Editing List of Dune characters (section)

==== Serena Butler ====
Serena Butler is a prominent politician and voice of the human rebellion who becomes the namesake of the [[Butlerian Jihad]] against the oppressive rule of the [[thinking machines (Dune)|thinking machines]] in the ''Legends of Dune'' prequel trilogy. The daughter of League of Nobles Viceroy Manion Butler and his wife Livia, Serena is romantically involved with [[#Xavier Harkonnen|Xavier Harkonnen]], who leads the military force on the League capital world of [[Salusa Secundus]]. The universe is under threat of total domination by the thinking machine empire, which consists of the evermind [[#Omnius|Omnius]], the independent robot [[Erasmus (Dune)|Erasmus]] and their army [[cymek]]s, fearsome weaponized machines controlled by disembodied human brains. The thinking machines control many worlds, and continue to conquer more, enslaving or exterminating any humans they encounter.

In ''[[Dune: The Butlerian Jihad]]'' (2002), Serena is captured by the thinking machines and studied by Erasmus, who seeks to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines can be truly superior. Though his methods of study often entail human vivisection and torture, Erasmus takes a liking to Serena, as does the young [[#Vorian Atreides|Vorian Atreides]], a human trustee who serves the thinking machines. Serena realizes she is pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gives birth to a baby boy she names Manion. Eventually finding this distraction inconvenient, Erasmus not only removes Serena's uterus, but kills her young son in front of her and his slaves by dropping the child from a high balcony. This event, broadcast across the universe, incites a formal jihad against the thinking machines. Seeing Serena subsequently attack and destroy a sentinel robot with her bare hands encourages Erasmus' slaves, already groomed for rebellion by slave leader [[#Iblis Ginjo|Iblis Ginjo]], to rise up. Vorian, witnessing the murder and realizing the lie he lives as a machine trustee, flees with Serena and Ginjo.

In ''[[Dune: The Machine Crusade]]'' (2003), Ginjo (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) have become the religious leaders of the human rebellion, now known the Butlerian Jihad, which elevates young Manion to a martyr. Serena is named interim Viceroy upon her father's retirement, but is later relegated to a figurehead by Ginjo as he consolidates his power. The humans begin to tire of war, but Serena and Ginjo know that true peace is not possible, and that the thinking machines must be destroyed. Serena visits Omnius as an emissary of the Jihad under the pretense of negotiating peace, but secretly intends to provoke Omnius into killing her, thereby making her a martyr and reenergizing the Jihad. Although Erasmus stops Omnius from murdering Serena, one of her Seraphim bodyguards, on orders from Ginjo, kills her instead. Ginjo manufactures images of Serena being tortured at length and murdered by the thinking machines, silencing anti-war dissenters and galvanizing the Jihad back into action.