Spacing Guild

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Spacing Guild
Dune franchise element
Mutated Guild Navigator suspended in a tank filled with spice gas, accompanied by Guild agents, as depicted in the David Lynch film Dune (1984).
First appearance
Created byFrank Herbert
GenreScience fiction
In-universe information
TypeOrganization
FunctionControls a monopoly on space travel and banking

The Spacing Guild is an organization in

heighliners
across interstellar space instantaneously.

The power of the Guild is balanced against that of the

Landsraad
. Essentially apolitical, the Guild is primarily concerned with the flow of commerce and preservation of the economy that supports them. Although their ability to dictate the terms of and fees for all transport gives them influence in the political arena, they do not pursue political goals beyond their economic ones.

Navigators

In the Dune series, enormous starships called heighliners employ a scientific phenomenon known as the

Landsraad.[1]

Description

Edrik in his spice tank, as depicted on the cover of Hunters of Dune (2006)

To enable their prescience, Guild Navigators not only consume large quantities of the spice, but are also continuously immersed in highly concentrated amounts of orange spice gas.[3] This level of extreme and extended exposure causes their bodies to atrophy and mutate over time, their heads and extremities elongating, and causing them to become vaguely aquatic in appearance.[3][4] The first external sign of melange-induced metabolic change is visible in the eyes, as the drug tints the sclera and iris to a dark shade of blue, called "blue-in-blue" or "the Eyes of Ibad,"[5] "a total blue so dark as to be almost black."[1] This is a common side effect in all spice addicts.[1]

In the original 1965 novel

Galach."[7]

In an unused passage by Frank Herbert from Dune Messiah published in The Road to Dune (2005), Edric is described as surviving without spice gas once a hole is opened in his tank, though his prescient abilities are practically useless in this state.[8]

Plotlines

Original series

Dune

In

Shaddam IV by seizing control of Arrakis, the only source of the all-important drug melange. Paul has learned the extent of the Guild's dependence on spice, and that without it they are "blind" and unable to navigate interstellar travel. The Guild is forced to side with Paul, threatening to strand the Emperor and his troops on Arrakis if he does not relinquish the throne.[1]

In 'Appendix A' of Dune, Herbert wrote that the Guild, along with the Bene Gesserit order, had been responsible for the standardization of religion in the universe by promoting the adoption of the

Orange Catholic Bible and offering protection to the dissenting theologians who created this book. Nonetheless, in the same appendix, Herbert held that the Guild members themselves were atheists, and only promoted this move to promote a stable societal order from which they could profit.[1] Houses of the Imperium may contract with the Guild to be removed "to a place of safety outside the System". Some Houses in danger of ruin or defeat have "become renegade Houses, taking family atomics and shields and fleeing beyond the Imperium".[1] The Guild controls a "sanctuary planet" (or planets) known as Tupile, intended for such "defeated Houses of the Imperium ... Location(s) known only to the Guild and maintained inviolate under the Guild Peace".[5]

Dune Messiah

In

Stilgar on orders from Paul's sister Alia Atreides.[3]

In

gholas.[7]

God Emperor of Dune

In

Norma Cenva who designed it.[10]

Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune

The fifth and sixth novels of the series,

Butlerian Jihad several millennia before. These compilers eliminate the need for the Navigators, and the strategic disadvantage that this aspect of melange dependency has become, because the Navigators' abilities are slowly being compromised by the severe reductions in the availability of spice resulting from the destruction of Dune and the sandworms on that planet, and the strict control by the Bene Gesserit, who maintain a monopoly over the largest stockpiles of melange. The prescient rule of Leto II that lasted 3,500 years has shown the universe the perils of prescience, namely that the entire universe can be locked into the vision of a single entity, giving that entity absolute power. The Guild, facing obsolescence and suspicion, couples itself with Ix in decline; Navigators continue to exist, but their importance in the universe is severely diminished.[6][7] As Paul Atreides notes in Dune, it was the Spacing Guild's obsession with the "safe path" that led them "ever into stagnation", and brought on their eventual obsolescence.[1]

Sequels

After publishing six Dune prequel novels, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson released two sequel novels, Hunters of Dune (2006) and Sandworms of Dune (2007), which complete the original series and wrap up storylines that began with Frank Herbert's Heretics of Dune.[11][12] The works were based on a 30-page outline by Frank Herbert for a sequel to Chapterhouse Dune he dubbed Dune 7.[13]

In Hunters of Dune, the Navigator Edrik fears his kind's obsolescence when the Spacing Guild itself (pressured by a shortage of melange) begins funding the development of superior

Waff later offers Edrik something better in exchange for sanctuary—the genetic knowledge for the Guild to create their own, optimized sandworms to produce melange.[14]

In Sandworms of Dune (2007), the sequel to Hunters and finale of the original Dune series, the Spacing Guild has begun replacing its Navigators with the more cost-effective Ixian navigation devices and cutting off the Navigators' supply of melange. More and more Navigators are dying from withdrawal of the spice—including Ardrae, "one of the oldest remaining Navigators"

Khrone, who seizes the valuable optimized melange. He incapacitates Edrik by damaging his tank and releasing its spice gas, soon destroying the entire heighliner to rid himself of the Navigator altogether.[17]

Prequels

The

Wallach IX and plummeting into the atmosphere to its destruction. Affected by the tainted melange, D'murr misguides his ship out of the known universe and collapses. As his spice supply is replaced with genuine melange, D'murr uses the last of his strength to return the ship safely to Junction, home of the Guild headquarters, before dying.[19]

In the

Holtzman engine, which allows a ship to fold space, traveling great distances instantaneously. Her future husband, entrepreneur Aurelius Venport, begins mass-producing the ships which are eventually known as heighliners. The technique proves to be unsafe, however, as one in ten flights ends in the ship's destruction due to navigational difficulties. Desperate for a solution, Norma consumes increasing amounts of melange to improve her thinking and concentration. Full immersion in a tank of spice gas deforms her body, but ultimately bestows on her the prescient ability to plot a safe path for a heighliner through foldspace. As the first Navigator, Norma begins a training program to produce enough Navigators to pilot a fleet of heighliners. Over 80 years later, she puts the creation of the Spacing Guild in motion through her descendant, Josef Venport.[20]

After consolidating its hold on the space travel industry during the events of

Serena Butler
. However, decades after the end of the Butlerian Jihad, Emperor Jules revokes the monopoly in order to curry political favor, resulting in several rival foldspace companies springing up, such as Celestial Transport and EsconTran. These new companies, however, are unable to provide 100% safe transportation due to their lack of Navigators, the creation process of whom is a proprietary secret tightly held by VenHold. Director Josef Venport ruthlessly crushes the competition and even executes a rival CEO. Josef Venport's desire for restoring his family's monopoly and thirst for knowledge put him in conflict with the Butlerians, a radical religious sect that follows the teachings of the late Rayna Butler under the leadership of Manford Torondo. Realizing that the weak Emperor Salvador Corrino is unwilling to crush the Butlerians, Venport lures him out to Arrakis and has him eaten by a sandworm. Unfortunately for him, Salvador's sabotaged ship manages to return to Salusa Secundus and report the truth to the newly-crowned Emperor Roderick, Salvador's brother. Roderick swears vengeance on Venport. Just then, Torondo gets his hands on a cache of atomics, which he uses to obliterate VenHold's main planet. Eventually, imperial forces track down Venport's secret laboratory and invade. Norma offers Josef a chance to survive by becoming a Navigator. She then folds space to the bridge of the imperial flagship and strikes a deal with the Emperor, agreeing to dissolve VenHold in exchange for Roderick sparing her and all her Navigators, and also establishing the Spacing Guild.

Depictions

Film and television

In David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, the Navigator's mutation affects his entire body, and he resembles a giant newt or worm with a heavily deformed head, V-shaped mouth and vestigial limbs.[21][22] The Navigator is not shown to have the blue-in-blue eyes of a spice addict. The 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune portrays the Navigator as a withered figure with a humanoid head, blue-in-blue eyes and arms which have mutated into wings with elongated webbed fingers. The 2003 sequel miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune presents Edric as a sleek, golden humanoid with an elongated head and limbs, and feathery appendages.[9] Though Navigators are not present in Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film Dune, Guild representatives are depicted as humanoids in white, cloaked space suits with opaque helmet visors.[23][24] Villeneuve explained:

We don't see the Navigators in this first part... I tried to keep all the space-travelling as mysterious as possible, like almost bringing some kind of mysticism or sacred relationship with that part of the movie. Everything involving space is just evocated and very mysterious.[23]

Writing for Screen Rant, Adam Felman opined that the limited inclusion of the Guild in Villeneuve's film helped prevent the story from becoming convoluted.[9]

Games

The Spacing Guild is a sub-faction in the

Ordos) from their homeworlds to Arrakis. The Guild also uses its Navigators to pilot their NIAB ("Navigator in a Boat") Tanks, a hover tank that projects a single electrical bolt, and NIAP ("Navigators in a Plane") Flyers, an aerial version of the NIAB Tank, although without any weapons of its own. The NIAB Tank also has the ability to fold-space for short distances on the battlefield.[27] One mission in the game involves the three House attacking each other on a Guild heighliner.[28]
The Guild forces in the game can also deploy a unit called the Maker, an infantry unit somewhat resembling both a Navigator and a small sandworm, armed with an electrical weapon. Later in the game, the Spacing Guild attempts to seize control of the universe by building an "Emperor Worm".

Analysis

John C. Smith analyzes the concept of the Guild in the essay "Navigators and the Spacing Guild" in The Science of Dune (2008).[29]

Notes

  1. ^ Frank Herbert refers to the Navigators alternately as "Guild Steersmen" beginning with Dune Messiah (1969). It may also be noted that starting in Dune (1965), Herbert uses the term "Guildsman" alternately for both Navigators and Guild agents.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Herbert, Frank (1965). Dune.
  2. ^ Herbert, Frank (1965). "Appendix III: Report on Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes". Dune.
  3. ^ a b c d e Herbert, Frank (1969). Dune Messiah.
  4. ^ Pierce-Bohen, Kayleena (October 30, 2021). "Dune: 10 Biggest Differences Between the 2021 and 1984 Versions". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Herbert, Frank (1965). "Terminology of the Imperium". Dune.
  6. ^ a b Herbert, Frank (1984). Heretics of Dune.
  7. ^ a b c d Herbert, Frank (1985). Chapterhouse: Dune.
  8. ^ Herbert, Frank; Brian Herbert; Kevin J. Anderson (2005). The Road to Dune.
  9. ^ a b c Felman, Adam (April 3, 2022). "Why It's a Good Thing the Dune Movie Doesn't Include the Guild". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  10. ^ Herbert, Frank (1981). God Emperor of Dune.
  11. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (September 24, 2006). "Across the Universe: Dune Babies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  12. ^ "Sandworms of Dune Review". Publishers Weekly. July 23, 2007. p. 40. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  13. ^ Neuman, Clayton (August 17, 2009). "Winds of Dune Author Brian Herbert on Flipping the Myth of Jihad". AMC. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2020. I got a call from an estate attorney who asked me what I wanted to do with two safety deposit boxes of my dad's ... in them were the notes to Dune 7—it was a 30-page outline. So I went up in my attic and found another 1,000 pages of working notes.
  14. ^ Herbert, Brian; Anderson, Kevin J. (2006). Hunters of Dune.
  15. ISBN 978-0-7653-1293-8
    .
  16. ^ a b Herbert; Anderson (2007). Sandworms of Dune.
  17. ^ Herbert; Anderson (2007). Sandworms of Dune. pp. 217–218.
  18. Prelude to Dune
    .
  19. ^ Herbert, Brian; Anderson, Kevin J. (2001). Dune: House Corrino.
  20. Legends of Dune
    .
  21. Tor.com
    . Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  22. ^ "David Lynch's Dune Is Better (and Weirder) than You Remember". Digital Trends. October 26, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  23. ^ a b Travis, Ben (November 16, 2021). "Dune Spoiler Interview: Denis Villeneuve on the Ending, Paul's Dreams, and What's Coming in Part Two". Empire. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  24. ^ Butler, Mary Anne (November 19, 2021). "Daily Dune: Those Weren't Guild Navigators on Caladan". NerdBot. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  25. ^ Dingo, Star (June 21, 2001). "Emperor: Battle For Dune Review for PC". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 5, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  26. ^ "Emperor: Battle for Dune Review". The Gamers' Temple. July 19, 2005. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  27. ^ Schnieders, Daniel (July 28, 2022). "NIAB Tank - Emperor: Battle for Dune". Games for Learning. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  28. ^ Kapalka, Jason (September 2001). "The Emperor Has No Clue (Emperor: Battle for Dune Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 206. Ziff Davis. pp. 86–87, 109–115. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  29. ISBN 978-1-933771-28-1
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spacing_Guild&oldid=1221808400"