Shield
the Holtzman defensive field
The shield was a protective energy field generated by Holtzman technology that surrounded its wearer and admitted only objects moving below a set velocity. Its ubiquity drove the Imperium back to blade combat, while its reaction to lasgun fire made directed energy weapons too dangerous to use.
The defensive shield, commonly called simply a shield and sometimes a Holtzman shield, was a protective energy field that could surround the person who wore it. It was an application of the Holtzman effect, drawing on the same body of physics that produced suspensor and field technologies across the Imperium. By the age of Muad'Dib the shield had become so common that anyone of even minimal importance wore a body shield, and its peculiar properties had reshaped the way wars were fought. (Dune)
Operating principle#
Shields were produced by a Holtzman generator, the field deriving from the first phase of the suspensor-nullification effect. A shield could be calibrated to permit the passage of matter below a given speed, a setting that was vital for personal defence, since a wearer would suffocate inside a field that refused atmospheric gases. Depending on the calibration, an object's speed while passing through the field ranged from roughly six to nine centimetres per second. A half-shield, covering only one side of the body, also existed. (Dune)
Larger fields protected whole installations. The house shields of the Arrakeen residence guarded the Atreides household until the traitor Wellington Yueh brought them down. (Dune)
Effect on warfare#
With the widespread use of shields, traditional firearms and directed-energy weapons were rendered largely obsolete or too dangerous to use, obliging combatants to adopt melee weapons and precise fighting styles. Shields were common enough that anyone of even minimal importance wore a body shield to protect against criminals, assassins, and accidental injury. The only reliable means of attack was the deft, careful use of a handheld dagger moved slowly enough to slip through the barrier, and new schools of fencing and knife work developed to exploit this single vulnerability. A combatant might wear a full shield, while a half-shield, such as the one used by a slave gladiator who fought Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, was regarded as a disadvantage. (Dune)
The lasgun reaction#
If a lasgun beam struck a Holtzman field, the contact produced sub-atomic fusion and a nuclear explosion. The centre of the blast was determined by chance: sometimes it originated within the shield, sometimes within the laser weapon, and sometimes in both at once. This unpredictability made it suicidal to fire a lasgun at a shielded target, and the threat further entrenched the dominance of the blade. (Dune)
On Arrakis#
On Arrakis a shield never lasted long, because the planet's conditions turned it into a liability. A shield could remain active only briefly, as its harmonic vibrations attracted a sandworm. A worm drawn by a shield was far more dangerous than one summoned by a thumper, because something in the Holtzman energy or in the vibrational pattern drove the creature into insane rage. For this reason the Fremen and the Atreides alike learned to do without shields in the open desert. (Dune)
Frequently asked questions
- What is a shield in Dune?
- The shield, sometimes called a Holtzman shield, was a protective energy field that could surround the person who wore it. It was an application of the Holtzman effect, deriving from the first phase of the suspensor-nullification effect.
- How does a Dune shield work?
- A shield was produced by a Holtzman generator and could be calibrated to permit the passage of matter below a given speed, which was vital for personal defence so the wearer would not suffocate. For a personal shield an object's speed while passing through ranged from roughly six to nine centimetres per second, and a shield could also be set to cover only one side of a person.
- Why did shields force the Imperium back to blade combat?
- With shields in widespread use, traditional firearms and directed-energy weapons were rendered largely obsolete or too dangerous to use, obliging combatants to adopt melee weapons. The only reliable means of attack was the careful use of a handheld dagger moved slowly enough to slip through the barrier, which gave rise to new schools of fencing and knife work.
- What happens when a lasgun hits a shield?
- If a lasgun beam struck a Holtzman field, the contact produced sub-atomic fusion and a nuclear explosion. The centre of the blast was determined by chance, sometimes originating within the shield, sometimes within the laser weapon, and sometimes both, making it suicidal to fire a lasgun at a shielded target.
- Why can't shields be used on Arrakis?
- On Arrakis a shield could remain active only briefly because its harmonic vibrations attracted a sandworm. A worm drawn by a shield was far more dangerous than one summoned by a thumper, as something in the Holtzman energy drove the creature into insane rage, so the Fremen and the Atreides learned to do without shields in the open desert.
Gallery
Images via Dune Wiki
Sources
- BookDune, Frank Herbert, Chilton Books, 1965
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Holtzman effect
The Holtzman effect was a scientific theory concerning the repellent force of subatomic particles. From it sprang the defensive shield, the suspensor, the glowglobe, and above all the folding of space that made instantaneous travel across the universe possible.
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.
Lasgun
The lasgun was a continuous-wave laser projector, perhaps the most widely used hand weapon in the Imperium. Its great danger lay in shields: contact between a lasgun beam and a Holtzman shield triggered a nuclear explosion that could kill everyone nearby.
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.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen: the na-Baron who died on Paul's blade
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen was the na-Baron and heir of Vladimir Harkonnen. Charismatic, cunning, and vicious, he was groomed to inherit House Harkonnen and to win the Imperial throne, but was killed in a duel with Paul Atreides shortly after the Battle of Arrakeen.
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.
Mentioned in11 entries
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.
Great Surrender
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Holtzman effect
The Holtzman effect was a scientific theory concerning the repellent force of subatomic particles. From it sprang the defensive shield, the suspensor, the glowglobe, and above all the folding of space that made instantaneous travel across the universe possible.
Hunter-seeker: the assassin's sliver
The hunter-seeker was a tiny remotely controlled assassination device, a poisoned needle carried inside a floating metal sliver no more than five centimetres long. House Harkonnen used one in a failed attempt on the life of Paul Atreides on Arrakis in 10191 AG.
Ibrahim Vaughn Holtzman: the machine mind of Liesco
Ibrahim Vaughn Holtzman was a mathematical genius of Liesco II whose brain, transplanted into a prototype axolotl tank wired to a computer, circled his homeworld for millennia in a crippled ship. During his rare returns he gave humanity the Holtzman Waves, the Planar Effect behind the shield, and the Unified Effect Theory, before the Jihad destroyed him as the last thinking machine.
Lasgun
The lasgun was a continuous-wave laser projector, perhaps the most widely used hand weapon in the Imperium. Its great danger lay in shields: contact between a lasgun beam and a Holtzman shield triggered a nuclear explosion that could kill everyone nearby.
Leto Atreides II
Leto Atreides II was the third and final ruler of the Atreides Empire and its first and only God Emperor. The pre-born son of Paul Muad'Dib, he bonded with a colony of sandtrout to gain near-immortality and ruled mankind for thirty five hundred years to set humanity upon the Golden Path.
Leto Atreides' Trial by Forfeiture
Leto Atreides' Trial by Forfeiture was the Landsraad tribunal held on Kaitain in 10156 AG after a framed attack on a Tleilaxu vessel. The young Duke's defiant gambit won his acquittal and the respect of the Imperium.
Maula pistol: the Fremen poison-dart gun of Dune
The maula pistol is a spring-loaded gun that fires poison darts, with a range of about forty metres. It is a small detail in Frank Herbert's Dune, but it makes sense on Arrakis, where shields draw sandworms and an old-fashioned dart gun still kills.
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.
Shield Wall
The Shield Wall was a towering mountain range in the northern reaches of Arrakis that sheltered a small region from the planet's coriolis storms and kept the sandworms from human settlements. Paul Atreides breached it with the Family Atomics during the Battle of Arrakeen.
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