DUNE EXPLAINED, FOR @kenzotenmas

ok so let's just get this out of the way, earth existed and everyone in this series is descended from space immigrants from earth. house atreides is descended from mythological atreus. this is not a joke.

politically things are split like so: the noble houses, the bene gesserit (secretive order of ~witches~), and The Capitalists. the emperor oversees the noble houses and supposedly the bene gesserit but the capitalists do whatever the fuck they want

everything up to and including faster than light travel is managed by MELANGE aka SPICE, an addictive by-product of the worm's life cycle. the worm lives only on the planet ARRAKIS, almost entirely desert

the native inhabitants of arrakis called dune are the FREMEN - free men - who lead complex subsistence lives in the deep desert hidden from imperial census takers and from noble stewardship of arrakis. fremen wear stillsuits,

full body suits that recycle everything they excrete from piss to sweat to shit to reuse the water.

PRIOR TO DUNE: house harkonnen has held stewardship of arrakis and they essentially terrorized the fremen population, treating them as little more than cattle.

by way of political manuevering, the emperor has reassigned stewardship of arrakis from harkonnen to house atreides. (this is what baron harkonnen wants, as part of a grand scheme to place his personal heir on the imperial throne.)

"okay, so then--" shut the fuck up, i'm talking about the bene gesserit now. ok so the bene gesserit are nominally a spiritual order - women who are highly educated and introduced to deep mystical rites and abilities that make them desireable as concubines and advisors

BUT the bene gesserit are SECRETLY running a centuries long breeding program, in hopes of creating a mystical male messiah: the kwisatz haderach, the male bene gesserit. (disclaimer: frank herbert is a misogynist)

TO THIS END lady jessica, a bene gesserit, is basically assigned to duke leto years before the events of dune. she is his mistress, the woman he wishes to marry (tho she refuses as she believes he should make a politic marriage w/ another house), & mother to paul atreides

i don't want to spoil shit for you but paul is the kwisatz haderach, come a generation too early

WHAT U NEED TO KNOW: harkonnen and the emperor are together plotting the downfall of house atreides. lady jessica has been training her son as a bene gesserit. the capitalists have a near monopoly on the spice market that nobles want to break

the fremen have been secretly and for long years been working in unison to create 'green places' under the guidance of the imperial scientist liet-keynes (in the book chani's father, in the film chani's mother)

Shit Goes Wild. do NOT get attached to duke leto, quite probably the only morally ok person in the entire series

Do Not Ever Read God-Emperor of Dune