Mash'al (Shihab) - Dan Osb

Mash'al (Shihab)(Edit)

DoB: 26/07/10,147

Name - Properly, I am named Mash'al (which means 'torch'), but the trouble that I have caused the Harkonnens (and the notoriety rather than fame that I imagine that has gained me in the sietch) has earned me the name Shihab (which means 'flame' or 'blaze').

Code of Honour - I will not accept any suggestion of cowardice, nor allow an insult to go unchallenged.

Wife: Shadiya ()

Daughter: Zahirah ()

Shihab is a shade under 6' tall and has the wiry athleticism common to all desert fremen. His hair and beard have a reddish tinge and his face is often set in a frown.

Background - My father, Salman, was exceptionally cautious; cautious enough, in fact, that he gained a reputation for cowardice. More than once he was named as such, but ignored the insult rather than duelling his accusers. When I was 6 years old, a raid went awry and there were many who blamed my father's cowardice. More than one wanted his blood but it was only when Hamzah (a proud and noted warrior of the sietch) made an accusation that my father demanded a duel - a duel that he lost, thereby proving his cowardice.

Hamzah became responsible for my mother and I for the space of a year. He honoured Halimah in that time and, at the end of that year, he gifted Halimah the water rings he had for killing Salman and she became his second wife. His first wife having proved barren, my half-sister Johara remains the only child of his body, but he has always treated me as his own son and has taught me what my true father did not - pride, self-respect and how an insult should properly be answered.

I, however, remain the son of a coward and must strive every day to escape my father's reputation. I will not accept an accusation of cowardice and, I must challenge any man who insults me. Now that I have a wife and child of my own, I sometimes wonder how much of my father's faint-heartedness was actually rooted in care for his family and I begin to understand why he challenged Hamzah when he stood accused by so many others. Whatever I may suspect, I cannot find it within me to forgive or emulate him. I must prove myself. Better my daughter should inherit a legacy of honour than one of cowardice.

In 10,172 Mash'al was captured by the Harkonnen and taken to Carthag for interrogation. In a daring escape, Mash'al killed Iraklii Harkonnen, the then-governor of Arrakis. After this, his sietch name was changed to Shihab.