The fictional Dune universe is the political, scientific, and social setting of author Frank Herbert's six-book Dune series of science-fiction novels. The highly popular first book, Dune, has been adapted as a movie and as a televised miniseries; its first two sequels have appeared as miniseries as well.
After Frank Herbert's death, his son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have produced a number of "prequel" books, which have been highly successful commercially but gathered mixed reviews from longtime fans of the original novels.
Brief synopsis of Dune history
The Dune universe, set in the distant future of humanity, has a history that stretches tens of thousands of years and covers considerable changes in political, social, and religious structure and in technology. However, extant creative works set in the Dune universe are set in four different time periods:
- The Butlerian Jihad
- The ascension of the Atreides
- The fall of the God Emperor
- The return from the Scattering and the coming of the Honored Matres
The Butlerian Jihad
Main article: Butlerian Jihad
The Butlerian Jihad is a conflict that results in the destruction of all computers, robots, and any other forms of "thinking machine." The causes and exact nature of this conflict are left rather vague in Frank Herbert's books.
In the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy, it is presented as a battle for supremacy between humans and the sentient machines they have built.
Whatever the nature of the conflict, the aftermath leads to a near-universal taboo on the creation of "thinking machines", even simple computers, which has a profound influence on the sociopolitical and technological development of humanity.
The ascension of the Atreides
At the time of the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy, Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune, a feudal empire spanning thousands of inhabited star systems has developed. While some communities exist on its fringes, paying exorbitant bribes to the Spacing Guild interstellar navigators for their privacy and independence, by and large all of humanity lives within the empire's murky but largely stable civilization.
As a result of the Butlerian Jihad's ban on "thinking machines", several secretive societies have developed, using eugenics programs, intensive mental and physical training, and pharmaceutical enhancements to hone human skills to an astonishing degree:
- The Spacing Guild is the foundation of the interstellar civilization. Its Navigators use the spice drug melange to gain limited prescient abilities, enabling them to fold space and safely guide enormous Heighliner spaceships from planet to planet at faster-than-light speeds. As its mathematical and pharmaceutical methods are secret and Guild Navigators interact with others only through intermediaries, the Guild has a monopoly on interstellar transport and banking, which it can leverage as absolute political and economic power over other factions when necessary to maintain its dominance.
- Mentats are "human computers" who have learned to enter a heightened mental state in which they can perform complex logical computations. Frequently working in the sworn service of the aristocratic great houses, mentats manage internal governance as well as external strategy in the shifting alliances and vendettas between the houses. Some mentats are also melange addicts, but it is not clear whether they use the spice for psychic enhancement or merely for the longevity and good health it confers (most of the nobility and the wealthy use tiny amounts of the expensive spice for such purposes, and some use the addiction to control their high servants). Not as much a secret society or civilization as a way of life, mentats are trained in several schools, and the methods are used internally by other groups; notably, the Tleilaxu sell "twisted" mentats, psychopathic sadists that can only be controlled by their vices. It appears that, in contrast to several other groups, the genetic heritage of a would-be mentat is of almost no importance; the proper mental-physical training starting at a very young age, rather, can make almost any child a mentat.
- The Bene Gesserit is a society of females with almost inhuman physical, sensory, and deductive powers developed through many years of conditioning. While the public motto of the Bene Gesserit is that they "exist only to serve", and indeed Bene Gesserit wives and concubines do provide advantages to many powerful men, the B.G. concept of service is not always what it appears to outsiders. The Bene Gesserit wish to better the human race, but do so by secretly tampering with the affairs of almost every group, religion, and institution in existence, altering the direction of organizations and ideologies to serve B.G. purposes. The Bene Gesserit have a millenia-long selective breeding program, with its Sisters being directed to produce children of specific sexes with specific males; the children may then be taken for Bene Gesserit training. Bene Gesserit outside of their chapterhouses may serve others, from those of the lowest status to emperors, but in the end their actions serve only the Bene Gesserit. However distrusted the Bene Gesserit "witches" may be, though, the services they can provide make them indispensable to most of the great houses.
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After a Bene Gesserit student-acolyte has progressed enough in her mental and physical abilities, she may become a full Reverend Mother with full command of her ancestral memories -- the complete memories of all her female ancestors, which, in the Dune universe, all humans possess at the genetic-cellular level but ordinarily cannot access. This process is an ordeal known as the Spice Agony, which involves a near-lethal overdose on the melange drug. A Reverend Mother cannot, however, recall the memories of her male ancestors, and is terrified by the psychic space within her that the masculine memories inhabit.
- The Bene Gesserit eugenics program's purpose -- along with 'improving' humanity by removing genetic defects and selectively breeding more intelligent and physically superior humans -- is to develop a superhuman male, the Kwisatz Haderach, who can recall both his male and female ancestral memories, as well as the ability to see (and thus control) the future. The Bene Gesserit at the time of Dune were only one generation away from their desired individual, having manipulated the threads of genes and power for thousands of years to produce the required confluence of events -- but the Bene Gesserit ordered to produce a daughter to become the Kwisatz Haderach's mother instead bears a son.
- The Imperium has long been ruled by the noble House Corrino, which controls the brutally efficient soldier-fanatics of the Imperial Sardaukar. Although none of the other Houses Major or Minor individually approaches the power of House Corrino, and the great houses are in constant competition for fiefdoms, political power, and Imperial favor, they are collectively represented in an assembly known as the Landsraad, which can balance the power of the Empire and enforce the Great Convention against the use of atomic weapons against human targets. The Great Houses and the Emperor also grapple for financial power in the omnipresent CHOAM Company, a directorship in which brings vast economic gains, and in which secret societies like the Guild and the Bene Gesserit exercise a great deal of influence.
- On the fringes of imperial control, law, and morality lie two other major secret societies: the Tleilaxu, or Bene Tleilax, who have for millenia hidden an ancient totalitarian theocracy, and selective breeding program of their own, behind the guise of amoral merchants trafficking in genetically engineered slaves and depraved amusements; and the Ixians, who produce cutting-edge technology that skirts the taboo of the Butlerian Jihad. House Richese is Ix's primary competitor.
Against this backdrop, the novels chronicle the conflicts between the major powers, which orchestrate a violent eruption in the long-simmering battle between House Atreides and House Harkonnen in order to gain control of the desert planet Arrakis, known as Dune.
The little-understood native population of Arrakis are the Fremen, long overlooked by the Imperium and the fief-administrators of the great houses. They were considered backward savages by House Harkonnen, but demonstrate subtle complexity and wield great power; a hardy people, used to the hardship and deprivation of their arid planet, some of House Atreides' advisors also suspect that they could rival the Sardaukar as a fighting force. They await the coming of a prophesied messiah, not suspecting that this was hidden in their legends by the Missionaria Protectiva, an arm of the Bene Gesserit dedicated to religious manipulation, in order to ease the path of the Bene Gesserit on Arrakis, and the ascendance of the Kwisatz Haderach. The mystical and highly religious Fremen also have a connection to one of the sole other successful inhabitants of Arrakis -- the enormous, virtually indestructible sandworms, called by the Fremen Shai-Hulud and considered holy, which in a way unknown to all but the Fremen govern the ecology of Dune.
A planet apparently almost devoid of water and unsuited for human colonization, the Imperium would give little notice to Arrakis and its religious-fanatic inhabitants had the planet not been the sole known source in all the universe of melange, the "spice" drug that prolongs its user's lifespan and protects against disease; with it, the Guild Navigators see a path through foldspace, and the Bene Gesserit enhance their abilities. Melange is the most valuable commodity in the universe, and can only be harvested from the desert surface of Arrakis, where it is produced by an unknown biological mechanism. Thus, Dune is the political fulcrum of the universe.
The fall of the God Emperor
At the time of God Emperor of Dune, the God Emperor Leto Atreides II has ruled the Empire for thousands of years from the verdant face of a transformed Arrakis; melange production has ceased, and the last giant sandworm in existence is locked in symbiosis with Leto. Leto has governed as a tyrant, freezing humanity in stasis so that the explosive Scattering as the Empire dissolved upon his death would forever prevent decay and conservatism.
The return from the Scattering
At the time of Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, the turmoil caused by the fall of the God Emperor and the Scattering of billions of humans into the freedom of unknown space is settling into a new pattern. The balance of power in the Old Empire rests between the Ixians, the Tleilaxu, and the Bene Gesserit. The Spacing Guild has been forever weakened by the development of machines capable of folding space. However, this balance of power is shattered by a large influx of people from the Scattering, fleeing some unknown enemy. Among them the Bene Gesserit finds its match in a feared female society known as the Honored Matres.
The dating system of Dune
The Dune novels use a different calendar dating system than of present day Earth. Years are not based on the common era (BCE and CE), but before and after the formation of the Spacing Guild, measured as "Before Guild" and "After Guild" (BG and AG, respectively).
Using the information given by the Dune books, it is possible to determine how the dating system used in the novels corresponds to our own.
1. Butlerian Jihad
Butlerian Jihad lasts "two cruel generations" Dune, Appendix II / V
201 - 108 BG
2. The 20th century
"Mankind's movement through deep space placed a unique stamp on religion during the one hundred and ten centuries that preceded the Butlerian Jihad. " Dune, Appendix II
~11,200 years
Dune begins in 10,191 AG, so we simply add 10,191 to 11,200 together:
10,191 + 11,200 = 21,391
Thus, the year 10,191 AG corresponds to the year 21,391 CE. That is, of course, assuming that the Dune chronology actually uses Earth years.
But Dune counts in Standard years:
"Taraza was momentarily abashed. This was an imposition. Teg was still a regal figure, tall and with that large head topped by gray hair. He was, she knew, four SY short of three hundred. Granting that the Standard Year was some twenty hours less than the so-called primitive year, it was still an impressive age with experiences in Bene Gesserit service that demanded that she respect him." CHoD ~Page 36
So there could be a maximum error of about 400 years (since we do not know when the Dune Universe started using the "Standard" year)
Artistic works in the Dune universe
See also all Dune universe articles.
The original series
First Prequel
There is also a prequel trilogy to Dune, known as the Prelude to Dune. It was written by Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson and based in part on Frank Herbert's notes, found after his death. This trilogy is set in the years leading up to the events in Dune. Although highly unpopular with fans of the original series, these books have enjoyed commercial success, and have introduced the Dune universe to a new generation of fans. Critics of the Prelude to Dune series cite inconsistencies, plot and character liberties taken by the authors, and lack of comparable depth and quality to Frank Herbert's work.
Second Prequel
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson followed this with a second prequel trilogy called the Legends of Dune This trilogy is set at an earlier time of the history of the Dune universe when humans and sentient machines battle for supremacy.
Other artistic works based in the Dune universe
ISBN numbers
External links
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Official website
- The official website. However, seems more interested in the new books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson rather than Frank Herbert's legacy.
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alt.fan.dune FAQ
- Frequently asked questions and answers compiled by alt.fan.dune
- http://www.houseatreides.com/
- Fan site with excellent messageboard
- http://www.dreamersofdune.com/
- Another excellent fan site.
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Spark Notes
- Detailed examination of Dune by Spark Notes.
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Dune by Frank Herbert
- Review of novel by Nicholas Whyte. Whyte's website includes reviews of many of the Hugo and Nebula winners.
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The Internet top 100 SF Fantasy lists
- The site as maintained and updated these lists since 1997.
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The Landsraad MSN Community
- One of the most active Dune Communities.
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Sands of Arrakis
- The Sands of Arrakis is a Dune Fan Club dedicated to Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel "Dune," and the Dune universe he created in the following novels.
