Glossary of Dune (franchise)

A

• Aba – A loose, usually black robe worn by Fremen women and Bene Gesserit sisters.
• Abomination – Bene Gesserit term for one who is pre-born and thus susceptible to being taken over by the ancestral personalities in Other Memory.
• Ajidamal – Disastrously-flawed synthetic melange created by the Tleilaxu Project Amal before the process of producing spice in axlotl tanks is perfected.
• Akarso – "Plant native to Sikun characterized by almost oblong leaves. Its green and white stripes indicate the constant multiple, condition of parallel active and dormant chlorophyll regions."
• Arafel – The "cloud-darkness of holy judgment" or "cloud darkness at the end of the universe;" the end of mankind averted by Leto II's Golden Path.
• Axlotl tank – Biological tank in which gholas and melange may be produced.
• Assassin's Handbook – "Third-century compilation of poisons commonly used in a War of Assassins. Later expanded to include those deadly devices permitted under the Guild Peace and Great Convention."

  B

• Baliset – "Nine-stringed musical instrument, lineal descendant of the zithra, tuned to the Chusuk scale and played by strumming. Favorite instrument of Imperial troubadours." Gurney Halleck is a master at playing the baliset in the series. In David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Dune, a cosmetically altered Chapman Stick was used to portray the instrument. In the miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, the baliset resembles a renaissance-era lute, with the pegbox bent back almost 90°. A real-world version of the baliset has been created, divided into two sections, the treble played with the right hand, and the bass the left. Unlike a guitar, each hand can play either chords or separate notes.
• Bashar – Military rank, slightly above a traditional Colonel and primarily used for military leader of a planetary subdistrict; alternately, Colonel Bashar, or Supreme Bashar for a military's most senior commander.
• Bene Gesserit – Secretive and powerful matriarchal order whose members possess extraordinary physical and mental powers.
• Bene Tleilax – Secretive and powerful patriarchal race known for their genetic manipulation technologies.
• Buddislam – Term for those religions derived from a syncretic fusion of denominations of Buddhism and Islam.
• Burseg – Military general.
• Butlerian Jihad – Mankind's "crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots." The term jihad is of Arabic origin.

  C

• Caid – "Sardaukar officer rank given to a military official whose duties call mostly for dealings with civilians; A military governorship over a full planetary district; Above the rank of Bashar but not equal to a Burseg."
• Caladan – Ancestral homeworld of House Atreides. A lush, oceanic planet with a wet, temperate climate, Caladan had served as the Atreides’ home for at least twenty-six generations at the time of the first novel.
• Carryall – Aircraft used on Arrakis to "transport large spice mining, hunting and refining equipment."
• Chairdogs – Living and partially sentient creatures created by the Tleilaxu, which are used for seating and possess the ability to shape themselves to fit their occupant.
• Chakobsa – Language on Arrakis, used by the Fremen for rituals and other purposes, inspired by the Caucasian hunting language of the same name. The language was further developed by David J. Peterson and Jessie Peterson for the films Dune and Dune: Part Two.
• Chaumas – "Poison in solid food as distinguished from poison administered in some other way."
• Chaumurky – "Poison administered in a drink."
• CHOAM – the "universal development corporation controlled by the Emperor and Great Houses with the Guild and Bene Gesserit as silent partners." This corporation essentially controls the economy of the known universe, with shares and directorships determining each House's income and financial leverage.
• Cogitor – One of several ancient philosophers whose brains are transplanted into fluid-filled canisters so that they can analyze the universe indefinitely.
• Communinet, ComNet or Comms – A local planetary communications network. Similar to wireless radio communications, it relies on electromagnetic radiation to transmit audio and other information. Used by the Atreides and Harkonnen forces to communicate and issue battle commands.
• Cone of silence – Sound-deadening "field of a distorter that limits the carrying power of the voice or any other vibrator by damping the vibrations with an image-vibration 180 degrees out of phase." Used for privacy, the field does not visually obscure lip movement.
• Coriolis storm – Sandstorms on Arrakis in which "winds across the open flatlands are amplified by the planet's own revolutionary motion to reach speeds up to 700 kilometres per hour."
• Crysknife – Weapon made from the tooth of a sandworm from Arrakis.
• Cutterray – "Short-range version of a lasgun used mostly as a cutting tool and surgeon's scalpel."
• Cymek – Type of cyborg; specifically, a human brain implanted into a large, weaponized machine body.

  D

• D-wolves – Guardians of the Sareer on Arrakis in the time of Leto II Atreides; ferocious wolves descended from Gaze Hounds and ordinary wolves, "noted for their keen eyesight."
• Damper, Ixian – Portable device which hides words from anyone without the proper coded translator, and projects distortions that hide the precise movements of lips and the sounds of voices. It is described as a "black disc" buoyed midair by suspensors.
• Deathstill – Fremen device used to extract all moisture from a living or dead human or creature. This is traditionally done to reclaim precious water from the dead, who no longer require it; but in Children of Dune the device is used as a method of execution.
• Distrans – Steganographic device producing a "temporary neural imprint on the nervous system of Chiroptera or birds. The creature's normal cry then carries the message imprint, which can be sorted from that carrier wave by another distrans."

  E

• Elacca drug – Narcotic produced from the "blood-grained" elacca wood of Ecaz; users' skin shows a characteristic carrot color. The drug's effect is to remove most of the will to self-preservation; commonly used to prepare slave gladiators for the ring.
• Ego-likeness – Portraiture of one or more people, reproduced through a shigawire projector, that is capable of showing subtle movements said to convey the mannerisms and ego essence of the subjects.

  F

• Face Dancers – Creatures created by the Bene Tleilax that are able to mimic other humans exactly and go undetected by all known means, except by Bene Gesserit Truthsayers.
• Famine Times – Years after the reign of Leto II, marked by chaos and famine on many worlds, that led to the Scattering.
• Faufreluches – "The rigid rule of class distinction enforced by the Imperium. 'A place for every man and every man in his place.'"
• Fedaykin – "Fremen death commandos; historically: a group formed and pledged to give their lives to right a wrong." In Dune, they are personally trained by, and fiercely loyal to, Paul Atreides. The term is derived from the Arabic Fedayeen.
• Filmbook – A shigawire imprint, used for training and education, which carries a mnemonic pulse that imprints information and corresponding images in the reader's mind.
• Fish Speakers – All-female military force created by Leto II Atreides to enforce his rule over the known universe.
• Fogwood – Plant native to Ecaz, capable of being shaped by thought alone.
• Foldspace – An extra-dimensional region outside of spacetime accessible using a Holtzman drive, and traversable only by Guild Navigators who have ingested vast amounts of the psychotropic drug melange.
• Fremen – "Native" inhabitants of Arrakis.
• Fremkit – Fremen desert survival kit. Notable contents include an inflatable stilltent, a sand snorkel, a thumper, and maker hooks.
• Frigate – A class of spacecraft employed as both a troop carrier and a battleship. It was said that all the frigates and transport ships of House Atreides occupied a single corner of a Guild Heighliner’s immense cargo hold.
• Futar – Primitive and fierce humanoid creatures, a genetic mix of human and cat, artificially created by the Bene Tleilax out in the Scattering to hunt Honored Matres. Introduced briefly in Heretics of Dune and appearing in Chapterhouse: Dune, the species are brought as captives to the "million planets" by the Honored Matres, who keep them as pets. Futars use their voice-like scream to immobilize Honored Matres, but the scream has no effect on the Bene Gesserit.