Earth
Old Terra, cradle of the human species
Earth, also called Old Earth, Terra, or Old Terra, was the planet of the al-Lat system on which the human species first arose. By the age of the God Emperor it survived chiefly as ancestral memory and as fragments of Terran life carried across the worlds of the Imperium.
Earth, also called Old Earth, Terra, or Old Terra, was a planet located in the al-Lat star system and the world on which the human species first arose. By the age of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II it survived chiefly as ancestral memory and as the descendants of Terran life carried to other worlds. (Dune; God Emperor of Dune)
Cradle of humanity#
Earth was the planet from which the human species originated. After the Butlerian Jihad, the Commission of Ecumenical Translators converged on a neutral island of Old Earth to assemble the Orange Catholic Bible. Little information was known about the old times, owing to the small store of data the Butlerians had left behind. When Paul Atreides sought to measure himself against history, he asked Stilgar to look into historical Terran references from the Golden Age, including the conquerors Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. The Face Dancer Scytale also knew of Earth and remembered the Golden Age and the camels of the planet. (Dune; Dune Messiah)
Echoes in the Imperium#
Many forms of life across the Imperium traced back to Earth. Laza tigers were genetically manipulated Terran tigers, and kulons were adapted Terran asses. Conch shells came from the seas of Earth, and sage, a common plant prized for its aroma, was used to flavour food. The God Emperor Leto Atreides II recalled a great deal of Terran history through his ancestral memory, including the far wanderings of the Fremen traced back through myth to Terra. Among these recollections were the Romans and Greeks, the conquests of Assur-Nasir-Apli, Napoleon, Islam, the Jesuits, and musicians such as Mozart and Bach. The melody of "Liet's March" was itself ancient, a pre-space thing of Old Terra. (Dune; Dune Messiah; Children of Dune; God Emperor of Dune; Chapterhouse: Dune)
Recreated on distant worlds#
The Bene Gesserit evoked elements of Old Earth on many planets, sometimes only as a faint sketch and sometimes with greater success, as they achieved on Chapterhouse. Mother Superior Darwi Odrade recalled the Master Masons of Old Terra. In this way fragments of the lost homeworld endured. (Chapterhouse: Dune)
Frequently asked questions
- What was Earth in the history of the Imperium?
- Earth, also called Old Earth, Terra, or Old Terra, was a planet in the al-Lat star system and the world on which the human species originated. It was on a neutral island of Old Earth that the Commission of Ecumenical Translators assembled the Orange Catholic Bible after the Butlerian Jihad.
- Why was so little known about Earth?
- Little information survived about the old times because of the small store of data the Butlerians left behind after their Jihad. What remained was carried mostly through the ancestral memory of figures such as the God Emperor Leto Atreides II.
- What traces of Earth survived across the Imperium?
- Several creatures and plants of the Imperium descended from Terran life. Laza tigers were genetically manipulated Terran tigers, kulons were adapted Terran asses, and conch shells came from the seas of Earth.
Sources
- BookDune, Frank Herbert, Chilton Books, 1965
- BookDune Messiah, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969
- BookChildren of Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1976
- BookGod Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981
- BookChapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985
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Followed from this entry
Old Earth
Old Earth, also called Terra, was the planet of the al-Lat system on which the human species first arose. After the Butlerian Jihad it dwindled to a memory, preserved in ancestral recollection and in the scattered Terran flora and fauna seeded across the worlds of the Imperium.
Chapterhouse
Chapterhouse was the Bene Gesserit term for the planet that served as the Sisterhood's home base. In its final form it was a hidden, deliberately unsettled world shielded from prescient eyes and, in the end, remade into desert to shelter the last sandworm.
Orange Catholic Bible
The Orange Catholic Bible, the Accumulated Book, was one of the most important religious texts of the known universe. Produced by the Commission of Ecumenical Translators in the wake of the Butlerian Jihad, it sought to fuse all significant religious thought of human history under one supreme commandment.
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit were an ancient order of women who wielded power from the shadows of the Imperium through a millennia-long breeding program, mastery of body and mind, and the religious engineering of the Missionaria Protectiva. Their goal was the Kwisatz Haderach, and through him the guidance of humanity.
Butlerian Jihad: the war on thinking machines
It began with a slave rebellion on Earth in 201 BG and ended at Corrin in 88 BG. Out of it came the ban on machines in the likeness of a mind.
Darwi Odrade
Darwi Odrade was a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother of secret Atreides descent who rose to become the penultimate Mother Superior during the War of the Sisterhoods. She recruited Sheeana Brugh on Rakis, allied the Sisterhood with the Bene Tleilax, and died on Junction in the final assault against the Honored Matres.
Mentioned in4 entries
Ajax: the Most Brutal of the Twenty Titans
Ajax was one of the original twenty Titans, a cymek conqueror whose extermination of the population of Walgis made his name a byword for cruelty even among his fellow tyrants. He died at the start of the Butlerian Jihad, beaten to death by the slaves of Earth under Iblis Ginjo.
Atomics: the forbidden arsenals of the Great Houses
Atomics was the Imperial term for nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the fission devices every Great House hoarded but almost never dared to use. The Great Convention made their offensive use against human targets grounds for planetary annihilation, yet the Houses kept their family arsenals in reserve, and history recorded the terrible occasions on which the ban failed.
Dune Timeline: from the thinking machines to the end of Kralizec
A dated chronology of the Dune universe, from the first age of space travel and the Butlerian Jihad to Paul Atreides, the God Emperor, the Scattering and the last war with the machines. Events run oldest first, era by era, and every entry says which book it comes from.
Manion Butler the Innocent: first martyr of the Butlerian Jihad
Manion Butler the Innocent was the infant son of Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen, born into slavery on machine occupied Earth and murdered by the robot Erasmus before his first year was out. His death ignited the slave revolt that grew into the Butlerian Jihad, and he was sanctified as the first of its Three Martyrs.
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