Terms of the Dune Cycles

This article explores terms from the Dune Cycles, a series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert , Frank Herbert's son Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson .

Groups / organizations / peoples

Landsraad

Political union of the big houses against the supremacy of the emperor with his Sardaukar. The Landsraad itself does not have its own troops, but can, on a voluntary basis, assemble an army, comparable to the United Nations on Terra 14255 BG From the reign of Paul, under the God Emperor and afterwards, the Landsraad only has the function of a debating club Men.

MAFEA

Flag of the MAFEA

The Mercantile Alliance for Progress and Development in Space (Eng. Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles CHOAM for short ) is the most important trade organization in the empire. The MAFEA is a huge instrument of economic power. It organizes and controls all trade in spices in the known universe. The big houses all have shares in society, particularly influential ones sit on the board of directors. The ruling emperor or his representative always presides. With his victory over Shaddam IV , Paul Muad'dib or the House of Atreides also took over the management of MAFEA. Since the MAFEA was basically only the economic arm of the Landraad, it sank into insignificance.

Mentates

See: Figures of the Dune Cycles

Sardaukar

The Sardaukar mainly play a role in the first and third volumes of the Dune cycle. Sardaukar are the military elite of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. They were recruited and trained on the imperial prison planet Salusa Secundus.

Their unusually harsh living conditions and brutal training usually only allowed four out of ten candidates to survive. The main emphasis of the military training lay on total mercilessness and the elimination of one's own instinct for self-preservation as far as possible. In its brutality, a Sardaukar was worth ten ordinary fighters. They paid homage to an ideology according to which they belonged to a clan of invincible warriors and other living beings represented something base, worthless. In the days of Shaddam IV, negligence in training and openly displayed arrogance had diminished their fighting value. Even so, they continued to be feared, and rightly so.

During the first attack on Arrakis, Sardaukar troops in Harkonnen uniforms mingled with the regular soldiers to secretly support their attacks. During the revolt on Arrakis, the imperial Sardaukar, previously considered invincible, were defeated by Paul Atreides and his Fedaykin.

In exile on Salusa Secundus, the resigned emperor, Shaddam IV, formed a Sardaukar honor guard. Many years later, Princess Wensicia Corrino made plans to restore the Sardaukar to old strength in order to regain the imperial throne. However, these efforts were unsuccessful. Their son, Prince Farad'n, gave the resurgent Sardaukar to Leto II as a gift from the House of Corrino.

An imperial Sardaukar Legion consists of ten brigades and has a nominal strength of around 30,000 men. In the film Dune - the desert planet by David Lynch , it is falsely claimed (according to the German dubbed version on the remastered DVD; made in Europe by "Laser Paradise") that the Padishah emperor Shaddam IV. Systematically moved 50 legions to Arrakis around the Fremen wipe out. In fact there were five legions.

Ranks of the Sardaukar, see: Terms of the Dune cycles

The assembled armies of the high houses (of the Landsraads) on the one hand and the Sardaukar of the Emperor on the other form a military equilibrium in the empire.

Fish speaker

The name Fish Speaker is derived, according to Leto II., From an ancient legend according to which a wise woman received visions at a lake while looking at a fish.

The fish speakers play a role especially in the fourth volume of the Dune cycle. Critics liked to revile them as the houris of the god-emperor. You are Leto II's female army and have a central role in the realization of his Golden Path.

In a conversation with one of the Duncan gholas, with whom he is in constant dispute over the authorization of a women's army , he explains: “My Houris convey maturity. They know that they have to keep an eye on the growing up of men, because that way they also get their own. "(Der Gottkaiser des Wüstenplaneten p. 258)

As warriors, these female legions are fanatical and absolutely devoted to their god emperor. The only male officer in their ranks is the respective Duncan Idaho ghola as commander of the Imperial Guard.

Every ten years the Siaynoq, the great oneness, takes place on Arrakis, in the festival town of Onn. There are three representatives from each planetary fish speaker garrison and, together with their god-emperor, they celebrate an ecstatic, holy ceremony during which the changing of the guard of the retired soldiers takes place.

Towards the end of Leto's government, the military aspect of fish speakers was increasingly being replaced by alternative, humanitarian missions. Fish talkers took on an increasingly religious character, with the effect that the local fish talk garrisons enjoyed growing popularity and esteem. In the famine years after Leto's death, the fish talker's organization ensures the survival of the desperate people. Their influence becomes weaker and weaker over time.

But they return again like a threatening shadow of the past. The origin of the Honored Matres , it is believed, can be explained by groups of fish speakers that have degenerated into bureaucratic despots in the diaspora.

Dear Matres

The Honored Matres are a group that are returning from the unexplored outskirts of the empire 5000 years after the beginning of the diaspora , which followed the death of Leto II due to famine and war.

They are an organization of women, similar to the Bene Gesserit , but represent an exact alternative from a social point of view. Their emergence can be traced back to the connection of dispersed fish speakers (female elite troops of the god-emperor Leto II.) With Bene Gesserit, who deliberately entered the diaspora have been sent out. From the original organization of the fish speakers, a number of skills from the Bene Gesserit developed into a bureaucratic dictatorship dominated by women.

The Honored Matres' abilities consist of an altered form of the Bene Gesserit's prana bindhu muscle control, which allows them to respond to external stimuli without conscious control, and the mental enslavement of men through sexual attachment.

This one-sided emphasis reflects the nature of the Honored Matres, who, unlike the Bene Gesserit, are incapable of self-control in every respect. Her being is dominated by extreme violence and excess. Another relationship trait with the Bene Gesserit is responsible for this - the dependence on a drug. This is a synthetic substitute for the spice , which apparently became necessary when the sisters sent to the diaspora ran out of supplies. Unknown to the Honored Matres, however, are the further memories released by the spice agony and the many other positive properties of the spice ; Instead of this, however, the violence potential of the matrices is drastically increased, which is evident in the formation of orange spots in the eyes when mentally excited.

The return of the Honored Matres to the old empire is presented at the beginning as a campaign of conquest, which is primarily based on the overwhelming numerical superiority and an unconditional strategy of total destruction. The first victim of their attacks is the planet Arrakis , which burns to cinder, on which the Mentat-Bashar of the Bene Gesserit, Miles Teg, is also killed by a new kind of overpowering weapon that was fired in orbit from a spaceship. In the further course almost all major planets of the Bene Gesserit are also completely destroyed.

Towards the end of the second cycle it becomes clear that the Honored Matres fled the Diaspora to the old empire from an unknown enemy. Their inability to adapt further capabilities of the Bene Gesserit made them vulnerable to what appears to be a biological weapon specifically designed against them. The Futars appear as a further weapon against the Matres, but they only kill on the instructions of their tamers, who may have emerged from free shapeshifters of the Bene Tleilax .

The most important representative of the Honored Matres appears Murbella, who was captured by the Bene Gesserit on Gámu (Giedi Primus) and made a sister. She is also the lover of the Duncan Idaho Ghola, a clone of Paul Atreides' sword master who has got his memories back.

The Bene Gesserit escape destruction by the Honored Matres by seeming to cooperate with them, the purpose of which is to transform the entire Order of Matres, like Murbella, into sisters.

Fremen

The Fremen are the inhabitants of the planet Arrakis , which they call Dune (English for dune ). They are descended from Buddhist slaves who fled to Arrakis during Butler's jihad . On the inhospitable desert planet they felt at last as free men ( Engl. : Free men , from which the name derives Fremen). Because of their history, Fremen are extremely suspicious of strangers.

The work of two leaders ( Selim and Ishmael ) teaches the Fremen to adapt to the desert and to use the sandworms as a means of transport. You use high-quality technology developed in-house to save water: still suits. A suit that is worn correctly reduces a person's water loss in the desert to a maximum of 3% and provides the wearer with potable, recycled water. The entire culture and way of life is shaped by the so-called water discipline.

Pardot Kynes, the Imperial planetologist, won their trust and convinced them of his terraforming project to make Dune bloom. His son, Liet Kynes, a half-Fremen, became the first leader of all Fremen. Paul Atreides , who received the tribe name Usul and chose the name Muad'dib for himself, led the Fremen into the final conflict against the hated Harkonnen and the Emperor.

In the imperial encyclopedia, the Fremen are referred to as "sand pirates".

In the course of the novel cycle, the importance of the Fremen steadily decreased. In the fourth volume they have reached the low point of their impact history in their role as “museum freaks”. After the death of the god emperor and the renewed transformation of Arrakis into a desert planet, they assume an acceptable position as dignitaries of the new religion of the "divided god", Shai-Hulud.

Fedaykin

The Fedaykin are the Fremen's death squads. Historically, they were a group of people who banded together with the aim of using their lives to turn injustice into justice. They are considered equal to the imperial Sardaukar . The term Fedaykin is derived from the Arabic word Fedayeen ("the one who sacrifices").

Space guild

Space guild banner

The navigators and helmsmen of the huge Heighliners and frigates are organized in the space guild. They have mutated through extremely strong consumption of the spice , but without it they cannot control the Faltraum ships. Steering means: They move through space with their ships without moving, only through the power of their mental abilities, enhanced by spice. Their limited ability to see into the future enables them to foresee safe paths through folding space. The physical ships can follow these paths and thus cover almost unlimited distances in a very short time.

The space guild is one of the most important organizations in the universe, as only it is able to travel long distances in the universe. Against the will of the Space Guild, not even the Emperor can personally undertake a space trip. There is a dependency between the empire and the space guild: the navigators need spice in order to stay alive and not go blind, while without the navigators and their huge spaceships the empire would not be able to trade and would therefore fall apart. That is why the navigators are bound by contracts to be completely neutral. You must also transport warring parties on an equal footing in armed conflicts.

At the time of Paul Atreides, very few people ever saw a navigator. This is because the navigators always want to remain incognito and an encounter with an outsider could have a disruptive effect on the navigators' ability to concentrate. Individual members of the guild also appear as diplomats and politicians who also participate in conspiracies. The fully trained navigators and helmsmen need a constant supply of spice and are no longer able to endure the gravity of a planet due to physical mutation. That is why they travel in large tanks that are artificial weightlessness and that are filled with a gaseous blend of spices.

In the last two volumes of the classic series, the space guild has already lost so much power and importance that the Honored Matres take over the guild center Junction and make it their own fortress. Frank Herbert lets this happen without mentioning any marginal resistance from the guild.

Ixians

The Ixians live on Planet IX and are a high-tech civilization dedicated to research and engineering. Their navigation machine for non-ships (second cycle) can be regarded as their most important invention, as it enables space travel to be independent from the spice and the space guild . However, their research is always suspected of violating the rule "You shouldn't make a machine in your spiritual image".

The Ixians are usually portrayed as somewhat arrogant, slightly decadent business people who are primarily interested in the commercial success of their industry. They love luxury and a refined way of life and usually try to stay out of political dealings.

The products of the Ixians are technical devices and weapons of all kinds and they also build the ships for the space guild. In the last two volumes of the classic series, Ixian devices appear, which have been copied and modified by strangers in the Diaspora.

technology

vehicles

Sand crawler

(Also harvesters or harvest factories): general term for automatic machines for extracting spices. These are very large (often 120 m × 40 m) mining devices, which are called crawlers because they move like a kind of caterpillar on chains. Ornithopter scouts watch out for worm signs in order to escape a worm attack using carryall. Smugglers also use these vehicles to mine spice. Later on, flying harvesting plants were developed, which hover with hoses to convey the spicy sand in order to avoid worm attacks.

Ornithopters

Ornithopter (mostly thopter): flying machine whose mode of locomotion is based on the imitation of bird flight. Frank Herbert does not describe the thopters in any more detail, he is only talking about flying machines that can also hover over a point and that normally cannot reach space.

Spaceships

Spaceships with conventional propulsion were constantly being improved, but long journeys through space still took weeks or months. Warfare, politics and trade changed significantly, however, when the folding spaceships developed by Norma Cenva enabled very fast travel over almost any distance. In Dune, a speculative technology known from other SF worlds is used for this purpose: instead of becoming faster than light, ships bridge great distances using “abbreviations”, which in Dune are called “Foldspace” and mostly in other books and films referred to as "hyperspace".

Spacer

Another word for spaceship. Mostly large types of ships are meant.

Crusher

The Crusher is a military spaceship made up of smaller ships that, as soon as they hit the enemy, pounce and crush them.

Ballista

These heavy warships form the backbone of the Jihad fleet during the battle against the thinking machines. They are heavily armed and can be upgraded with Holtzmann shields.

Javelin

Medium cruiser of the Jihad fleet. Also serve as a launch platform for Kindjal bombers. Vorian Atreides has a Javelin as his flagship.

Kindjal

The small Kindjal spacecraft designed for a single or two pilots are known in two variants: as a fighter and as a bomber. Most likely to be compared with fighter bombers .

monitor

A ten-part battleship with heavy armament and strong shields. After landing, it can be broken down into its ten components, which can then take off again individually.

frigate

Name for the largest spaceship that is able to land on a planet and take off without having to be dismantled beforehand. Baron Wladimir Harkonnen used such a spaceship as a flagship during the attack against House Atreides on Arrakis.

Lighter

A type of frigate. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen used one as a flagship in the attack on Arrakis. The spacemen's guild uses them to land on planets.

Heighliner

The mighty Faltraum ships of the spacemen 's guild have secured interstellar transport since the end of Butler's Jihad . They are actually huge hulls equipped with Holtzmann generators, to which countless smaller ships can dock and then be transported to the target area. However, Heighliners can also transport passengers without their own ship, troop contingents, equipment, vehicles, mail and other cargo. The length of a Heighliner can vary: some are around five kilometers long, others, special Heigliners should be even longer. For millennia, every Heighliner must be controlled by a guild navigator until ixian technology can eventually replace the living navigator. They are made on IX and Richese, both planets and houses compete for the better models. IX can provisionally decide this competition by developing and introducing a new model.

Harkonnen frigate

They form the backbone of the Harkonnen space fleet and are inferior to the Atreides destroyers in terms of firepower - but faster and more agile in normal space. The Harkonnen also use these frigates to transport troops, weapons and other personnel. Later this class will be retired because of its noticeable deficiencies and has nothing in common with the later frigates that Baron Wladimir Harkonnen used on Arrakis.

Atreides destroyer

The destroyer is the strongest ship of the Atreides. It can be used both for combat in space and for planetary bombing. Due to the ban on nuclear weapons , its armament is exclusively non-nuclear.

Both the Atreides destroyer and the Harkonnen frigate are only mentioned explicitly in the Early Chronicles . There a skirmish took place in the bays of a Heighliner , which was provoked by the Harkonnen with the help of a non-ship. The no-ship, piloted by Glossu Rabban , fired from a position near the Atreides destroyer at a Bene Tleilax ship to make it look like a revenge for the attack on IX. Duke Leto I. Atreides , who was on board, handed the incident over to the Landsraad for clarification and, thanks to the support of the then Crown Prince Shadaam Corrino, later Emperor Shadaam IV, won the game. These types of ships are no longer mentioned in the later, older volumes.

Non-ships

Non-ships do not let streams of thought of the people in them out of them. This means that the inmates cannot be found by “fortune tellers” equipped with mental probing skills. The ships can be tracked at close range using conventional methods. In view of the huge distances in space, however, they are de facto invisible because their crew is invisible to the divination that is effective over long distances. The trajectory of a no-ship can be traced back for a short time using the antimatter residue. Pilots can prevent any pursuit by changing course frequently.

They have a minimum length of 145 meters and there are specimens that are up to a few kilometers tall. However, the maximum size is unlimited. Every non-ship is coupled to a (probably electronic) control unit, which makes it possible to navigate through the folding space without a guild navigator. This enables space travel without the need for spices thanks to the non-ships. Most of the non-ships described in Dune are heavily armed warships.

In Frank Herbert's classic Dune books, the first non-ships did not appear until the end of the reign of the god-emperor Leto II (end of the fourth volume). Leto allows them to be developed by the IXians. In the last two volumes, the ships are then widespread and have already pushed back guild space travel. In the two "Chronicles" ("Das Haus Atreides" and "Das Haus Harkonnen") written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson 25 years after the last volume by Frank Herbert, "The Beast" Glossu Rabban uses the first non-ship to go undetected Committing crimes. The ship is later brought down by the Bene Gesserit in a rash act of Rabbans and used as leverage for their political machinations against Baron Harkonnen. In the penultimate of the classic volumes, Frank Herbert himself introduces a “non-space” that is said to have belonged to Harkonnen and must therefore also have existed long before the first non-ships of the IXians.

Since the absolute monopoly of the guild for far-reaching space travel represents an essential pillar of Herbert's world construction, the non-ships also stand for the free development of creative power, which is able to break open power relations that are regarded as eternal.

weapons

Mouth guns

Muzzle pistols are weapons that fire poison bolts up to forty meters by spring force.

Hunter Seeker

The Jäger-Seeker is a small, arrow-like drone that reacts to movement and sound . Remotely controlled at close range, it is often used to kill nobles and their children. The hunter-seeker bores into the body and destroys vital organs. Paul Atreides destroys such a model by banging the head of the device against the wall, breaking off the drill, destroying the viewfinder and submerging the entire device in water.

Lasguns

Lasguns are laser weapons that focus energy into a continuous beam. This beam cuts almost all matter apart from the skin of sandworms. If a beam from a Lasgun hits a body shield, a pseudonuclear reaction occurs in which the shield and Lasgun explode, releasing all of their energy. The Atreides family and the Emperor's troops used lasguns as short-range weapons.

Steinbrenner

Stone burners are nuclear weapons, which is why their use against humans is prohibited by the Great Convention. They are only allowed to remove geographical obstacles. Using a stone burner creates a high-energy beam that can be strong enough to break through planetary crusts, which can lead to volcanic eruptions. Steinbrenner release radiation that destroys the tissue in the human eye. In addition to several war veterans, Frank Herbert also blinds Paul Atreides through an assassination attempt with a stone burner. Another mission is described by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson in the "Chronicles": Dominic Vernius is surrounded by imperial troops. Since he sees no possibility of escape, he uses a stone burner to avoid falling into the hands of the Sardaukar. Every large house has several models of these weapons in their arsenal, and they are stored in case of an alien attack (although aliens never appear in the novels).

artillery

Baron Wladimir Harkonnen sent his secret weapon from his fiefdom Giedi Primus to Arrakis for the imminent attack: artillery with explosive projectiles. He fired on Duke Leto's troops, killed many and brought the caves in which they had holed up to collapse. They were buried and thus exposed to death. Since Herbert lets his characters use protective shields, which make the use of firearms largely useless, the use of ancient cannons is a surprise. By using artillery, Harkonnen avoided the close combat that is otherwise unavoidable because of the protective shields, thereby sparing his soldiers and the allied Sardaukar of the Emperor. After the mission he sent her back to Giedi Primus.

Shields

Shields, often also referred to as body shields, are transparent energy fields that reflect matter above a certain speed that tries to penetrate the shield. If an energy beam hits the shield and the shield is strong enough to reflect the energy beam, both the shooter and the victim are destroyed in a pseudonuclear explosion. The Lasgun shield interaction was one of the reasons for the reintroduction of hand-to-hand combat in wartime up to the time of Leto II.

(See also Lasgun ).

If too much matter hits the shield at too high a speed and the energy of the shield is insufficient to repel the energy of the hitting matter, the shield can collapse.

Sandworms react extremely aggressively to the radiation emitted by the shields and are attracted by them over many kilometers. Because of this, but also because of the difficult application in desert areas (sand wind), they can only be used to a limited extent in the desert. The Fremen generally reject the use of shields. However, they skilfully set shield traps for the Emperor's sardaukart troops in the great spice war. This very quickly drove the Sardaukar out of the use of lasers.

Pseudo shields

When shields are banned due to the pseudonuclear reaction with lasguns, those bans are circumvented with pseudo shields. Pseudo-shields only attract sandworms through their vibrations in the sand, without a protective energy field being built up.

Crys knife

Crys knives are a traditional weapon of the Fremen and are made from the crystal teeth of dead sandworms. They can be tied to a person or unbound, in this case one speaks of a fixation. Bound (fixed) knives dissolve without contact with their owner (or after their death) within a few hours and must therefore always be carried on the body. Unbound, on the other hand, can be kept indefinitely.

Crys knives have a sharp, curved blade and a point. They can break under extreme loads, but are very robust under normal conditions.

Crys knives are sacred to the Fremen. Just seeing a drawn weapon meant certain death at the hand of a Fremen for many outsiders, as the knives traditionally cost blood as soon as they are drawn. Therefore, it happens that Fremen make a (harmless, but definitely bleeding) cut in the palm of their hand if they pull the knife without wanting to kill or injure anyone (for example to show it off).

Others

Axolotl tank

In axolotl tanks, the Tleilaxu can raise clones and clones from the cells of the dead, so-called ghola. Later, it is even possible for them in artificial seasoning ( Spice to breed). These abilities give the Tleilaxu considerable power. After the desert planet was destroyed by the Honored Matres at the end of Volume 5, the tanks represent the only remaining source for the spice. The origin of these tanks is explained in the final volumes by Brian Herbert. They are the women of the Tleilaxu. The use of women as biotechnological machines contributes to the fanatical hatred of the Honored Matres (women) against the Bene Tleilax.

Non-space

Non-rooms are buildings that cannot be detected using sensors, measuring instruments or clairvoyant powers. Almost perfect for hiding something or someone. The first or one of the first non-rooms was the Letos II warehouse, where his journals, records and Ixian equipment were kept on Arrakis (later called Rakis). It was invisible, buried deep, and absorbed and absorbed radiation to simulate the natural character of its surroundings, a mechanical imitation. But the Harkonnens also had a spherical non-space on Giedi Primus (later called Gammu), which had been provided with erotic representations and decorations in the interior. Among other things, ancient Lasguns (now obsolete but still functional) were stored in this walk-in sphere.

Carryall

A flying machine that transports the harvesters to "Dune" and lifts them up in the event a worm attacks.

A carryall is typically flown by a flight team made up of up to six harvesters. The machine is - depending on the version - able to accommodate one or two harvesting machines.

If a scout discovers a new spice field in the desert, carryalls are brought in, which deposit their harvesters on the orange-colored spice sand. The rhythmic pounding of the harvesting machines during the harvesting process can be felt over long distances by sandworms. Once a sandworm has picked up these vibrations, it instinctively attacks the harvesting machine. If the worm comes close to a harvester and just below the surface of the sand, there are so-called “worm signs” in the form of static discharges in the sand. If a scout detects these lightning bolts, he requests a carryall to lift the harvester until the worm is gone.

When the House of Atreides took control of Arrakis, there were more than 1,000 carryalls on the desert planet. Many of them are in need of repair, but only around a third of the fleet is enough to take care of all the harvesting machines used on the planet.

Still suit

Protective clothing by Fremen, whose special construction allows the reuse of body fluids and thus reduces fluid loss to a minimum.

Distill tent

Tent-like protective device of the same type of manufacture for the production of drinking water from the moisture of the breath of its occupants.

Poison Sniff

Are small table or wall-mounted devices that have the task of looking for poisons in their vicinity.

Com

Small radio set in the ear.

Plastahl

Apart from wood, hardly any building material known from our day is used in the books. Herbert usually writes about unspecified plastics, whose names he usually forms with echoes of plastic. Plastahl is steel that is reinforced with "stradium fibers". "Plaz" stands for glass-like materials etc.

Creature

Laza tiger

Laza tigers are a breed of terrestrial tigers. In The Children of the Desert Planet , two copies with control units in the brain are used, which are supposed to kill the twins Ghanima and Leto II.

Sand trout

Sand trout are young immature sandworms in a half-animal, half-vegetable form. They do not yet have any aquatic toxicity. Rather, they track down all the water on the planet and encapsulate it in their bodies in order to enable some conspecifics to develop into sandworms, for which water is poisonous. The Fremen collect such sand trout, distill them and use their water and spice essence.

Sandworms

The sandworm, or Shai-Hulud, "The Old Man" and later also called Shaitan ("Satan"), plays a central role in all Dune books. In their sand trout stage, they gradually transformed the entire planet into a single desert through water absorption. In addition to the large sandworms, there is also a smaller subspecies. They go through several stages of development from the half-animal, half-vegetable, gelatinous sand trout to the "small bringer", a half-grown form with a length of a few meters, to the adult animal, which can reach up to several kilometers in length. Sandworms are causally involved in the development of the melange. They excrete the pre-spice mass, which then collects in spice bubbles and ferments to form a melange. In the inevitable spice eruption of such bubbles, the melange mixes with the sand above and can be harvested. Adult animals live in clearly defined territories. They eat anything that gets in their way from humans to gigantic spice harvesters, but they mostly feed on sand plankton. The metabolism of these giant sandworms produces heat and oxygen, the discharge of which through the mouth creates a swirling glow. The Fremen have been using the worms as a means of transport since the time of Selim Wurmreiter . They lure the animals, initially with drums, later with automatic knockers, plumpers or pseudo-Holtzmann shields, mount them with the help of hooks and then keep the ring segments of the worm open. So that no sand gets into it, the worm holds it up and no longer submerges. Riding on them, the Fremen cover long distances in a short time.

Sandworms are brown-gray, have no eyes and a three-part mouth with thousands of crystalline teeth. The Fremen use these teeth as chrys knives and hold them in great honor. A worm is killed either by drowning, by killing every single segment, by using nuclear weapons, or the simplest way is to ride it to death. Later sandworms are kept at a distance with water ditches, so-called qanats, because they shy away from water.

In the Fremen belief, worms play a major role. So the worm can represent both God and Satan. In a special Fremen ceremony, a young sandworm is drowned in water, excreting the toxic waters of life . A Venerable Mother must then convert it in her body to a non-toxic drug that the Fremen then consume at their orgiastic sietch meetings.

Time and again attempts have been made in vain to break the Iraqi melange monopoly. House Corrino kidnapped a full-grown sandworm and released it into desert areas on Salusa Secundus. Fremen in Jakarutu sold sand trout to outworlders. Only the Bene Gesserit ever succeeded in reproducing a sandworm outside of Arrakis. The monopoly fell when melange could be produced easily and en masse in the axolotl tanks of the Bene Tleilax.

Chair dogs

Dogs that were used as chairs because of their breed. They automatically adapt to the body shape of the user and offer an optimal seating experience. Some characters in the books reject this living machine furniture. Miles Teg in particular shows a strong aversion to chair dogs.

Biondax whales

A species of whale on the planet Lankiveil that belongs to the Harkonnen. The Biondax are equipped with furs so that they do not freeze to death in the very cold seas on Lankiveil. The trade in these furs laid the basis for the wealth of the Harkonnen and ultimately enabled them to acquire a title of nobility. Most of the Biondax are gold-colored, much less often the animals are spotted like leopards. Very few are snow white. Their furs are therefore particularly popular. If Biondax are hunted and attacked in places where they are to reproduce, they will never return there. With such an act, Glossu Rabban causes the impoverishment and resettlement of an entire stretch of land on the coast when he kills several whales out of boredom there.

Butler's Jihad

Butler's jihad is the struggle of free mankind against machines, it is mentioned in all books and described in legends . It is triggered on Earth by Serena Butler and Iblis Ginjo after Erasmus kills Serena's son Manion. It ends with the supposed total destruction of the thinking machines under the leadership of the computer universal spirit Omnius . However, this and Erasmus reappear over 15,000 years later, they had taken themselves to safety at an almost unimaginable distance, and upgraded there again. During this time, Omnius also learned to have emotions.

Drugs

Spice

Gewürz or Spice (English), also Melange (mixture), is a mind-altering drug that is produced by sandworms and sand trout on Arrakis and cannot be artificially produced during the first trilogy . In the second trilogy , the Tleilaxu succeed in producing artificial spices with the help of their axolotl tanks. The risk of addiction is very high with heavy consumption and excessive consumption can cause mutations in the body (such as in the case of navigators). It turns the whites of the eyes blue. The spice has a life-prolonging effect, gives predisposed people clairvoyant abilities and improves the immune system. After its discovery during the machine crusade, the spice became the basis of human civilization. Without the spice there would be no clairvoyants and probably no mentats either. Without the constant consumption of spice gas, the navigators of the space guild would not be able to see into the future and thus be able to navigate the folding ships safely. The engineers of IX solve this special problem in a later time (second trilogy) by developing and building navigation machines and at the same time breaking the monopoly of the space guild on interstellar travel. Control over the planet Arrakis is therefore the source of all power in the first trilogy. The Spatial Guild and MAFEA control the trade in the spice.

The spice is a reddish-brown powder that is reminiscent of cinnamon , "but tastes different each time you take it". The navigators of the space guild breathe spice gas, which generates their powers and can also strengthen them. Many noble families and the Fremen use spices as an ingredient in a wide variety of foods and drinks. The Fremen also use spice to make explosives, building materials, clothing, and paper.

When the drug is withdrawn, the person suffers terrible pain and, when the addiction is particularly severe, a painful death. Most of the time addicts die who are on a world other than Arrakis and are not adequately supplied with spice. On the other hand, there are no withdrawal symptoms on Arrakis. The spice is omnipresent on Arrakis - in the ground, in the air and in the water. Arrakis is the only planet in the universe where you are always protected from the dire side effects of being deprived of the spice.

Rachag

Rachag is a caffeine-like stimulant made from the berries of the Akarso plant.

Sapho

Sapho [app. “ Saffo ”] is a highly energetic spice concentrate obtained on the planet Ecaz, which is primarily used by Mentaten for mental stimulation. "Sappho-eaters" can be recognized by the ruby red spots on their lips.

Semuta

Discolors the eyes reddish and creates an ecstatic state of intoxication, which however soon disappears and calls for Semuta again. The effect of the drug, which is produced from the combustion residues of the elacca wood, is reinforced by atonal music - so-called semuta music.

Shere

A drug that prevents probes from reading information from a victim's brain or body cells during an interrogation. The Honored Matres have found a way to circumvent the effects of Shere with so-called T-probes.

Poisons

Chaumurky or Musky

A poison that is only effective in beverages or in connection with liquids. Emperor Elrood is killed by mixing two poisons that together make Chaumurky.

Chaumas or Mas

A poison that only works in or in conjunction with solid food.

Ranks

Burseg : commanding general of the Sardaukar.
Caid : stands above a bashar, but still below a burseg. Caids are military governors of a planetary district and are primarily concerned with civil affairs.
Bashar (often also Colonel Bashar ): A Bashar is ranked above a Colonel, the rank was created especially for the military commanders of planetary sub-districts.
Supreme Bashar : Commander of all Bashars and senior officer in the human armed forces. The only Supreme Bashar mentioned by name in the Dune Cycles is Vorian Atreides , the commander in chief of the army of the Jihad. Thus he was the military leader of humanity.
Noukker : An officer in the imperial bodyguard who is also related by blood to the emperor. Therefore, Noukker is also the traditional rank for the sons of imperial concubines.

title

Viceroy

The Viceroy is the elected chairman of the League of Nobles. Its seat is in Zimia on Salusa Secundus . The office of Paddishah-Emperor emerges from the Viceroy by amalgamating with the title of the hereditary great Patriarch of the Jihad. The Butler family provided several Viceroys ( Manion the Elder , Serena and Faykan ). Viceroy means vice-king and thus represents a position that holds power, but not absolute power, this lies with the delegates of parliament. The first Viceroy was Bovko Manresa .

duke

A nobility rank in the "Faufreluches" caste system of the empire. Dukes usually rule over several planets. Well-known dukes are the "Red Duke" Duke Leto I , his father, the "Old Duke" Paulus, and Archduke Armand Ecaz from a noble house that was friendly with the Atreides.

baron

Also a rank of nobility in the empire. Wladimir Harkonnen holds this rank. A baron usually represents a planetary governor. From a standpoint, he stands below the Duke, but in this case the Harkonnen are more powerful, but only through the secret alliance with the Emperor, and the House of Harkonnen rules over several planets (it is at least four mentioned) and has a strong industry, which makes them richer than the Atreids with only one water planet.

Although Vladimir Harkonnen was commonly known as Baron Harkonnen, his official title was Siridar (which corresponds to the rank of planetary governor) -baron. The house also has several count titles.

Count Hasimir Fenring administered the planet Caladan for a while as Deputy Siridar.

Count

Frequent title of nobility, which is also awarded as a reward (cf. with the accolade of the British Queen). Count Hasimir Fenring was given this rank because he brought his son Shaddam IV to the throne by the murder of Emperor Elrood . Gurney Halleck was also appointed Count of Caladan, since there should be no more duke after Paul. However, large houses also carried this title, including Counts Dominic, Rhombur and Bronso Vernius, Ilban Richese, Hunro Moritani, and Glossu Rabban.

Emperor

The emperor is the ruler of humanity. In the time of the old empire, House Boro ruled the galaxy until the Titans and then Omnius take control. After the end of machine rule , the House of Corrino came to power and provided the Padishah emperor (from the Persian Pādishāh , " Shah of the Shahs") for 81 generations . After Shaddam IV abdicates, Paul Atreides becomes the new emperor; he is succeeded by his son as God-Emperor, who ruled for three and a half thousand years, with whose death the imperial age ended.

The ruler is also referred to with the honorary title "Emperor of the Known Universe" or "Ruler over a million worlds". The most important insignia of his rule are the command of the Sardaukar and the golden lion throne in the throne room on Kaitain. During the second cycle there are no more emperors, this title died out at that time, the universe is no longer united in an empire, but was divided among different groups and orders (Bene Gesserit, Honored Matres, Bene Tleilax), all of which are among each other fight for supremacy in the known universe.

God Emperor

Title of Leto II Atreides during his 3500 year rule over the empire. During this time his body symbiosis with the Shai-Hulud, the sandworm. His absolute power is underpinned by his monopoly on Spice and his female, fanatical fish talker legions who garrison all over inhabited space. He gives the Bene Gesserit, the spaceship guild and others just enough spice to keep order in the empire from collapsing, as the whole empire is dependent on Spice. He also keeps the now meaningless Little Houses (remains of the High Houses) alive. He throws the planets back on themselves. He acquires and uses banned ixian technologies that are banned according to Butler's jihad. He appears as God and demands absolute submission in order to lead humanity on a "golden path". He sees the past, present and future and therefore seems omniscient. After his death and his reign, which was perceived as terror, he will later be called Shaitan (Satan) and the great tyrant. But you can also see later that this period was necessary for humanity to survive. He had visions of what humanity would do without his oppression: He saw soldiers in a distant war holed up in trenches from overpowering combat robots and realized that people would eventually obliterate one another. He himself enslaved his subjects so much that they could free themselves from the rule of the empire, which has now lasted more than 15,000 years, and thus find new strength. Because through the millennia of oppression, humanity had forgotten how to fight for its freedom, through Leto they learned it again.

languages

Bhotani Jib

The Bhotani Jib or "hunter's language" is a special purpose language of the Zensunni, from which the foreign language Chakobsa emerged. The Bene Gesserit Jessica Atreides has knowledge of this language through her education.

Chakobsa

Chakobsa is the language of the Fremen. According to the book, it developed from Bhotani Jib and the Arabic-language languages of the Zensunni slaves, from which the Fremen descended. The name Chakobsa goes back to the name of a real Caucasian hunter's language. Although text examples of Chakobsa appear in the book and in the films, the Dune language Chakobsa is not a partially or fully elaborated language (in contrast to several artificial literary languages such as Tolkien's Sindarin and Quenya or such as Na'vi, the language of the inhabitants of Pandora Film "Avatar - Departure for Pandora"). The individual examples used for Chakobsa (both in the books and in the 2003 miniseries or the Dune encyclopedia from 1984) are sentences that consist partly of Romani words, partly of Arabic words and partly of incoherent fantasy words. In one case it is a full sentence in Serbo-Croatian.

Galach

Galach is the official language of the empire. The Galach contains numerous Anglo-Slavic as well as French elements and culturally or technically conditioned special expressions that were included in it during the spread of humanity across the galaxy. The address for a non-noble man is e.g. B. "Monsieur".

The inhabitants of the different worlds, who mostly speak regional languages, mainly use it to communicate with people from the outside world.

The voice

“The voice” is actually not a language, but a special language technique used by Bene Gesserit . It enables the Venerable Mothers to impose their will on other untrained spirits. Even when aware of it, the victim can hardly avoid the power of the voice. Paul Atreides is one of the few outside the sorority who learned this skill, his mother taught it to him. Strong mental self-control, which can usually only be achieved through intensive training, enables conscious resistance to "The Voice". Special earplugs can also filter out the compelling effect of the voice by blocking the relevant frequencies.

Finger language

A special kind of communication through finger signals reserved for the fighting classes. Both the Atreides and the Sardaukar and Corrinos have their own finger language. It is mostly used in rooms where wiretapping is suspected and camouflaged as a distraction from normal conversations. The Bene Gesserit speak most of these languages and use them themselves.

Language of war

Any special language used for quick communication during a fight.

Atreides language of war

A highly abbreviated war language based on Caladan dialects, spoken mainly by Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck during wartime. It is also spoken on radio. The Harkonnens understand them too; However, since the purpose of this language is not secrecy, but rather a quick coordination of units and actions, this does not pose a problem.

Visions

With the help of spice , certain sensitized people can predict the future. On the one hand, the guild navigators are of particular importance, as they can only survive with the help of constant consumption of spices - be it in solid, liquid or gaseous form. They specialize in the near future, in order to transport the ships entrusted to them as safely as possible through the folded space. They see obstacles such as asteroids and the like ahead on their course to the target coordinates and avoid them safely.

Paul Atreides already had more detailed visions of the future as a child due to his genetic predisposition. As he begins to stand under the increasing influence of spices on Arrakis, the extra-sensory experiences intensify enormously and he is gradually able to recognize connections between events. After tasting the water of life, his clairvoyant powers are increased and he is enabled to see current events in distant places. In this way, Paul can see before an action is taken how the environment can react to it. This also changes the future. In this way, he first tries to prevent the jihad that he saw could lead. In doing so, however, he encounters resistance inherent in the system, so that in the end he triggers the jihad.

In the second volume , after years of dealing with visions, Paul is so sensitized that he only follows a path that he has already seen dozens of times in different visions. This path is by no means predetermined, but it feels to him that all other timelines lead to results he does not want. His sister Alia also has such premonitions, but these are less detailed, also confusing, mystical and, in the third volume, influenced by Baron Harkonnen - nevertheless extremely suitable for the broad mass of believers in the Muad'dib cult.

The problem facing both Paul and the spice-dependent navigators is the mutual blockade of the so-called oracles. A prediction cannot be made about a person who makes predictions himself. Thus it cannot come to the paradoxical situation that two fortune tellers foresee their meeting and both try to change this meeting in their favor. The fundamental impossibility of this paradox has consequences: a conspiracy that is protected by a guild navigator cannot be uncovered by the emperor Paul, but vice versa no one can predict Paul's behavior. The increasing density of oracles on Arrakis in the second volume makes Paul’s room for maneuver considerably more difficult, even though he successfully masters all dangers thanks to his better visionary gift.

Paul's children Leto and Ghanima have even clearer visions. Leto follows the "golden path" by entering into the symbiosis with the sand trout and bringing his sister Ghanima together with Farad'n Corrino. Their descendants, such as Siona Atreides , have no clairvoyant abilities, but are invisible to seers and guild navigators.

In the second trilogy, this property is of particular benefit to the Bene Gesserit , who only tolerate descendants of Siona in their order castle. Since this applies to anyone with the exception of the Idaho ghola who lives 1500 years after Siona's time, Idaho is forced to live in a no-ship, in which he is protected from the seers of the enemy.

Web links

Commons : Dune Universe - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Official Dune site (English)