Ix
the machine world of the Imperium
Ix was the ninth planet of its star system and the great center of machine manufacture in the Known Universe. Its workshops produced the Imperium's most advanced technology, often skirting the proscriptions left by the Butlerian Jihad.
Ix was a planet that took its name from its place as the ninth world of its star system, and it stood as the foremost center of machine culture in the Known Universe. The Ixian economy rested on the manufacture of complex machinery, work that sometimes flouted the moral and juridical proscriptions left by the Butlerian Jihad. Its people were known collectively as the Ixians.
Origins and machine culture#
The name Ix arose from a misinterpretation of the Roman numeral IX, marking it as the ninth planet of its system, and it was implied that the Ixians' own origin lay in some Asian culture of Old Earth, likely Chinese. Along with Richese, Ix escaped the more severe effects of the Butlerian Jihad, which left it classed as supreme in machine culture. Its economy depended on the manufacture of complex machinery, some of it skirting the moral and juridical proscriptions the Jihad had set against thinking machines. Before the Confederacy, Ix was the fief of House Vernius, one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad.
Submission to the Atreides#
By the time Paul Atreides ruled from the Golden Lion Throne as Emperor of the Known Universe, Ix had formed itself into an Ixian Confederacy. In Dune Messiah the Confederacy offers its submission to House Atreides in exchange for a legal limit on Paul's Imperial tax, asking for a constitution with the Landsraad or CHOAM set to govern the Emperor. Paul forbade any constitution, holding that it would harm his people. The matter became an Order in Council, and Paul decreed that if the Spacing Guild wished his signature on the Tupile Treaty, it was to halt all trade from Ix until the Confederacy accepted the tax. Deprived of the Guild's transport, the Ixians at last submitted. (Dune Messiah)
The God Emperor and the Ixian inventions#
Early in the reign of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II, the Ixians spread their machine-based civilization and built an economic and technological federation centered on the Ixian Core. In time they began to disregard the strictures of the Butlerian Jihad and resumed the manufacture of genuine computers. In the last centuries of the God Emperor's reign they invented the no-field, which allowed them to grow Hwi Noree, bred in a no-room to work upon Leto's emotions and disrupt his Golden Path. At the same time, working with the Spacing Guild, they sought a mechanical substitute for the predictive talents of the Guild Navigators. The project succeeded a few decades after the God Emperor's death, producing the first generation of Ixian Navigation Machines and breaking the Spacing Guild's monopoly over spaceflight.
The Famine Times and decline#
During the Famine Times the Ixians rose to become a major power in the Known Universe. They were the first to invent and manufacture no-ships, vessels that, guided by the new Navigation Machines, proved far cheaper than traditional spacecraft, and it was this cheaper form of space travel that fueled the Scattering. By the time the Honored Matres arrived in the Old Imperium, Ixian power stood at its apex, supported by an alliance with the Fish Speakers. Yet the analysts of the Bene Gesserit judged them a failing power, for Ixian society had hardened into a bureaucracy that had produced no great invention in centuries. When the Honored Matres conquered the Old Empire, the Ixians were reduced to a barely tolerated technological combine.
Frequently asked questions
- What was Ix in Dune?
- Ix was a planet named for its place as the ninth world of its star system, and it stood as the foremost center of machine culture in the Known Universe. Its economy rested on the manufacture of complex machinery, work that sometimes flouted the proscriptions left by the Butlerian Jihad.
- Where does the name Ix come from?
- The name Ix arose from a misinterpretation of the Roman numeral IX, marking it as the ninth planet of its system. It was implied that the Ixians' own origin lay in some Asian culture of Old Earth, likely Chinese.
- How did Ix come under House Atreides?
- The Ixian Confederacy offered submission to House Atreides in exchange for a legal limit on Paul's Imperial tax and a constitution, but Paul forbade any constitution. He decreed that the Spacing Guild halt all trade from Ix until the Confederacy accepted the tax, and, deprived of transport, the Ixians at last submitted.
- What did the Ixians invent under the God Emperor?
- In the last centuries of the God Emperor's reign the Ixians invented the no-field, which allowed them to grow Hwi Noree, bred to work upon Leto's emotions and disrupt his Golden Path. Working with the Spacing Guild, they also produced the first Ixian Navigation Machines, breaking the Guild's monopoly over spaceflight.
- What happened to Ix during the Famine Times?
- The Ixians rose to become a major power, being the first to invent and manufacture no-ships, whose cheaper space travel fueled the Scattering. By the time the Honored Matres arrived their power stood at its apex, but after the Honored Matres conquered the Old Empire the Ixians were reduced to a barely tolerated technological combine.
Sources
- BookDune, Frank Herbert, Chilton Books, 1965
- BookDune Messiah, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969
- BookGod Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981
- BookHeretics of Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1984
- BookChapterhouse: Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
House Vernius: the Ruling House of Ix in Dune
House Vernius ruled the machine world of Ix until an Emperor's grudge and a Tleilaxu takeover drove it into exile. It comes from the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson prequels, not Frank Herbert's novels, and its story runs through Earl Dominic, Lady Shando and their children Rhombur and Kailea.
Hwi Noree
Hwi Noree was the final Ixian Ambassador to Arrakis and the fiancee of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II. Genetically engineered by the Ixians to appeal to the remnants of Leto's humanity, she came to love him in truth, and her death on the way to their wedding hastened the end of his reign.
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.
Tupile
Tupile was the sanctuary region of the known universe, a group of worlds whose location was kept secret by the Spacing Guild. Under House Corrino it sheltered defeated and renegade Great Houses sent into exile.
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The Great Houses of Dune: Every House Explained
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Bolig Avati
Bolig Avati was the Lead Administrator of the Ixian Technocrat Council, who conspired with his fellow technocrats to seize Ix from the House of Vernius. He repeatedly schemed against Earl Rhombur Vernius and was executed after the Qizarate found the Council complicit in heresy.
Bronso of Ix: the Historian Executed for Doubting Muad'Dib
Bronso of Ix was the Ixian historian whose condemned words open Dune Messiah, a scholar put to death for writing about Paul Atreides as a man rather than a god. Frank Herbert gave him only a death cell interview and a book title. The later novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson turned him into Paul's childhood friend and secret ally.
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C'tair Pilru: rebel of occupied Ix
C'tair Pilru was an Ixian resistance fighter who was instrumental in restoring House Vernius as the rulers of Ix. Twin brother of the Guild Navigator D'murr Pilru, he failed the Guild's final test, survived the Tleilaxu conquest of his homeworld in hiding, and waged an underground war of sabotage until the planet was retaken.
Cammar Pilru: Ix's ambassador in exile
Cammar Pilru was the Ixian ambassador to the Imperial Court on Kaitain during the Suboid Revolt and the Tleilaxu conquest of Ix. He lost his wife to the invasion and his planet to a conspiracy he could not see, yet he kept an embassy in exile alive for more than two decades and helped secure the heir who continued House Vernius.
Cristane
Cristane was a Bene Gesserit sister and commando in the Prelude to Dune novels. Sent to Ix to uncover the secret of Project Amal, she penetrated the Tleilaxu laboratories before being captured, converted into an axlotl tank, and destroyed.
D'murr Pilru: the Ixian Guild Navigator
D'murr Pilru was a skilled Spacing Guild Navigator of Ixian heritage, twin brother of the resistance fighter C'tair Pilru. He gave up family and human concerns for the heightliner's tank, and was instrumental in restoring House Vernius to the rule of Ix.
Dominic Vernius
Dominic Vernius was the penultimate true Earl of House Vernius and ruler of Ix. A decorated military ally of the Emperor turned bitter renegade after marrying the imperial concubine Shando Balut, he lost his House to a Tleilaxu invasion and died detonating a stone burner against Sardaukar on Arrakis.
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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.
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The plot of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's 1999 prequel in order, from the fall of Ix to the young Duke Leto's trial before the Landsraad, with what the ending sets up for the rest of the Prelude to Dune books and for Frank Herbert's Dune.
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