Missionaria Protectiva

The Missionaria Protectiva was the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood's program of religious engineering, known among the Sisters as the "black arm of superstition." Its purpose was to sow seeds of superstition in primitive cultures so that the Order could exploit them once those seeds had grown into full-fledged legends. The Missionaria was responsible for spreading the Panoplia Propheticus, the body of myths, prophecies, and superstitions that allowed a Bene Gesserit to later present herself as a guide, protector, or foretold figure. Its work shaped the religious life of the Fremen of Arrakis and prepared the ground for the rise of Paul Atreides.

Purpose and method#

The Missionaria Protectiva practised what the Sisterhood understood as religious engineering, spreading infectious superstitions on primitive worlds and thereby opening those regions to exploitation by the Bene Gesserit. The myths and prophecies it planted, the Panoplia Propheticus, provided the opportunity for a Sister to later cast herself as a guide, a protector, or some other figure whose arrival the local culture had been taught to expect. By controlling the particulars of a society's religion, the Bene Gesserit held a manipulative lever over that society in general.

The depth and character of the seeded material varied with the target. The harsher and more primitive the world, and the greater the control a Sister might one day require, the more powerful the legend the Missionaria laid down. The most extreme of these legends were reserved for places where a Bene Gesserit would need the maximum possible advantage over surrounding influences. Beyond protecting individual Sisters, the program also served the long design of the Order, preparing the Imperium for the eventual arrival of the Kwisatz Haderach.

The seeding of Arrakis#

The superstitions the Missionaria maintained among the Fremen of Arrakis foretold the coming of a prescient son of a Bene Gesserit who would lead them to freedom. In Fremen belief this figure was the Lisan al Gaib, and he was to become the Mahdi who delivered them from subjugation. When House Atreides arrived on Arrakis in 10191 AG, the Fremen took the prophecies handed down to them across the ages as being on the point of fulfilment.

After the destruction of House Atreides, Lady Jessica and her son took refuge among the Fremen, and Jessica recognised the planted legends for what they were. That the Mahdi legend had been seeded on Arrakis told her how truly awful conditions on the planet must be, since such a legend was laid down only where a Sister might need to assume total control of the surrounding culture. With his mother's guidance, Paul made use of the planted material, claiming the role of Mahdi that the Missionaria had prepared for him. His rise to power was greatly aided by his association with the legend; as the prescient son of a Bene Gesserit, he became the Kwisatz Haderach, freed the Fremen, and saw Muad'Dib's Jihad spread across the universe.

Later use and renaming#

The groundwork laid by the Missionaria Protectiva endured for thousands of years and remained a resource for the Sisterhood long after Arrakis. In a later age the Bene Gesserit intended to use the ability of Reverend Mother Sheeana to control the great sandworms to build her into a religious figure, around whom they could gather a mass following and unite many factions against the forces returning out of the Scattering. That design would have drawn on the religious foundations the Missionaria had set down thousands of years before.

After the emergence of the New Sisterhood, the program was changed by order of Mother Commander Murbella. Its new name was the Missionaria Aggressiva.