Selim Wormrider

Selim Wormrider, born simply Selim, was the Zensunni of Arrakis who laid the foundations for the civilization of the Fremen people. Exiled from his tribe as a young man, he became the first person to ride a sandworm, earning his name, and the designer of the first stillsuits. The outlaw band he founded would in time become the Free Men of Arrakis, and ultimately the first Fremen under the leadership of Naib Ishmael.

Early life and exile#

Selim was born into the tribe of Naib Dhartha and orphaned at a young age. As a child he was raised by various people, none of whom adopted him as family; only a woman named Glyffa treated him as a mother would. He was an impulsive and energetic boy, skilled at throwing rocks to bring down ravens, kangaroo mice, and lizards for the community cookpot. Because of his unknown parentage the tribe demanded more work of him than of others and treated him unjustly, once denying him water for two days after he accidentally spilled a day's ration, a punishment no other suffered. On another occasion he realized that when he was lost in the desert for two days, none of his tribesmen even noticed his absence.

His exile came when his childhood friend Ebrahim drank from an unattended literjon of water, a grave crime among the water-poor Zensunni tribes. Ebrahim's father and Dhartha agreed it would be better to lay the blame on an orphan, and Selim was expelled from the sietch as a water stealer.

The first wormrider#

Humiliated and condemned, Selim left the sietch with only a steel walking stick and some rocks, and wandered the open desert. When he detected an approaching sandworm and felt himself doomed, he chose to attack rather than flee. As the worm rose from beneath the dunes he leaped onto its back and drove the sharpened tip of his stick between its segments into the soft flesh beneath. The worm reared and thrashed, racing forward and holding itself high out of the sand to keep the exposed tissue from being abraded, and Selim realized he was riding it. He clung to the stick through a day and a night, knowing the worm would dive and drown him if he let go, until the beast at last dropped dead of exhaustion, and he pried loose one of its fangs.

Nearby he discovered an ancient botanical testing station hidden in the rocks, built long before by Old Imperial scientists to study the environment of Arrakis. The camp gave him shelter, preserved rations, and hundreds of literjons of water gathered over centuries by automated moisture extractors. From this base he began raiding his old village and openly challenging Dhartha, and observed his former tribesmen gathering melange to sell to offworlders.

Legend of the Wormrider#

After consuming a large amount of melange one night, Selim experienced a vision of how the spice was created, the relationship of the sandworms to it, and the catastrophe that would follow if the worms were lost. He understood that Buddallah wished him to protect the sandworms, which he recognized as Shai-Hulud, and the planet itself.

He began to form his own band, saving the life of a lost man named Jafar, who became his right hand. His wormriders sabotaged Dhartha's harvesting teams and so disrupted the spice market that they became a grave problem for VenKee Enterprises, which held the commercial rights to spice. Selim welcomed new members and trained them all in worm-riding, among them a girl named Marha from his own village, who became his wife. His legend grew until even Dhartha's grandson Aziz admired him, and Aziz, sent to seek reconciliation, was instead turned away. Still obsessed, Aziz tried to lure and ride a worm to impress Selim, and was devoured before Dhartha's eyes, after which Dhartha vowed to destroy him.

Death#

VenKee Enterprises, alarmed by the outlaws, sent Aurelius Venport to investigate, and Dhartha told him that military force would be needed against Selim. Venport supplied mercenaries, and Dhartha led them to the outlaws' caves, but the melange warned Selim of the assault and he moved all his people away the night before. Selim stayed alone to meet the intruders. Armed only with a drum, he summoned the worms; two came and devoured the mercenaries, even a fleeing flyer, and a third consumed Dhartha's followers as Dhartha ran toward him. As the two rivals faced each other and Dhartha cursed and threatened him, a fourth worm opened its mouth directly beneath them. Marha, who was pregnant, witnessed it all from the Needle Rock. Their son El'hiim was born soon after, and Selim's friend Jafar succeeded him as leader of the band.