Fremen

The Fremen were a culture of humans descended from the Zensunni Wanderers who considered the desert planet Arrakis their home. They formed an integral part in the establishment of the Atreides Empire and the jihad of Muad'Dib launched by Paul Atreides, their adopted leader. Shaped by the merciless environment of the deep desert and by generations of persecution, they emerged as the most formidable fighters in the Known Universe, judged superior even to the Imperial Sardaukar.

Origins#

Despite their keen sense of oral history, the Fremen's record of their past before their arrival on Arrakis was distorted and partially lost over the millennia. They concluded that Arrakis was the final stop on the migration of the Zensunni Wanderers, a journey they mistakenly believed had begun on the planet Poritrin. Long before their adoption of House Atreides, they endured years of harsh Harkonnen rule and dealings with imperial agents, which left them deeply distrustful of outsiders.

Alliance with House Atreides#

In the Standard Year 10,191 A.G., Emperor Shaddam IV ordered House Atreides to replace their enemies, House Harkonnen, in the administration of Arrakis. On arrival, House Atreides under Duke Leto Atreides I sought to befriend the Fremen. At first the Fremen were wary, but the Duke's even-handedness and generosity won them over, and his envoy, the warmaster Duncan Idaho, gained their trust through his prowess as a warrior. The Duke quickly learned that the Fremen were a powerful force with which to align his House. When the Harkonnens and Corrinos invaded Arrakis, House Atreides went renegade and sought refuge among them.

The rise of Muad'Dib#

After the Fremen adopted the Duke's son Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica, they saw a rapid and dramatic change in their fortunes. Determining that Paul was their Mahdi, their prophetic savior, they readily followed his leadership and waged guerrilla warfare against imperial elements on Arrakis. Years of surviving the harsh environment and attrition wars against the Harkonnens had given them fighting abilities deemed superior even to the Corrino Sardaukar. Within a few years they passed from being perpetually harassed by elements of the Corrino Empire to being the foot soldiers of the Atreides Empire and Paul's jihad. In twelve Standard Years the Fremen overran the Imperium.

Culture and society#

For the Fremen, the fight for survival had long dominated their cultural identity. The brutal environment of Arrakis demanded frugal use of energy and resources, above all water, while their history of persecution mandated combat knowledge. Together these forces made them efficient and hardy warriors who used their skills and their desert to defeat off-world opponents who often held far superior technology and training. The Fremen lived in patriarchal collectives called sietches, each set within one of the rocky formations that dotted the sands and each led by a Naib. Collectively all Fremen belonged to the Ichwan Bedwine, the broad brotherhood. Polygamy was commonplace, with prominent men taking several wives. Central to each community was its Reverend Mother, created after she drank the Water of Life and shared the regurgitated bile with her sietch.

Water and the stillsuit#

Water was the heart of Fremen culture, for to the Fremen water was life. To guard against its loss, they wore complex full-body filtration garments called stillsuits, which reclaimed the body's moisture. Specialized headgear prevented loss through the scalp and forehead, while masks and noseplugs reclaimed moisture from the breath. Gloves were available, though many Fremen instead rubbed the juice of the creosote bush on their hands to inhibit perspiration. With a stillsuit in proper working order, the wearer lost only about a thimbleful of water a day. By Fremen rule, one's water belonged to the tribe. When a Fremen died, the body was rendered down into water rather than buried or cremated. In the case of amtal, ritual combat to the death between two who disagreed, the combatants fought without stillsuits, and the water of the loser was measured, allocated to the victor to replenish him, and turned over to the watermasters.

Religion#

The Fremen were deeply spiritual, to the point of superstition. Before the coming of Muad'Dib they practiced a religion whose roots in the Maometh Saari were plain to any scholar, with extensive borrowings from other faiths. The most common example was the Hymn to Water, copied directly from the Orange Catholic Liturgical Manual and calling for rain clouds that Arrakis had never seen, though deeper accords existed between the Fremen Kitab al-Ibar and other scriptures. Over the centuries they adapted their blend of Zensunni faith to the desert and adopted the sandworm, which they called Shai-Hulud, as a physical manifestation of a god. This, with the scarcity of natural resources, made the spice melange integral to their diet and culture. Like many mystic traditions, the Fremen faith relied heavily on prophecy, which was exploited by the Bene Gesserit and others to further their own ends.

Physical appearance#

Living on Arrakis gave the typical Fremen the look of a sinewy human with leathery, tanned skin, effects less pronounced among those who dwelt in cities such as Arrakeen. Their most distinctive mark was the Eyes of Ibad, eyes colored wholly blue by their heavy ingestion of the spice melange.

Decline#

From the time of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II onward, the cultural impact of the Fremen ebbed, due in no small part to the terraforming of Arrakis. By the time of the God Emperor's death the Fremen had been reduced to little more than museum pieces, their ancient and purposeful traditions diluted into honorary forms without meaning. After the Scattering and during the time of the Honored Matres they retained little of their old identity, though a few individuals, such as Sheeana, still adhered to some of the old attitudes and traditions. It is believed that most, if not all, of the Fremen, excepting Sheeana, were killed during the Honored Matre attack that all but destroyed Rakis, roughly 1,500 Standard Years after the death of Leto II.