Arrakis ( / ə ˈ r ɑː k ɪ s / )—informally known as Dune and later called Rakis —is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert . Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune , is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is sometimes cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.
99-461: In Dune , Arrakis is the most important planet in the universe, as it is the only source of the drug melange . Melange (or, "the spice") is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible (among other uses). Harvesting the spice is also hazardous in the extreme, due to both the harsh climate of the planet and the fact that melange deposits are guarded by giant sandworms . Arrakis
198-498: A carryall lifts the mining vehicle to safety. The Fremen, who have learned to co-exist with the sandworms in the desert, harvest the spice manually for their own use and for smuggling off-planet. Within the 1500 years between the events of God Emperor of Dune (1981) and Heretics of Dune (1984), the Tleilaxu discover an artificial method of producing the spice in their axlotl tanks , previously used only to create gholas . It
297-722: A prototype interstellar spacecraft several years prior to the creation of the Spacing Guild . During the events of Dune , the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV grants Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice harvesting operations of Arrakis, ousting the Atreides' longtime rivals, the Harkonnens . The Atreides rule is cut short by a murderous conspiracy crafted by the Harkonnens and
396-550: A "very powerful" Navigator is described as "one of the Edrics", suggesting a possible breeding plan or use of gholas . In God Emperor of Dune (1981), God Emperor Leto II has secured complete control over of the scarce melange reserves through hydraulic despotism , making the Guild completely dependent on him. He also notes in the novel that though history has attributed the design of the first Guild ship to Aurelius Venport , it
495-599: A catalyst for interstellar travel, the Padishah Emperor 's power at the outset of Dune is secured by his control of Arrakis, which puts him on equal footing with both the assembly of noble families called the Landsraad and the Spacing Guild, which monopolizes interstellar travel. Seizing control of the planet, Paul Atreides intensifies this form of hydraulic despotism by asserting control over both
594-518: A chance to survive by becoming a Navigator. She then folds space to the bridge of the imperial flagship and strikes a deal with the Emperor, agreeing to dissolve VenHold in exchange for Roderick sparing her and all her Navigators, and also establishing the Spacing Guild. In David Lynch 's 1984 film Dune , the Navigator's mutation affects his entire body, and he resembles a giant newt or worm with
693-521: A complete and unbreakable coma through perfect prescience. In Mycelium Running , mycologist Paul Stamets argues without sources, that Herbert's creation of melange was related in part to his own personal experiences with psilocybin mushrooms . Carol Hart analyzes the concept of the drug in the essay "Melange" in The Science of Dune (2008). Also in Science of Dune , Csilla Csori analyzes
792-526: A desert. In Heretics of Dune , all life on Arrakis is destroyed (and the entire surface of the planet slagged into oblivion) by the Honored Matres in a failed attempt to eliminate the latest Duncan Idaho ghola . The Bene Gesserit escape with a single sandworm, and drown it to revert the worm back into sandtrout. In Chapterhouse: Dune , the Bene Gesserit use these sandtrout to begin
891-419: A heavily deformed head, V-shaped mouth and vestigial limbs. The Navigator is not shown to have the blue-in-blue eyes of a spice addict. The 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune portrays the Navigator as a withered figure with a humanoid head, blue-in-blue eyes and arms which have mutated into wings with elongated webbed fingers. The 2003 sequel miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune presents Edric as
990-446: A highly concentrated form of spice, dubbed " ultraspice ." Edrik and the ultraspice are later intercepted by Face Dancer leader Khrone , who seizes the valuable optimized melange. He incapacitates Edrik by damaging his tank and releasing its spice gas, soon destroying the entire heighliner to rid himself of the Navigator altogether. The Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) by Brian Herbert and Anderson, set immediately before
1089-519: A linguistic connection between the Fremen and the Muadru." The significance of Arrakis has been discussed in the context of ecocriticism and ecofiction as well as in the context of influences of Arabic culture on modern popular culture . Melange (fictional drug) Melange ( / m eɪ ˈ l ɑː n ʒ / ), often referred to as " the spice ", is the fictional psychedelic drug central to
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#17327939198491188-587: A new sandworm cycle on their homeworld of Chapterhouse , which is terraformed into desert for this purpose. Finally, in Sandworms of Dune , some sandworms are revealed to be alive and well, having sensed the upper crust would be destroyed, and therefore burrowed even deeper, escaping the blast. The capital of Arrakis and its long-time seat of planetary government is Arrakeen ( / ær ə ˈ k iː n / ). Leto I describes it as "a smaller city, easier to sterilize and defend." He and his family take up residence in
1287-485: A pre-spice mass is "the stage of fungusoid wild growth achieved when water is flooded into the excretions of Little Makers ", the "half-plant–half-animal deep-sand vector of the Arrakis sandworm ". Gases are produced which result in "a characteristic 'blow', exchanging the material from deep underground for the matter on the surface above it." This blow is explosive in nature, erupting with enough force to kill anyone in
1386-518: A room reminded her of the Sisters' Hall at her Bene Gesserit school. But at the school the effect had been of warmth. Here, all was bleak stone. Some architect had reached far back into history for these buttressed walls and dark hangings, she thought. The arched ceiling stood two stories above her with great crossbeams she felt sure had been shipped here to Arrakis across space at monstrous cost. No planet of this system grew trees to make such beams—unless
1485-467: A safe path for a heighliner through foldspace. As the first Navigator, Norma begins a training program to produce enough Navigators to pilot a fleet of heighliners. Over 80 years later, she puts the creation of the Spacing Guild in motion through her descendant, Josef Venport. After consolidating its hold on the space travel industry during the events of Sisterhood of Dune (2012), this company, now called "Venport Holdings" or even "VenHold", evolves into
1584-621: A sleek, golden humanoid with an elongated head and limbs, and feathery appendages. Though Navigators are not present in Denis Villeneuve 's 2021 film Dune , Guild representatives are depicted as humanoids in white, cloaked space suits with opaque helmet visors. Villeneuve explained: We don't see the Navigators in this first part... I tried to keep all the space-travelling as mysterious as possible, like almost bringing some kind of mysticism or sacred relationship with that part of
1683-436: A spiceblow had erupted". Collecting the melange is hazardous in the extreme, since rhythmic activity on the desert surface of Arrakis attracts the worms, which can be up to 400 meters (1,300 feet) in length and are capable of swallowing a mining crawler whole. Thus, the mining operation essentially consists of vacuuming it from the surface with a vehicle called a harvester until a worm comes, at which time an aircraft known as
1782-518: A stable societal order from which they could profit. Houses of the Imperium may contract with the Guild to be removed "to a place of safety outside the System". Some Houses in danger of ruin or defeat have "become renegade Houses, taking family atomics and shields and fleeing beyond the Imperium". The Guild controls a "sanctuary planet" (or planets) known as Tupile, intended for such "defeated Houses of
1881-604: A strange sea." The Navigators' "elongated and repositioned limbs and organs" are noted in Heretics of Dune . In 1985's Chapterhouse: Dune , Lucilla notes that "Navigators were forever bathed in the orange gas of melange, their features often fogged by the vapors," that they possess a "tiny v of a mouth" and "ugly flap of nose" and that "Mouth and nose appeared small on a Navigator's gigantic face with its pulsing temples." She also notes that their mutated voices require translation devices, describing "the singsong ululations of
1980-410: Is a sign of wealth. Duke Leto Atreides notes that of every valuable commodity known to mankind, "all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on Tupile." Jon Michaud of The New Yorker wrote: "Imagine a substance with the combined worldwide value of cocaine and petroleum and you will have some idea of the power of melange." Due to the rarity and value of melange and its necessity as
2079-572: Is almost a thousand meters below the first beams upholding the lower roof. Alia's Fane (or Alia's Temple ) is the two-kilometer wide temple Paul-Muad'Dib built for his sister Alia between the events of Dune and Dune Messiah . Herbert described it in The Road to Dune : If you are numbered among "the heartfelt pilgrims," you will cross the last thousand meters of this approach to the Temple of Alia on your knees. Those thousand meters fall well within
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#17327939198492178-415: Is also highly addictive, and withdrawal is fatal. Harvesting melange is also hazardous in the extreme, as its only known source is the harsh desert planet Arrakis , where its deposits are guarded by giant sandworms . Melange is a drug that prolongs life and bestows heightened vitality and awareness, and in some humans unlocks prescience, a form of precognition based in genetics but made possible by use of
2277-664: Is also the home of the Fremen ( Zensunni wanderers), and subsequently is the Imperial Capital of the Atreides Empire . Arrakis is the third planet orbiting the star Canopus , and it in turn is orbited by two moons, one of which has an albedo pattern resembling the desert kangaroo mouse , Muad'Dib, on it; the other moon has markings resembling a human hand. A desert planet with no natural precipitation , in Dune it
2376-506: Is established that Arrakis had been "His Imperial Majesty's Desert Botanical Testing Station" before the discovery of melange , for which it is the only natural source in the universe. Melange (or, "the spice") is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible (among other uses). The planet has no surface water bodies, but open canals called qanats are used "for carrying irrigation water under controlled conditions" through
2475-639: Is noted in Heretics of Dune that "[f]or every milligram of melange produced on Rakis, the Bene Tleilax tanks produced long tons". The technology "had broken the Rakian monopoly on the spice" but is not fully successful in pushing natural melange out of the marketplace. In the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (1999–2001), Project Amal is an early attempt by
2574-570: Is replaced with genuine melange, D'murr uses the last of his strength to return the ship safely to Junction, home of the Guild headquarters, before dying. In the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004) by Brian Herbert and Anderson, unappreciated scientist Norma Cenva creates the Holtzman engine , which allows a ship to fold space, traveling great distances instantaneously. Her future husband, entrepreneur Aurelius Venport, begins mass-producing
2673-674: Is taken apart in the Famine Times after the death of Leto II in search of his alleged hoard of spice. All Imperial cities on Arrakis are in the far-northern latitudes of the planet and protected from the violent weather of Arrakis by a natural formation known as the Shield Wall . When the Harkonnens controlled the planet, they ruled from the Harkonnen-built " megalopolis " of Carthag , described by Jessica as "a cheap and brassy place some two hundred kilometers northeast across
2772-580: Is vague in describing the appearance of the spice. He hints at its color in Dune Messiah when he notes that Guild Navigator Edric "swam in a container of orange gas ... His tank's vents emitted a pale orange cloud rich with the smell of the geriatric spice, melange." Later in Heretics of Dune (1984), a discovered hoard of melange appears as "mounds of dark reddish brown". Herbert also indicates fluorescence in God Emperor of Dune (1981) when
2871-530: Is visible in the eyes, as the drug tints the sclera and iris to a dark shade of blue, called "blue-in-blue" or "the Eyes of Ibad," "a total blue so dark as to be almost black." This is a common side effect in all spice addicts. In the original 1965 novel Dune , Duke Leto Atreides notes that the Guild is "as jealous of its privacy as it is of its monopoly," and that not even their own agents ever see Navigators. Leto's son Paul wonders if they are mutated to
2970-575: The Dune series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert and derivative works. In the series, the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe is melange, a drug that gives the user a longer life span, greater vitality, and heightened awareness. In some humans, the spice can also unlock prescience , a form of precognition based in genetics but made possible by use of the drug in larger dosages. Among other functions, prescience makes safe and accurate interstellar travel possible. However, melange
3069-456: The DNA of the worm's sandtrout stage and creating an aquatic form of the worms, which are then released into the oceans of Buzzell . Adapting to their new environment, these " seaworms " quickly flourish, eventually producing a highly concentrated form of spice, dubbed ultraspice . This new form of spice is so powerful that a relatively small dose causes a potential Kwisatz Haderach to descend into
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3168-399: The Dune series, enormous starships called heighliners employ a scientific phenomenon known as the Holtzman effect to "fold space" and thereby travel great distances across the universe instantaneously. Navigators are able to use a limited form of prescience to safely navigate interstellar space. Navigators are humans who mutated through the consumption of and exposure to massive amounts of
3267-478: The Obliterators that destroy the planet Richese , where the Bene Gesserit are mass-producing weapons and armed battleships. Uxtal is ultimately unsuccessful, but the ghola he creates of deceased Tleilaxu Master Waff later offers Edrik something better in exchange for sanctuary—the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own, optimized sandworms to produce melange. In Sandworms of Dune (2007),
3366-422: The Tleilaxu in their Project Amal . The flawed spice disrupts and confuses D'murr's thoughts, feelings and prescience. Disastrously, the first heighliner emerges from foldspace at the wrong point, striking the defensive shields of Wallach IX and plummeting into the atmosphere to its destruction. Affected by the tainted melange, D'murr misguides his ship out of the known universe and collapses. As his spice supply
3465-461: The Arrakeen deserts. They also developed stillsuit technology, allowing them to survive in the open desert. By harvesting melange, they were able to bribe the Spacing Guild for privacy from observation and weather control in order to hide from the Imperium their true population and their plans to terraform Arrakis. Much of this ecological activity took place in the unexplored southern latitudes of
3564-588: The Atreides home-base was a colossal megastructure in Arrakeen, designed to intimidate, known as the Keep . In Dune Messiah , the fortress is described as being large enough to enclose entire cities. In his 1985 short work " The Road to Dune " (published in the short story collection Eye ), Frank Herbert described the Grand Palace of Arrakeen (and other sites) during the reign of Paul Atreides: Your walking tour of Arrakis must include this approach across
3663-578: The Bene Gesserit monopoly, Edrik meets with Uxtal , the last of the Lost Tleilaxu , hoping that he can rediscover the method of producing melange in axlotl tanks (a secret believed lost when the Bene Tleilax were destroyed by the Honored Matres ). However, Uxtal is in the forced service of the Matre Superior Hellica , and her price for his expertise is Edrik's help transporting a certain cargo. He agrees, delivering by heighliner
3762-577: The Bene Tleilax to create synthetic melange in order to eliminate dependence upon Arrakis. Upon presenting their idea to the Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX , in 10,154 A.G. the Tleilaxu are granted the right to occupy the planet Ix by force (with the help of Elrood's Sardaukar army) and remake it into a laboratory station for the project. The old Emperor wants to remove the spice monopoly by making sure that he has
3861-472: The Broken Land." Arrakeen was merely the titular capital until the arrival of the Atreides. There are other cities scattered in the northern regions of the planet (especially near the ice cap, where water is harvested), as well as the Fremen sietch communities scattered throughout the desert. Other notable sites on Arrakis throughout its history include Observatory Mountain, Mount Idaho, Dar-es-balat and
3960-405: The Emperor himself. Leto's son Paul Atreides (known by the Fremen as Muad'Dib ) later leads a massive Fremen army to victory over the Emperor's Sardaukar soldier-fanatics, and by threatening the destruction of all spice production on Arrakis manages to depose Shaddam and ascend the throne in his place. With Emperor Paul worshipped as a god, Arrakis becomes the governmental and religious center of
4059-423: The Emperor. Paul moves his base of operations to Arrakeen, but Sietch Tabr remains a center of Fremen culture and politics, as well as a religiously significant site for those who worship Paul as a messiah . All Fremen sietches but one are abandoned after the terraforming of Arrakis, their exact locations remaining a mystery for thousands of years. During the reign of Muad'Dib until the ascension of his son Leto II,
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4158-548: The Grand Reception Hall of the Palace at Arrakeen, be prepared to feel dwarfed before an immensity never before conceived. A statue of St. Alia Atreides, shown as "The Soother of Pains," stands twenty-two meters tall but is one of the smallest adornments in the hall. Two hundred such statues could be stacked one atop the other against the entrance pillars and still fall short of the doorway's capitol arch, which itself
4257-443: The Guild is balanced against that of the Padishah Emperor as well as of the assembled noble Houses of the Landsraad . Essentially apolitical, the Guild is primarily concerned with the flow of commerce and preservation of the economy that supports them. Although their ability to dictate the terms of and fees for all transport gives them influence in the political arena, they do not pursue political goals beyond their economic ones. In
4356-539: The Guild of the later novels. VenHold originally has the monopoly on foldspace travel, granted to Aurelius Venport by Serena Butler . However, decades after the end of the Butlerian Jihad, Emperor Jules revokes the monopoly in order to curry political favor, resulting in several rival foldspace companies springing up, such as Celestial Transport and EsconTran. These new companies, however, are unable to provide 100% safe transportation due to their lack of Navigators,
4455-743: The Imperium ... Location(s) known only to the Guild and maintained inviolate under the Guild Peace". In Dune Messiah (1969), the Navigator Edric engages in a conspiracy to dethrone Emperor Paul Atreides, joined by the Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale , the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam , and Paul's embittered consort, Princess Irulan of House Corrino . With their endless need for melange,
4554-428: The Imperium ate diluted melange in small sprinklings with at least one meal a day." Extensive use of the drug tints the sclera , cornea , and iris of the user to a dark shade of blue, called "blue-in-blue" or "the Eyes of Ibad", which is something of a source of pride among the Fremen and a symbol of their tribal bond. In Dune , Paul initially has green eyes, but after several years on Arrakis they begin to take on
4653-402: The Imperium. Paul Muad'Dib continues the efforts to terraform Arrakis into a green world, a plan begun by the Fremen under the guidance of Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes and his son Liet-Kynes . The core of their plan is gradual water-collection from the Arrakeen atmosphere to form large reservoirs that would, eventually, become lakes and oceans. Much of this activity takes place in
4752-617: The Ixians and the Administrative faction of the Spacing Guild refer to as "compilers". These compilers perform calculations very similar to computers, nearly violating the prohibitions against " thinking machines " that were imposed following the Butlerian Jihad several millennia before. These compilers eliminate the need for the Navigators, and the strategic disadvantage that this aspect of melange dependency has become, because
4851-579: The Kynes Sea. The novel Paul of Dune (2008) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson establishes that the first known inhabitants of Arrakis had been the Muadru , who introduced the sandworms to the planet. They had settlements all over the galaxy which suddenly disappeared; the Zensunni Wanderers came later, ultimately becoming the Fremen . In the novel Paul notes, "There appears to be
4950-528: The Landsraad and Spacing Guild, as well as other factions in the universe. Paul's sister Alia says in Children of Dune , "The spice often called 'the secret coinage'. Without melange, the Spacing Guild's heighliners could not move ... Without melange and its amplification of the human immunogenic system, life expectancy for the very rich degenerated by a factor of at least four. Even the vast middle class of
5049-695: The Last Desert of the Sareer . The Sareer is flanked by the Forbidden Forest , home of the ferocious D-wolves , the guardians of the Sareer. Beyond that lies the Idaho River , across which a bridge spans that leads to the festival city of Onn (once Arrakeen). Mount Idaho had been completely demolished to provide the raw materials to build the high walls surrounding the Sareer. The Citadel itself
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#17327939198495148-522: The Navigator's voice with its simultaneous mechtranslation into impersonal Galach ." In an unused passage by Frank Herbert from Dune Messiah published in The Road to Dune (2005), Edric is described as surviving without spice gas once a hole is opened in his tank, though his prescient abilities are practically useless in this state. In Dune (1965), the Spacing Guild enjoys a profitable monopoly on interstellar travel and commerce. Though powerful,
5247-405: The Navigators' abilities are slowly being compromised by the severe reductions in the availability of spice resulting from the destruction of Dune and the sandworms on that planet, and the strict control by the Bene Gesserit, who maintain a monopoly over the largest stockpiles of melange. The prescient rule of Leto II that lasted 3,500 years has shown the universe the perils of prescience, namely that
5346-592: The Priesthood of Rakis. In Dune , Sietch Tabr is a major Fremen sietch originally led by Naib Stilgar. Paul Atreides and his mother Lady Jessica, safely escaping from the Harkonnen attack, come upon Sietch Tabr and are eventually accepted into the community. In these Fremen Paul finds an incomparable fighting force who are already disgruntled by Imperial rule. He shapes them into a resistance movement that eventually takes control of Arrakis, allowing Paul to depose
5445-436: The Spacing Guild has a vested interest in breaking Paul's stranglehold over the spice supply. Edric's involvement also protects the conspirators from discovery, as his prescience hides the activities of himself and those around him from other prescients, like Paul. The plot ultimately fails, and Edric and Mohiam are executed by Fremen naib Stilgar on orders from Paul's sister Alia Atreides . In Chapterhouse Dune (1985),
5544-556: The Spacing Guild has never actively tried to openly seize power over all of humanity and rule directly, instead sharing power with the Emperor and the Great Houses, and influencing events from the shadows. Paul Atreides concludes that the Guild does this out of a belief that any political empire is finite, ending sooner or later. The only way to guarantee their continual existence is to be a "parasite", propping up one imperial dynasty until it collapses, then simply switching to support
5643-477: The battlefield. One mission in the game involves the three House attacking each other on a Guild heighliner. The Guild forces in the game can also deploy a unit called the Maker, an infantry unit somewhat resembling both a Navigator and a small sandworm, armed with an electrical weapon. Later in the game, the Spacing Guild attempts to seize control of the universe by building an "Emperor Worm". John C. Smith analyzes
5742-484: The beams were imitation wood. She thought not. Arrakeen would go through multiple transformations over time; it first becomes an Imperial capital of staggering proportions under Paul Muad'Dib. It is later transformed into a festival city known as Onn , explicitly for the worship of the Tyrant Leto II. Finally, in the centuries after his death, it is known as Keen , a modern (though still impressive) city to house
5841-446: The character Moneo notes: "Great bins of melange lay all around in a gigantic room cut from native rock and illuminated by glowglobes ... The spice had glowed radiant blue in the dim silver light. And the smell—bitter cinnamon, unmistakable." Herbert writes repeatedly, starting in Dune (1965), that melange smells like cinnamon. In Dune , Lady Jessica notes that her first taste of spice "tasted like cinnamon". Dr. Yueh adds that
5940-659: The concept of prescience in the essay "Prescience and Prophecy". Spacing Guild The Spacing Guild is an organization in Frank Herbert 's science fiction Dune universe that possesses a monopoly on interstellar travel and banking. Guild Navigators (alternately Guildsmen or Steersmen ) use the drug melange (also called "the spice") to achieve limited prescience , a form of precognition that allows them to successfully navigate " folded space " and safely guide enormous starships called heighliners across interstellar space instantaneously. The power of
6039-483: The creation process of whom is a proprietary secret tightly held by VenHold. Director Josef Venport ruthlessly crushes the competition and even executes a rival CEO. Josef Venport's desire for restoring his family's monopoly and thirst for knowledge put him in conflict with the Butlerians, a radical religious sect that follows the teachings of the late Rayna Butler under the leadership of Manford Torondo. Realizing that
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#17327939198496138-478: The deep, uniform blue of the Fremen. On other planets, the addicted often use tinted contact lenses to hide this discoloration. In Dune , Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV notes of two Guildsmen: The taller of the two, though, held a hand to his left eye. As the Emperor watched, someone jostled the Guildsman's arm, the hand moved, and the eye was revealed. The man had lost one of his masking contact lenses, and
6237-400: The desert. The Fremen collect water in underground reservoirs to fulfill their dream of someday terraforming the planet, and pay the Spacing Guild exorbitant fees in melange to keep the skies over Arrakis free of any satellites which might observe their efforts. As indicated by its large salt flats , Arrakis once had lakes and oceans; Lady Jessica also notes in Dune that wells drilled in
6336-507: The devices on their ships. All are unaware that Face Dancer infiltrators are behind the plan, plotting their own takeover of the universe. Waff works in secret, hidden on Edrik's own heighliner, on genetically engineering his "advanced" sandworms. He accomplishes this by altering the DNA of the sandtrout stage and creating an aquatic form of the worms, which are then released into the oceans of Buzzell . Adapting to their new environment, these "seaworms" quickly flourish, eventually producing
6435-685: The drug melange. Control of these Navigators gives the Spacing Guild its monopoly on interstellar travel and banking, making the organization a balance of power against the Padishah Emperor and the assembled noble Houses of the Landsraad . To enable their prescience, Guild Navigators not only consume large quantities of the spice, but are also continuously immersed in highly concentrated amounts of orange spice gas. This level of extreme and extended exposure causes their bodies to atrophy and mutate over time, their heads and extremities elongating, and causing them to become vaguely aquatic in appearance. The first external sign of melange-induced metabolic change
6534-569: The dunes to the Grand Palace at Arrakeen. From a distance, the dimensions of this construction are deceptive [...] The largest man-made structure ever built, the Grand Palace could cover more than ten of the Imperium's most populous cities under one roof, a fact that becomes more apparent when you learn Atreides attendants and their families, housed spaciously in the Palace Annex, number some thirty-five million souls [...] When you walk into
6633-672: The entire universe can be locked into the vision of a single entity, giving that entity absolute power. The Guild, facing obsolescence and suspicion, couples itself with Ix in decline; Navigators continue to exist, but their importance in the universe is severely diminished. As Paul Atreides notes in Dune , it was the Spacing Guild's obsession with the "safe path" that led them "ever into stagnation", and brought on their eventual obsolescence. After publishing six Dune prequel novels , Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson released two sequel novels, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), which complete
6732-429: The events of Dune , explores the previously-unexplained process of becoming a Navigator through the story of D'murr Pilru . D'murr, a human native of the technology-producing planet Ix , goes through the training process and physical transformation to become a full Navigator. In House Corrino (2001), D'murr is piloting one of two heighliners which Count Fenring uses to secretly test the synthetic melange created by
6831-421: The eye stared out a total blue so dark as to be almost black. Melange is also highly addictive, and withdrawal means certain death. Paul Atreides notes in Dune that the spice is "[a] poison—so subtle, so insidious... so irreversible. It won't even kill you unless you stop taking it." When aerosolized and used as an inhalant in extremely high dosages—the standard practice for Guild Navigators—the drug alters
6930-501: The flavor is "never twice the same ... It's like life—it presents a different face each time you take it. Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction. The body, learning a thing is good for it, interprets the flavor as pleasurable—slightly euphoric. And, like life, never to be truly synthesized." In Dune , there is only one source of melange: the sands of the planet Arrakis, colloquially known as Dune, and millennia later called simply "Rakis". Herbert notes in Dune that
7029-497: The hydrocarbon (ie. oil and/or natural gas) wealthy Mexico and the Middle East . Similarly Arrakis as a bioregion is presented as a particular kind of political site. Herbert has made it resemble a generic desertified petrostate . The Zensunni wanderers, driven from planet to planet, eventually found their way to Arrakis, where they became the Fremen . They settled in artificial cave-like settlements known as sietches across
7128-533: The movie. Everything involving space is just evocated and very mysterious. Writing for Screen Rant , Adam Felman opined that the limited inclusion of the Guild in Villeneuve's film helped prevent the story from becoming convoluted. The Spacing Guild is a sub-faction in the real-time strategy video game Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001). It has its own private army with which it can back up its demands. The Guild uses its heighliners to transport troops of
7227-480: The news hits the Landsraad , Shaddam denies all participation, claiming never to have heard of it. He maintains that it had probably been something his senile father Elrood had done in his last days. The Tleilaxu Masters involved are ultimately executed. Ajidica himself dies from the side effects of ajidamal: his body literally falls apart as the synthetic melange eats its way from the inside out. In Sandworms of Dune , Brian Herbert and Anderson's 2007 conclusion to
7326-439: The next one. At the end of the novel, Paul deposes Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV by seizing control of Arrakis , the only source of the all-important drug melange . Paul has learned the extent of the Guild's dependence on spice, and that without it they are "blind" and unable to navigate interstellar travel. The Guild is forced to side with Paul, threatening to strand the Emperor and his troops on Arrakis if he does not relinquish
7425-535: The only access to it, thus controlling the Spacing Guild. The Tleilaxu subsequently rename Ix " Xuttuh " after their founder. In the year 10,156 A.G., Elrood IX is assassinated by Count Hasimir Fenring at the behest of Crown Prince Shaddam . Shaddam, now under the name of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, gives Fenring the title of Imperial Spice Minister and orders him to supervise the project. Although Tleilaxu Master Hidar Fen Ajidica manages to create an artificial melange (called " ajidamal ", or "amal") that seems to have
7524-576: The original series and wrap up storylines that began with Frank Herbert's Heretics of Dune . The works were based on a 30-page outline by Frank Herbert for a sequel to Chapterhouse Dune he dubbed Dune 7 . In Hunters of Dune , the Navigator Edrik fears his kind's obsolescence when the Spacing Guild itself (pressured by a shortage of melange) begins funding the development of superior Ixian navigation technology that would not require Navigators. Seeking an alternative source of spice to break
7623-414: The original series, the Spacing Guild is manipulated into replacing its Navigators with Ixian navigation devices and cutting off the Navigators' supply of melange. Sure to die should they be without the spice, a group of Navigators commission Waff , an imperfectly awakened Tleilaxu ghola, to create "advanced" sandworms able to produce the melange they so desperately require. He accomplishes this by altering
7722-457: The original's properties, it does not work properly. Test- sandtrout explode when exposed to it, and Fenring's test of its use by Guild Navigators ends in catastrophe as one heighliner and its passengers are destroyed and the Navigator of a second heighliner dies. When Duke Leto Atreides invades Xuttuh in 10,175 A.G. and reestablishes Prince Rhombur of House Vernius as ruler of Ix, all the records of Project Amal are destroyed by Fenring. When
7821-481: The ostentatious palace previously occupied by the planetary governor Count Fenring and his wife Margot during the Harkonnen period of stewardship over Arrakis. In Dune , Leto's concubine Lady Jessica has this first impression of the Great Hall: Jessica stood in the center of the hall [...] looking up and around at shadowed carvings, crannies and deeply recessed windows. This giant anachronism of
7920-561: The physiology of its user. In the first chapter of Dune Messiah , Guild Navigator Edric is described in his tank of spice gas as "an elongated figure, vaguely humanoid with finned feet and hugely fanned membranous hands—a fish in a strange sea." In Children of Dune , the term "spice trance" is used to describe the effects of an overdose of spice. Alia had previously subjected herself to such an overdose late in Dune Messiah , hoping to enhance her prescient visions. She achieves some success, but in Children of Dune , Leto II and Ghanima blame
8019-522: The planet. The best-known of the sietches is Sietch Tabr , home of Stilgar and Muad'Dib 's center of operations before victory in the Battle of Arrakeen put Muad'Dib on the Imperial throne. According to the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson , it was a group of Zensunni wanderers escaping slavery on the planet Poritrin who originally crashed on Dune in
8118-448: The point of no longer appearing human. At the end of the novel, two self-identified Guild Navigators accompanying Emperor Shaddam IV are described as "fat" but not otherwise non-human. The Guild Navigator Edric, introduced in the first chapter of Dune Messiah (1969), is called a "humanoid fish," and described in his tank of spice gas as "an elongated figure, vaguely humanoid with finned feet and hugely fanned membranous hands—a fish in
8217-406: The sequel to Hunters and finale of the original Dune series, the Spacing Guild has begun replacing its Navigators with the more cost-effective Ixian navigation devices and cutting off the Navigators' supply of melange. More and more Navigators are dying from withdrawal of the spice—including Ardrae, "one of the oldest remaining Navigators" —and many defect and disappear into space rather than allow
8316-413: The ships which are eventually known as heighliners. The technique proves to be unsafe, however, as one in ten flights ends in the ship's destruction due to navigational difficulties. Desperate for a solution, Norma consumes increasing amounts of melange to improve her thinking and concentration. Full immersion in a tank of spice gas deforms her body, but ultimately bestows on her the prescient ability to plot
8415-417: The sinks and basins initially produce a "trickle" of water which soon stops, as if "something plugs it." Paul Atreides recalls that the few plants and animals on the planet include " saguaro , burro bush , date palm , sand verbena , evening primrose , barrel cactus , incense bush, smoke tree , creosote bush ... kit fox , desert hawk, kangaroo mouse ... many to be found now nowhere else in
8514-459: The spice to make, among other things, paper, plastics, and chemical explosives, and the existence of "spice-cloth" and "spice-fiber" rugs are noted in Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). Melange can be mixed with food, and it is used to make beverages such as spice coffee, spice beer, and spice liquor. By the events of Dune , the spice is used all over the universe and
8613-584: The spice. In the story, the Spacing Guild uses humans mutated by excessive consumption of melange, and thereby endowed with limited prescience, to safely navigate heighliner starships through folded space . In larger quantities, the spice possesses intense psychotropic effects and is used as a powerful entheogen by both the Bene Gesserit and the Fremen people of Arrakis to initiate clairvoyant and precognitive trances, access genetic memory , and heighten other abilities. The Fremen also use
8712-521: The sweeping curves leading your eyes up to the transcendent symbols dedicating this Temple to St. Alia of the Knife. The famed "Sun-Sweep Window" incorporates every solar calendar known to human history in the one translucent display whose brilliant colors, driven by the sun of Dune, thread through the interior on prismatic pathways. The Tyrant Leto II rules the universe from the Citadel , a fortress built in
8811-483: The three player Houses ( Atreides , Harkonnen and Ordos ) from their homeworlds to Arrakis. The Guild also uses its Navigators to pilot their NIAB ("Navigator in a Boat") Tanks, a hover tank that projects a single electrical bolt, and NIAP ("Navigators in a Plane") Flyers, an aerial version of the NIAB Tank, although without any weapons of its own. The NIAB Tank also has the ability to fold-space for short distances on
8910-522: The throne. In 'Appendix A' of Dune , Herbert wrote that the Guild, along with the Bene Gesserit order, had been responsible for the standardization of religion in the universe by promoting the adoption of the Orange Catholic Bible and offering protection to the dissenting theologians who created this book. Nonetheless, in the same appendix, Herbert held that the Guild members themselves were atheists, and only promoted this move to promote
9009-512: The trance for Alia's descent into Abomination . Fearful of the same fate, they resist Alia's urgings to undergo the spice trance themselves. The trial is later forced upon Leto at Jacurutu when it is suspected that he too is an Abomination. Leto survives the challenge and escapes, but is left changed. Unlike Alia, however, he remains in control, and the spice trance opens his eyes to the Golden Path that will ultimately save humanity. Herbert
9108-402: The transformation into a human/sandworm hybrid, he eradicates all desert on Arrakis except for a small area he makes his base of operations, and destroys all of the sandworms save one—himself. After his death some 3,500 years later in God Emperor of Dune , Leto's worm-body is transformed back into sandtrout. Within only a few centuries, these sandtrout return Arrakis (thence called 'Rakis') to
9207-446: The unexplored southern latitudes of Arrakis. By the time of Children of Dune , Alia Atreides (and then Leto II and Ghanima) realize that the ecological transformation of Arrakis is altering the sandworm cycle, which would eventually result in the end of all spice production. This at first seems a future to be avoided, but Leto II later uses this eventuality as part of his Golden Path to ultimately save humanity. Once he himself begins
9306-522: The universe except here on Arrakis." The most notable life forms on the planet are the giant sandworms and their immature forms of sandtrout and sand plankton . Sandtrout encyst any water deposits; predator fish are placed in the qanats and other water storage areas to protect them from the sandtrout. It is suggested the sandworms are an introduced species that caused the desertification of Arrakis; In Children of Dune (1976), Leto II Atreides explains to his twin sister Ghanima : The sandtrout [...]
9405-444: The vicinity of it. Frank Herbert describes such a spice blow in the following passage from Dune : Then he heard the sand rumbling. Every Fremen knew the sound, could distinguish it immediately from the noises of worms or other desert life. Somewhere beneath him, the pre-spice mass had accumulated enough water and organic matter from the little makers, had reached the critical stage of wild growth. A gigantic bubble of carbon dioxide
9504-547: The weak Emperor Salvador Corrino is unwilling to crush the Butlerians, Venport lures him out to Arrakis and has him eaten by a sandworm. Unfortunately for him, Salvador's sabotaged ship manages to return to Salusa Secundus and report the truth to the newly-crowned Emperor Roderick, Salvador's brother. Roderick swears vengeance on Venport. Just then, Torondo gets his hands on a cache of atomics, which he uses to obliterate VenHold's main planet. Eventually, imperial forces track down Venport's secret laboratory and invade. Norma offers Josef
9603-474: Was actually Venport's mistress Norma Cenva who designed it. The fifth and sixth novels of the series, Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985), are set 5,000 years after the reign of Paul Atreides, a period that includes 3,500 years of Leto II's reign and 1,500 years following his death. The warlike Honored Matres have seized control of Junction , the old Spacing Guild complex above Gammu . The technocrats of Ix develop technology that
9702-399: Was forming deep in the sand, heaving upward in an enormous "blow" with a dust whirlpool at its center. It would exchange what had been formed deep in the sand for whatever lay on the surface. Herbert writes that the pre-spice mass, "after exposure to sun and air, becomes melange". He later indicates its color in Children of Dune , when Leto II passes "the leprous blotches of violet sand where
9801-400: Was introduced here from some other place. This was a wet planet then. They proliferated beyond the capability of existing ecosystems to deal with them. Sandtrout encysted the available free water, made this a desert planet [...] and they did it to survive. In a planet sufficiently dry, they could move to their sandworm phase. The environment of the desert planet Arrakis was primarily inspired by
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