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Dune
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Dune (Franchise)
Walk without rhythm.
Arrakis — Dune — Desert Planet.

Dune, in this context, refers to a series of epic Science Fiction novels by Frank Herbert. It continued after his death by son Brian Herbert. Dune was first published in serialized form in the Science Fiction magazine but rejected twenty times by publishers before finally being published in 1965 by Chilton, a publishing house best known for its DIY auto repair guides.

Dune is set around 19000 years in The Future, in a galaxy-spanning empire loosely based on the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, ruled by feuding nobles, arcane religious sects, and Byzantine corporate monopolies. Its five sequels by the original author, and further prequels and sequels by his son Brian Herbert, span nearly 20,000 years of galactic history overall.

Much of the action throughout the series takes place on the eponymous planet, Arrakis, commonly called Dune by the native Fremen. Arrakis is a desert planet largely populated by the nomadic, xenophobic Fremen and inhabited by giant sandworms that destroy anything caught out in the open, and would be of little interest to the rest of the galaxy if not for one thing: it is the only known source of "Spice", an all-purpose chemical that triples the human lifespan, makes it possible for females (and some few males) to transfer ancestral memories to one another, unlocks or enhances the capacity of humans for telling the future, and therefore makes Faster-Than-Light Travel possible in a culture where computers have been made illegal by religious fiat—all while being ferociously addictive.

The entire series is steeped in Arabic language and culture; it is implied that, in the future in which the books are set, Western and Eastern culture and religion have blended together into a pseudo-homogeneous whole. Religions such as "Mahayana Christianity" and "Zensunni" are referred to though not explicitly described, and many Arabic words have found their way into the standard language spoken by the people of the Galactic Empire, especially after the Fremen crusade spreads aspects of their culture to thousands of worlds. (An extensive glossary is included in the first novel, without which many readers might find it incomprehensible) The Bene Gesserit sisterhood, an order of philosopher-nuns that considers itself the guardian of human civilization, extensively manipulate various religions over a scale of thousands of years in order to protect their agenda. Paul Atreides and his son Leto II, through their actions in the first four novels, effectively create a religion of their own, with effects that reverberate throughout the millennia.

In the 2000s, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson said they used notes from Herbert found in a safety deposit box to write prequels and two sequels to th Dune series. These books comprise seventeen novels overall—the Prelude To Dune trilogy which follows the conflict between Leto Atreides and Vladimir Harkonnen in the years prior to Paul's birth; the Legends of Dune trilogy which covers the rise of the Empire and the Spacing Guild some 10,000 years prior to the original novel; Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, two sequels which complete the story of the second trilogy by the elder Herbert; Heroes of Dune trilogy, interquels set between the novels of the original trilogy; Great Schools of Dune trilogy, which cover the rise of the Sisterhood, Mentats and Navigators; and The Caladan Trilogy, set after Prelude to Dune and before original Dune.

Works in this franchise include:

Frank Herbert:

Prequels and sequels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson:

  • Prelude to Dune
    • Dune: House Atreides (1999)
    • Dune: House Harkonnen (2000)
    • Dune: House Corrino (2001)
  • Legends of Dune:
    • Dune: The Butlerian Jihad (2002)
    • Dune: The Machine Crusade (2003)
    • Dune: The Battle of Corrin (2004)
  • Sequels (set post-Chapterhouse: Dune):
    • Hunters of Dune (2006)
    • Sandworms of Dune (2007)
  • Heroes of Dune:
  • Great Schools of Dune:
    • Sisterhood of Dune (2012)
    • Mentats of Dune (2014)
    • Navigators of Dune (2016)
  • The Caladan Trilogy
    • Dune: The Duke of Caladan (2020)
    • Dune: The Lady of Caladan (2021)
    • Dune: The Heir of Caladan (2022)

Universe guide:

  • The Dune Encyclopedia (1984), edited and largely written by Dr. Willis E. McNelly and approved by Frank Herbert

Comic book adaptations:

  • Dune: The Official Comic Book (1984), re-released as:
    • Marvel Super Special #36: Dune (1985)
    • Dune (1985)
  • Prelude to Dune Boom! Studios adaptation
    • Dune: House Atreides (2020-2021)
    • Dune: House Harkonnen (2023-2024)
    • Dune: House Corrino (2024-2025)
  • Dune: The Graphic Novel (2020)
    • Dune: The Graphic Novel Book 2: Muad'dib (2022)
    • Dune: The Graphic Novel Book 3: The Prophet (2024)
  • Dune: Blood Of The Sardaukar (2021)
  • Dune: A Whisper of Caladan Seas (2021)
  • Dune: The Waters of Kanly (2022)
  • Dune: The Official Movie Graphic Novel (2022)
    • Dune: Part Two - The Official Movie Graphic Novel (2025)
  • Dune: Edge of a Crysknife (2025)

Film and television adaptations:

Tabletop game adaptations:

  • Dune (1979, 2019)
  • Dune (1984)
  • Dune CCG (1997), a Collectible Card Game produced by Last Unicorn Games and Five Rings Publishing Group, and later Wizards of the Coast.
  • Dune: Chronicles Of The Imperium (2000), The Role-Playing Game published by Last Unicorn Games using the ICON System.
  • Dune: Imperium (2020)
  • Dune: Adventures In The Imperium (2021), The Role-Playing Game published by Modiphius Entertainment using their 2d20 system.
  • Dune: House Secrets (2021), cooperative story-driven board game based on Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game
  • Arrakis: Dawn of the Fremen (2022), a game based on the 1982 Eon title Borderlands about competing Fremen tribes before the Atreides come to Arrakis.
  • Dune: War for Arrakis (2024), a strategy board game from CMON

Video game adaptations:

Miscellaneous:

The Dune series contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    Series 
  • Absent Aliens: Unless you count the Sandworms, and their implied creators, sapient aliens do not exist in the setting. Even then, their sapience was added after the fact, by Leto II.
    • Plenty of non-sapient species are also mentioned in passing. There's a lot of life in the universe, but none of it talks back.
    • The final two books introduce two species, one primitive and questionably sapient (the cat-like Futars), and the other vaguely intelligent (the fish-like Phibians). Both were still created by the Tleilaxu (or some variant thereof) so they are not strictly alien.
    • In one of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's books, an extinct human order, the Muadru, are implied to know the non-Arrakis location that the Sandworms came from. This may mean that even the Sandworms are human creations.
    • In the out of print Encyclopedia of Dune, the Natives of Caladan are sapient: morons by human standards and around Stone Age level of technology, but sapient all the same. They are mentioned maybe once in the series proper though. Mind you, the Encyclopedia is not fully Canon.
  • Artistic License – Linguistics: The title of "Padishah Emperor", used by the rulers of the Imperium of the Known Universe, is redundant to itself, as it chains two languages' terms for "emperor", padishah or badshah being an Arabic augmentative of shah, the Persian word for "king".note 
  • Aerith and Bob: While the first book introduces many distinctly-European names, such as Paul, Jessica, Gurney, and Duncan (even Baron Harkonnen, whose first name is Vladimir—and whose House name isn't even that unusual if you're familiar with Finnish), the names get far more exotic as the cast fills out throughout the series. Notable examples include Hasimir Fenring, Hwi Noree, many Fremen, and the Latin-European-Greek full names of the Bene Gesserit.
  • Aesoptinum: The Spice. It's one of the few clear-cut allegories in the book — a precious resource absolutely vital to the economy, much like gold in past eras and oil today. To hammer the point home, Herbert even compared the CHOAM company (which oversees the Imperium's commerce, including spice procurement) in one interview to Real Life international trade organizations, including OPEC. As for the Aesop: Humans Are Greedy Bastards and will often do anything in order to collect as much spice as possible, including armed conflicts, espionage, assasinations, and a great variety of immoral acts, all out of blind wilfulness and greed. Thus, Paul (and later Leto II) act against humanity's immediate desires in order to save it from itself.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot
    • In the original books, it was not that the computers were inherently bad, it was that humanity chose to destroy them because they were making humans lazy and limiting humanity's potential, effectively making them dependent on sentient machines for survival. Computer AI was later demonized.
    • In the prequels, Omnius was actually doing what he was programmed to do (the conquest and enslavement of humanity), he just decided to work for himself, and not his Titan masters.
  • Alternative Calendar: The calender used in the book begins from the establishment of the Spacing Guild's monopoly on space travel, with BG standing for "Before Guild" and AG being "After Guild". In addition, it's implied that the (3000-year) reign of the Leto II has in effect become a calendar.
  • Amazon Brigade: There are several orders of badass women throughout the series, such as the Fish Speakers, Honored Matres, and the Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit specifically don't let on how badass they actually are, prefering to use subtle manipulation from behind-the-scenes, influencing the people in power rather than taking power directly. The Fish Speakers are Leto II's all-female army enforcing his tyrannical rule, and the Honored Matres combine elements of Fish Speaker and Bene Gesserit in their aim to conquer the universe.
  • Ancient Conspiracy: Although they are more visible than most ancient conspiracies, the Bene Gesserit definitely count: they have manipulated practically all existing religions in the Dune universe to be tools for their purposes, to the point a Bene Gesserit can basically go to any planet and detect different cues and codes within the local religion's tenets to know exactly what to say and do to present herself as a paragon, prophet or even messiah of the local religion. This is how Lady Jessica insinuates herself and Paul into the Fremen culture. Of course, Jessica had no way of knowing Paul would become an actual messiah.
  • Anyone Can Die: With intrigue and assassination being the order of the day in the Empire, don't expect any given character to survive the current book. Yes, that includes major and even central characters. In just the first book the majority of important characters, "hero" and "villain," end up dead, and the body count only climbs higher as the series progresses.
  • Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Justified. Personal shields block projectile weapons and lasers trigger nuclear-level explosions when they hit them, but a slow-moving blade can slip through, so melee combat is once again part and parcel of infantry battles.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Probably the only exception is Duke Leto. And even then, only maybe. Averted in the prequels — the Atreides are almost always benevolent, and the Ecazi, Richese, and Vernius families are more or less good. Too bad Being Good Sucks. A few more good ones in the prequels describing the Butlerian Jihad, including some of the Butlers, Tantors, and Porce Bludd (but not his great-uncle Niko Bludd, a complete Jerkass).
    • The Harkonnens (before Abulurd's exile to Lankiveil) also qualify as exceptions. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's half-brother Abulurd II is also unusually docile for a Harkonnen.
    • Leto II's thoughts:
      The surest sign that an aristocracy exists is the discovery of barriers against change, curtains of iron or steel or stone or of any substance which excludes the new, the different.
  • Artificial Human: Any Tleilaxu creation, including the Face Dancers, Gholas, clones, some Mentats, and human-animal hybrids.
  • As You Know: Literally entire chapters of it. One chapter begins with the villain introducing himself by name to his henchmen — "Is it not a magnificent thing that I, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, do?" — and continues with him explaining his plan to the henchman who helped him to devise it. Justified in that (a) they were recapitulating their plan for the benefit of Feyd-Rautha, whose patience and attention span were equally short; and (b) the Baron himself is a gloriously Large Ham, and arrogant to boot (and one of the few times when he actually admits to having done a mistake solely by his own fault, it's about being overly fond of describing plans when he shouldn't). This trope is also extensively employed in the Anderson/Brian Herbert novels.
  • Badass Army: The Sardaukar at first, then they are joined in this category by the Fremen under Paul Atreides. Also, the Fish Speakers under Leto II, and then Miles Teg's Bene Gesserit troops in Heretics and Chapterhouse.
  • Badass Bookworm: Pretty much everyone that isn't a Genius Bruiser.
  • Because Destiny Says So: How much of Dune and its sequels are The Chosen One acting out a preordained destiny, and how much is actually the Messianic Archetype choosing his own destiny and then being forced to live it out unto the bitter end? Frank Herbert would like you to think about it.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Inverted, Subverted, Justified, and Invoked. All depends on your personal interpretation, and which characters you examine. Frank himself said one of the main themes of the series was putting all your faith into one person and following them blindly. You can follow someone, but to utterly submit to them leads to total destruction.
  • Beware the Superman: Main theme of the series.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • Cielago, the Fremen term used for bats, is based off of the Spanish word for 'bat': 'murcielago '.
    • Also true for the general Fremen language, which is largely based on actual Arabic terms and phrases. And the Teilaxu secret language as well.
    • "Bene Gesserit" is Latin for either "she will bear well" or "she will govern well," pretty fitting for an order dedicated to bearing a genetic superman and to wielding political power.
    • Paul becomes the Kwisatz Haderach, a term the Bene Gesserit describe as meaning "Shortening of the Way". This is in fact derived from the Hebrew "k'fitzat haderech", which translates literally to "shortcut". He is also the Mahdi for the Fremen, which is the same word Muslims give their awaited messiah.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: The novels are consistently and deliberately ambiguous about the relative morality of each of the various factions. House Atreides, the most conventionally moral of the Great Houses depicted in the story, is made to pay heavily for its idealism, and even that is called into question by the prequels. Paul slaughters billions under the godhead of the Madhinate, and his son Leto II is the greatest tyrant in history; yet both claimed their actions were necessary to avoid an even greater catastrophe — the complete and total extinction of humanity. (And considering that Paul and Leto both share an ability to see into the future, they are probably right.) The Bene Gesserit are similarly portrayed as scheming witches, yet by the time of Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune, they have inherited the responsibility of safeguarding humanity's future. Truly innocent characters are few and far between in this universe. Even the "heroic" characters (Leto I, Paul) are monstrous; it's just that their enemies are generally even worse.
  • Blessed with Suck: The pre-born (Alia, Leto II, Ghanima) can draw on all the memories of their ancestors— and can be overwhelmed by them if they're not careful.
  • Body Horror: Leto II in demiworm form, Guild Steersmen mutated by spice, the Axlotl tanks.
  • Came Back Strong:
    • Paul Atreides almost dies when he drinks the water of life, and when he wakes up he is the Kwisatz Haderach.
    • Norma Cenva (of the second prequel trilogy) is tortured by the cymeks until she releases a destructive psychic wave of her latent powers. The wave not only kills her captors but also destroys her body. In that instant, she gets access to Other Memory and rebuilds her body molecule-by-molecule into that of an extremely attractive woman. She also becomes the most powerful sorceress of all.
  • Chemical Messiah: The Spice Melange. Found only on Arrakis, the Spice is vital to many aspects of humanity. The Bene Gesserit use concentrated doses of it in their Spice Agony ritual to unlock a Sister's Other Memory, the collected knowledge of all her female ancestors. As an "awareness spectrum narcotic," it is useful to many others for expanding consciousness. Because of its geriatric properties, it's useful to anyone who wants to live a long and healthy life. Those rich enough (or with rich enough patrons) may take enough of it recreationally to become genuine addicts. Most critically, the Spacing Guild use huge quantities of Spice. Guild Navigators are so reliant on it that they eat and breathe exclusively Spice derivatives, and this exposure has mutated them to the point they're barely human, but this also gives them the power to chart safe courses for faster-than-light travel via prescience. Spice hoarding is explicitly illegal, but many do it anyway, because if spice mining operations on Arrakis were sufficiently disrupted, the Empire would fall into chaos as space travel becomes impossible and billions die of fatal withdrawal (and many more as planets reliant on off-world trade are denied necessary supplies because no one can get there).
  • The Chessmaster: Practically every named character originating from the Imperium and not from Arrakis, to varying degrees. Every single one of whom is Out-Gambitted by Paul, and later Leto II. In the final two novels Erasmus is proven to be rather adept at it as well. He insinuates that he was behind most of the schemes and subtly manipulated half the events of the final few novels.
  • The Chosen One: Paul as the Kwisatz Haderach, Leto II as his successor, Sheeana in the final two books, though she doesn't get to fulfill that role, being instead set up for it as a decoy to get the Honored Matres to destroy Arrakis. Her ability to command sandworms is still useful, though. The series as a whole shows just how disastrous these tropes would be in a realistic setting.
  • The Clan: Feuding Houses of noble families play a large part in the first book, though the Atreides name carries down through the millennia.
  • Colour-Coded Characters: The novels have the Harkonnens in blue, the Atreides in green (presumably referencing Islam), Reverend Mothers in black aba robes, and Spacing Guild representatives in grey, denoting their neutral status.
  • Combat Clairvoyance:
    • The Kwisatz Haderach has the ability to (among other things) see into the future. Mentats can also see the future by way of "projecting" the possible outcomes of a given choice, but their role is not usually that of a military strategist.
    • After his transformation under the T-probe in Heretics, Miles Teg gains this, to the point where he can see the positions of the normally undetectable no-ships.
  • Conlang: Many of the phrases and terms used throughout the book have some basis in real-world languages. The Fremen speak a clear development of Arabic. Galach, the official language of the Imperium, is described as an Anglo-Slavic hybrid with some other tongues mixed in for good measure — and it shows... in the rare instances when we get to read some actual untranslated phrases from it.
  • Cool, but Inefficient: A lot of the tech, justifying the Feudal Future feel of The 'Verse. Much of this is deliberate due to prohibitions against thinking machines and the dominance of shields in warfare.
  • Crapsack World: Dune is a universe of tyrannical regimes, war and constant backstabbing. And even the most moral factions aren't that moral either — see Black-and-Gray Morality.
  • The Creon: The Bene Gesserit play this trope on an organizational scale. They do not believe that assuming direct control of the empire will be beneficial to them, and instead conduct extremely elaborate, millennia-spanning schemes to remain advisors to the emperor while controlling the empire only from the shadows.
  • Culture Chop Suey: A classic example. Millennia of galactic colonization have created completely new unrecognizable ethnicities and modified versions of current Earth religions.
  • Cultured Badass: Pretty much everyone is as well-learned as they are badass. As expected, since many of the characters are highly ranked in noble houses, where being both cultured and badass is a survival trait.
  • Darwinist Desire: The Bene Gesserit actually have Darwinist Desire Matchmaking. They've been secretly manipulating the marriages of all the members of the noble houses to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, a being capable of omniscience.
  • Days of Future Past: Set around 19,000 years in the future (putting it at roughly 21,267 CE by our calendar), the Empire is based off the Ottoman Empire and Byzantine Empire — with feuding noble houses, an emperor, mercantile trading, monastic church-like organizations...
  • Deadly Scratch: In general, the Dune universe loves this trope. Poisoned blades and poisoned needles abound, so it's practically guaranteed that any given scratch, cut, stab, or pinprick worth mentioning is more dangerous than it initially seems. Possibly the most iconic example is the gom jabbar, a needle tipped with meta-cyanide from which the slightest wound is fatal; it's used by the Bene Gesserit as part of a "test of humanity" and by the various noble houses to just straight up murder people.
  • Death Is Cheap: The dead can be resurrected as clones reffered to as "gholas." The memories of their past lives are restored through a combination of mental conditioning and Genetic Memory. Duncan Idaho is a perfect example.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype: The franchise deconstructs many hero tropes within the first book, starting with Paul Atreides as an example of what happens when the Chosen One comes about too early and plays up the Messianic Archetype card (largely through Becoming the Mask) to achieve his goals for revenge. That being a Chosen One also gifts him with an ability that completely destroys his life through clairvoyance. The rest of the characters in the story are often used to pick apart the very characteristics that would be necessary for a person to embody the tropes, and just how self-destructive they can be.
  • Deconstructor Fleet: For The Chosen One, the Messianic Archetype, and hero tropes in general.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance:
    • None of the characters bat an eyelash at practices such as slavery, concubinage, gladiatorial fights, and institutionalized child abuse (specifically, the Bene Geserit gom jabbar test used on would-be initiates).
    • Fremen cultural practices, such as succession through killing, settling disputes through duels, and duel victors' inheritance of opponents' wives as spoils, contrast sharply to 21st century western values.
    • In Dune Messiah, Stilgar thinks that Alia should marry so that she'll have an outlet for her budding sexuality. Alia is in her early teens in the book. Later, Alia marries Duncan Idaho when she is only fifteen (his age is a little murky because he died in the first book and was resurrected, but he was definitely an adult before Alia was born). This marriage serves to reinforce the idea that Alia's flesh is only fifteen, but her experience is ancient.
    • Alia apparently rather enjoys this trope, as Jessica comments upon seeing her after nine years that "she hasn't aged a day," meaning that, despite being in her mid-twenties, Alia still looks like a fifteen-year-old.
  • Demoted to Extra: Happens quite a fair bit over the course of the series, with Jessica, Gurney, Stilgar, Harah, and Irulan as a few examples (although some of them, like Jessica, are only temporarily demoted).
  • Desert Punk: A Trope Codifier here. The series is set primarily on the desert world of Arrakis, though it starts getting wetter even in the second book. Dealing with the planet-wide Thirsty Desert and using specialized equipment and training to survive are critical aspects of the tone and narrative.
  • Emotions vs. Stoicism: The Bene Gesserit stress emotional control at all times as both proof of humanity and a basic survival tool with the Litany Against Fear. Unlike Vulcans, they're more than happy to use emotion as a tool to manipulate others — their emphasis is control, not denial.
  • Emperor Scientist:
    • Leto II actually becomes the God-Emperor of the Universe to continue a gigantic human breeding program personally.
    • Dr. Kynes became leader of the Fremen because of his attempts to terraform the planet.
    • The cymek titans from the prequels, who were philosopher kings and scientists, particularly ones that dealt with robotics, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence.
    • Though not canon, the prequels state that one former Padishah Emperor, working under a false name, was an accomplished chemist that discovered the properties that made Spice so important. The original books state it was a chemist working for that emperor, so it all depends what you want to believe.
  • Encyclopedia Exposita: All of Frank Herbert's Dune novels make use of this, quoting from fictional (auto)biographies, treatises on religion/politics, journals...
  • Energy Weapon: Only useful without Deflector Shields, which are ubiquitous, so almost a subversion/aversion. (A lasgun shot hitting a shield is highly unpredictable, and can cause either a nuclear-level explosion or only destroy both shooter and shootee). Also, lasguns are presented unusually realistically for sci-fi (except for the universe-physics-specific shield bit). In Leto II's future, lasguns have come back into general use after he banned shields, leading to a massive arms race after his death.
  • Face Your Fears: The Litany Against Fear is a tool to encourage Bene Gesserit to do this, as part of their focus on utter mastery of all aspects of the self.
  • Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: The Spice, which is a product of the life cycle of the sandworms of Arrakis and is the most valuable substance in the Known Universe because it can greatly extend human lifespan, provide enhanced mental and physical abilities and even enable the power to see through time and space. Its value is even greater because of prohibitions on artificial intelligence in this setting, which requires that human potential be maximized.
  • Fantasy Gun Control: Firearms exist in large numbers but they have been rendered as secondary weapons due to the prevalence of personal force shields. Force shields can, however, be penetrated by close combat techniques, so those are the dominant means of warfare. Laser weapons are also highly limited since a laser beam hitting a force shield cause both the gun and the shield generator to explode with enormous power. Which means that some uses of shields are only practical because shooting them with lasers is physically equivalent to using nukes.

    Subverted, however, when it turns out that using personal force shields on Arrakis attracts sandworms. One of the common Fremen weapons is the "maula pistol", essentially a spring-loaded slugthrower. And also when Baron Harkonnen uses old-fashioned artillery to trap the retreating Atreides soldiers in caves.
  • Fantastic Firearms:
    • Since deflector shields No-Sell anything faster than 9cm/s and violently explode when lazered, ranged weapons need to go slow, either by slowly lobbing a poisoned dart with springs or compressed air, or ge-e-ently sliding an Attack Drone with a poisoned stinger through. Not that this stops the video game adaptations from giving all your soldiers assault rifles.
    • The 1984 film and Emperor: Battle for Dune arm the Fremen with a device called a "Weirding Module," a machine that turns the intonation "Maud'dib!" into a devastating sonic ray blast.
    • Dune II arms the House Leto tank with a sonic blaster.
  • Faster-Than-Light Travel: In the main Dune novels, achieved exclusively via the use of the Holtzman generators, folding space nearly-instantaneously to the destination. However, in order to avoid getting atomized on the way, Spacing Guild Navigators are required to envision the safe passage (since computers aren't allowed).
  • Feuding Families: Feuding families are so prevalent in the Dune universe that it has evolved into an art form. There's "Kanly", which is an officially sanctioned House-to-House vendetta, and the all-out War of Assassins, which is just what it sounds like. The rules are codified in the Great Convention, which sets out exactly who are the acceptable targets and what weapons or poisons are permitted. Noble families in the Dune universe accept the fact that you can be knifed in the back at any time as just another hazard of the job.
    • There are even separate words for poison in food ("Chaumas/Aumas") and poison in a drink ("Chaumurky/Musky.")
    • It says at one point during the first novel and again in the appendix that assassination is actually the preferred method of war, as it involves only a few people and therefore spares the lives of millions of possible conscripts.
      • The feud between the Atreides and the Harkonnens involves the leader of House Atreides branding the leader of House Harkonnen a coward and exiled. Ten thousand years ago.
  • Feudal Future: The Empire is intentionally set up this way. The novels themselves are considered to be the Trope Codifier.
  • Future Imperfect: According to the pseudo-canon encyclopedia, House Atreides claims to have been founded by Atreus, the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus from The Iliad, House Harkonnen claims descent from the Romanovs of tsarist Russia, Alexander the Great is considered to have been the first Galactic Emperor, and members of the "House Of Washington" (i.e., America) were the first historical users of atomic weapons. Averted in some cases, as the Bene Gesserit (and some Atreides) possess Genetic Memory telling them exactly who their ancestors were and covering the entire scope of human history. It's also mentioned that the origin of the planet Ix's name is obscure. Turns out it means "nine", from its position in its own solar system. Somewhat inconsistent in the books themselves. In Dune Messiah Paul has to tell people who Hitler and Genghis Khan were, and clearly has an imperfect understanding himself, while in the Prelude to Dune prequel series, Duncan Idaho and others who study warrior traditions on Ginaz seem to have far more detailed knowledge of old history.
  • Galactic Superpower: The Empire that reigned from the Butlerian Jihad to Leto II's planned Scattering. It's never really stated exactly how big it is, but the space it occupies is often referred to as the universe, and with the setting's FTL travel being able to move between any two points instantaneously, it seems it spans more than "merely" a galaxy.
  • Gender Incompetence: In Dune, it seems to be something of a theme to have an all-female society with strange and terrible powers suddenly have to deal with a man with those exact same powers, only several jillion times stronger. According to certain throwaway lines regarding Norma Cenva in God-Emperor Of Dune, there have been genderswapped variants of this in the past as well.

    It's stated that the limit of the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers was that their training to particularly feminine/maternal instincts meant that they couldn't access their male ancestry in their Other Memory. The Kwisatz Haderach was intended to overcome this weakness (as well as having other capabilities), which would require a male trained in Bene Gesserit ways. Note the fact that the Gesserit wanted to have a Kwisatz Haderach, but he ended up coming a generation too early for their plans — and then refusing to go along with them.
  • A God Am I: When Paul fully awakens his potential as Kwisatz Haderach he becomes a messiah to peoples of thousands of worlds, only to be elevated to the status of god in the millennia following his death. His son, Leto II, grinds into the people of the universe that he is a god more for the sociological outcome rather than personal lust for power. After Paul's death, his status as a god is less widespread compared to his son's.
  • Higher Understanding Through Drugs: The appendix to Dune lists several "awareness-spectrum narcotics" that increased the user's understanding and mental abilities, including melange (by Guild Navigators), the Fremen "Water of Life" (which affected Paul Atreides and his sister Alia), and the drugs used by Bene Gesserit Truthsayers (who were Living Lie Detectors).
  • Inconsistent Dub:
    • In different Italian translations of the Dune saga, the Golden Path is translated sometimes to "Sentiero Dorato" and sometimes to "Via Aurea".
    • The Turkish translations were particularly bad. While the first four books had decent translations, the last two were terrible despite the fact that the entire series was released by the same publisher. To put it in context, the books would sometimes keep certain terms (such as Axlotl Tanks) in their original English forms and sometimes use a translated term for it over the course of the same book!. It was as if the translator was thinking "You know, I think I should have used a different term for Axlotl Tanks. Oh well. That's what I will do without editing the previous bits for cohesion".
  • Industrial World: Giedi Prime is a volcanic world mostly dominated by industrial complexes where most of its population works, although it does maintain tracts of preserved forest — albeit, granted, ones kept chiefly to be farmed for logging.
  • Interfaith Smoothie: Due to thousands of years of space migration, various religions and cultures have merged, split, then re-merged again and again. The Fremen are Zensunni, a combination of Sunni Islam and Zen Buddhism. Although most of this occurred naturally, it eventually was pushed this way by an ecumenical council that produced the "Orange Catholic Bible". The title suggests a reunification of Catholicism and Protestantism (the militant, anti-Catholic Protestant Irish Orangists), although it is actually far more ecumenical, incorporating "Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism and Buddislamic traditions".
  • Kill It with Water: Aside from extreme old age or atomic explosions, the only way to kill a sandworm is by completely drowning them in water. Good luck finding any on a planet called Dune. This, of course, comes full circle in God Emperor of Dune, where Leto II must be killed in water for the sandworm cycle to continue - so he creates a mighty river on the former desert planet and allows himself to be assassinated there to ensure that this happens.
  • King Bob the Nth: It's the year 10,191 of the Galactic Empire, and the current monarch is Shaddam IV, 81st Padishah Emperor. It's never explained within the original novel who exactly the previous three Shaddams were.
    • The Dune Encyclopedia has a list of every Emperor along with the dates of their reigns. Shaddam IV's immediate predecessors were Fredhrick XIX, Corrin XXV and Elrood IX. Shaddam III reigned 4200 years before Shaddam IV, Shaddam II was some 3000 years before that, and Shaddam I reigned 2400 years before him. Shaddam IV was the 81st "Padishah" Emperor, but the 370th Emperor of the Known Universe. Number 1 was Alexander the Great, so it isn't supposed to be an accurate list.
  • Lonely at the Top: Both Paul and his son Leto II at the height of their power have no one to truly understand them. For Paul, his love Chani, dies in childbirth and for Leto II Hwi Noree. Leto and her both die before their wedding.
  • Manchurian Agent: In the first book, the Baron breaks Dr. Yueh of his Suk conditioning, thus allowing him to act as a traitor against his royal charges. The later books elaborate on a barely mentioned act in the first book, where Bene Gesserit condition males through psychosexual techniques (a process called hypno-ligation) to act in a specified way on a given code word. In Heretics and Chapterhouse, the Tleilaxu can deliver gholas custom-programmed to act out any desired behavior on the appropriate trigger.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: This is Paul's horror at seeing the future in the first book, which becomes true in the second. There's a scene where he compares himself to Hitler — "He killed more than six million. Pretty good for those days... Statistics: at a conservative estimate, I've killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. I've wiped out the followers of forty religions..."
  • Misapplied Phlebotinum: Since suspensor fields work inside shields (the Baron uses both), it would be reasonable to have Humongous Mecha (human-piloted) or flying tanks in the setting (though walkers do turn up in some of the spinoffs).
  • No Transhumanism Allowed: Both subverted and played straight. Deliberate breeding programs are used to create humans with intelligence, reflexes, lifespan, capacity higher consciousness and physical capabilities far beyond those of current-day humans, but a religious taboo is kept in place on genetically engineering anything recognizably inhuman or unable to interbreed back into the larger human population. Thus, the characters and societies remain human while simultaneously having greater advancements over modern man than modern man has over homo erectus. The Tleilaxu, however, have no religious taboo on inhumanity and gleefully make a living selling inhuman humans genetically-engineered for specific purposes.
  • No Woman's Land: In general, the Dune universe is patriarchal outside of the Bene Geserit sisterhood, with women exposed to socially sanctioned subordination and violence.
    • Fremen society is patriarchal, and even though Fremen women are strong and fearless, they're still treated like subordinates. For example, a man dying at the hands of a woman is considered embarassing, as Chani notes when she kills a man who wanted to duel with Paul in the first novel. Sietch leaders are always male. In Dune Messiah, Farok tells Scytale that Fremen sacrificed virgins to Shai-Hulud (a practice that Farok wants to see return) before Liet-Kynes abolished the practice. Finally, male duel victors inherit the wives of their defeated foes as spoils of war, with the wives having no say in the matter. Jamis killed Harah's first husband in a duel for the stated purpose of taking Harah for his wife.
    • Some Fremen men have no qualms about rape through force or deception. In Dune Messiah, Farok's son gives semuta to Otheym's daughter "in the hope of winning a woman of the [Fremen] for himself despite his blindness." Farok speaks casually about the conquest of Naraj and his son's forced impregnation of Naraj women.
      Farok: I find it curious, though, to know I have grandchildren on Naraj that I may never see.
    • Slavery, sexual or otherwise, is an accepted practice. Irulan recounts the story of secretly seeing Fenring offer Emperor Shaddam a female sex slave, only for Shaddam to politely refuse. Feyd also has several female sex slaves (but, to be fair, the Baron has male sex slaves as well).
    • The noble houses of Dune are rigidly patriarchal, headed only by men. Female nobles and concubines do find ways to manipulate events, but it is always behind the scenes. The noble houses also practice arranged marriage, or in Irulan's case, forced marriage.
    • Even the all-female Bene Geserit sisterhood doesn't fully escape this trope. Granted, Reverend Mothers wield a great deal of power, and the sisterhood provides women with elite training and avenues for getting ahead. However, the sisterhood also exerts rigid control over initiates' sexual and reproductive lives for the sake of its selective breeding program, deciding who they will marry, who they will have sex with, and when and if they will bear children. The idea that initiates might have other plans is never considered.
    • Perhaps the most horrific example of this trope is the Tleilaxu's axlotl tanks, which are their females bioengineered into devices that exist only to gestate their other biotech creations.
  • Not Rare Over There:
    • On Arrakis, water. Given that the planet is a desert world, the people in Arrakis conserve water no matter how small the amount. In contrast to the Atreides homeworld of Caladan, water is practically everywhere as it's a water planet.
    • Off Arrakis, Spice. Spice is so incredibly valuable "the price of a planet could be carried in one's hand luggage." Routinely consuming the stuff is hideously expensive. But on Arrakis, the only world where the Spice is found, it's so ubiquitous it's in practically everything the Fremen make. In the first book, nobles at the Atreides' family dinner party note that it's luxurious to eat food not seasoned with Spice; anywhere else, using Spice as seasoning would be the luxury.
  • Offended by an Inferior's Success: One of the elements of the series' backstory (often forgotten in retellings) is that part of the reason for the rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen is because the Atreides are a longstanding and greatly respected institution among the Great Houses of the Landsraad, whereas the Harkonnens clawed their way up out of obscurity relatively recently and essentially became the Feudal Future equivalent of Nouveau Riche after being awarded the contract to mine and export spice by the CHOAM conglomerate.
  • One-Product Planet: Perhaps the Trope Codifier, with the major worlds 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, Tleilax is an 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.
  • Prescience Is Predictable: One of the core themes of the main series. Indeed, this could be the Trope Codifier for all modern uses.
    Leto II: It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will.
  • Rate-Limited Perpetual Resource:
    • In the novels, Spice is a renewable resource, because it's a biological byproduct of the lifecycle of the planet's sandworms. As long as there are worms, Spice will remain plentiful on the planet. But harvesting it is dangerous, due to the general inhospitiability of the planet, and the fact sandworms are attracted to all rhythmic vibrations, like the ones a spice harvester has to put out.
    • Dune II, Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune has spice fields, which slowly deplete by being harvested but replenish through spice blows. Each field can only support so many harvesters, however, due to them getting in each others' way (and also provoking Sand Worm attacks). In Emperor, the Harkonnen Buzzsaw can churn spice fields, making the spice inaccessible to everyone.
    • Dune: Spice Wars: All on-map resources (spice, plascrete, water, thermal power, etc) are unlimited, but can only have one building harvesting from them that provides a certain number of resources per day. This makes planning your provinces (which can have a maximum of five buildings, some of whom have synergies that increase harvesting rate for each other) an important gameplay aspect. House Corrino can build duplicates of all non-spice harvesting buildings.
    • Dune: Awakening: "Spice blows" can happen randomly in most regions, creating an area of spice sand that can be harvested by hand, using a static compactor, or a harvester vehicle. The richest spice fields are found in the Deep Desert, an endgame PvP area.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Heavy use of spice can extend lifespans by a factor of three or more. The Emperor Shaddam is described by his daughter Princess Irulan as looking around 50, though being in his late 80s. He dies due to work-related stress rather than old age.
    • The Bene Gesserit take this to the extremes. With complete control over their biochemical makeup, they can slow down or speed up the aging process at will or choose to look younger or older while chemically being another age. They rarely take advantage of this, however, because such power can be intoxicating and dangerous. If someone outside the inner-Bene Gesserit organization were to notice the true extent of their powers it could lead to their destruction from superstitious outsiders as well as loss of influence over the Empire. Leto II ends up doing this, living up to 3,500 years before being (willingly) assassinated.
    • The pre-born count in a different way. While chemically and physically true to their age, exposure to the Water of Life in the womb awakens their Genetic Memory. This leads to a personality being composed solely of their complete lineage of ego memories, upwards of hundreds of thousands of generations. Leto II and his sister Ghanima are both nine when they begin wresting control of the empire from their similarly-affected aunt, and must constantly chastise anyone that presumes them to be mere "children." They never had a childhood, nor a life of their own. Only the memories of billions.
  • Really Gets Around: Arguably subverted by the Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, who really do have many sex partners, but only because the Bene Gesserit are engaged in a subtle breeding program (and also are forbidden from using artificial insemination, meaning all 'samples' and bloodlines have to be collected and gestated physically) and the Honored Matres use their sexuality as a form of conditioning. Both only do it professionally.
  • Ripped from the Headlines:
    • When the first book was written, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East were undergoing decolonization; the patron states set up friendly local governments in those regions to ensure access to the natural resources their former colonies had provided, a process that had profound economic and geopolitical consequences (especially vis a vis the Cold War). In particular, the OPEC cartel was formed during this period.
    • Herbert wrote in 1964-1965, when superweapons were all the rage in the shadow of the Cold War. First laser was patented in 1959-1960, first functioning examples fired in 1960-1962, Goldfinger was released in 1964.
  • Space Age Stasis: Society is partially stagnant due to the religious proscriptions against thinking machines, robotics, and computers set up after the Butlerian Jihad, which keeps things from advancing too much. Spice does this as well, since its properties allow for expanded lifetimes and space folding, so there was no desire to experiment and find alternatives. Finally, the Bene Gesserit and Guild collaborated to set up a feudalistic government with full knowledge that it would be easier to control.
  • Spice of Life: The Spice itself, which is the most valued commodity in the entire universe. To a lesser extent, water on Arrakis (the planet where spice is harvested). Frank wrote both as a metaphor for water itself and oil.
  • Stalker with a Test Tube: This is basically the Modus Operandi of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood — breeding together people with the right genes in order to produce the Kwisatz Haderach... whether that means matchmaking, blackmail, or outright rape is of little concern to them as long as the right children result. (Ironically they're not actually allowed to use test tubes, since artificial insemination is prohibited; when Paul suggests that Irulan can bear his child via this manner if the Bene Gesserit really want to preserve his bloodline, Gaius Helen Mohiam is appalled at the very thought.)
  • Standard Time Units: Years are known as "Standard years", or SY, and are described as being about 20 hours less than the "so-called primitive year".
  • Standard Sci-Fi History: The background history of the Imperium tends to follow this trend. The Buterlian Jihad serves the role of World War III by resetting the political and technological situation. The Corrino-led Imperium serves as the First Empire, and the Paul/Leto II regimes as the Second Empire. It's one of the few examples in which the Second Empire follows up the first without an Interregnum. There is an Interregnum (referred to as "The Scattering"), but it occurs only after the collapse of the Second Empire.
  • Starfish Aliens: The sandworms, which are gigantic (as in up-to-half-kilometer-long) wormlike creatures that live in the desert. They also have a larval form, which begin as microbial "sand plankton" that serve as food to the adults, and grow into a small roughly diamond-shaped form called sandtrout AKA "Little Makers". The sandtrout are later revealed to seal away all the water on the planet, which is highly toxic to the adult form, and secrete the precursors to the addictive and Psychic Powers-granting Spice, which triggers their transformation into the sandworm "Makers".
    • They also inhale carbon dioxide and breathe out fresh oxygen, working as a substitute for the nearly non-existent plant life on Arrakis. This also justifies why such a Single-Biome Planet can have a breathable atmosphere. The byproducts of the worms are suspiciously Terran-friendly indeed. Various characters lampshade this occasionally, even suggesting the idea that sandworms may be in fact Lost Organic Technology for terraforming planets (created a long time ago by humans, presumably).
  • Stealth Pun: One of the spice's effects is to prolong its user's lifespan, and it's called "melange", a French word which can mean "variety". Thus, variety is the spice of life.
  • Supernatural Martial Arts: "The weirding way of fighting" (as the Fremen refer to it) is a Bene Gesserit martial art that allows its users to perform feats of superhuman strength and speed.
  • Survival Mantra: The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear —
    I must not fear.
    Fear is the mind-killer.
    Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
    I will face my fear.
    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
    And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
    Where there fear has gone, there will be nothing.
    Only I will remain.
  • Thirsty Desert: Where Arrakis gets its nickname: A planet covered in nothing but dry sand dunes that stretch from one pole to the other without a speck of natural moisture to be found. Water is such a precious resource that people have to wear stillsuits designed to recycle almost every bit of moisture that comes out of them — breath, sweat, bodily waste, the works.
  • Transplanted Aliens: The evidence suggests that the sandworms were introduced to Arrakis by unknown parties rather than evolving there. In Chapterhouse Dune the Bene Gesserit have begun releasing sand trout onto their own planet and others after the destruction of Arrakis.
  • Trilogy Creep: An interesting example. Dune was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune fitting directly after the first. Messiah was fleshed out while writing Dune and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted Children to be expanded as well and also became its own book. God Emperor of Dune and the last two in the series, Heretics and Chapterhouse are genuine examples of a trilogy creep, though the fact that the story is now over 10,000 years past in the originals, it's fair to say that they're a trilogy of their own.
    • God Emperor of Dune has an interesting place in the original series in that it serves as a bridging novel between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy that actually begins with Heretics. Frank Herbert's incomplete Dune 7 was intended to serve as the third installment of the second trilogy.
  • Unwanted Spouse: Poor Irulan. Paul distrusts her and keeps her at arm's length because she is both a Corrino and a tool of the Bene Gesserit but he feels no personal revulsion for her and even indicates he'd might have been willing to consummate their marriage if she weren't a Bene Gesserit.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: The universe features wheels-within-wheels plots and dense mythology, although the poetic descriptions can make the book enjoyable even to those who fail to understand it.
  • Voice of the Legion: The billions of ego memories within genetic memory-awakened individuals can appear like this, especially to the pre-born.
  • We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Justified in that after the Butlerian Jihad, complex autonomous machines are forbidden for millennia. Even regular old calculators are replaced by (highly-paid) people known as Mentats.
    • But the justification for slavery in the prequels is flimsy at best. They primarily enslave Zensunnis and Zenshiites, as they claim their ancestors refused to fight the Thinking Machines.
  • Worldbuilding: One of the most developed examples, right here with Tolkien. Considered to be the very first science fiction novel of its kind to do this. Frank Herbert stated that he had done six years of research before writing the first novel, according to a radio interview he made before his death.
  • Wormsign: The Trope Namer. Given the size of the Sand Worms, they're treated in the same way that one would treat a tornado warning.

The 1979 boardgame Dune and its re-issues contain examples of:

  • Assassination Attempt: During battles, leaders can be killed via weapon cards to prevent their contributing their strength, leaving their forces to fend on their own.
    • The Moritani can assassinate leaders via additional two ways: 1) Placing a terror token with Assassination on stronghold, which then kills a random leader of a faction than enters that stronghold, and 2) If they had a traitor from a faction they battled but who was not present, they can kill them and then draw a new traitor card.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: The Atredeis players gain access to Kwisatz Haderach token after they lose enough forces in battles. Among its benefits are giving leaders more strength and preventing their treason during battles.
  • Action Initiative: On the circular planet border are six evenly spaced marks corresponding to the player factions. Who goes first is determined by who is the closest to the Sandstorm on the counter-clockwise side. Since the storm itself moves counter-clockwise by variable distances as the game goes on, the turn order changes with it.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: The maximum amount of forces any player can have is 20.
  • Asymmetric Multiplayer: Features six factions (and six more in Gale Force Nine expansions), and all of them are wildly different with their own Game-Breaker abilities. invoked
  • Auction: The Bidding Phase, during which the players bid for treachery cards. The Richese players introduce their variants to the mix when they put their Richese cards for sale.
  • Back Stab: At the beginning of the game, players choose one of the four traitors cards, and if during battle the enemy uses a leader the player has a Traitor card for, they can use it to automatically win.
    • The Harkonnen get to keep all four Traitor cards;
    • The Tleilaxu instead get Face Dancers, which work similarly but can also be used on battles the player have no part of, with an added benefit of converting all enemy forces to their own, should they have enough in reserves.
  • Cargo Concealment Caper:
    • The added benefit of Richese's No-Field is that they reduce the shipping cost to 1 spice as if they only shipped one force.
    • The Smuggler leader skill allows players to ship an extra force when arriving at empty regions.
  • The Cavalry: The Reinforcements card, which gives three extra forces to the current battle from the reserves without needing to pay spice, at the cost of sending them to tleilaxu tanks afterwards.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: The Atredies can use Clairvoyance to see one fourth of the enemy battle plan of their choosing. They can also see the cards during the bidding phase, which are usually hidden.
  • Compelling Voice: During battles the Bene Gesserit players can force the opposing player to use or not to use specific cards.
  • Decapitated Army: The Forces during battles where their leaders were killed. They can still can win if the value of expended forces is greater than the total opposing value.
  • Ditto Fighter: One of Tleilaxu leaders has X as their value, where X is equal to the value of the opposing leader.
  • Diplomatic Impunity:
    • A good chunk of the Bene Gesserit playstyle revolves around taking advantage of other players' innability to do anything against their forces when they are in 'Spiritual Advisor' mode.
    • The Ecaz can place Ambassador tokens on Strongholds, and once a new faction tries to move in the tokens are triggered, giving benefits to Ecaz based on the type of token, some of which are more directly harmful to other players.
  • Extra Turn:
    • If the Fremen forces are in a region where a Worm spawns (or they used a Thumper card to call one), they can hitch a ride to any sandy region outside of the normal movement phase. The Great Maker variant of the worm card allows the Fremen to do the same from the reserves/southern hemisphere.
    • The Hajr and Richese Ornithopter cards allows players to move one more time.
    • The Planetologist leader skill allows players to move forces from two different territories into one location.
    • Two of Ecaz ambassadors token have this effect: The Fremen token mimicks the worm-riding but from anywhere to anywhere, while the Spacing Guild token gives an extra shipment.
  • Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Harass and Withdraw card, which makes it so than after the battle the unused forces go to the reserves.
  • Home Field Advantage:
    • The Ecaz & Moritani expansion turns reserves into homeworlds (Southern Hemisphere for the Fremen, and the Emperor gets two), which gives bonuses to their defenders and confers advantages when garrisoned, or disadantages when not garrisoned enough. How many forces are required to trigger those dis/advantages vary from faction to faction, with the Bene Gesserit needing more than half their forces at home for full benefits as an extreme example.
    • The Arraken stronghold makes it cheaper to support the defendant's forces.
    • The Carthag stronghold grants a free Poison Defense under specific cirumstances.
  • The Medic: Two Medic-themed Leader Skills:
    • The Killer Medic grant bonus leader strength in battle when a Poison Defense is used;
    • The Suk Graduate allows after a won battle for a limited number of used forces to go back to reserves instead of dying.
  • The Neutral Zone: The Polar Sink at the center, where combat is disallowed.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Mostly with the parts of the game certain factions have control over:
    • The 1990 Landsraad faction had the ability to block other's player shipping or movements once per turn;
    • Tleilxu players can deny other players from ressurecting their killed leaders.
    • The CHOAM players can:
      • Cancel CHOAM charity phase that usually gives players with little to no spice some of the spice to help them. Alternatively, they can double the charity.
      • Audit battles they won if they used an Auditor as a leader, which gives them benefits either by looking at the opponent's hidden cards, or by said opponent bribing the CHOAM player with Spice to prevent that.
    • The Bureaucrat leader skill, which makes a small portion of spice from large singular payments made by other players disappear in red tape, and the enemy player suffer maluses for every stronghold they occupy when fighting against the Bureaucrat leader.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: Mortiani may offer their victim an alliance as an alternative to suffering through one of their terromism tokens, overwriting any other alliances the victim had in place.
  • Overt Operative: The Bene Gesserit forces cannot be engaged while they pose as 'spiritual advisors'.
  • Protection from the Elements: The sietchs, rocky areas and the cities protect the forces from the storm, unless the atomics were used, then the cities become vulnerable to the storm too.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Emperor, The Spacing Guild, Tleilaxu and CHOAM operate under this to various degrees due to other players having to pay them for their services.
  • Stealing from the Till: CHOAM players gets spice in CHOAM charity phase, enough to potentially give out to all five other players should they be poor. CHOAM keeps the shares of those who don't qualifiy for it, and they can inflate the charity to get even more out of it, at the cost of having to cancel it next turn.
    • The Spice Banker Leader Card, which steals a portion of spice paid to the Spice Bank by other players;
    • The Processing Plant discovery token give its occupier a small portion of all spice harvested during that turn.
  • Super Serum: Overlapping with Cast from Money, in advanced rules you need to pump your forces with spice in order to get full value out of them. Also, the Spice Banker leader skill allows you to pump your skilled leader with spice to give them more strength during battles.
  • Taking You with Me: When players deliberately go to battle with intent to sacrifice their leader and forces to take out the opposing leader. In addition, there are cards to facilitate that:
    • The Posion Tooth card which kills both leaders on both sides, and cannot be defended against with normal snooper cards;
    • The Artillery card, which kills unshieled leaders on both sides and prevents the contribution of shielded leaders to the battle, resulting in the contest of who used more forces in the end;
    • The Lasegun + Shield combination, which kills both leaders, wipes all of the forces and destroys spice in the region. And it doesn't matter who actually uses the Shield card for it to trigger.
    • The Richese Stone Burner card, which can either kill both leaders or reduce their strength to zero, and the battle is then decided by who had the larger amount of unused forces.
  • Undying Loyalty: At the beginning of the game before Traitors are normally dealt, Ecaz draws the cards from the Traitor deck and the first Ecaz leader they draw is taken out of the pool, making that leader safe from treason.
  • Weather-Control Machine:
    • The Weather Control card, which gives players control of the Storm.
    • The Ecological Testing Station discovery token, which when occupied gives the player a limited control of the storm.
  • Weather of War: The Storm that goes counter-clockwise as the game goes and kills everything unprotected (barring the Fremen in the advanced rules, who 'merely' get cut down in half) along the way.

Alternative Title(s): Dune Chronicles Of The Imperium, Hunters Of Dune, Sandworms Of Dune

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