These shortcomings prompted the use of humans as carriers, and the first successful implantation of a distrans into a human brain was performed by Dr. Garik L. Nouh, a physician under the patronage of the Landsraad High Council, in 10179. A much modified wave translator was needed, with one particularly important change: it played back its message only when stimulated by the carrier's speech center, rather than the reverse. Otherwise, the carrier would be constantly babbling, and the reason would not be hard to guess.
Those who could afford to do so quickly switched over to human hosts, ignoring the few protests — chiefly religious — that were raised concerning the employment of human beings as machines. Widespread distrans use continued until early in the 11000s, when the invention of crystal scramblers rendered the device impractical.
Further references: Dr. Garik L. Nouh, Wave Translators and Their Effects (Finally: Mosaic); E. K. Sentenag, Surgical Technique of the Last Millennium (Antares: People's College of Medicine), Ch. 14.
DUNE TAROT
The secrets of the Dune Tarot are said to be revealed in the Azhar Book, but its obscurities only pique the inquiring intellect and convey nothing to the uninitiated. Some revisions of the Orange Catholic Bible confirm some of the symbols, but these spurious editions have unreliable origins in older, abandoned faiths from the time before space travel. Scholars date the Tarot from more than 20,000 years ago, and find in the Dune Tarot some symbols common to cultures as diverse as the Bene Gesserit and the Fremen; however, initiates in the Mysteries refuse to divulge any secrets of the Temple, and indeed refuse even to acknowledge that a Temple exists in physical and not just in ideal form.
A tarot deck has 78 cards: the major arcana, 21 cards of power symbolizing the forces of greatest import in man, society, and the universe; and the minor arcana, 56 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards each. The number seven is the mystical seed from which the deck grows: each minor suit has twice seven cards; the major arcana, or trumps, have thrice seven; the suits together total 77. The joker (or Fool) is unnumbered in the pack.
Some have argued that the four suits of the minor arcana-Knives, Globes, Staves, and Basins-are of Fremen origin because their designs suggest aspects of that culture. The suits and their associations are:
Four is the number associated with the minor arcana, with its fourfold significances, including the four seasons and what the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam called the "four pillars of the universe": "the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous, and the valor of the brave." The four suits are twice linked in sets of two: Knives and Staves, both elongated forms, are black, symbolizing the welcome night; Globes and Basins, both circular forms, are red, symbolizing the sun and the day it brings.
The bridge between minor and major arcana and the central symbol of the trumps is the sign recognized throughout the Imperium as proper to the letter M in many alphabets; the initial of melange, which is the true them, or "water of life;" and a hieroglyph for the S of the sandworm in its transverse motion. The sign unites the elongated and circular shapes of the minor arcana also, and in most designs of the Tarot deck appears on four cards of the major arcana.
The major arcana suggest a journey — Hajj or Hajra — to a Temple, either inner or outer, supported by the four pillars of the universe. In keeping with other Mysteries, the trumps imply esoteric rites which lead the initiate to membership and then to an exalted state in which the traveler gains the universe, becomes one with the Kwisatz Haderach, or attains Alam al-Mithal.
Because several versions of the Tarot vary in small respects, the following offers only the terms and designs of the major arcana which are consistent.
I. The Hajrite. A man wearing a Jubba cloak holds a lasgun upright in his right hand as if it were a spear, and he raises his left hand in a fist. He stands under the vaulted ceiling of an Atreides castle, and behind the castle the First Moon appears. He symbolizes a fateful journey made in anger; success beckons.
II. The Hajrita. A woman whose black Aba suggests a Fremen lifts a Glowglobe high; but behind her, down the recesses of a vast vaulted hall, a crone lurks. She stands for a quest made in love, and failure follows her.
III. Baraka. A man wears a crown with the sacred emblazoned on it. The barrel cactus and the evening primrose provide a setting in the peaceable kingdom brought by justice.
IV. Auliya. A woman likewise wearing a crown with the sacred , surrounded by Akarso leaves. A catch basin appears in the background, symbolizing the delights of the blessed.
V. Ampoliros. The vehicle unites the physical and spiritual, or unites one's own planet with the regions of Alam al-Mithal. Any heighliner could symbolize the soaring spirit, but this particular one suggests the endless nature of the task.
VI. Wawi or Vahi. A man and woman stand hand-in-hand looking toward a rising Moon. They symbolize Two-in-One.
VII. Baraka-Heiros. He holds a baliset, for he plays the music of the spheres which can be heard by only — and yet by all — true seekers of the way. He stands for harmony in art or nature.
VIII. Krimsful. Wearing a garland of Akarso leaves, a stillsuit-clad figure kneels, arm around a couchant sandworm, both figures against a background of a Cheops board. The man, worm, and gameboard signify physical strength moderated by wisdom.
IX. Ilmist. An eremite. The journey is always solitary. He represents either self-reliance or loneliness.
X. Ixion. Celebrates the invention of the wheel as the beginning of culture. All small things, like the journeyer, are fated for great things; but the wheel turns downward too, and the card can mean a fall from high degree.
XI. Istislah. The Fedaykin and the Sardaukar were both devoted to Istislah. The card depicts a perfect square to imply equal proportions for all. There is no adornment (no obstruction) on the square, and it is upheld by four pillars.
XII. Giudichar. An inverted strong man: the truth which supports the universe. When heaven is reflected in earthly dealing, it means "Right makes might — as above, so below"; when times are bad, it symbolizes the triumph of might.
XIII. Erg or The Desolate Sand. A monster like a Maker entwines himself in Inkvine and enchains a black box. The unlikely combination of Maker and Vine implies that the initiate must pass through a death phase and emerge having conquered fear. Or the Desolate Sand itself may represent a great mystery or an ultimate test — a Tahaddi al-Burhan.
XIV. Great Mother. The horned goddess, sign of Time, treads on a star.
XV. Great Worm. Sometimes depicted as Shaitan. He lies curled deep in a cave and guards the "pearl of great price." The negative side of each person, or in society, the Fall of a people.
XVI. Pillar of Fire. A Pyrocket falls in the desert, and a Cielago hovers in the background. The exoteric yields to Mantene, symbolizing a swift enlightenment or the breaking of a secret.
XVII. Star or Sayyadina. A Star adorns the hood of a cloaked Fremen woman. From love and service come the light of knowledge.
XVIII. Al-Lat, The heat of the desert sun encourages the growth of Shai-Hulud, but this is the devouring sun, a deadly power. It glowers over the Desolate Sand and a Sandworm. It signifies an approaching trial, or growth of the spirit.
XIX. Moon. Either of two satellites of Arrakis. The moon confers the refreshing dew, a source of life, and glimmers over Akarso and catchbasin, the latter adorned with the central symbol.
XX. Judgment. A Sadu presides over the traditional scales, which here weigh either the soul or the water rendered from the dead, for the scales form the T of the Tau.
XXI. The Universe. A figure with two faces represents the Kwisatz Haderach bridging space and time, and symbolizes the intrusion of the divine into the ordinary.
O. The Wanderer. Against the desolate sand he walks alone, his bindle with staff over his shoulder. He does not know what the bindle contains, for he does not understand the affliction a Hero brings to his planet. The card may mean escape or expulsion.
When the major ar
cana were used in prognosticating, the deck was shuffled and cut, and the top card, representing the one whose fate was probed, was dealt face up. Around it were dealt six cards, face down, in the following positions:
At the prompting of the seeker (if present), the six cards were turned face up one at a time. The order of their revelation established the order of event. The significance of the cards was determined by their position: thus, for example, al-Lat represented a spiritual burgeoning if it fell in a "fortuna" position — Head or Right Hand; but warned of a test to come if it fell in an "infortuna" position — Left Hand or Loins. The cards had a ranking of "power": Gods, Demigods, Heroes, Men, Animals, Things. Within each of these ranks, the expected ordering prevailed: for example (in descending order), Baraka-Heiros, Baraka, Ilmist, Hajrite, Wanderer. Thus, a more powerful figure on a "fortuna" position, say, will outweigh a less powerful on an "infortuna" position.
The skill of the reader came into play, too: as Elagar Lunacharakii says, "Meaning resides not in the cards but in the mind of the reader; the cards provide only a focus and a symbology for the channeling of the energy, for the clearing of the vision, for the opening of the eyes of the seeker." And there were many in high and low positions in the Atreidean empire who had that skill. A new edition of the Tarot pack appeared from unknown sources about 10208; both Paul and Alia were vexed by its increasing popularity, but they could do little to halt its use and they knew moreover that the rising tide of divination of all kinds had been inspired by their prescience. They had marked out prescience as part of the Fremen way, and spoke more clearly by their example than by proclamation.
G.W.E.
Further references: MELANGE; Elagar Lunacharakii, Pasteboard Prophets: On Reading One's Own Fear and Calling It the Future (Kaitain: LinthrinUP); Hadi Bai, Love, Wealth, and Peace Through the Tarot (Zimaona: Kinat).
D-WOLVES
Specially-bred carnivores, the end product of Leto II 's search for the ideal guardians of his Citadel. Since he had no wish to station an entire garrison of Fish Speakers in the Sareer in order to protect his privacy, he decided shortly after the Citadel's construction in 10723 to find an alternative to his female warriors. The system he eventually chose was twofold; Ixian surveillance devices to keep him informed of any unauthorized intrusions, and some form of predatory animal to deal with the intruders. The D-wolves were to be those predators.
The God Emperor had in mind a specific sort of creature when he began the breeding program: a "more intimidating version" of the Rya Wolves once found on Salusa Secundus. Ideally, he would have used breeding pairs of those beasts as his first-generation stock; unfortunately, the "softening" of the former prison planet had rendered the wolves extinct.
Leto was forced to begin elsewhere. The earliest ancestors of the D-wolves were wolves imported from a dozen worlds chosen variously for speed, size, endurance and efficiency in hunting. In addition, Gaze Hounds (dogs whose visual acuity had long since made them the most popular watch animals in the Imperium; native to Centralia) were bred with the second-generation hybrids and with several of the later generations. This cross produced wolves that could perform as sight-hunters and were thus less dependent on scent-tracks which their human prey might be able to disguise or obliterate.
Leto had originally chosen some of the largest species of wolves available to him, and he continued to increase the shoulder-height of the average litter by breeding the largest animals back into the mix. By the end of the first half-century of the program, he had succeeded in producing wolves that dwarfed all other known species.
In 10819, D-wolves were released in the Forbidden Forest. The animals were capable of breeding true to their own kind, and had proven themselves equal to the God Emperor's expectations. They stood an average of two meters at the shoulder, could find and follow trails several days old and could bring down prey three times their size. As individuals, they were formidable; in a pack, no adversary could defeat them. While they appear to have lacked the speed which characterized the Rya Wolves, the D-wolves outshone their models in all other respects.
They controlled the Forest for thousands of years, protecting Leto's Citadel against would-be raiders with terrifying efficiency. It was not until 13722 — the year in which Siona Atreides led her rebels in the raid which gained them the Stolen Journals — that they failed in their guardianship and were subsequently destroyed.
Before leaving for their mission, the rebels had injected themselves with large doses of Nyilatin, a poison with devastating effects on the lupine nervous system. Whether or not the drug would be effective on the D-wolves was not known, but the rebels had hypothesized that the wolves's vulnerability to the poison might have been increased by the many generations of inbreeding which had taken place since the species was developed. The theory, as only Siona lived to discover, was correct; the wolves's conditioning, which kept them within the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest, allowed them to eat whatever they brought down within those boundaries. The guardians were poisoned and replaced by what Leto referred to as "human wolves."
Further references: RYA WOLVES.
E
ECAZ
"The Greenhouse Planet," first discovered in 8112 B.G. It was listed as a nondescript planet with a humid atmosphere, moderate temperatures, shallow inland seas covering vast areas of the two main continents and the customary large variations between the equator and the poles. Ecaz soon became the fief of House Plana and gained a reputation as a botanical bonanza: the humidity, more than the warmth, accounted for its unparalleled profusion of plantlife. House Plana sponsored extensive research laboratories in an attempt to catalog and breed useful strains of some of the more intriguing plants: all methods were used, including forced mutation and spraying of controlled environments with mutagenic compounds.
House Plana's work came to an abrupt halt in 7033 B.G. when Ecaz became the only planet ever to suffer a general atomic attack before the Jihad. The "Slagging of Ecaz" — an Imperial answer to a burgeoning rebellion — resulted in the complete destruction of all human artifacts. The weapons used were "diggers" intended to blast out deep strongpoints, causing radioactive byproducts so substantial as to render the entire planet uninhabitable. But more important than the radiation was the breaching of the formerly sealed botanical research and development stations, releasing the mutagenic bacteria, viruses, and chemicals into the atmosphere.
For centuries, only the taller mountain peaks and the polar ice caps could be safely visited. In the lowlands, and especially around the former population centers, the residual radiation was deadly and the planet was left uninhabited for thousands of years. Not until after the Jihad, in the desperate search for substitutes for the thinking machines and their products, was Ecaz again explored.
The researches that the explorers had conducted before their arrival at Ecaz completely failed to prepare them for what they found. The atomic release of the mutagenic microbes of House Plana had resulted in a flora run wild in the thousands of years of isolation. Most of the animal life of the planet had died, except for the insects: In addition, there had been a complete elimination of hardwood plants and considerable dieback among all plants with life-cycles of more than one or two local seasons. But the niches vacated by the extinction of the more long-lived plants did not stay vacant for long. Entirely new forms of plant life had arisen on Ecaz: many were totally unknown and so phenomenal that the explorers were ridiculed by their colleagues, even when they presented specimens.
Although many uses have been discovered for Ecazian plants, there has never been a successful attempt to resettle the planet, and House Xitan, which owns and administers Ecaz, has ceased trying to keep a station on the surface. Exploratory groups are rotated off-planet after a period of only one standard week on Ecaz (Or less, if signs of Pneumofungus, Skinseeds, or Hairoot are detected), after which at least a month of sterile-room recovery is needed. Such expeditions are highly expensive to equip, since every piece of equipment will likely meet
its match at least once while on the surface — and even the most careful packing and sealing may not keep spares safe until they are needed. Early explorers often scoffed at the idea that mere plants could cause such trouble, until they found their glass etched by Acidmold, their metal devoured by Rustroot whenever it was left in contact with the ground for more than five minutes, and their plastics dissolved and leached away by any of a dozen or more surprisingly active and very deadly "mere plants."
Further references: ECAZ, PLANTS OF.
ECAZ, PLANTS OF
A great many useful plants have been discovered on the planet Ecaz since it was rediscovered in 300, but only the most common families are discussed here: Lepidodendrales mutans (the "fog-woods"); Equisetales mesmeris (Source of "Elacca Drug" and "Semuta"); Rosa osmyrrah ("Pleniscenta"); "Barrier Roots" (source of "Sapho"); Isoetes certus ("Verite"); and the microscopic plants that are used in the production of glowglobes (Veillonella methanomonas, Actinomyces lucifer, Serpens electri Ecazi, and Spheroporus electri a/b).
FOGWOOD (Lepidodendrales mutans: four families): Fogwood is responsible for Ecaz's other popular name, "the Sculptors' Paradise," from the unique property of the fogwoods to respond to human thought and to grow, influenced by these thoughts, into shapes that evoke a similar mental state in any viewer. The four families are Bradford (with two subfamilies: Mountain and Northern), Lake, Tzu-Lei, and Spotted.
Appearance: Fogwood is one of the most common plants on Ecaz, occupying habitats ranging from subarctic to tropical. It has a very thick, soft trunk reaching up to twenty meters in height, with a crown of forking branches extending another ten meters. The root system of the plants is unusually extensive, ranging for several hundred meters around the parent tree and delving up to one hundred meters underground. The leaves of the fogwood vary with the subtype, but are always spirally placed and several times longer than they are wide, and are so numerous as to completely hide the upper branches of the tree. The trunk and stems are made up of a slender cylinder of primary, pithy wood, surrounded by a much thicker layer of phloem which exhibits the special properties that make fogwood so important, and which is in turn covered by a thin, elastic layer of smooth bark, In general, the trunk of a fogwood is approximately one-third as thick as it is tall, giving the plants a squat, unattractive appearance in the wild. The seed cones produced by Lepidodendrales mutans are large and awkward-looking, and fogwood seeds have never been successfully germinated outside of the planetary atmosphere of Ecaz.
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