Arrakis - Dune, Rakis
A desert planet that the books revolve around.
Arrakis was the sole source of the spice, melange which was widely used in
the universe. The major inhabitants of the planet, a race known as the Fremen,
referred to the planet as Dune because of its complete-desert topography.
To the rest of the Imperial Universe, it was known as Arrakis. (All books)
Bene Gesserit - Sisterhood, Reverened
Mothers
The Bene Gesserit race play a major role in every
Dune story. They are solely made up of a race of females who are portrayed
as cunning, secretive and manipulative and can usually be seen anywhere there
is power, always acting as the "advisor." They were notoriously famous for
creating the Kwisatch Haderach through their
Breeding Program which ran for over 10,000 years before one was finally produced.
Many Bene Gesserit women train to become something
known as a Reverened Mother, a person who possesses the ability to communicate
with their ancestors through the genetic line that everyone carries with
them. All Bene Gesserit share one common goal that is important above all
else, including their individual lives and that is the survival of the Sisterhood
at any cost. It's this mindset that has created for some interesting stories.
What some Reverened Mothers may consider destructive to the Sisterhood, others
would deem necessary for survival, creating the occasional conflict within
their own ranks and what also becomes the main premise for Heretics of Dune.
(All)
Dama - Great Honored Matre, Spider Queen
Great Honored Matre over all of the Matres who had returned from the Scattering to conquer the Old Empire. Held an interest in studying their ancestors,
the Bene Gesserit (although the Matres would never admit to being descended
from them), particularly their immunity to all diseases and poisons. Interrogated
Reverend Mother Lucilla about the Sisterhood and consequently ended up feeding
her to a Futar when Dama could not extract any useful info. Also agreed to
a meeting with Mother Superior Odrade as another chance to learn about the
Bene Gesserit. Odrade's nickname for Dama was The Spider Queen. Dama succumbed
to chaumurky when her chief aide, Logno had poisoned
her drink and assumed the title of Great Honored Matre at the end of CD.
(CD)
Dune, Planet
See Arrakis.
Fremen
The Fremen were a race of people who were persecuted
and banished over several millennia and finally came to inhabit a desert
planet they called Dune. These people were originally part of a religion known
as Zensunni Wanderers who originally settled on Arrakis in 1381 BG (Before
Guild). They broke from that and formed their own sect and thrived on Dune.
They are excellent survivors living on a hostile planet and are known for
their ability to waste little water, since it is a rare commodity on a completely
desert planet. When they die, the corpse is rushed to a Death Still to reclaim
the body's water leaving only ashes. They manufacture and wear Stillsuits,
a garment that captures and recycles their water from their sweat and urine
so that they may survive on this planet.
In 10,191, the Fremen met their Mahdi, (Fremen
for Messiah) when the Atreides took governorship of Arrakis on orders from
the Padishah Emperor. The son of Duke Leto Atreides, Paul Atreides was the
person that fit into the Fremen legends. Paul was forced into hiding when
the arch nemesis of the Atreides, the Harkonnens (who were being supported
by the Emperor, ah treachery!), attacked Arrakis and killed his father the
Duke. Paul and his mother Jessica were force to flee into the desert and
take refuge with the Fremen where Paul took on the Fremen name Muad'Dib.
He ended up training the Fremen into great warriors and in 10,193, took revenge
of his father's death by unleashing an army of well trained warriors mounted
on giant sandworms and attacking the Harkonnens who had taken the Arrakis
governorship from the Atreides. The Emperor himself, Shaddam the IV, who
was on Arrakis at the time of the attack was forced to relinquish the Imperial
throne to Paul Muad'Dib, who claimed rightful rule of the Known Universe. The rest of the Imperium was forced
to acknowledge his rule because he and his Fremen had control of the only
planet that could manufacture the spice melange and they claimed that they
would destroy it if they didn't bow to Paul Muad'Dib Atreides as their new
emperor. This is the premise of the first book, Dune. (Dune, CoD, DM)
Gammu
See Giedi Prime.
Giedi Prime - Gammu, Harkonnen Homeworld
In the first three books, Giedi Prime served as
the home planet for the House Harkonnen, residence of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
After the Baron was killed on Arrakis in 10,193 and Paul Atreides assumed
rule over the Imperium, the Atreides people began to populate the planet,
fixing it up. Eventually, they renamed it Gammu where it is heavily featured
in HoD as the training ground for the ghola Duncan Idaho. Idaho was a native
of Giedi Prime and having him on Gammu would help reawaken his ghola memories.
In HoD, Gammu was attacked by the Honored Matres who were in search of Duncan
Idaho. The Bene Gesserit were forced to flee with Duncan back to their homeworld,
Chapterhouse. Later, in CD with their newly revived military leader, the ghola
Teg Miles, they returned an attack on Gammu, forcing
the Matres back to their military outpost on Junction.. (Dune, HoD, CD)
Honored Matres
The Honored Matres are an aggressive race of female
hunters. The Bene Gesserit have theorized that when The Scattering went out into the universe after
Leto II's death, the Bene Gesserit and Leto's
Fish Speakers combined to form the Honored Matres after three millennia of
being away from the Old Empire. Upon their return
in HoD and CD, the Honored Matres sought to eliminate the Bene Gesserit "witches"
(the Bene Gesserit in turn referred to the Matres as "whores") and any
others who would stand in their way of conquering the Old Empire. The Tleilaxu
were actually exterminated by the Honored Matres upon finding out that they
had developed a ghola (Duncan Idaho) with the same sexual talents that the
Matres had, a talent the Matres used to enslave men and obtain power over
populations. Duncan of course, could use the ability on women and actually
enslaved an Honored Matre with it. The information of Duncan's ability was
intentionally leaked by the Mother Superior Alma Mavis Taraza of the Bene
Gesserit as part of a plan to manipulate the Matres into destroying Arrakis
for the Sisterhood, which they consequently did at the end of HoD.
The Honored Matres as well as other people of the
Scattering, still worshipped Leto II long after his death but referred to
him as Guldur or Dur. (HoD, CD)
Ix - Ixians
A name for a race of people as well as their planet,
known mainly for their superior skills in developing machines, including Guild
Heighliner ships. Competed against another race of people from the planet
Richese, who were an alternate source to supply needed machines. It has been
argued that the Ixians developed machines that conflicted with the laws of
the Butlerian Jihad (which outlawed thinking machines), whereas people of
Richese avoided violating the Jihad laws at all costs. Ixians generally profited
more from their trade because they were able to provide better technology
than what Richese could develop.
Many characters speculated as to the origin of
the Ix name. The Ixians took pride in their secrecy and enjoyed knowing they
were the only ones who knew it actually represented the symbol of being the
ninth planet in their solar system, using an Old Terra
numeric system long forgotten called roman numerals. (All)
Kwisatz Haderach
The term Kwisatz Haderach, coined by the Bene Gesserit means "Shortening of the Way" and
they were responsible for bringing one into existance. To them, a Kwisatz
Haderach was a genetically superior human being male who possessed all of
the abilities of a Reverened Mother plus a few of his own. Many men
have tried to "awaken" the powers of the Kwisatz Haderach in themselves by
drinking the Water of Life, but every man who tried died by the poisoning
effects of the liquid. Paul Atreides was the first Kwisatz Haderach. He drank
the water of life and survived, awakening the abilities that every Reverened
Mother could carry. The Bene Gesserit were able to create this super being
with their Breeding Program, manipulating breeding lines for over 10,000 years.
Their plan was to be able to control the Kwisatz Haderach who would then
take rulership of the Universe, placing the Sisterhood in surpreme control
of millions of worlds. However, they were not able to control Paul and when
he did usurp the Imperial Throne from Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in 10,193,
a million worlds came under his control, which included the Bene
Gesserit.
Leto II - Leto Atreides, the Tyrant, God Emperor,
Guldur, Dur
The fourth book in the Dune series, God Emperor
of Dune, is all about Leto II's Imperial reign which lasted 3500 years. Leto
II was born as a human to his parents Paul Muad'Dib Atreides and a Fremen
named Chani. Paul and Chani had a child previous who they named Leto II, after
Paul's father Leto I, but the infant was killed by the Padishah Emperor's
Sardaukar in 10,193. At the end of Dune Messiah, Chani gives birth again,
this time to twins. A boy named Leto II and a girl named Ghanima. Since their
father had the powers of a Kwisatz Haderach, the twins had awareness
of their existence while they were still in the womb. This awareness in the
womb gave Leto access to all of his ancestral memories and the lives they
all led including both male and female lines all the way back to the beginning
of time, an ability the Bene Gesserit have when they ingest the Water of Life
and become Reverend Mothers (although they can only follow the female side
of their ancestral memories). When Leto was nine, he was forced to take the
Water of Life, a test from his paternal grandmother, Jessica Atreides to
see if Leto had the same Kwisatz Haderach powers as his father. The Water
of Life give him prescient powers that allowed him to see millennia into the
future. What he saw was the eventual extinction of the human race whose origins
could be traced back to his own father, when Paul and his Fremen followers
usurped the Imperial throne from the Padishah Emperor in 10,193 and unleashed
a Fremen Jihad on all of the planets in the Known
Universe and force the members of his newly acquired empire to conform
to Paul's ideals. Leto was naturally concerned with the extinction of all
mankind and at the chronological age of nine (although he was the oldest
person alive because of his memories), set a plan into motion that would
save themselves from dying out. Leto referred to this plan as the Golden
Path, the continued survival of mankind.
In order to enforce his Golden Path, he would need to
turn all of the civilizations upside down and force them to conform to his
style of living or else they would all die out. The plan would take thousands
of years to implement so Leto set out to extend his life so that he could
personally see to it that the Golden Path endured. An indigenous lifeform
on Arrakis, the sandworm, had a lifespan of several millennia. Because of
his Water of Life ingestion plus his ancestral and prescient memories that
told him how to do this, the sandtrout of Arrakis (sandtrout are a part of
the life cycle of a worm) latched on to Leto and over the course of 3500 years,
slowly transforming him into one of the sandworms of Arrakis so that he may
live out an extended life and see that his Golden Path endured. After three
millennia after Leto's death, Arrakis, renamed to Rakis, was populated with
sandworms again except this breed had a "pearl of awareness" of Leto in each
one, as goes with the Bene Gesserit ability of Other Memories. In essence,
the sandworms of Rakis were prescient and just from their existence, locked
humanity on Leto's plan for humanity. Mother Superior Taraza sensed this
and executed a plan that would break Leto's hold on them so that they would
be free to grow on their own. (DM, CoD, GEoD)
Logno, Honored Matre
An Honored Matre, chief aid to Great Honored Matre,
Dama. Responsible for poisoning Great Honored Matre Dama and taking her title
as supreme leader over the Matres. Surrendered herself and all Honored Matres
to Mother Superior Odrade and the Bene Gesserit's assault force when they
were attacked on Junction. (CD)
Old Empire - Known Universe, Million Planets.
References to all of the charted area of space
before The Scattering took place.
Also referred to as the Known Universe in Dune. The people from the Scattering
also referred to it as A Million Planets. (All)
Old Terra - Earth
Several references have been made to Old Terra,
linking the Dune stories to what they view as ancient Earth and is actually
contemporary for us. Several sayings, inventions, memories and equipment
have made it into the futuristic story. (All)
Reverened Mother
See Bene
Gesserit
Scattering, The - The Famine Times
This term is used to refer to the trillions of
people who fled the Old Empire in search of a
better life. After Leto II's death at the end of GEoD, a power struggle for
control ensued and the whole structure of civilization fell. During Leto's
reign, all of the sandworms had ceased to exist on Arrakis. No Sandworm,
no spice. After Leto's Death, the spice hoard he kept eventually ran out
and those addicted to it died from withdrawal. This was called the Famine
Times and gave further incentive to go out with the Scattering and find a
new life. At the end of GEoD, the people of Ix had perfected
the technology of a no-globe which was used to develop no-rooms and no-ships.
No-ships were used in The Scattering so that prescience could not be used
to determine the destination of all the people who were fleeing. They were
free to develop their own civilization out in the uncharted regions of space.
Their return to the Old Empire in HoD and CD came as a culture shock to the
inhabitants of the Old Empire and they were forced to learn how to deal with
the massive immigration. The most difficult of all were the Honored Matres, a race of women intent on killing
everyone. (HoD, CD)
Taraza, Alma Mavis - Mother Superior, Tar, Reverened
Mother
Supreme ruler of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, aka Mother Superior.
Taraza was in charge of the Sisterhood during HoD, almost 2000 years after
the death of Leto II. She is responsible for keeping
the Idaho Duncan ghola project alive in hopes the Sisterhood would have a
tool to control a person who Leto foretold of when he was Emperor. That person
being Sheeana, a Rakis native who had the ability to
command sandworms. Mother Superior Taraza also orchestrated the destruction
of Rakis by indirectly revealing to the Honored
Matres that the Duncan Idaho ghola, had inherent abilities similar to
the Matres, that is the ability to enslave a being using the skills of sex.
After the Honored Matres destroyed Gammu (where Duncan was raised and trained),
they set their sights on Rakis after hearing that Duncan had escaped their
attack and fled there.
Mother Superior Taraza died on Rakis when the Honored
Matres attacked, but not before passing her Other Memories to Reverend Mother
Odrade, who then assumed leadership of the Bene Gesserit. (HoD)
Teg, Miles - Bashar, Supreme Commander
Miles Teg is a prominent
character is the last two books of the series. He was the most trusted male
in the Bene Gesserit ranks and served as their
military leader when the Sisterhood needed him. He was specifically bred to
serve the Sisterhood as was evident by the fact that his mother, a Reverened
Mother, raised him in the ways and special abilities that a Bene Gesserit
live their life, perhaps more so then the Sisterhood would have liked any
male to know. Teg served as military leader of the Bene Gesserit and also
fathered several of their children for them as part of the Sister's Breeding
Scheme. One of the children he fathered was Darwi Odrade, the Mother Superior
in Chapterhouse Dune. He also fathered Reverned Mother Lucilla, an Imprinter.
Teg descended from the Atreides line (with a strong resemblance to Duke Leto
Atreides from 5500 years before!) and despite the best efforts of the Sisterhood's
attempt to breed out the gene that provided the ability of prescience to all
Atreides, it persisted and actually flourished in Teg and his offspring, including
Odrade. Teg was able to utilize this ability into detecting no-ships, which
were supposedly invisible to prescience and it came in very handy in two
instances. First, when he needed to hijack a Matre no-ship on Gammu and get
to Rakis in HoD and secondly in CD when he led the attack on Junction where
the bulk of the Honored Matres were camped out. Teg detected the no-ships
in orbit around the planet and was able to set them off in an explosive chain
reaction, negating the planet's defenses.
Miles has other super-human skills as well. He
had the ability to move lightning fast, probably a result of his intense
prana-bindu training and some of the forbidden abilities taught to him by
his mother. This speed ability left him extremely famished if he used it
for just a few seconds.
Miles Teg was killed when the Honored Matres attacked Rakis.
He provided time for Odrade, Duncan and their latest captive, Murbella, an
Honored Matre, to escape to the sancutary of planet Chapterhouse. Before the
Bashar's death, Odrade was able to take a cell scraping from her father's
neck by scratching it lightly, storing the contents under her fingernail.
She carried the genetic material back to Chapterhouse where Miles Teg could
be cloned, grown from an axlotl tank, unlike a ghola since a ghola's cells
are taken from the cadavre. In Miles' instance, he was still alive when the
cells were taken and as a result would not even remember his death.
Miles Teg was revived by cloning his cells in CD.
He was recruited by the Sisterhood once again to help their fight agasint
the aggressive Honored Matres. The clone Miles Teg, grew up on Chapterhouse
and when he turned nine, his previous memories before his death were reawakened
by Reverned Mother Sheeana who used an Imprinter's sexual abilities to restore
his memories. The ghola Duncan Idaho was asked to restore the Bashar's memories
using the technique of applying psychological pressure, the common method
used to reawaken a ghola's memories (It's how the original Miles Teg reawakened
Duncan's!). Due to the extreme loyalty Duncan held for the Atreides, and since
Miles Teg looked too much like his old friend the Duke, he was unwiling to
go through the process and demanded that the Sisterhood find another way.
At this point, Duncan suggested trying to Imprint Miles and even guessed that
Miles' mother had gone against Bene Gesserit requirements and taught her
son how to resist an Imprinter's methods. This provided the sufficient psychological
pressure to reawaken a ghola/clone's memories and at the chronological age
of nine, Miles Teg once again became Supreme Commander for the Bene Gesserits
leading a very successful attack against the Matres on Gammu and Junction in CD. (HoD, CD)
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