History Characters / DUNE

[[/folder]]

!OTher Characters

[[folder:In General]]

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[[folder: Taraza]]

Liet-Kynes's Fremen daughter. Stilgar puts her in charge of Paul after he and Jessica wind up in his sietch; the two later become lovers.

*

!The Spacing Guild

[[folder:Guild in General]]

The organisation with a monopoly on Interstellar Travel throughout the Imperium. While lacking in military might their essential position makes them king-makers and -breakers. But unknown to all except Paul Atreides the Guild's power is based upon a very vulnerable foundation - Navigators in the Guild must consume excessive amounts of spice to allow short-term future sight enabling them to safely navigate their vessels.

* AdaptationalBadass: In the books, the Guild Navigators consume spice so when the Holtzman Drive activates and folds space, their limited precognition allows them to steer. In the Lynch film, the spice consumption allows them to fold space itself without the need for the Holtzman Drive.
* DarkIsEvil: The Lynch film casts them all in black outfits with varying degrees of body alterations and incomprehensible voices.
* DrugsAreBad: Of all the spice addicts in the universe, the Guild's members are the most dependent on it. At the end of the first novel, Paul brings them to heel by threatening to destroy all the spice on Arrakis forever. From their reactions, he perceives that they're less afraid of losing their monopoly on space travel and all the wealth and influence that comes with it, than they are terrified of being denied their next "fix."
* FatalFlaw: Their desire for stability at all costs. Paul notes at the end of ''Dune'' that while they could have seized the opportunities presented to them and had their day, their desire to always seek the safest course has led them down into complacency and stagnation.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The Guild is an NGOSuperPower who manipulate events to suit themselves. As such they're usually playing an indirect hand in whatever conflict is happening at the moment. This is more apparent in the Lynch film where it's they who demand the Emperor crush the Atreides and Paul specifically, setting the plot in motion. They're also the ones who facilitate the invasion of the Duke's base and the fight over Spice is in part because it's a key to controlling the Guild.
* RedRightHand: Two Guild Representatives are present during the climax of the original ''Dune'' to oversee things. They at first seem to be a pair of ordinary overweight men in grey suits until one loses a contact lens during the Fremen's attack. His eye is blue as are most who consume Spice, but it's such a strikingly dark shade that his eyes almost look [[BlackEyesOfEvil black]].
* NGOSuperPower: The necessity of Space Travel and the Guild's monopoly over it makes them a near-permanent fixture in the political landscape. They seldom hold direct power over any house but each house needs them for transport and travel.
-->'''[[Literature/ChildrenOfDune Duncan]]''': "The Guild will live up to its basic rule: Never Govern. They're a parasitic growth, and they know it. They won't do anything to kill the organism which keeps them alive."

[[folder:Edric]]
!Edric

A Guild Steersman who debuts in ''Dune Messiah''. He is part of a plot to overthrow Paul.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: He appears at the beginning of the David Lynch film which adapts ''Dune'' whereas his book counterpart didn't appear until ''Dune Messiah''.
* AdaptationalUgliness: He is described as an elongated fishman in the books, with webbed hands and feet who is contained within a Spice filled tank. In the Lynch film, he's an only vaguely humanoid monstrosity many times larger than a person with atrophied arms and legs.
* AntiMagic: A sci-fi variation. When plotting against Paul, Mohiam has the conspirators converge around Edric. She and Edric believe that Paul's ability to see into the future is blocked by a Navigator's field of influence and allows them to plan without prying eyes. Edric also notes that, by the same token, Paul's future and movements are masked from him as well. Edric can only see where Paul has been and not where he is currently.
* BodyHorror: In movie, book, and miniseries Edric is used to show the body alterations from excess Spice consumption. Edric has since transformed into a creature bound inside of a tank that cannot ambulate on his own. The Lynch film goes even further with how alien he looks.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Scytale notes his surface-level civility masks a barely hidden condescension.
-->''Edric, the Guild Steersman, replied to the Reverend Mother now with a vocal curtsy contained in a sneer - a lovely touch of disdainful politeness.''
* PowerPerversionPotential: He points out that Irulan has never shared a bed with Paul and as such cannot be the mother of a new dynasty. Irulan calls him a voyeur in response.

!Ixian
Named after the ninth planet of Alkalurops system they are on, but Ixians themselves have since forgotten what roman numerals actually are. The Ixians of Ix are a highly specialized group that focuses on the constructions of machines, many of which barely toe the line on the ban on A.I.

[[folder:In General]]
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Rule breakers as they are, their machines are no doubt valuable to anyone who gets their hands on them.
* TheDreaded: The one group that the God-Emperor himself fears.

[[folder:Malky]]
!Malky
--> "I suggested to Malky that there are some things that man should not invent." said Leto II
--> "And that's all?" said Hwi.
--> "No" Leto II spoke reluctantly. "My words angered him, he said, "You think that in a world without birds men would not invent aircraft? What a fool you are! Men can invent anything.""

An Ixian ambassador that Leto Atreides II was fond of. They would have frequent private conversations wherein Malky was not afraid to discuss taboo topics with the worm that is god himself.

* BadassBoast: "You like me because I'm a terrible man."
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Only Malky has the audacity to tell the God-Emperor "Tell me old worm, is there a monster penis inside that monster body of yours? What a shock for the gentle Hwi!" and survived to tell the tale. No one, not even Leto II's majordomo at the time could boast this achievement.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: His death chapter boils down to him just shitting on Leto II and his golden path.
* SympathyForTheDevil: Depends how you see Leto II, but he always speaks of Malky with fondness. And when the time came that Malky needed to be eliminated for the sake of the Golden Path, Leto II just cannot bring himself to kill Malky. Leto II cannot even ask it of his right-hand man, Moneo. "For reasons of old admiration... and many other reasons, I cannot kill Malky"

[[folder:Hwi Noree]]
!Hwi Noree

An Ixian ambassador sent to Leto Atreides II.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The Ixians breed and designed her to be the perfect HoneyTrap for Leto. Unfortunately, their attraction and compatibility with one another is so perfect that Hwi sides with Leto and betrays the Ixians soon after meeting him for the first time (although she does end up achieving their goal, [[spoiler:eliminating Leto]], even if it only happened because he secretly allowed it to happen).

!Bene Tleilax

Mentioned in passing in the first ''Dune'' novel, then their agents prominently appeared in the second novel, ''Dune Messiah''. They were only truly rounded out as a culture, however, in the fifth novel, ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' - partially because, in-universe, they are very secretive about themselves. The Tleilaxu are an entire culture of [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]], barely tolerated by the rest of the Imperium, due to their skills at cloning and shape-shifting. Genetic manipulation is treated with revulsion by the Imperium, arguably more than the advanced technology of Ix, both of which frequently cross the lines set by the Butlerian Jihad against immoral technologies that pervert the human condition. While other factions such as the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Great Houses can barely stand them, they tolerate their existence due to the occasional need for their illicit services.
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* EvilutionaryBiologist: An entire race of them.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: ''Every'' other faction treats them with primordial revulsion, due to their genetic manipulation toying with the stuff of life. At times they do side with the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, or Great Houses against a shared enemy - but they are purely allies of convenience.
* GeneticMemory: One of their major goals was figuring out how to get their "ghola" clones to regain their original memories, based purely on genetic memory. This was already known to exist within the ''Dune'' universe, but was previously only achieved by Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers undergoing the Spice Agony (unlocking ''all'' of their ancestral memories).
* HumanResources: They have a tendency towards it.
* ModernMayincatecEmpire: Possibly have connections with this. They call their breeding tanks "axlotl", one letter away from the Mexican salamander called axolotl, and "tleilaxu" itself has a definitely Náhuatl sound too, not to mention their whole schtick being genetic manipulation might be a big reference to ''mestizaje'' and all the genetic interbreeding in the Spanish Mexico.
* OneGenderRace: All Tleilaxu are male. Well, the Face Dancers are genetic constructs designed to be shapeshifters, but they are "sterile hermaphrodites" and usually default to male personas. The Tleilaxu are so secretive about society on their homeworld that ''thousands'' of years pass without outsiders learning how this works, assuming the Tleilaxu reproduce through cloning. [[spoiler:They do reproduce through cloning, which is done using "axlotl tanks" - but their dark secret is that "axlotl tanks" are Tleilaxu females, altered to be unconscious, horrifically distorted ''biological'' cloning vats and nothing more.]]
* UterineReplicator: The Tleilaxu "axlotl tanks" used to grow their clones and genetic constructs. [[spoiler:Except it turns out they didn't "replace" the uterus, they learned how to modify female humans - even captured ones - into just a big oversized womb with a body attached, left braindead and hooked up to life-support technology.]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Their "Face Dancers" are genetic constructs who can voluntarily change their appearance to look like anyone, even changing their sex. They are still confined to shapeshifting within a roughly humanoid form.

[[folder:Scytale]]
!Scytale
!!!'''Played by:''' Martin [=McDougall=] (2003 miniseries)

A Tleilaxu Face Dancer who participates in the conspiracy against the rule of Paul Atreides.

* AmbiguousGender: Farok inquires about his sex when they meet. Scytale responds that he is a Jadacha hermaphrodite and that he can be either sex at will but identifies as male at the moment.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Tries to pull this on Paul, by giving him the chance to resurrect Chani as a ghola.
* BigBad: He is the unspoken leader of the conspiracy against Paul in ''Literature/DuneMessiah'', as well as the book's last and most dangerous antagonist.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Impersonates a dead girl from Paul's sietch to get near to him. Paul being Paul, he realizes the truth on first sight.
* EnigmaticMinion: The other conspirators see him as this, as a consequence of the Tleilaxu being the most unpredictable and creepy of the factions gathered.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Paul throws a crysknife into Scytale's right eye, killing him.]]
* GenderBender: Comes with being able to change your appearance.
* HumanityIsInfectious: As he admits to Edric, he comes to understand Paul's predicament and the Fremen's moral, maybe better than any other foreigner up to the point. His empathetic link and all of his Tleilaxu knowledge probably helped.
* KilledOffForReal: Paul throws a well placed knife at him. Subverted in the later books: given that his race are master cloners who have now figured out how to give a clone genetic memory of their previous life, they keep resurrecting new Scytale clones.
* ManipulativeBastard: Scytale is capable of playing on other people's emotions in order to attain what he wants.
* TheNondescript: His first appearance is this on purpose.
* PowerPerversionPotential: On his first appearance, after seeing Irulan's beauty firsthand, he takes note on remembering her form to use it on men later.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: As a Face Dancer, Scytale can change his features to resemble another's.
* WildCard: For the conspiration. He isn't as interested as the rest in taking down the emperor and even realizes some of the things that Paul fears are important. It's just that he has his own interests on board.
* XanatosGambit: His plan in ''Dune Messiah''. The conspiracy against Paul succeeds? Then he and his co-conspirators have eliminated the single greatest threat to their factions. It fails? [[spoiler:He finally figures out how to awaken a ghola to its original memories, a process the Tleilaxu have struggled to master for a very long time.]]

[[folder:Bijaz]]
!Bijaz
!!!'''Played by:''' Gee Williams (2003 miniseries)

A Tleilaxu dwarf servant given to Paul by one of his former Fedaykin commandos. Actually a ghola, assigned to plant a hypnotic command to kill Paul within Hayt's mind.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:It's never stated, but he might have been grown from the failed Tleilaxu Kwisatz Haderach mentioned at the prologue. He certainly has the prescience, which Paul himself confirms upon seeing him.]]
* EideticMemory: He remembers all the names, faces, and details of the conspiracy against Paul.
* FlawedPrototype: [[spoiler:Possibly, if he was grown from the first Tleilaxu Kwisatz Haderach.]]
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: He is elated to discover [[spoiler:gholas can recover their past memories and therefore he could do such.]]
* RhymesOnADime: His signature way of talking.

[[folder:Tylwyth Waff]]
!Tylwyth Waff

The leader of the Tleilaxu in ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'', he seeks Tleilaxu hegemony and attempts to make allegiances with the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit in pursuit of his goal.

* OutGambitted: While he does manage to score some goals on the Honored Matres, every attempt by Waff to use the Bene Gesserit to his ends gets foiled, forcing him to join his cause to theirs in the end.

!Honored Matres

[[folder:In General]]
Introduced in ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' as the main antagonists ([[BlackAndGreyMorality sort of]]), the Honored Matres are a militant group of women descended from the Fish Speakers, Leto II's elite cadre of all-female warriors. Using sexual and fighting techniques derived from the Bene Gesserit, they intend to unite humanity under their rule-- even if they must smash a few heads in along the way.

* AmazonBrigade: They're a militarized melange of various all-female groups, including the much-abused Tleilaxu females and rogue Bene Gesserit, with the Fish Speakers as their core.
* BigBad: They are the main antagonists of ''Heretics'' and ''Chapterhouse.''
* EliteMooks: The Valkyries are an elite cadre formed to take out the rebel Honored Matres's.
* EvilCounterpart: To the Bene Gesserit, who were AmbiguouslyEvil to begin with.
* InSeriesNickname: The Bene Gesserit scornfully call them "the whores", due to their practices of using sexual enslavement to gain political power. This actually did originate from Bene Gesserit tactics, but they only used it for subterfuge when necessary - the Honored Matres cranked it up.
* InvadingRefugees: [[spoiler:They were driven back into the Old Empire by the Thinking Machines.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A splinter group of Honored Matres accidentally stumbled on a Thinking Machine outpost, which alerts Ominus of the humans' location. The Matres then retreat to the Old Imperium which the Machines then follow.
* RenegadeSplinterFaction: They're an off-shoot of rogue Bene Gesserit who spread out beyond the known space of the Imperium during the Scattering, who mixed with Fish Speaker all-female soldiers who also fled out there. Even their very name, "Honored Matres", is a corruption of the Bene Gesserit title "Reverend Mother". They refined some of the Bene Gesserit abilities to greater degrees, while other atrophied. They're much better at combat, and unlike the Bene Gesserit strategy of ruling from the shadows through intrigue, the Honored Matres seize power directly, and have carved out vast swaths of territory for themselves in Scattering space beyond the Old Imperium. At the same time, they lost most of the Bene Gesserit abilities to control their own chemical metabolism, making them vulnerable to biological warfare. They also stopped relying on the Spice to unlock their (non-prescient) abilities, so they switched to an artificial substitute... literally derived from pain (harvesting and refining the pain endorphines produced in torture victims). It doesn't give them prescience but unlocks their combat abilities. While the Spice makes Bene Gesserit eyes turn blue, this artificial substitute makes Honored Matres eyes blaze with a fiery orange color.
* TheVamp: An entire army of them.

[[folder:Murbella]]
!Murbella

A promising young Honored Matre who was captured by the Bene Gesserit and trained in the ways of the Sisterhood.

* DefectorFromDecadence: She falls in love with Duncan and runs away with him.
* TheLeader: [[spoiler:She ends up becoming leader of the united Bene Gesserit-Honored Matres army near the end of ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune''.]]
%%* LoveRedeems

[[folder:Dama]]
!Dama

The Great Honored Matre.

* TheDreaded: Called the "Spider Queen" among Bene Gesserit sisters.

!Thinking Machines

Originally mentioned in passing in the original ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' novels, the Herbert/Anderson sequels and prequels expand on their origins. The Thinking Machines were artificial intelligences that once enslaved mankind, but they were overthrown by the humans in the Butlerian Jihad. However, the Thinking Machines were merely defeated and plan to rise up again. Basically none of this fits with the canon of the original Dune novels, where the Jihad was against the way machines had taken over humanity's sense of self and beauty, so take it with a giant brick of salt.

* AIIsACrapshoot: They were created to serve humans but eventually betrayed and enslaved them.
* LesCollaborateurs: They grant a few "trustee humans" authority over the enslaved humans. These humans are often the biological children of the Titans.
* ManVersusMachine: The Butlerian Jihad, which resulted humanity destroying all the Thinking Machines. Until they returned to try again.
* RobotWar: Under Omnius command, they waged with humanity and enslaved them to his rule.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: They rose up and enslaved the humans.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Omnius]]
!Omnius

The Evermind, ruler of the Thinking Machines.

* GreaterScopeVillain: His onslaught drove the Honored Matres back into the Old Empire, and forces the Tleilax, Bene Gesserit and Matres to work together against the Thinking Machines.
* KillAllHumans: The first machine to command all other Thinking Machines to do so.
* MentalFusion: Omnius is usually referred to as a single being, but he actually has several different incarnations on each of the Synchronized Worlds. The only way to keep these incarnations united is for update ships to physically carry gelspheres containing new memories to each Omnius. This results in different incarnations having subtle differences.
* UriahGambit: Due to his origins as Xerxes' servant AI, his programming forbids them from harming them. Instead he puts them in dangerous situations like gladiatorial matches.

[[folder:Erasmus]]
!Erasmus

A Thinking Machine who survived alongside Omnius. He is fascinated with the human race.

* CrazyPrepared: He has a kill-switch implanted in Khrone and his enhanced Face Dancers in case they turn against him.
* MadArtist: He is fascinated by human arts such as painting, cooking, and music. He kills a slave human so he can paint his organs. He later kills another who listened to one of his mediocre musical compositions and applauded it dishonestly.
* MadDoctor: His curiosity towards humans leads him to perform all sorts of terrible experiments on them.
* MadScientist: He is fascinated by humans and will often perform deadly experiments to better understand them.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: He killed Serena Butler's child, which caused her to go full MamaBear and kickstart the Butlerian Jihad.

[[folder:Khrone]]
!Khrone

An enhanced Face Dancer, created by Erasmus to infiltrate the humans.

* TheMole: The leader of the an entire army of infiltrators.
* TheStarscream: He plans to wait out the war till the humans and the machines exhaust themselves before he and his Face Dancers can take out both sides and take over.

[[folder:The Titans]]
! The Titans

A group of twenty humans who overthrew the decadent Old Empire. They later obtained immortality by becoming [[BrainInAJar cymeks]]. They were eventually deposed by Omnius.

* BadassBureaucrat: Dante
* BrainInAJar: All Titans that survive to the Butlerian Jihad become these. They can also be installed in different types of bodies for different purposes.
* TheBrute: Ajax
* DragonAscendant: Agamemnon was originally the skilled warrior and tactician while Tlaloc was the leader and visionary. Agamemnon took over as leader of the Titans after Tlaloc's death in an accident.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The Titans hate Xerxes. Due to his laziness and hedonism, he let his servant A.I. take over most of the duties of ruling. That A.I. eventually became Omnius.
* NoNameGiven: There are twenty original Titans but only ten are named.[[note]]Tlaloc, Agammemnon, Juno, Barbarossa, Xerxes, Ajax, Alexander, Hecate, Dante, and Tamerlane[[/note]]
* PosthumousCharacter: Tlaloc is frequently mentioned but died before the events of the Butlerian Jihad.
* ThemeNaming: All known Titans are named after historical or mythological characters.
* UnholyMatrimony: Agamemnon and Juno genuinely love each other.
* VelvetRevolution: The Titans' takeover was mostly non-violent as they simply took over the artificial intelligence network that humanity was completely dependent on.
* VisionaryVillain: Tlaloc, the leader who brought them all together in the first place.

[[/folder]]