Dune (40th Anniversary Edition)

by Frank Herbert

  KITAB AL-IBAR: the combined survival handbook-religious manual developed by the Fremen on Arrakis.

  KRIMSKELL FIBER or KRIMSKELL ROPE: the “claw fiber” woven from strands of the hufuf vine from Ecaz. Knots tied in krimskell will claw tighter and tighter to preset limits when the knot-lines are pulled. (For a more detailed study, see Holjance Vohnbrook’s “The Strangler Vines of Ecaz.”)

  KULL WAHAD!: “I am profoundly stirred!” A sincere exclamation of surprise common in the Imperium. Strict interpretation depends on context. (It is said of Muad’Dib that once he watched a desert hawk chick emerge from its shell and whispered: “Kull wahad!”)

  KULON: wild ass of Terra’s Asiatic steppes adapted for Arrakis.

  KWISATZ HADERACH: “Shortening of the Way.” This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.

  L

  LA, LA, LA: Fremen cry of grief. (La translates as ultimate denial, a “no” from which you cannot appeal.)

  LASGUN: continuous-wave laser projector. Its use as a weapon is limited in a field-generator-shield culture because of the explosive pyrotechnics (technically, subatomic fusion) created when its beam intersects a shield.

  LEGION, IMPERIAL: ten brigades (about 30,000 men).

  LIBAN: Fremen liban is spice water infused with yucca flour. Originally a sour milk drink.

  LISAN AL-GAIB: “The Voice from the Outer World.” In Fremen messianic legends, an off-world prophet. Sometimes translated as “Giver of Water.” (See Mahdi.)

  LITERJON: a one-liter container for transporting water on Arrakis; made of high-density, shatterproof plastic with positive seal.

  LITTLE MAKER: the half-plant-half-animal deep-sand vector of the Arrakis sandworm. The Little Maker’s excretions form the pre-spice mass.

  M

  MAHDI: in the Fremen messianic legend, “The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise.”

  MAKER: see Shai-hulud.

  MAKER HOOKS: the hooks used for capturing, mounting, and steering a sandworm of Arrakis.

  MANTENE: underlying wisdom, supporting argument, first principle. (See Giudichar.)

  MATING INDEX: the Bene Gesserit master record of its human breeding program aimed at producing the Kwisatz Haderach.

  MAULA: slave.

  MAULA PISTOL: spring-loaded gun for firing poison darts; range about forty meters.

  MELANGE: the “spice of spices,” the crop for which Arrakis is the unique source. The spice, chiefly noted for its geriatric qualities, is mildly addictive when taken in small quantities, severely addictive when imbibed in quantities above two grams daily per seventy kilos of body weight. (See Ibad, Water of Life, and Pre-spice Mass.) Muad’Dib claimed the spice as a key to his prophetic powers. Guild navigators make similar claims. Its price on the Imperial market has ranged as high as 620,000 solaris the decagram.

  MENTAT: that class of Imperial citizens trained for supreme accomplishments of logic. “Human computers.”

  METAGLASS: glass grown as a high-temperature gas infusion in sheets of jasmium quartz. Noted for extreme tensile strength (about 450,000 kilos per square centimeter at two centimeters’ thickness) and capacity as a selective radiation filter.

  MIHNA: the season for testing Fremen youths who wish admittance to manhood.

  MINIMIC FILM: shigawire of one-micron diameter often used to transmit espionage and counterespionage data.

  MISH-MISH: apricots.

  MISR: the historical Zensunni (Fremen) term for themselves: “The People.”

  MISSIONARIA PROTECTIVA: the arm of the Bene Gesserit order charged with sowing infectious superstitions on primitive worlds, thus opening those regions to exploitation by the Bene Gesserit. (See Panoplia propheticus.)

  MONITOR: a ten-section space warcraft mounting heavy armor and shield protection. It is designed to be separated into its component sections for lift-off after planet-fall.

  MUAD’DIB: the adapted kangaroo mouse of Arrakis, a creature associated in the Fremen earth-spirit mythology with a design visible on the planet’s second moon. This creature is admired by Fremen for its ability to survive in the open desert.

  MUDIR NAHYA: the Fremen name for Beast Rabban (Count Rabban of Lankiveil), the Harkonnen cousin who was siridar governor on Arrakis for many years. The name is often translated as “Demon Ruler.”

  MUSHTAMAL: a small garden annex or garden courtyard.

  MUSKY: poison in a drink. (See Chaumurky.)

  MU ZEIN WALLAH!: Mu zein literally means “nothing good,” and wallah is a reflexive terminal exclamation. In this traditional opening for a Fremen curse against an enemy, Wallah turns the emphasis back upon the words Mu zein, producing the meaning: “Nothing good, never good, good for nothing.”

  N

  Na-: a prefix meaning “nominated” or “next in line.” Thus: na-Baron means heir apparent to a barony.

  NAIB: one who has sworn never to be taken alive by the enemy; traditional oath of a Fremen leader.

  NEZHONI SCARF: the scarf-pad worn at the forehead beneath the stillsuit hood by married or “associated” Fremen women after birth of a son.

  NOUKKERS: officers of the Imperial bodyguard who are related to the Emperor by blood. Traditional rank for sons of royal concubines.

  O

  OIL LENS: hufuf oil held in static tension by an enclosing force field within a viewing tube as part of a magnifying or other light-manipulation system. Because each lens element can be adjusted individually one micron at a time, the oil lens is considered the ultimate in accuracy for manipulating visible light.

  OPAFIRE: one of the rare opaline jewels of Hagal.

  ORANGE CATHOLIC BIBLE: the “Accumulated Book,” the religious text produced by the Commission of Ecumenical Translators. It contains elements of most ancient religions, including the Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism and Buddislamic traditions. Its supreme commandment is considered to be: “Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.”

  ORNITHOPTER (commonly: ’thopter): any aircraft capable of sustained wing-beat flight in the manner of birds.

  OUT-FREYN: Galach for “immediately foreign,” that is: not of your immediate community, not of the select.

  P

  PALM LOCK: any lock or seal which may be opened on contact with the palm of the human hand to which it has been keyed.

  PAN: on Arrakis, any low-lying region or depression created by the subsiding of the underlying basement complex. (On planets with sufficient water, a pan indicates a region once covered by open water. Arrakis is believed to have at least one such area, although this remains open to argument.)

  PANOPLIA PROPHETICUS: term covering the infectious superstitions used by the Bene Gesserit to exploit primitive regions. (See Missionaria Protectiva.)

  PARACOMPASS: any compass that determines direction by local magnetic anomaly; used where relevant charts are available and where a planet’s total magnetic field is unstable or subject to masking by severe magnetic storms.

  PENTASHIELD: a five-layer shield-generator field suitable for small areas such as doorways or passages (large reinforcing shields become increasingly unstable with each successive layer) and virtually impassable to anyone not wearing a dissembler tuned to the shield codes. (See Prudence Door.)

  PLASTEEL: steel which has been stabilized with stravidium fibers grown into its crystal structure.

  PLENISCENTA: an exotic green bloom of Ecaz noted for its sweet aroma.

  POLING THE SAND: the art of placing plastic and fiber poles in the open desert wastes of Arrakis and reading the patterns etched on the poles by sandstorms as a clue to weather prediction.

  PORITRIN: third planet of Epsilon Alangue, considered by many Zensunni Wanderers as their planet of origin, although clues in their language and mythology show far more ancient planetary roots.

  PORTYGULS: oranges.

  PRANA (Prana-musculature): the body’s muscles when
considered as units for ultimate training. (See Bindu.)

  PRE-SPICE MASS: the stage of fungusoid wild growth achieved when water is flooded into the excretions of Little Makers. At this stage, the spice of Arrakis forms a characteristic “blow,” exchanging the material from deep underground for the matter on the surface above it. This mass, after exposure to sun and air, becomes melange (See also Melange and Water of Life.)

  PROCES VERBAL: a semiformal report alleging a crime against the Imperium. Legally: an action falling between a loose verbal allegation and a formal charge of crime.

  PROCTOR SUPERIOR: a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother who is also regional director of a B.G. school. (Commonly: Bene Gesserit with the Sight.)

  PRUDENCE DOOR or PRUDENCE BARRIER (idiomatically: pru-door or pru-barrier): any pentashield situated for the escape of selected persons under conditions of pursuit. (See Pentashield.)

  PUNDI RICE: a mutated rice whose grains, high in natural sugar, achieve lengths up to four centimeters; chief export of Caladan.

  PYONS: planet-bound peasants or laborers, one of the base classes under the Faufreluches. Legally; wards of the planet.

  PYRETIC CONSCIENCE: so-called “conscience of fire”; that inhibitory level touched by Imperial conditioning. (See Imperial conditioning.)

  Q

  QANAT: an open canal for carrying irrigation water under controlled conditions through a desert.

  QIRTAIBA: see Ibn Qirtaiba.

  QUIZARA TAFWID: Fremen priests (after Muad’Dib).

  R

  RACHAG: a caffeine-type stimulant from the yellow berries of akarso. (See Akarso.)

  RAMADHAN: ancient religious period marked by fasting and prayer; traditionally, the ninth month of the solar-lunar calendar. Fremen mark the observance according to the ninth meridian-crossing cycle of the first moon.

  RAZZIA: a semipiratical guerrilla raid.

  RECATHS: body-function tubes linking the human waste disposal system to the cycling filters of a stillsuit.

  REPKIT: repair and replacement essentials for a stillsuit.

  RESIDUAL POISON: an innovation attributed to the Mentat Piter de Vries whereby the body is impregnated with a substance for which repeated antidotes must be administered. Withdrawal of the antidote at any time brings death.

  REVEREND MOTHER: originally, a proctor of the Bene Gesserit, one who has transformed an “illuminating poison” within her body, raising herself to a higher state of awareness. Title adopted by Fremen for their own religious leaders who accomplished a similar “illumination.” (See also Bene Gesserit and Water of Life.)

  RICHESE: fourth planet of Eridani A, classed with Ix as supreme in machine culture. Noted for miniaturization. (For a detailed study on how Richese and Ix escaped the more severe effects of the Butlerian Jihad, see The Last Jihad by Sumer and Kautman.)

  RIMWALL: second upper step of the protecting bluffs on the Shield Wall of Arrakis. (See Shield Wall.)

  RUH-SPIRIT: in Fremen belief, that part of the individual which is always rooted in (and capable of sensing) the metaphysical world. (See Alam al-Mithal.)

  S

  SADUS: judges. The Fremen title refers to holy judges, equivalent to saints.

  SALUSA SECUNDUS: third planet of Gamma Waiping; designated Imperial Prison Planet after removal of the Royal Court to Kaitain. Salusa Secundus is homeworld of House Corrino, and the second stopping point in migrations of the Wandering Zensunni. Fremen tradition says they were slaves on S.S. for nine generations.

  SANDCRAWLER: general term for machinery designed to operate on the Arrakis surface in hunting and collecting melange.

  SANDMASTER: general superintendent of spice operations.

  SANDRIDER: Fremen term for one who is capable of capturing and riding a sandworm.

  SANDSNORK: breathing device for pumping surface air into a sand-covered stilltent.

  SANDTIDE: idiomatic for a dust tide: the variation in level within certain dust-filled basins on Arrakis due to gravitational effects of sun and satellites. (See Tidal Dust Basin.)

  SANDWALKER: any Fremen trained to survive in the open desert.

  SANDWORM: See Shai-Hulud.

  SAPHO: high-energy liquid extracted from barrier roots of Ecaz. Commonly used by Mentats who claim it amplifies mental powers. Users develop deep ruby stains on mouth and lips.

  SARDAUKAR: the soldier-fanatics of the Padishah Emperor. They were men from an environmental background of such ferocity that it killed six out of thirteen persons before the age of eleven. Their military training emphasized ruthlessness and a near-suicidal disregard for personal safety. They were taught from infancy to use cruelty as a standard weapon, weakening opponents with terror. At the apex of their sway over the affairs of the Universe, their swordsmanship was said to match that of the Ginaz tenth level and their cunning abilities at in-fighting were reputed to approach those of a Bene Gesserit adept. Any one of them was rated a match for any ten ordinary Landsraad military conscripts. By the time of Shaddam IV, while they were still formidable, their strength had been sapped by overconfidence, and the sustaining mystique of their warrior religion had been deeply undermined by cynicism.

  SARFA: the act of turning away from God.

  SAYYADINA: feminine acolyte in the Fremen religious hierarchy.

  SCHLAG: animal native to Tupile once hunted almost to extinction for its thin, tough hide.

  SECOND MOON: the smaller of the two satellites of Arrakis, noteworthy for the kangaroo mouse figure in its surface markings.

  SELAMLIK: Imperial audience chamber.

  SEMUTA: the second narcotic derivative (by crystal extraction) from burned residue of elacca wood. The effect (described as timeless, sustained ecstasy) is elicited by certain atonal vibrations referred to as semuta music.

  SERVOK: clock-set mechanism to perform simple tasks; one of the limited “automatic” devices permitted after the Butlerian Jihad.

  SHAH-NAMA: the half-legendary First Book of the Zensunni Wanderers.

  SHAI-HULUD: Sandworm of Arrakis, the “Old Man of the Desert,” “Old Father Eternity,” and “Grandfather of the Desert.” Significantly, this name, when referred to in a certain tone or written with capital letters, designates the earth deity of Fremen hearth superstitions. Sandworms grow to enormous size (specimens longer than 400 meters have been seen in the deep desert) and live to great age unless slain by one of their fellows or drowned in water, which is poisonous to them. Most of the sand on Arrakis is credited to sandworm action. (See Little Maker.)

  SHARI-A: that part of the panoplia propheticus which sets forth the superstitious ritual. (See Missionaria Protectiva.)

  SHADOUT: well-dipper, a Fremen honorific.

  SHAITAN: Satan.

  SHIELD, DEFENSIVE: the protective field produced by a Holtzman generator. This field derives from Phase One of the suspensor-nullification effect. A shield will permit entry only to objects moving at slow speeds (depending on setting, this speed ranges from six to nine centimeters per second) and can be shorted out only by a shire-sized electric field. (See Lasgun.)

  SHIELD WALL: a mountainous geographic feature in the northern reaches of Arrakis which protects a small area from the full force of the planet’s coriolis storms.

  SHIGAWIRE: metallic extrusion of a ground vine (Narvi narviium) grown only on Salusa Secundus and III Delta Kaising. It is noted for extreme tensile strength.

  SIETCH: Fremen: “Place of assembly in time of danger.” Because the Fremen lived so long in peril, the term came by general usage to designate any cave warren inhabited by one of their tribal communities.

  SIHAYA: Fremen: the desert springtime with religious overtones implying the time of fruitfulness and “the paradise to come.”

  SINK: a habitable lowland area on Arrakis surrounded by high ground that protects it from the prevailing storms.

  SINKCHART: map of the Arrakis surface laid out with reference to the most reliable paracompass routes between places of refuge. (See Paracompass.)

  SIRAT: the p
assage in the O.C. Bible that describes human life as a journey across a narrow bridge (the Sirat) with “Paradise on my right, Hell on my left, and the Angel of Death behind.”

  SLIP-TIP: any thin, short blade (often poison-tipped) for left-hand use in shield fighting.

  SNOOPER, POISON: radiation analyzer within the olfactory spectrum and keyed to detect poisonous substances.

  SOLARI: official monetary unit of the Imperium, its purchasing power set at quatricentennial negotiations between the Guild, the Landsraad, and the Emperor.

  SOLIDO: the three-dimensional image from a solido projector using 360-degree reference signals imprinted on a shigawire reel. Ixian solido projectors are commonly considered the best.

  SONDAGI: the fern tulip of Tupali.

  SOO-SOO SOOK!: water-seller’s cry on Arrakis. Sook is a market place. (See Ikhut-eigh!)

  SPACING GUILD: see Guild.

  SPICE: see Melange.

  SPICE DRIVER: any Dune man who controls and directs movable machinery on the desert surface of Arrakis.

  SPICE FACTORY: see Sandcrawler.

  SPOTTER CONTROL: the light ornithopter in a spice-hunting group charged with control of watch and protection.

  STILLSUIT: body-enclosing garment invented on Arrakis. Its fabric is a micro-sandwich performing functions of heat dissipation and filter for bodily wastes. Reclaimed moisture is made available by tube from catchpockets.

  STILLTENT: small, sealable enclosure of micro-sandwich fabric designed to reclaim as potable water the ambient moisture discharged within it by the breath of its occupants.

  STUNNER: slow-pellet projectile weapon throwing a poison- or drug-tipped dart. Effectiveness limited by variations in shield settings and relative motion between target and projectile.

  SUBAKH UL KUHAR: “Are you well?”: a Fremen greeting.