Arrakis

Arrakis, also known as Dune and in later ages as Rakis, was a harsh desert planet on the far edge of the Old Imperium in the Canopus star system. For most of recorded Imperial history it was the original and sole source of the spice melange, the substance vital to space travel, prolonged life, and prescient sight. Home to the Fremen and to the great sandworms, the planet was contested by the Great Houses and ultimately became the seat of power for the empire of Paul Atreides, called Muad'Dib, before its long transformation under the God Emperor and its final destruction in the age of the Scattering.

Location and environment#

Arrakis lay far from the major populated worlds and their trade routes, on the outer edge of the Old Imperium. It was orbited by two moons: the larger bore a surface formation resembling a human fist, and the smaller carried a shape that recalled a kangaroo mouse. The surface of the planet consisted almost exclusively of dry dune deserts, which gave it the alternative name of Dune. Weathered mountain ranges broke the deserts and sheltered the limited native life, and rock outcroppings littered the open sand.

Temperature on Arrakis varied enormously. The surface of a sand dune could run a hundred degrees hotter than the sand a meter below it, while half a meter above the sand the air could be twenty degrees cooler than the surface itself. Shade reduced temperatures by as much as forty degrees. Despite the dryness, the atmosphere was breathable, composed of roughly 75.4 percent nitrogen and 23 percent oxygen with negligible trace gases, the oxygen produced as a byproduct of sandworm metabolism. Vast reserves of water lay locked deep within the planet's mountains and within the bodies of the countless sandtrout, while small amounts of vapor in the air were harvested through windtraps.

The northern pole sat on a large plate of bedrock and was ringed by mountain ranges, which protected it from sandworm incursion. This geography, with a milder climate, made the pole the most comfortable region for human habitation and explained the placement of the capital, Arrakeen.

Native life and the sandworms#

Little native life survived the scorching heat and dry climate, and what endured was eclipsed by the sandworms that roamed the deep deserts. The worms played a central role in the production of spice and aggressively defended their territory against humans and against one another. Closely bound to them were the sandtrout, an earlier stage in the worm's life cycle that absorbed and sequestered the planet's water. Among the smaller creatures was the kangaroo mouse, called Muad'Dib by the Fremen, alongside desert hawks, owls, eagles, bats, and a range of burrowing animals and arthropods. Hardy flora such as creosote bush, poverty grass, and various ephemerals clung to the harshest ground.

The Fremen#

The Fremen, traditionalist human clans, eked out their lives in the caves of the rock outcrops and mountain ranges that broke the planet-wide desert. The constant fight for survival dominated their cultural identity, demanding frugal use of energy and water above all else, and a long history of persecution made combat knowledge a necessity. Together these forces shaped them into efficient, hardy warriors who used the desert itself against off-world opponents who often held far superior technology and training.

The Fremen lived in patriarchal tribes known as sietches, each led by a naib and housed within one of the many rocky formations dotting the sands. Collectively they belonged to the Ichwan Bedwine, the broad brotherhood. Beyond them the planet held a graben population of traders and offworlders in the urbanized areas, drawn by the promise of riches from the sale of water to the Fremen and of spice to other worlds. When the Baron later took the planet he counted some five million people in the towns and villages, and was stunned to learn from Thufir Hawat that the Fremen numbered at least ten million more, giving a total population near fifteen million on so harsh a world.

Spice and the rise to importance#

Before the spice was discovered, Arrakis held little tactical, biological, or geological interest. Its importance grew only when the royal chemist Yansuph Ashkoko found the geriatric effects of the melange. After the Butlerian Jihad, the powers of spice, especially its role in safe space travel, made it an essential resource and a focal point for the emerging Corrino Empire. Earlier attempts to transplant sandworms to other worlds had failed, the creatures dying soon after removal regardless of how faithfully their ecosystem was reproduced, which left Arrakis the sole source.

While the planet was a fief of House Harkonnen, the Corrinos sent the Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes to study its ecosystem. Kynes concluded that Arrakis had once been lush and fertile and could become so again through careful, multi-generational planning. The Fremen, enchanted by his visions of open water and greenery, followed him with fervor. Kynes married into a Fremen tribe and was absorbed into their culture, becoming a leader among them, and he sought to hide the planet's secrets from the Emperor. That practice cost him his life, but it left the Fremen a vision and a legacy through his son, Liet-Kynes.

The Atreides, the revolt, and Muad'Dib#

In 10,191 AG, House Atreides arrived on Arrakis to take control of the planet and its spice production from House Harkonnen, who had managed mining there on behalf of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Atreides rule was cut short by betrayal, the product of a conspiracy between the Harkonnens and Imperial forces. The surviving Atreides went into hiding among the Fremen, where they swiftly rose to leadership through their gift for commanding loyalty and their promise to fulfill Kynes's vision.

Three years later, Paul Atreides, known among the Fremen as Muad'Dib, used the Atreides family atomics to blast a gap in the Shield Wall that had long protected Arrakeen. Riding sandworms into the city, the Fremen broke the Harkonnen and Corrino forces, and Paul declared victory and ascended to the Golden Lion Throne. Arrakis became the new seat of power for both the empire and the religious jihad that Paul unleashed across the known universe.

Transformation, decline, and destruction#

Paul's limited interpretation of the Golden Path eventually gave way to the terraforming carried out by his son, Leto Atreides II, the long-lived God Emperor. Over several thousand years the planet was turned into a green and temperate world, fulfilling Pardot Kynes's dream, but the new ecology proved deadly to the giant sandworms, which nearly went extinct. New mountains, forests, and rivers appeared, and off-world animals took root, leaving only Leto's Sareer as evidence that Arrakis had once been all desert.

After some 3,500 years of rule, Leto II died crossing the Idaho River when the Guardian Wall of the Sareer opened. His worm-body, destroyed by the water that was toxic to him, decomposed into sandtrout, which absorbed the water and slowly recreated the conditions for the worms to return. Over the next 1,500 years the planet drifted back toward desert, and over the long ages many place names were shortened, Arrakis becoming Rakis and Arrakeen becoming Keen. The Fish Speakers, the Rakian Priesthood, and the Bene Gesserit took control. When the Honored Matres returned from the Scattering, they attacked the planet with a space-borne incinerating weapon to destroy the center of spice production, fusing parts of the surface to glass. The Bene Gesserit escaped with a ghola of Duncan Idaho, the woman Sheeana, their leader Darwi Odrade, and a single sandworm, carried to Chapterhouse, where the worm was drowned and its sandtrout placed in the soil to recreate Dune on a new world.