The character I'm about to describe in the context of my drawing is very complex and I have rather ambivalent feelings about her, but I find her thoroughly interesting, and I hope you will too.
Alia
is the daughter of Lady Jessica and Leto Atreides The First(she was born after his death), she is the sister of Paul(later known as Muad'Dib, Usul and Prophet). Alia is one of the so called
pre-born.
Alia - The Pre-Born
This means that her conscious awakening developed before birth. In 'Dune', the term 'consciousness' has a much more complicated meaning than its standard etymological definition.
Consciousness, and conscious awakening in Dune universe
is what differentiate humans not only as a species, but also distinguishes individuals as outstanding, as well as seeing beyond the mediocre and beyond the present time. The awakening of consciousness here means deep knowledge, one that is beyond the wisdom of a single individual and a vision of what is past and what is yet to come.
Alia was not pre-born by her own fault, however. Her mother Jessica (pregnant at the time) agreed to a ritual to transform her into a reverend mother for the Fremen tribe with usgae 'Water of Life'. During such a ritual, her predecessor Reverend Mother - passes on all her knowledge to new 'mother'. But these are not just facts and whispers of history. The Reverend Mother is like a vessel - storing not only history but the previous lives/incarnations of the Reverend Motheres, and many other shadows of past entities.
Alia absorbed this information together with her mother while still in her womb. Happily Jessica and Alia survived the process, but the joy did not last long.
She was different from birth. Her behaviour since the cradle surprised and very often frightened others. Several years old children, who formulate their thoughts very clearly, can throw us off guard. Imagine a few years old who not only quotes from books which have long ceased to exist, but lectures and ridicules you.
She was not only extremely intelligent (not even taking into account her young age at the time) but had access to the knowledge of thousands of people who were 'alive in her'.
The following paragraphs contain some spoilers, so consider if you really want to read this.
Alia, not yet 10 years old, took part in the Battle of Arakin. A clear indication of her character, despite her age, is the fact that she was in charge of killing the wounded and marking the bodies from which the water was to be 'taken back to tribe' (Water on Arrakis was the highest good, and surrounded by a great cult. Thus even moisture was recovered from .... yes, from the dead.)
Besides, it was she who dealt a fatal blow to the then greatest enemy of the Atreides - Baron Vladimir Harkonn, with the help of a poisoned needle 'Gom Jabbar'.
Although at first it seemed that Alia was coping well with the constant presence of her ancestors - her personality began to fall apart. Other voices took control of her, the main one being Baron Harkonnen, who - even more frightening in the context of her story - was her grandfather (Jessica's father). Then, more and more often, other characters referred to her as The Abomination.] This is the spoiler content.
I will not spoil much more for you, because I hope that at least a handful of you will pick up the books and get to know her fate first hand.
About the drawing
As I mentioned when drawing Baron Harkonnen - the author of Dune doesn't give much indication as to what the characters looked like. However, in the book it is repeatedly emphasised how captivatingly beautiful Lady Jessica, Ali's mother, was. So we can forseen with high degree of probability that Alia was also a beautiful woman.
However, Alia was after all first 'Abomination'. Apart form that she lived many years with the Fremen, so her eyes were 'blue within blue' and she learn to fight and survive on the desert.
Her fate makes it very difficult to think of her in terms of a woman or simply a human being. She was more than human and at the same time lost much of her humanity. I wanted to show that she still had the 'clothes of a human', but what is most important is what was going on in the depths of her soul, or rather souls.
I leave you today with a short quote from the book:
"The Fremen see her as the Earth Figure, a demi-goddess whose special charge is to protect the tribes through her powers of violence. She is Reverend Mother to their Reverend Mothers. To pilgrims who seek her out with demands that she restore virility or make the barren fruitful, she is a form of anti-mentat. She feeds on that strong human desire for the mysterious. She is living proof that the 'analytic' has limits. She represents ultimate tension. She is the virgin-harlot - witty, vulgur, cruel, as destructive in her whims as a coriolis storm."
St Alia-of-the-Knife as taken from The Irulan Report
I hope you have great rest of your week,
Yours,
Strega Azure
I used pencils: 10B, 8B, 4B, 2B, F, 2H, 5H, 8H, metallic gold Sharpie, gold acrylic paint,
watercolour pencils.
Drawing & pictures are my authorship if not stated otherwise,
all rights reserved 
Hive account@strega.azure ©
P.S. Just dropped Official Trailer of second part of cinematic version of 'Dune'
YouTube link here
