Voice

Voice was an audio-neuro control mechanism that allowed the manipulation of speech to achieve complete control over a listener. It was perfected by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood through the combined training of several advanced techniques. Among its most famous practitioners and resisters were members of the Atreides line, including Paul Atreides, who not only mastered Voice but taught resistance to it to Duncan Idaho.

Application#

Use of Voice allowed a Bene Gesserit adept to gain control over an uninitiated victim merely by altering the tonal qualities of her voice. Simple instructions or orders were then spoken in Voice and obeyed dutifully. It was most often used to compel an unwilling person to do something undesirable, or to draw the truth from an unwilling recipient, and the Sisterhood also turned it to the interrogation of prisoners.

The Lady Jessica once considered using Voice on Duke Leto Atreides to steer his decisions on the welfare of House Atreides during their move from Caladan to Arrakis. She reasoned that she could apply it so subtly that the Duke would believe he was making the choices of his own volition, but she knew that to do so would be a gross violation of his trust, even if it might save the House.

Resistance and untrained use#

With sufficient natural ability and training a person could grow more resistant to Voice. The most famous example was Paul Atreides, who taught resistance to Duncan Idaho until Idaho became wholly immune to it. Other defenses came through technology, such as the Cone of Silence. Certain skilled individuals also possessed a particular resistance born of long conditioning; when threatened by Gurney Halleck, Jessica judged that using Voice against him would be too difficult and futile given his experience and talents. Conversely, a few people could wield Voice with no formal training at all, such as Sheeana Brugh, who learned to master her natural talent as she grew to adulthood.

Notable uses#

Among its successful uses, Gaius Helen Mohiam employed Voice in 10191 AG to force Paul Atreides to come to her and then to stop him turning his head toward the gom jabbar. In the same year Paul used Voice to force the smuggler Czigo to remove his mother's gag, and later to make Captain Aramsham give his name and submit to him. In the late history of the Sisterhood, Reverend Mothers used Voice together with drugging herbs to lure Darwi Odrade into their groundcar, and Odrade in turn used it against Hedley Tuek, Cania, and Sheeana Brugh.

Voice also failed against the trained and the immune. Paul's first attempt to command Czigo initially failed before he succeeded. Lucilla's attempt to use Voice against Duncan Idaho failed because of his immunity, and an Honored Matre twice failed to force the Tleilaxu Master Tylwyth Waff to reveal how the last Idaho ghola had been altered, defeated by Waff's training against Voice. Sheeana's own crude attempts to use it on Odrade likewise failed.