Piter De Vries
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Piter De Vries is a fictional character from Frank Herbert's Dune science fiction series.
[edit] History
De Vries was an evil mentat in the service of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This mentat was a particular favorite of the Baron because the Tleilaxu had shown him to be an amoral sadist, making an ideal candidate for chief torturer.
[edit] Personality
De Vries' loyalty to his master is unusual in that he continues to serve the Baron with great enthusiasm, even though his Mentat abilities and great intelligence confirm his suspicions that his master plans to eventually kill him. However as he put it, "I will know when the executioner comes".
De Vries pioneered a type of poison called "residual toxin" , which remains in one's body for years. One such fatal poison was used by the Harkonnen on Thufir Hawat (the Mentat of House Atreides), in order to keep the Mentat's allegiance by being the only provider of the antidote (which only stays the effects of the poison, and does not remove it from the body). In the 1984 movie version, it's shown that Hawat has to milk a gruesome captive cat for the antidote every day.) The poison was in fact administered without Hawat's knowledge as a way to kill him (an otherwise daunting task, as Hawat was a master assassin,) should the need arise. Hawat's "loyalty" came from his desire to wreak his vengeance on the Imperium.
De Vries is generally regarded as architect of the plan to destroy the Harkonnen's long-time enemy, House Atreides, while returning the Baron's stewardship over Arrakis. He died on Arrakis shortly after House Harkonnen's troops and Imperial Sardaukar had captured Duke Leto Atreides. He was killed by Leto, who had been given a false tooth by Wellington Yueh, the Suk doctor who betrayed House Atreides. When the tooth was crushed, a poisonous gas was released. The attack was meant to kill the Baron, but failed.
Unknown to most, there are actually two ghola-mentats who assume this identity in the Dune universe. The original Piter De Vries was secretly killed by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, as depicted in Dune: House Corrino. This occurred after the mentat discovered the Harkonnen heritage of Lady Jessica and newly born Paul Atreides, attempting to kidnap the infant as ransom. Mohiam effectively preserved this secret by murdering De Vries and arranging for his corpse to be shipped home to Giedi Prime. An enraged Baron was left with no choice but to order a duplicate from the Bene Tleilax, who would become the mentat popularly featured in Herbert's original Dune. There is also a Harkonnen Mentat who also bears a resemblance to Piter De Vries who appears in the computer game Dune 2000 by the name of Hayt played by Robert Carin.
In David Lynch's adaptation of the first novel, De Vries was played by Brad Dourif.
[edit] Trivia
His name appears to be a reference to editor and critic Peter De Vries.
