Arrakis
Arrakis, informally known as Dune and later called Rakis, is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time and is among the best-selling science fiction novels in history.
In Dune, Arrakis is the most important planet in the universe, as it is the only source of the drug melange. Melange is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible. Harvesting the spice is also hazardous in the extreme, due to both the harsh climate of the planet and the fact that melange deposits are guarded by giant sandworms.
Arrakis is also the home of the Fremen, a people conditioned by the planet's harsh environment. The planet eventually becomes the capital of the Atreides Empire.
Environment and the spice
A desert planet with no natural precipitation, in Dune it is established that Arrakis had been "His Imperial Majesty's Desert Botanical Testing Station" before the discovery of melange, for which it is the only natural source in the universe. Melange is the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe, as it extends life and makes safe interstellar travel possible. The planet has no surface water bodies, but open canals called qanats are used "for carrying irrigation water under controlled conditions" through the desert. The Fremen collect water in underground reservoirs to fulfill their dream of someday terraforming the planet and pay the Spacing Guild exorbitant fees in melange to keep the skies over Arrakis free of any satellites which might observe their efforts. As indicated by its large salt flats, Arrakis once had lakes and oceans; Lady Jessica also notes in Dune that wells drilled in the sinks and basins initially produce a "trickle" of water which soon stops, as if "something plugs it".Paul Atreides recalls that the few plants and animals on the planet include "saguaro, burro bush, date palm, sand verbena, evening primrose, barrel cactus, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush ... kit fox, desert hawk, kangaroo mouse ... many to be found now nowhere else in the universe except here on Arrakis". The most notable life forms on the planet are the giant sandworms and their immature forms of sandtrout and sand plankton. Sandtrout encyst any water deposits; predator fish are placed in the qanats and other water storage areas to protect them from the sandtrout. It is suggested that the sandworms are an introduced species that caused the desertification of Arrakis; In Children of Dune, Leto II Atreides explains to his twin sister Ghanima:
The sandtrout was introduced here from some other place. This was a wet planet then. They proliferated beyond the capability of existing ecosystems to deal with them. Sandtrout encysted the available free water, made this a desert planet and they did it to survive. In a planet sufficiently dry, they could move to their sandworm phase.
The environment of the desert planet Arrakis was primarily inspired by the hydrocarbon wealthy Mexico and the Middle East. Similarly Arrakis as a bioregion is presented as a particular kind of political site. Herbert has made it resemble a generic desertified petrostate.
Inhabitants
The Zensunni wanderers, driven from planet to planet, eventually found their way to Arrakis, where they became the Fremen. They settled in artificial cave-like settlements known as sietches across the Arrakeen deserts. They also developed stillsuit technology, allowing them to survive in the open desert. By harvesting melange, they were able to bribe the Spacing Guild for privacy from observation and weather control in order to hide from the Imperium their true population and their plans to terraform Arrakis. Much of this ecological activity took place in the unexplored southern latitudes of the planet. The best-known of the sietches is Sietch Tabr, home of Stilgar and Muad'Dib's center of operations before victory in the Battle of Arrakeen put Muad'Dib on the Imperial throne.According to the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, it was a group of Zensunni wanderers escaping slavery on the planet Poritrin who originally crashed on Dune in a prototype interstellar spacecraft several years prior to the creation of the Spacing Guild.
Plotlines
During the events of Dune, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV grants Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice harvesting operations of Arrakis, ousting the Atreides' longtime rivals, the Harkonnens. The Atreides rule is cut short by a murderous conspiracy crafted by the Harkonnens and the Emperor himself. Leto's son Paul Atreides later leads a massive Fremen army to victory over the Emperor's Sardaukar soldier-fanatics, and by threatening the destruction of all spice production on Arrakis manages to depose Shaddam and ascend the throne in his place. With Emperor Paul worshipped as a god, Arrakis becomes the governmental and religious center of the Imperium.Paul Muad'Dib continues the efforts to terraform Arrakis into a green world, a plan begun by the Fremen under the guidance of Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes and his son Liet-Kynes. The core of their plan is gradual water-collection from the Arrakeen atmosphere to form large reservoirs that would, eventually, become lakes and oceans. Much of this activity takes place in the unexplored southern latitudes of Arrakis.
By the time of Children of Dune, Alia Atreides realize that the ecological transformation of Arrakis is altering the sandworm cycle, which would eventually result in the end of all spice production. This at first seems a future to be avoided, but Leto II later uses this eventuality as part of his Golden Path to ultimately save humanity. Once he himself begins the transformation into a human/sandworm hybrid, he eradicates all desert on Arrakis except for a small area he makes his base of operations, and destroys all of the sandworms save one—himself.
After his death some 3,500 years later in God Emperor of Dune, Leto's worm-body is transformed back into sandtrout. Within only a few centuries, these sandtrout return Arrakis to a desert.
In Heretics of Dune, all life on Arrakis is destroyed by the Honored Matres in a failed attempt to eliminate the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. The Bene Gesserit escape with a single sandworm, and drown it to revert the worm back into sandtrout. In Chapterhouse: Dune, the Bene Gesserit use these sandtrout to begin a new sandworm cycle on their homeworld of Chapterhouse, which is terraformed into desert for this purpose.
Finally, in Sandworms of Dune, some sandworms are revealed to be alive and well, having sensed the upper crust would be destroyed, and therefore burrowed even deeper, escaping the blast.
Features
The technical name for Arrakis is Canopus 3. Arrakis itself is orbited by two moons. The first moon is larger, featuring a darker, weathered area of terrain vaguely resembling a human hand or clenched human fist and referred to colloquially as "the Hand of God". The second, smaller moon was named Muad'dib by the Zensunni, after an albedo pattern on it which resembles the desert kangaroo mouse. This creature is known for its ability to endure extreme temperatures and conserve moisture, characteristics that parallel Fremen survival strategies.Arrakeen
The capital of Arrakis and its long-time seat of planetary government is Arrakeen. Leto I describes it as "a smaller city, easier to sterilize and defend". He and his family take up residence in the ostentatious palace previously occupied by the planetary governor Count Fenring and his wife Margot during the Harkonnen period of stewardship over Arrakis. In Dune, Leto's concubine Lady Jessica describes the Great Hall as being constructed of "bleak stone" with shadowed carvings, deeply recessed windows, buttressed walls and dark hangings. She notes: "The arched ceiling stood two stories above her with great crossbeams she felt sure had been shipped here to Arrakis across space at monstrous cost." Arrakeen goes through multiple transformations over time. It first becomes an Imperial capital of staggering proportions under Paul Muad'Dib, and millennia later is transformed into a festival city known as Onn, explicitly for the worship of the Tyrant Leto II. Finally, in the centuries after his death, it is known as Keen, a modern city to house the Priesthood of Rakis.During the reign of Muad'Dib until the ascension of his son Leto II, the Atreides home-base is a colossal megastructure in Arrakeen, designed to intimidate, known as the Keep or the Grand Palace of Arrakeen. In Dune Messiah, the fortress is described as being large enough to enclose entire cities. Constructed during Paul's reign, is described as "the largest man-made structure ever built", big enough to contain "more than ten of the Imperium's most populous cities under one roof". Alia's Fane is a two-kilometer wide temple built by Paul for his sister Alia between the events of Dune and Dune Messiah. A feature of the temple is the Sun-Sweep Window, which incorporates every solar calendar known to human history.