Reverend Mother
Reverend Mother is a title or salutation for the Abbess or female leader of a religious instition such as a convent or abbey.
A Reverend Mother is a fictional character appearing in the novel Dune, being a Bene Gesserit woman who has finished her training.
At the end of her training, the Reverend mother undergoes a ritual involving a significant amount of melange, an important spice in the Dune novels. If she survives this, she gains the memories of all her female ancestors, resulting in great knowledge and power.
It is impossible for normal males to undergo this ritual, they will be killed. In an extensive breeding program, the Bene Gesserit tried to produce a male who could do this, the so-called Kwisatz Haderach. The final result of their program was Paul Atreides.
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