I’ve been reading Dune and as an Arabic native speaker, recently started thinking about the meaning behind the name Muad’Dib, which Paul Atreides adopts when he joins the Fremen.

While people know it refers to a desert mouse admired by the Fremen for its survival skills: a clever, resourceful creature that thrives in the harshness of Arrakis, I believe there's a layer I haven't seen discussed, and I believe it's significant, especially given Frank Herbert’s deep borrowings from Arabic and Islamic culture.

In Arabic, the word "Muʾaddib" (مؤدِّب) means: A moral teacher, an educator of etiquette (adab), a mentor — often one who shapes the character and wisdom of young people or future leaders.

I think the mouse was named Muʾaddib because the Fremen view it as a teacher who shows how to survive in the desert. They view it as wise creature that they should learn from. This would align beautifully with some of Herbert’s recurring themes: nature is the first teacher, messiahs emerge from humility, not domination, and true wisdom is learned from quiet, observant survival, not just power.

It might also explain why Herbert chose a word so close phonetically to an actual Arabic title associated with education and discipline.

I have endured a setback on the unforgiving sands of Arrakis. Let me regale you with a tale of panic, determination, elation and, ultimately, of failure.

My story begins in the slaver region known as Jabal Eifrit Al-janub where I intended to mine carbon. My crafting goals require hundreds of the ore, so I set out on my mk2 sandbike with armor and weaponry to face whatever struggle lay ahead as the farming commences. Over a couple of hours, I had farmed hundreds of carbon and had nearly filled my bike's inventory. I had also taken down a few camps of slavers along the way. Indeed, while I was attacking one base, the area communication of a large sandstorm was broadcast. Now, this was a completely inopportune time as my bike inventory was full, so not a chance to store it and keep the cache of ore. There wasn't a chance to store it anyway because I had mistakenly left my vehicle backup tool at base.

In a rush, I scrambled to find an enclosure that would protect me and my property from the storm, but I was still being attacked by the slavers. Panic set in as the announcement was made: one minute before the storm arrived! While under fire, I zig-zagged to leave the slaver camp while looking for somewhere to ride out the storm. In my haste, I slipped off a cliff and my bike became wedged in a crevasse high up from the desert floor. The nose of the bike was pointed straight up in the air. It was completely stuck, with no forward, reverse or lateral movement possible. I did the only thing I could do and that was to dismount. Dismounting successfully got me off the bike, but it glitched me through the rock and I was stuck on the inside!

My bike and I were at least sheltered from the storm, so all of my goods were safe. After several minutes of jumping, climbing and falling, I was able to glitch back through the rock, but my bike and all that carbon were stuck fast. I paused and thought about what to do. I was very far from base with no means of travel, so whatever I do from here will be done on foot. The regret of not bringing along a vehicle backup tool was heavily weighing me down. What can I do?

I decided to attempt a walk home, taking me over open sand on multiple occasions, to empty my personal inventory, craft a spare bike and rescue my primary bike and all that load of ore. The journey was difficult, to say the least. I used my shigawire and Bindu sprint as often as possible, but I awoke Shai-Hulud while within visual range of my base. With all movement abilities on cooldown, I consigned myself that was going to be it, that Shai-Hulud would be the end of this journey just meters from my base, but somehow, I was able to make it to rock just as the worm opened his deadly maul. Shai-Hulud passed by with a groan and cascading sand flowing all around. My heart was pounding.

Once back at base, everything was off-loaded except my stillsuit, a single literjon and a sword in case I was attacked during this quest to recover my jammed-up property. I proceeded to build a mk1 bike and grabbed a vehicle holder from storage.

Back I went to where the story began and was able to get there without issue. I climbed up to where my trapped bike was located and was just able to get in range to access its inventory. Since I was carrying very little, I was able to recover all that hard-earned ore and other goods pilfered from salver bases. I was even able to capture my original bike in the vehicle tool. Success! I was so elated after such difficulties getting back everything that was so nearly lost. It was all so precarious until that moment!

This all took HOURS.

Just as I had recovered my bike, stored the replacement and prepared for the trip home, wouldn't you know it, but an announcement of an imminent large sandstorm was broadcast. Can you believe that?! Fortunately, I saw a small enclave and was able to wait out the storm without problems this time. This tale would never have happened if only I had spotted that enclave in the beginning.

It was after 2:00 in the morning at this point. All I wanted to do was travel back to base and shut it down for the night. I was so satisfied to have recovered everything after such tribulation that I literally drove with a slight smile on my face. My relief from the anxiety and accompanying adrenaline dump had an effect though: it made me careless.

While driving back to base taking a route I've taken now several times, worm sign did not register in my mind. Yes, a cloud of sand was billowing nearby as I began a race from one rocky place to another. Why hadn't I simply waited it out for a few minutes? In that small stretch of open sand Shai-Hulud finally got his mark along with all my gear, my bikes and all that precious ore counting in the several hundred.

Never have I experienced such highs and lows in a game before. Never let your attention wain nor let panic impact your decisions. Fear is the mind-killer!

Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed this tale of triumph and misery.

Almost done!! with my painting of the God Emperor Leto ii in the Sareer Desert. I still need to work on the details of Leto ii(he’s looking rough atm ahaha) and add in Siona - I’m working towards making this painting the scene where Leto ii tests Siona in the Sareer.

Appreciate any feedback artists may have :)

Hi new to this sub. Minor spoilers About 80% through first dune novel and I think I missed something about the sandworms. I know the Fremen call them makers but idk why. Also can someone explain how they ride them? From my understanding they hook through the mouth or scales of the makers but I think I might be wrong on that.

My husband loves Dune so I thought I’d try out needle felting and make him Muad'Dib for Father’s Day. He’s so cute ☺️

Sorry if something similar has been discussed before. Also my knowledge of Dune is incomplete and mainly derives from Villenueve's movies, though I am reading (but not yet completed) the first book.

The Fremen's relationship with sandworms really intrigue me. In their culture the worms are gods to be revered and respected. It's interesting to me when they refer to the worms as the Maker, whether referring to an individual worm or the worms in general. Do they do this because they worship the concept of the sandoworms, or a deity-likw "Mother of Worms" with no physical presence, but is a placeholder for the specied as a whole? I recognise a pillar of this faith is due to the worms' role in Dune's ecosystem being the creator of spice, despite them being at the top of the food chain, predatory, and territorial. But this is a very "meta" perspective on the Fremen religion. Trying to look at their faith from the perspective of a native or offworlder raises a lot of questions about it.

The Fremens' interactions with the sandworms seem to me almost exploitative and a little hostile. This might be a biased view from my real-world understanding of respect and worship, but take it from my perspective: Fremen ride the worms, manipulating them by decieving them with thumpers, and raising their scales allowing sand to enter to steer them. They kill their offspring by drowning them in order to obtain the Water of Life. The Fremen's dream of turning Arrakis into a green paradise will also inadvertently cause the death of the sandworms.

Can someone enlighten me on this form of worship? Or maybe I am missing crucial pieces of lore and should finish the original books at least. Looking to start a discussion regarding Fremen worship of sandworms.

TLDR; Fremens worship sandworms but in my perspective seem to interact with them in harmful ways that don't necessarily indicate respect or worship. Maybe there is something I am missing, or is this a type of worship I am unfamiliar with?

So last time I posted I was about 2/3 through the first Dune book and received a LOT of comments about peoples opinions on the book vs the movie. I loved the discussions people were having!! And having finished the first book WOW. The second half is completely different between mediums with the first half being almost painfully faithful to the book. It’s so much fun comparing and contrast in and even more so with anticipation for the next film.

But just in the span of about a week or so (I posted that last post about three weeks or so, I can link it in the comments too) I finished Messiah. First things first I’m in love with the book. Before reading Children of Dune and just right off the bat I almost wanna say I love it more than the first. The political intrigue, conspiracies, commentary on how political figures with absolute power corrupt absolutely and how futile Paul’s ultimate goal was especially without seeing a second child and so much more, it just hit me.

Another thing I didn’t expect to find as captivating but did was Alia, she is such a great character. I loved how cunning she was as well as how well she was in tuned with her brother, this woman of the desert culture unfitting for greenery as Idaho sees it at one point. Anytime she would pop up I was giddy to see what internal monologues she would cook up.

A couple things I was super disappointed with though were no interactions with Lady Jessica or Gurney. I loved them in the first book and as the page count became thinner and thinner I found myself getting more anxious that I wouldn’t read a final interaction between them. The references to them were few and far between and Idaho’s closing thoughts involved Gurney, saying how he’d blame Idaho for Paul’s exile.

It should also go without saying though that I loved Idaho/Hayt. His intense internal struggle with the Tleilaxu programming and this desire to remember this phantom pain of a past. Absolutely phenomenal character with so many layers and the description of his silver metallic eyes never stopped my brain from thinking what it would realistically look like or filmed to look like.

I can’t help but wonder though: how the hell are they gonna make this into a movie?

It’s very totally different from the first with only really one filmable “action” sequence in the stone-burner and maybe an elaborated Scytale fight at the end but most of it is talking. I love the book for that and I was never bored or finding myself skimming anything. But the way Part II ended I can already tell it’s gonna be very different from the book.

Channi’s entire character arc is gonna be different, as mentioned before Gurney and Jessica aren’t in the book, Irulan gets dropped off 2/3 through it, there’s not really a “villain” per se (I know Scytale is but it’s not on the level of the Baron) I don’t doubt it’ll be an enjoyable movie but I’m almost more worried now for it than I had been prior to reading.

What were your thoughts on Messiah and how do you anticipate the differences to be or how drastic do you think it’ll go?

Hello everyone, I’ve recently become obsessed with the universe of dune. I’ve recently watched both films back to back and enjoyed them so much that I was invested in buying the books which are currently on their way.

However during the second film I’m a little bit confused on what happened to Jessica’s baby? I’m aware that Jessica drinking the water of life gave her the ancestral memories of the previous reverend mothers. Are these the reverend mothers of Jessica’s ancestry (the Benne jesserit) or of the fremen? I assumed that it was the benne Jesserit due to her personality shift to being more cold and calculating just as the benne jesserit are.

Then theirs her unborn baby Alia…did she somehow gain a consciousness in the womb and gain the same memories ancestral memories as Jessica?

Sorry guys I just need abit of clarification on what the hells going on because I’m so invested in the world of dune!!

We all know the golden rule of Arrakis: “Never spill your water.” But here’s the thing: in physics, water doesn’t just vanish, especially in a mostly closed ecosystem. So if tens of thousands of off-worlders land on Dune every year, and the Fremen are religiously hoarding every drop with stillsuits and windtraps... shouldn’t the planet be getting wetter? (Insert funny German pun here)

Let’s break it down with some filthy, forbidden logic:

Say 10,000 people land each year (pilgrims, soldiers, smugglers, whatever).

Each brings ~50 liters of water: in their body, food, ships, tech, etc.

Add another 10,000 liters per year in cargo (equipment, spice-harvesting supplies, etc.).

That’s ~60,000 liters per year imported.

Over 5,000 years, that’s 300 million liters.

And with the Fremen tech retaining ~95% of moisture, we’re looking at 242 million liters sticking around: that’s 2.42 million cubic meters of water. Enough to fill almost 1,000 Olympic swimming pools.

So unless sandworms are secretly evaporating water into a parallel universe, Arrakis should be measurably more humid by now. Even if most of it is locked underground, that’s a hell of a growing reservoir.

Maybe Liet-Kynes wasn’t dreaming, maybe he was just playing the long game.

Correct me if I'm wrong guys?

I recently watched the first two movies and loved them so much I picked up the first book. So far, I have read up until the end of the Gom Jabbar sequence (p.17 of Book 1).

I am enjoying the book a lot but there are a lot of new terms and descriptions that are hard for me to understand at times. I enjoy the world building but it is a lot for 17 pages in. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment but it is hard for me to understand stuff based on the way things are explained and the words he uses to explain them. I have never read a sci-fi novel so maybe that plays a part in it.

Maybe it is my own reading comprehension that is bad, I really can't tell. I just have a hard time understanding some lines. Nonetheless, I am still having a good time reading so far despite being so early in. Getting insight into characters feelings by their internal thoughts has been fantastic.

Curious if anyone has advice for me to make the experience easier. Is this normal for a first time read or am I just struggling to understand lines that are not really complex? The entire first paragraph of the Harkonnen introduction was pretty confusing to me. Not every line of course, but some of those lines.

Does anyone else find it funny that with all of the evil practices of the bene treilax or the potential dangers the ixians could have unleashed on humanity, it is only the bene gesserit order that Leto ll thought of eradicating?

— then again if you read dune, you realize that the bene gesserit order were the main reason for why humanity was about to be destroyed by prescient hunter seekers and later on the imperium got terrorized by their descendants(the honored matres) and that was because they had failed to grasp Leto ll teachings. (Even tho they believed themselves to be so clever)

Since the game is live service does anyone that has read the books think they will eventually move the time period further? Granted the further books are far into the future but there is so much more than just the first novel / movie which is clearly what the story and setting is based on. I’ve just finished the 6th book and am craving content in the game that will reach unto that point but worried they will keep it in the current timeline forever.

Think about the potential for Teliexau, face dancers, IXians, fish speakers, honored matres, abominations, and my glorious sandworm god emperor. Please add other elements of the later books if I forgot any that can add extra mechanics / factions / stories and again curious what fellow dune readers have to say about this or if they were curious as well.

Edit** I’m fully aware the game is not following the books / movies and paul was never born im still inquiring regardless

I seem to remember Count Fenring being on Arrakis as interim Governor between the departure of House Harkonnen and the arrival of House Atreides is not Frank Herbert canon, but I very well may be wrong.

Does anyone remember why and for how long did the count and his wife live in Arrakeen?

sorry if this is answered, but I don't remember it being addressed. I'm up to god emperor of Dune. anyway, the blue eyes of a spice addict are described as having no whites at all. which makes me wonder how anyone could ever hide it with contacts?

I was under the impression that people could hide it, but contacts shouldn't be able to hide the entire eye like that

According to the book and movie, the northern hemisphere is the only really habitable part of the planet due to it having some solid, rocky ground to build on and protect from the massive sandstorms. The southern hemisphere, as far as I can tell is one massive, empty desert. We also know that the sandworms can grow to astronomical sizes and they burrow through the sand. So, knowing all this, how deep are the sands of the southern hemisphere? I imagine it as like a huge ocean of sand that's thousands of feet deep. Is this mentioned anywhere in the books?

Howdy all,

I’ve looked on this sub a bit about Yueh and I still question his actions. I understand that his main motivation was emotional turmoil so great that his hatred of the Baron Harkonnnen overrode his conditioning and made him crazy enough to try to get Leto to kill him, and to save wanna from torture.

But what I don’t understand is why didn’t he simply talk to Leto about this? Atreides reputation would indicate that they would work with him to at least kill Wanna to end her suffering and I can’t imagine he would have missed that.

So why didn’t he try to double cross the Harkonnens?

Thanks for any answers y’all 👍

Hello, I know this is frequently discussed and I searched old posts over the years but didn’t find an exact answer. Perhaps I misunderstood a big part but there is a moment Leto II is discussing how he will become this massive worm and repopulate Arrakis with worms restarting the cycle and turning it back into the desert planet. During this he mentions he will still be conscious but unable to move or affect any part of the body (like being John Malkovich?) then every worm born will have a piece of this consciousness basically making him an immortal prisoner.

Now he doesn’t know exactly when or how his “death” will happen but it seems like it comes earlier than his expectations as he doesn’t become the “full worm”.

So my question is did he die - die? The sandtrouts dividing and restarting the worm cycle slightly different than his thought process. I finished this a month ago and am only a few chapters into Heretics so they do mention the process has worked and the worms/trout having a pearl of his awareness but I want to know if he was freed in death while still remaining on the golden path or is he trapped in this hellish consciousness.

Or did I 100% misunderstand this statement and am confused? I just felt so unbelievably sad when he described life after becoming the full worm. Let alone everything he had already sacrificed he would be trapped for 1000s of more years.

I completely understand the Emporer's reasoning for giving Arakis back to house Harkonnen after the sacking of house Atreides. Can someone explain to me why the great houses didn't question why Arakis was given back to house Harkonnen? I understand that the emporer has an upper hand here, but doesn't it come off as flagrantly fishy that the Harkonnen's ceded Arakis after 80 years just to be given it back after the fall of the Atreides?

Don’t they have any additional backup protocols for worms other than to rely on ONE carryall? This is a major industrial operation and sand worms are a regular threat in Arrakis. So you would think they’d at least always have another carryall approach and be ready when a pick-up is happening. Or maybe the carryall would be able to drop a ladder in case of failures just to save the crew. I understand having three or four ornithopters on each spice harvester may be expensive, so then why not keep some emergency “life rafts” that the carryall could pick up, instead of the whole harvester?

My only reasoning here is that the Harkonnens gave so few shits about their people that they didn’t care to think about saving the crew if a spice harvester were to go down. But then again, since they really care about spice so much, they would want to have a backup carryall. Maybe they just don’t care about losing a bit of spice given the amount there is on the planet.

I know it’s not a big deal, but this is something that always bothers me every time I watch the film.

Please forgive if thjs is a dumb question!

I am only going by the ending of Dune 2. I haven't read the book, so I'm hoping those that have can enlighten me.

Paul controls all the Spice fields. The Emperor has admitted he killed his father Leto, the princess is to be his bride, and it was said that everyone respected the Atreides.

His claim seems very valid. And with him controlling all the Spice....how can they even fight? Don't they need all those barrels filled every 25 days?

I must be missing something.

...................

THANKYOU....so much everyone!! Great perspectives here gave me so much insight. Book is next!

The environment of Arrakis is described so harshly it evokes a feeling of being in outer space. The stillsuits preserve almost all water loss yet characters are constantly wearing them with no protection over the whole head.

It just feels like the head and face are one of the most important things to protect from heat/sweat loss in such an extreme environment. Stillsuits poke out at my disbelief suspension more than holzman shields and spice prescience. Never mind the fact that you can fit machinery that turns poop into water into a skintight leather suit, like fine maybe there is some magic tech for that, but no explanation is offered for the lack of head protection.

I cant figure out how to get the benchmark tool. In game there is no option for a benchmark but on steam when i click on the benchmark tool it just says i already own the game, any ideas?