Ghola

The original series

Gholas were originally blank physical duplicates, lacking the memories of their original selves. In Dune: Messiah, the Tleilaxu created the ghola Hayt, embedding a post-hypnotic command to assassinate Emperor Paul Atreides. The attempt failed, but the psychological strain of trying to kill a person deeply loved in his prior life shattered the mental block, allowing Hayt to regain the full memories of the original Duncan Idaho. The Tleilaxu then proposed a similar resurrection for Paul's dead lover Chani as a bargaining chip, but Paul refused.

During Leto II's 3,500-year rule in God Emperor of Dune, he kept a succession of Duncan gholas as companions. Each one recovered the original Idaho's memories but not those of previous ghola versions. These bodies were perfectly reconstructed from a few cells, grown in one to two years. In Heretics of Dune, fifteen hundred years after Leto's death, the Bene Gesserit used Duncan gholas.

The current Idaho ghola regained his original memories as earlier ones had, but when the Honored Matre Murbella attempted to sexually imprint him, he instead recovered the memories of all his past ghola incarnations. It was later discovered that the Tleilaxu had combined cells from multiple Idaho gholas to create this one, though obtaining genetic material from every incarnation would have been impossible, suggesting a prescient or metaphysical awareness had developed.

While intense psychological trauma is the key to unlocking a ghola's memories, the specific method varies by individual. For instance, the military genius Miles Teg, killed in Heretics of Dune, was reborn as a ghola in Chapterhouse: Dune on orders from his daughter Darwi Odrade, and his memories were unlocked through sexual imprinting.

Dune games

In Dune 2000, the Harkonnen Mentat is allegedly a ghola cloned from Tleilaxu flesh vats. In Emperor: Battle for Dune, House Ordos deploys gholas in assassination and infiltration missions, tricking the Sardaukar and Fremen into allying with them. They plan to use a ghola of the deceased Corrino Emperor to claim the Golden Lion Throne, with the Executrix as the true leaders behind the puppet Emperor.