Jool Noret

Swordmaster Jool Noret, also called Jool-Noret, was a mercenary of Ginaz, the first true Ginaz Swordmaster, and a legendary warrior of the Butlerian Jihad. Driven by guilt over his father's death, he honed his speed and skill against the combat robot Chirox until he surpassed it, and after his own death his shrine and tradition gave rise to the Jool-Noret School that produced generations of Ginaz swordmasters. He was created by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson and first appears in Dune: The Machine Crusade. (Expanded books: Dune: The Machine Crusade)

Upbringing and training#

Jool was one of fifteen illegitimate children of the famed mercenary and trainer Zon Noret. Sun-bleached of hair, with high cheekbones and a pointed chin, he was lean yet strong, and he was the only child his father officially acknowledged, being the most skilled and advanced of his generation. The two forged a close bond centered on training to fight the thinking machines during the Jihad. To know his enemy, the younger Noret trained against the combat robot Chirox, an exercise that improved his reflexes until they were significantly faster than those of any other Ginaz mercenary, and his style came to center on swordplay and wild abandon. During one such session with Chirox, Zon Noret was accidentally killed. The loss left Jool wracked with guilt for the rest of his short life, and he vowed to destroy as many thinking machines as possible to make up for his father's absence from the battlefield. (Expanded books: Dune: The Machine Crusade)

Combat missions#

Noret graduated as a full mercenary from Ginaz, and at the ceremony the Council of Veterans revealed that his body was guided by the spirit of Jav Barri, a dead Ginaz mercenary. He continued to fight with reckless abandon. When the forces of the Jihad arrived during the Liberation of Ix, Noret led the third team through the catacombs beneath the primary machine industries and computer centers, guided by a man named Handon. When they reached the shelter of Ix-Omnius, automatic weaponry destroyed the team and Handon revealed his true allegiance to the machines. Noret, the only survivor, shot Handon's legs, bound him with flexor wire, then completed the sequence to energize a warhead and tied him beside it with his face close to the timer, so that he would watch the last seconds of his life ticking away. (Expanded books: Dune: The Machine Crusade)

Noret continued to sharpen himself against Chirox, his speed and precision climbing so high that he surpassed the robot's abilities even with its learning algorithms enabled. Other warriors of the Jihad admired him, but he refused to teach anyone, not considering himself worthy. Instead he permitted pilgrims to watch him train and learn by observation. (Expanded books: Dune: The Machine Crusade)

Death#

Noret was killed not in battle but by a tidal wave on Ginaz while he was home between missions. The wave was caused by the cymek Hecate's asteroid ship crashing into the nearby sea. His battered body was restored and held in a crystalplaz-encased coffin, set within a shrine built of lava rock on a small rise on the island. (Expanded books: Dune: The Machine Crusade)

Millennia later, during a Moritani raid on Ginaz, his remains were still guarded by the swordmasters of that age. (Expanded books: Dune: House Harkonnen)

Legacy#

By tradition, Noret's spirit was believed to have been reincarnated into the body of Istian Goss. (Expanded books: Dune: The Battle of Corrin)

Though he had refused to teach in life, Noret unwittingly founded his own school of fighting, the Jool-Noret School, whose discipline passed down through generations of Ginaz swordmasters. When Valya Harkonnen arrived at the school, the swordmaster Rissar noted that she was dressed exactly as Noret had been. (Expanded books: Mentats of Dune)