The Scattering
humanity's dispersal across the universe
The Scattering was the great dispersal of humanity into uncharted space that followed the death of the God Emperor Leto II. Driven by famine and the collapse of his empire, countless humans fled the Old Imperium forever, fulfilling the design of the Golden Path.
The Scattering was a major historical event in the chaotic period following the death of Leto Atreides II, the God Emperor. His death brought the breakdown of his empire, severe famine on many worlds, and the introduction of Ixian no ships. It was all part of the Golden Path, Leto's design, triggered by the perceived need to diversify the human race and allow it to evolve.
Origin#
Leto II's prescience allowed him to see into both the past and the future, and he believed that ten thousand years of rule by the Faufreluches had left the human race stagnant, so that drastic action was needed for its survival. The entire purpose of the Golden Path was to force humanity to abandon certainty, security, and safety as individual goals and to scatter, not only geographically but also technologically, ideologically, and socio politically.
During the reign of Leto II humanity was predominantly planet bound and ruled by an iron fist for more than 3,500 years, in stark contrast to the freedoms enjoyed under the Faufreluches. Leto exerted control unprecedented in the Imperium, including power over the Spacing Guild and space travel that no previous Emperor had managed. Upon his death the long established order disintegrated, humanity rediscovered independence on a vast scale, and the species was free to scatter into the unknown.
The Famine Times and Scattering space#
According to Leto's plan, his death was followed by a collapse of political control and of spice supplies, since it would take generations for the spice cycle to reassert itself on the planet then called Rakis. Worlds starved in the chaotic period known as the Famine Times, and the Scattering was the immediate response as refugees fled the anarchy.
Many people remained within the boundaries of the Old Imperium, but countless humans departed for uncharted space, never to return. For 1,500 years humanity explored realms beyond the old boundaries, and new groups and cultures evolved. The number of colonized worlds ballooned exponentially. The Bene Gesserit who remained could make only vague guesses at the size of Scattering space, which was theoretically infinite. One clue was that the Lost Ones returning from the Scattering referred to the Old Imperium as the million worlds, implying that Scattering space was several times larger.
New powers and the return#
Eventually the Honored Matres developed as a fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers, and possibly other groups, who had fled into the Scattering. An aggressive group focused on conquest and domination, they carved out vast territories among the new worlds. Another power that rose was the Lost Tleilaxu, no longer bound even by the pretense of the Great Convention, who pushed genetic manipulation far beyond their Bene Tleilax forebears, splicing human and animal stock to create the feline based Futars and the fish based Phibians. The Honored Matres and the Lost Tleilaxu became bitter enemies in wars that spread across Scattering space, and the Tleilaxu refined the Futars expressly to hunt the Matres.
About 1,500 years after Leto II's death, many of the Lost Ones began to return to the space of the Old Imperium. Chief among them were the Honored Matres, who exterminated the Bene Tleilax and Bene Gesserit wherever they found them. The Bene Gesserit learned that the cause of this return was that the Matres were fleeing an even more powerful adversary they had encountered, alluded to only as the Enemy or the Ones of Many Faces, which had made extensive use of biological warfare against which the Matres no longer had defenses.
Frequently asked questions
- What was the Scattering in Dune?
- The Scattering was the great dispersal of humanity into uncharted space following the death of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II. His death brought the breakdown of his empire, severe famine on many worlds, and the introduction of Ixian no ships.
- Why did Leto II want humanity to scatter?
- Leto II believed that ten thousand years of rule by the Faufreluches had left the human race stagnant, so drastic action was needed for its survival. The purpose of his Golden Path was to force humanity to abandon certainty, security, and safety as goals and to scatter geographically, technologically, ideologically, and socio politically.
- What were the Famine Times?
- Leto's death was followed by a collapse of political control and of spice supplies, since it would take generations for the spice cycle to reassert itself on the planet then called Rakis. Worlds starved in this chaotic period known as the Famine Times, and the Scattering was the immediate response as refugees fled the anarchy.
- What new powers rose during the Scattering?
- The Honored Matres developed as an aggressive fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers focused on conquest and domination. The Lost Tleilaxu also rose, pushing genetic manipulation far beyond their forebears to create the feline based Futars and the fish based Phibians, and the two groups became bitter enemies.
- Why did the Lost Ones return to the Old Imperium?
- About 1,500 years after Leto II's death, many of the Lost Ones began to return, chief among them the Honored Matres. The Bene Gesserit learned that the Matres were fleeing an even more powerful adversary they had encountered, alluded to only as the Enemy or the Ones of Many Faces, which had used biological warfare against which the Matres no longer had defenses.
Sources
- WikiScattering — Dune Wiki entry
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
Golden Path
The Golden Path was an expansive prescient interpretation, visible only to the Kwisatz Haderach and the Bene Gesserit, that revealed the single optimum route through the threads of cause and effect that would guarantee the long term survival of the human race.
Great Convention
The Great Convention was the historic treaty brokered between the Great Houses, the Spacing Guild, and the Imperium after the destruction of the thinking machines. It outlawed thinking machines, forbade the use of atomics against human targets, and established the rules of Kanly and the War of Assassins.
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.
Bene Tleilax
The Bene Tleilax, more commonly called the Tleilaxu, were a secretive race of genetically altered humans whose mastery of the axolotl tanks gave them gholas, Face Dancers, and Twisted Mentats. Reviled across the Imperium, their genetic skill made them a necessary evil that no power could do without.
Fish Speakers
The Fish Speakers were the all-female army and bureaucracy created by God Emperor Leto Atreides II to enforce his rule and protect the Golden Path. Trained as fanatical soldiers, priestesses, and administrators, they outlasted every prior military force before falling under Tleilaxu control after his death.
Honored Matres
The Honored Matres were a violent faction of women who emerged from uncharted space some fifteen centuries after the death of the God Emperor, returning to the Old Empire as dark mirrors and rivals of the Bene Gesserit. They conquered through sexual enslavement and the destruction of worlds.
Mentioned in27 entries
Arrakis
Arrakis, known as Dune and later as Rakis, was a harsh desert world in the Canopus system and the only natural source of the spice melange. Home to the Fremen and the sandworms, it became the seat of the Atreides empire and the center of the known universe.
Bela Tegeuse
Bela Tegeuse was the fifth planet of the Kuentsing star system and reputedly the third stopping place of the Zensunni forced migration. Generations later it was conquered by the Honored Matres.
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.
CHOAM
CHOAM, the Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles, was the vast commercial monopoly that governed nearly all trade across the Imperium. Its directorships were the true measure of political power, and its profits, many of them tied to the spice melange, sustained the Great Houses.
Enhanced Face Dancer
Enhanced Face Dancers were a refined breed of Tleilaxu shape changer first released into deep space by Hidar Fen Ajidica and later improved by the Thinking Machines. Undetectable even by the Bene Gesserit, they served Omnius and Erasmus while secretly pursuing their own ascendancy, until Erasmus destroyed them all with a hidden kill switch.
Face Dancer
Face Dancers were a sterile race of metamorphic transhumans engineered by the Bene Tleilax in their axolotl tanks. Able to replicate the form, voice, and personality of any human, they served as entertainers, spies, and assassins, and in their final refined breed became weapons of conquest.
Ghanima Atreides
Ghanima Atreides was the pre-born daughter of Paul Muad'Dib and Chani, and the twin sister of the God Emperor Leto Atreides II. Married in name to her brother and consort to Farad'n Corrino, she seeded the Atreides, Harkonnen and Corrino bloodlines across the Empire.
Giedi Prime
Giedi Prime, later renamed Gammu, was the industrial homeworld of House Harkonnen, orbiting the star Ophiuchi B. A planet of factories, arenas, and an oppressed populace, it later passed to Atreides administration and eventually became a Bene Gesserit base.
Golden Path
The Golden Path was an expansive prescient interpretation, visible only to the Kwisatz Haderach and the Bene Gesserit, that revealed the single optimum route through the threads of cause and effect that would guarantee the long term survival of the human race.
Honored Matres
The Honored Matres were a violent faction of women who emerged from uncharted space some fifteen centuries after the death of the God Emperor, returning to the Old Empire as dark mirrors and rivals of the Bene Gesserit. They conquered through sexual enslavement and the destruction of worlds.
House Atreides
House Atreides was a respected House Major of the Galactic Padishah Empire, ruled by a Duke and seated for twenty generations on the ocean world of Caladan. Through Paul Muad'Dib and his son Leto II, the Atreides line rose to rule the Known Universe before passing into a bloodline scattered across the millennia.
House Richese
House Richese ruled the machine world of Richese, a Great House classed with Ix as supreme in machine culture. Its ruinous trade war with House Vernius of Ix broke its fortunes and left it making copies of Ixian invention.
+ 15 more
Get new articles in your inbox
No spam. New lore drops, canon conflicts, and deep dives only when they’re worth reading.
Some links on Lore Fortress are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.