Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur. She steals a set of secret records from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it.

Her descendant Moneo is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto. A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, and Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima. The desert planet Arrakis has been entirely transformed by terraforming into a lush forested biosphere with the exception of 'The Sareer', a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel. All of this he has done in accordance with a prophecy divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior. He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to a near- medieval level of technological sophistication. The Fremen have long since lost their identity and military power, and have been replaced as the Imperial army by the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question. Leto has disbanded the Landsraad to all but a few Great Houses the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret.

As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear. Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger. The death of all other sandworms as a result of the terraforming of Dune, and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important drug melange, has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command. Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and giant sandworm in Children of Dune. 11 hardcover fiction best seller of 1981 by Publishers Weekly.

The fourth in his Dune series of six novels, it was ranked as the No. God Emperor of Dune is a science fiction novel by American writer Frank Herbert, published in 1981.

Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert