History Literature / DuneEncyclopedia

* CanonDiscontinuity: Despite being published as a canon companion book and endorsed by Creator/FrankHerbert, it has been retroactively declared non-canon by Brian Herbert.

** Another section is dedicated to a discussion of noted playwright al-Harba and the "al-Harba Question", which parallels the authorship question of Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

* FictionalGenevaConventions: The Great Convention, which prohibit certain weapons from being used in warfare. The most important is the use of nuclear weapons on human targets.

* MonsterOrganTrafficking: Sandworms are the source of the invaluable Spice, without which galactic civilization would collapse. While keeping them captive is unfeasible to say the least, the need to preserve their species runs at odds with the Fremen drive to make Arrakis more liveable for humans, making it a ''major'' political issue.

* FamousFamousFictional: An extended version, when the encyclopedia points out there is more evidence for the authorship of al-Harba's works than for "Creator/{{Virgil}}, [[Literature/GargantuaAndPantagruel Rabelais]], [[Creator/JohnMilton Milton]], [[Creator/PaulMcCartney McCartney]], Shumwan, Astiki, Carnwold" and more put together.

* FamousFamousFictional: An extended version, when the encyclopedia points out there is more evidence for the authorship of al-Harba's works than for "Creator/{{Virgil}}, [[Literature/GargantuaAndPantagruel Rabelais]], [[Creator/JohnMilton Milton]], [[Music/TheBeatles McCartney]], Shumwan, Astiki, Carnwold" and more put together.

* GeneticMemory: Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers (and Wild Mothers such as the Fremen's and Rebecca) get genetic memories of all their female ancestors, the Kwisatz Haderach gets them for ''all'' his ancestors, as do children of these two. [[CloningBlues Gholas]] can gain past life memories this way too, by being manipulated into doing something their original self would never have done.

* OneProductPlanet: The major worlds are each known for producing a major product. Dune itself is the only source of Spice, Giedi Prime a Factory world, Ix and Richese are Science worlds, Telixau as a Underworld (selling taboo technology), Caladan is a Farm world, Kaitain is the Capital, Salusa Secundus is ostensibly a Penal colony but really a Military world. Tupile is a Service world, providing protection for exiled families.

* CoolButInefficient: A lot of the tech, justifying the FeudalFuture / PunkPunk feel of TheVerse. Much of this is deliberate due to prohibitions against thinking machines and the dominance of shields in warfare.

* MainliningTheMonster: Sandworms are the source of the invaluable Spice, without which galactic civilization would collapse. While keeping them captive is unfeasible to say the least, the need to preserve their species runs at odds with the Fremen drive to make Arrakis more liveable for humans, making it a ''major'' political issue.

* LivingLieDetector: Bene Gesserit can notice the visual and auditory cues that denote a lying person. Many courts employ Bene Gesserit for this specific purpose, as "Truthsayers". The Kwisatz Haderach takes this power UpToEleven, as it does all the other BG powers. Leto II can detect a human's emotional state with perfect accuracy by sampling pheromones at 3 parts per billion.

[[caption-width-right:220:The authorized guide to proving Brian Herbert wrong]]

!! Canonicity:

''The Dune Encyclopedia'' was published as "complete and authorized". Frank Herbert consulted frequently with [=McNelly=] and Herbert himself wrote the forward which included:
->"Here is a rich background (and foreground) for the Dune Chronicles, including scholarly bypaths and amusing sidelights. Some of the contributions are sure to arouse controversy, based as they are on questionable sources ... I must confess that I found it fascinating to re-enter here some of the sources on which the Chronicles are built. As the first "Dune fan," I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold."

While Herbert himself contradicted the Encyclopedia at times in ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' and ''Literature/ChapterhouseDune'', it still easily fell within the built-in explanation of the book's in-character reliability. Herbert and [=McNelly=] were planning on writing a Butlerian Jihad prequel using the Encyclopedia as a starting point, prior to Frank Herbert's death.

However, when Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson began publishing prequels that completely contradicted the Encyclopedia, they [[CanonDiscontinuity retroactively declared ''The Dune Encyclopedia'' non-canon]] and pressured [=McNelly=] (at that point elderly and close to his own death) into agreeing to this joint statement:
->"THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA reflects an alternate "DUNE universe" which did not necessarily represent the "canon" created by Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert, writing with Kevin J. Anderson, IS continuing to establish the canon of the DUNE universe. This is being done with the full approval of the owner of the DUNE copyright, [[Creator/HerbertPropertiesLLC the Herbert Limited Partnership]]. While Frank Herbert himself considered THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA interesting and entertaining, he did not refer to Dr. [=McNelly=]'s derivative work while writing any of his DUNE novels. Likewise, in writing their DUNE novels (beginning with DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have exclusively used, and will continue to use, Frank Herbert's original notes as well as their own imaginations, and not THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA"

FanonDiscontinuity has been applied to both ''The Dune Encyclopedia'' and the prequels depending on the individual reader, however hindsight has shown this to be more the case for the prequels as time goes on. While the prequels, particularly the ''Literature/LegendsOfDune'' books and ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'', are supposed to be based on Creator/FrankHerbert's notes, many fans have come to believe the notes either do not exist or have been ignored in favor of the new author's own ideas. Either way, many fans prefer to continue to use ''The Dune Encyclopedia'' as the canonical or quasi-canonical backstory despite the Herbert Limited Partnership's objections.

Ironically, one of the few areas in which the [[Literature/PreludeToDune prequels]] followed the encyclopedia is in making Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam into the Lady Jessica's mother; which was, according to [=McNelly=], one of the few things Frank Herbert did not like and the biggest topic of debate in their meetings.

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-->''Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, 'I am not the kind of person I want to be.' It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.''
-->-- '''Dune Encyclopedia'''

->"THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA reflects an alternate "DUNE universe" which did not necessarily represent the "canon" created by Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert, writing with Kevin J. Anderson, IS continuing to establish the canon of the DUNE universe. This is being done with the full approval of the owner of the DUNE copyright, the Herbert Limited Partnership. While Frank Herbert himself considered THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA interesting and entertaining, he did not refer to Dr. [=McNelly=]'s derivative work while writing any of his DUNE novels. Likewise, in writing their DUNE novels (beginning with DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have exclusively used, and will continue to use, Frank Herbert's original notes as well as their own imaginations, and not THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA"

-->"Here is a rich background (and foreground) for the Dune Chronicles, including scholarly bypaths and amusing sidelights. Some of the contributions are sure to arouse controversy, based as they are on questionable sources ... I must confess that I found it fascinating to re-enter here some of the sources on which the Chronicles are built. As the first "Dune fan," I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold."

-->"THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA reflects an alternate "DUNE universe" which did not necessarily represent the "canon" created by Frank Herbert. Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert, writing with Kevin J. Anderson, IS continuing to establish the canon of the DUNE universe. This is being done with the full approval of the owner of the DUNE copyright, the Herbert Limited Partnership. While Frank Herbert himself considered THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA interesting and entertaining, he did not refer to Dr. [=McNelly=]'s derivative work while writing any of his DUNE novels. Likewise, in writing their DUNE novels (beginning with DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES), Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have exclusively used, and will continue to use, Frank Herbert's original notes as well as their own imaginations, and not THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA"

** In the out of print [[AllThereInTheManual Encyclopedia of Dune]] the Natives of Caladan are sentient: morons by human standards and around Stone Age level of technology, but sentient all the same. They are mentioned maybe once in the series proper though.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Foldspace.

* SandWorm: Detailed scientific study of the sandworms of Arrakis.