Poritrin

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.

El'hiim

El'hiim was the son of the legendary Selim Wormrider, raised by his adoptive father Ishmael. A Naib who welcomed offworld trade, he broke with Ishmael over dealings with outsiders and won leadership of the tribe in a sandworm duel.

Fremen

The Fremen were a culture of humans descended from the Zensunni Wanderers who made the desert planet Arrakis their home. Hardened by water scarcity and generations of persecution, they became the finest fighters in the Known Universe and the foot soldiers of Paul Atreides and his jihad.

Ishmael

Ishmael was the Zensunni who forged the Free Men of Arrakis from escaped Poritrin slaves and the outlaw followers of Selim Wormrider, becoming their first Naib. His insistence on the old desert ways helped shape the people who would one day be known as the Fremen.

Norma Cenva

Norma Cenva was a mathematical genius of the Butlerian Jihad who designed the first foldspace ship, became the first Guild Navigator, and co-founded the Spacing Guild. She ultimately evolved into the disembodied Oracle of Time.

Projectile weapons: the old guns of the Imperium

Projectile weapons, firing miniaturised poisoned needles, bolts and darts, were the standard armament of the House Troopers and the militaries of the Imperium. The coming of the Holtzman shield made most of them obsolete, yet the maula pistol, the slow-pellet stunner and the assassin's dartgun endured wherever shields could not be worn.

Rossak

Rossak was a lush jungle world that served as a stop on the migration of the Zensunni Wanderers, and the place where an awareness-spectrum narcotic first unlocked the genetic memory of their Sayyadinas.

Suspensor

Suspensors were hovering devices that used the secondary phase of a Holtzman field generator to nullify gravity within limits set by mass and energy use. They buoyed everything from glowglobes and furniture to the bulk of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

The Great Houses of Dune: Every House Explained

Every noble House of the Dune Imperium, from the Imperial House Corrino to the Great Houses of the Landsraad and the smaller families around them. Each entry gives the House's homeworld, its rulers, what it was known for and how it ended, and says which Houses come only from the later expanded novels or the games.

Tio Holtzman

Tio Holtzman was the celebrated savant of Poritrin credited with the Holtzman Effect and its shield technology, who took credit for the genius of Norma Cenva and died in a lasgun-shield explosion during a slave rebellion.

Tuk Keedair

Tuk Keedair was a Tlulaxa slaver who became the business partner of Aurelius Venport and co-founder of VenKee Enterprises. His chance discovery of melange on Arrakis built a commercial empire, though his life ended as a prisoner among the desert Zensunni he had once enslaved.