Melange

The spice melange, more commonly referred to simply as the spice, was a naturally produced awareness spectrum narcotic that formed a fundamental block of commerce and technological development across the known universe for millennia. It played an essential role in travel and cultural development, for it was vital to space travel, enabling the Navigators of the Spacing Guild to guide their ships safely through fold space. From its discovery several thousand years before the ascent of House Atreides, melange was produced exclusively on the desert planet Arrakis, where conditions for its creation were unique.

Origins#

The spice originated on Arrakis, where it was produced deep beneath the sands. It was created through a process in which the fungal excretions of sandtrout mixed with water to form a pre-spice mass. This mass was then brought to the surface of the desert through an explosion of pressure, and under the intense heat and air of Arrakis melange formed. When the sandworms died, sandtrout were released into the sand, and the cycle of creation repeated. The conditions by which melange was made were unique to Arrakis, which was why, for thousands of years, the planet held a complete monopoly on the substance.

Characteristics#

Spice was the basis for many things in Fremen daily life and could be processed into spice paper, spice fibre, or chemical explosives, and refined into spice essence or spice gas. Its actual appearance was alluded to only a handful of times across the records of the saga. Guild Navigator Edric was described swimming in a container of orange gas rich with the geriatric smell of melange, while in the era of the God-Emperor great bins of the spice were said to glow radiant blue in dim silver light, giving off the unmistakable smell of bitter cinnamon. Throughout the chronicles melange was said to carry the odor of cinnamon. Lady Jessica noted that her first taste of spice tasted like cinnamon, while Wellington Yueh observed that its flavour was never twice the same, presenting a different face each time, with some holding that the body, learning the substance was good for it, interpreted the flavour as pleasurable, and that the spice, like life, could never truly be synthesized.

Effects#

Melange had several effects on those who consumed it. It could awaken dormant parts of the human mind and encourage expanded sensory perception. In some humans, notably the Bene Gesserit, Guild Navigators, and members of the Atreides bloodline, heavy doses led to powerful abilities including prescience. Taken regularly, the spice increased life expectancy and fortified overall health, in many cases tripling lifespan. It also possessed narcotic properties, and an individual's addiction worsened the more of it they consumed. Sustained use discolored the eyes until the entire eye was stained blue, the so called Eyes of Ibad, and extensive exposure created a severe physical dependency that could radically alter the body, as seen in the Guild Navigators.

Value and dependence#

During the days of the Corrino Empire, the spice was the rarest and most valuable commodity in the known universe, so much so that the survival of the empire depended on the flow of melange. It was said to be so valuable that a single briefcase full would buy an entire planet. Great Houses of the Imperium were considered rich and influential if their ruling members could afford to consume melange regularly or, more provocatively, stockpile it. Stockpiling was nonetheless a dangerous endeavour, since the Emperor, the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax, the Spacing Guild, and rival Houses might all regard a spice hoard as a threat to their position and supply.

The dependence on melange flowed directly from the Butlerian Jihad, during which all thinking machines were hunted down and destroyed under the commandment that no machine be made in the likeness of a human mind. In their place, the spice-warped Guild Navigators performed the function once served by a navigational computer, so that interstellar travel relied entirely on the spice. The Bene Gesserit and the Fremen were likewise critically dependent upon it.

The God-Emperor and synthesis#

During the time of the God-Emperor Leto Atreides II, spice production lessened significantly, both because of the terraforming of Arrakis and because of Leto II's desire to control who within his empire could consume melange and in what quantity. By this time, however, significant stockpiles had been collected and hidden by Leto II, and these later proved valuable for a variety of reasons. Because of the monopoly on the spice, the search for a viable alternative gradually became the focus of certain groups, most notably the Bene Tleilax. Their efforts to synthesize melange eventually yielded results roughly fifteen hundred years after Leto II's death, and as a result the Tleilaxu became spice merchants, funding many of their endeavours through the revenue of its sale.