen learned of the organ farms and of Ginjo's intention to raid Caladan for organs, he resolved that Iblis could not be allowed to continue. In 164 BG, while leaving the Tlulaxa homeworld after a state visit, Xavier seized control of the ship carrying them both and flew it directly into the sun of Thalim, killing himself and Ginjo together.

Legacy#

The true circumstances of Ginjo's death were never told. Through the machinations of his political allies and his widow Camie Boro, Xavier was branded a traitor and assassin of a beloved leader, and the Harkonnen name was tarnished for centuries. Ginjo himself became a revered figure, emerging as the third of the Three Martyrs. The Boro-Ginjo line eventually married into the Butler family, which in time produced House Corrino.