re: Having a hard time getting into Dune

I’ll try to lay out the universe a bit to give some perspective.


There are a number of factions vying for power on a number of levels as well as some other groups which would be considered “support factions.”

Major groups / factions-

The Emperor - Head of House Corrino and ruler of the known universe. His prized Sardukar stormtroopers are the most fearsome soldiers in the universe.

The Lansraad - All Houses, major and minor, which are nominally under the Emperor. Individually, they are far weaker than House Corrino but, combined, they are far more numerous.

For the purpose of Dune, two of the major houses of the Lansraad are the Atreides and the Harkkonens. The Atreides are blue blood cousins of House Corrino, the Harkkonens are powerful due to money from selling resources on their own world and control of spice mining on Arakkis (Dune), and the two houses have been in kanly (vendetta) for generations. Pretty much an intergalactic House Stark and House Lannister.

The Spacing Guild - They hold a monopoly on all intergalactic transport, be it passenger travel or shipping of goods. They travel by “folding space”, which is effectively teleportation, which can only be done by Guild Navigators who are under the influence of the Spice Melange. They charge a lot for their services and, while they may not have direct power, the ability to deny service means that they could destroy any one entity by cutting them off if they chose to do so.

CHOAM - The merchant guild which pretty much controls most commerce in the universe in the galaxy. They are in charge of most transactions involving shipping from one world to another and get a cut from it, though they only hold this ability through the Spacing Guild allowing them to have merchandise shipped on the Guild ships.


“Support” factions-

The Bene Gesseret sisterhood - An all female order which has supernatural powers. They practice secret breeding programs through seduction of various individuals to pursue several potential goals, nominally to influence politics by providing daughters or heirs to specific houses by their members either being wives or concubines.

They also use their powers to serve as “truth-sayers” (living lie detectors) to the Emperor and other powerful houses.


Mentats - Specially trained humans who have the ability to process vast amounts of knowledge and perform analysis in their head. They perform the functions of computers in this universe because it is forbidden to have a machine which can think like a man.

Pretty much all houses have a mentat who will handle strategy for their house under the leadership of the head of house


Suk doctors - The best doctors in the universe. They are trusted by every faction from the Emperor on down in part because of conditioning which makes them incapable of harming any of their patients



Other-

Arakkis - The planet, informally known as “Dune”, is an inhospitable desert planet which would be ignored if it weren’t the source of the Spice Melange, the most valuable substance in the galaxy, which has life-extending properties and is used in many different ways such as allowing Spacing Guild navigators to see long distances in order to “fold space” (teleport).

Control of the planet is under the Harkkonens at the start of the story, with the Emperor declaring that the Harkkonens are to relinquish it to their rivals, the Atreides.

The Fremen - A mysterious faction of desert people on Dune, who are the natives of the planet. No one knows their numbers but they are ever-present in their stillsuits (wetsuit-like skin suits used to prevent water loss in the dry environment) within the cities and desert of the planet.



A lot of it boils down to a bunch of different factions who have some level of power but, in some instances, a nominally powerful individual can be undercut by one or more of these other factions in some way.