About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Dune universe

Encyclopedia : D : DU : DUN : Dune universe

The fictional Dune universe, or Duniverse 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 science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson produced a number of "prequel" books which have been highly successful commercially. Also, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are working on two sequels to the original Dune chronicles entitled Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. These, like the prequels before them, are based on the extensive notes left behind by Frank Herbert after his death.[link]

-->
Contents

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 (some 17000 years in total) 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 six different time periods:

The Butlerian Jihad

The Butlerian Jihad is a conflict that results in the total destruction of virtually all forms of "thinking machines". The causes and exact nature of this conflict are left rather vague in Frank Herbert's books, but in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy, it is presented as a battle between humans and the sentient machines they have originally built.

The aftermath leads to a near-universal taboo on the creation of "thinking machines": Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind. Even the simplest computers and calculators are banned, having a profound influence on the socio-political and technological development of humanity.

The Corrino-led Imperium

House Corrino led the known universe in an Imperium for the ten thousand years following the Butlerian Jihad but before the rise of House Atreides following the Arrakis affair that deposed the eighty-first Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. There was very little activity during this period, but it can be assumed that all the intricacies of the Dune universe seen in Dune were established at the beginning of this era and in place in most of its 10,000 year span (see next session).

The ascension of the Atreides

At the time of the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy, 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:

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 (those prior to the birth of the child) - 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 overwhelmingly 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 (who would breed with the appropriate male to produce the Kwisatz Haderach) instead bore a son.
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; they are an extremely hardy people, with a culture built around water on an extremely 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 few 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 also known to extend the powers of the mind by some unknown means, and prolonged usage often results in an individual with extraordinary mental capacity, including such otherwise uncommon qualities as total recall and an almost superhumanly deep awareness and control of one's own state of mind. Melange is the most valuable commodity in the universe, with a market value of 620,000 solaris to the decagram. It is the only method of realistic space travel, it is necessary for all the powerful factions in the universe to function, and its usage by the rich allows the privileged few cognitive and lifespan advantage over the masses, allowing easier social control. It can only be mined from the desert surface of Arrakis, where it is produced by an unknown biological mechanism (it is later revealed that this mechanisim is the waste of the sandworm). This makes Arrakis a rather peculiar object within the universe. No one can live there, strange things happen there, but everyone wants it. No administrative, productive or military facilities of any significant kind exist on Arrakis.

The Golden Path of the God Emperor

At the time of God Emperor of Dune, the God Emperor Leto Atreides II has ruled the Empire for 3,500 years from the verdant face of a transformed Arrakis; melange production has ceased. The sandworms are gone, except for the sandtrout (a larval stage) that Leto forged a symbiosis with, transforming him into something like a human-sandworm hybrid. The Empire he had been born in suffered from the twin Achilles heels that it could be governed by one man, and that it was totally dependent on melange, found on only one planet in the universe. Leto's prescient visions had shown a high probabilty of humanity being extinguished by a "Great Enemy", possibly the return of thinking machines. Leto's solution was to place humanity on "The Golden Path." Leto governed as a benevolent tyrant, providing for his people's physical needs but denying them any spiritual outlets other than his own religion. Personal violence of any kind was banned, as was nearly all space travel. This created a pent-up demand for freedom and travel. Leto also conducted a selective breeding program among the descendants of House Atreides (the descendants of his sister, Ghanima), finally arriving at Siona, daughter of Moneo, whose actions were hidden from prescient vision. After Leto's death there was rebellion and revolt, but also an explosion in travel and colonization known as The Scattering, in which the number of inhabited planets came to outnumber the old Empire by perhaps 100 to 1. The Scattering, combined with the invisibility of House Atreides to prescient vision, ensured that humanity would never again be threatened with total extinction.

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 trillions 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 navigation in foldspace, practically replacing Guild Navigators. 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.

Planets of the Dune Universe

The dating system of Dune

The Dune novels use a different calendar from that of present day Earth. Years are not counted before and after the birth of Christ, 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 200th 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+201 together:

[10,191+11,401=21,592]

Thus, the year 10,191 AG corresponds to the year 21,391 AD. 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." HoD ~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). This method also assumes that humankind began exploring "deep" space in the 20th century a decade after World War II.

Artistic works in the Dune universe

The original series

Prelude to Dune

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 are based on Frank Herbert's notes, found after his death. This trilogy is set in the years leading up to the events in Dune.

Legends of Dune

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson followed with a second prequel trilogy called the Legends of Dune. This trilogy is set at an earlier time in the history of the Dune universe, when humans and sentient machines waged war with one another.

Completion of the original series (A.K.A. \"Dune 7\")

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have scheduled the release of three more books[link]. These books (two novels and a compilation of short stories) are based off of an existing framework that Frank Herbert wrote prior to his death (the working title of that framework is known as Dune 7).

Other artistic works based in the Dune universe

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: