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[The Spacing Guild]

Here's a question. The "fire" in the bellies of the Sandworms. What is it? Is it that their metabolism is so strong that there is an actual physical manifestation of that in the form of flames?

[JJHunter]

Hi, I'm new here :) So greetings to you dear space travellers!

I want to prepare some kind of RPG-strategy game via forum in duniverse so I need some information about few things :) I do hope you will help me by giving me long answers ;)

1. CHOAM

Ok, it's a big organisation of merchants responsible for imports, exports.... But how does it work? Who exactly is in CHOAM? They just say "you can sell it" and to someone else "you can't"?

It's important to me, so if anybody know something more, plz say...

2. Landsraad

All noble houses are in Landsraad, right? And they protect the great convection, laws.

What laws did they create?

What is in the great convection?

Landsraad has its own army is this like UN? - all houses give their soldiers?

Why Landsraad did nothing about the conflict Atreides - Harkonnen?

Did Emperor fear Landsraad, when he helped Harkonnen? If yes, why?

3. Lasguns and shields.

If someone will shoot to shield using lasguns it will make big boom, right? So, why never happened, that one fanatic guy shoot to group/army of soldiers protected by shields, and kill them all? Exactly the same situation with cities, cause they are also protected by shields. Isn't this stupid? One guy with BIG lasgun could blow up the whole city. I can't understand it. Neither can't imagine situation when two groups with lasguns charge on each other and when they see that enemy has shields they drop lasguns and draw knives. One shoot and there is no enemy... (maybe there is nobody because of long range, but if they were a group of fanatics...)

Please explain it to me.

Regards

[driftingcloud]

3. Lasguns and shields.

If someone will shoot to shield using lasguns it will make big boom, right? So, why never happened, that one fanatic guy shoot to group/army of soldiers protected by shields, and kill them all? Exactly the same situation with cities, cause they are also protected by shields. Isn't this stupid? One guy with BIG lasgun could blow up the whole city. I can't understand it. Neither can't imagine situation when two groups with lasguns charge on each other and when they see that enemy has shields they drop lasguns and draw knives. One shoot and there is no enemy... (maybe there is nobody because of long range, but if they were a group of fanatics...)

Please explain it to me.

well, there's the issue of a positive feedback loop. The big boom happens at both ends of the laser. The target shield goes boom and the lasgun (and operator) goes boom. Only suicide fanatics would do something like that. Why there aren't more people committed to suicide, I don't know. Maybe it wasn't worth it if you destroyed the city/planet/equipment you hoped to gain by the attack. Dune, for example, was notoriously bad on equipment. So if the Harkonnens wiped out the Atreides by lasgun attack to Arakeen shields, they lose a major city and the equipment housed there. That would be bad for business if they were intending to get back into spice production. And that is the most critical element, right? The spice must flow? Everyone is addicted to it for their extra long lives.

If I remember correctly, the Butlerian Jihad book got this fact a little wrong with Holtzmann and his discovery of the same. The shield blew up but the lasgun operator did not.

[MrFlibble]

Don't forget that the shield-lasgun interaction explosion could be unpredictably powerful, equaling that of a nuclear weapon, which would be a violation of the Great Convention. No House could risk that, but it is certain that Leto I considered a possibility of a lasgun attack by the Harkonnen. Here's an extract from the conversation between Thufir Hawat and the Lady Jessica:

"...Perhaps it has to do with the lasguns. Perhaps they'll risk secreting a few lasguns with timing mechanisms aimed at house shields. Perhaps they'll..."

"And who could tell after the blast if the explosion wasn't atomic?" he asked. "No, my Lady. They'll not risk anything that illegal. Radiation lingers. The evidence is hard to erase. No. They'll observe most of the forms."

Besides, it is mentioned in Heretics or Chapterhouse (more probably the latter) that setting traps with Holtzmann shields and lasguns (no fanatics there, only mechanisms) by the Honored Matres was a very expensive thing.

JJHunter, most of your questions have possible answeres in the Dune Encyclopedia, but keep in mind that it is actually not considered "canon" by those who are in charge. Here you can get the link to a PDF version.

[JJHunter]

Thx mates :) That helped me a lot!

Specially Dune Encyclopedia ;)Great thing.

[captainatom]

yea i got a question. does anyone know the little prayer that kynes was saying as the sand worm was passing out while he was out with the duke an they rescued that harvester?

[Grimbringer]

Kyne said a bunch of things, I dont remember a Sandworm passing out.

I think you are talking about the part where he said.

"Bless the maker and bless his water"  "Bless the coming and going of him, may his passage cleanse the world, may he keep the world for his people."

[CowboyNinjaD]

Do any of the books ever explicitly say what happened to earth (Old Terra)? I've read them all except the Legends of Dune trilogy.

I remember vague references to it being destroyed, but they never say exactly how it happened. Anyone know?

[MrFlibble]

According to the Dune Encyclopedia, Earth was decimated but then restored as a park:

13402 Ceres gains the Imperial Seat after a planetoid strikes Terra.

13402-13399 THE RESCUE OF THE TREASURES from Terra.

13360 Terra re-seeded and set aside (by Imperial edict) as a natural park.

But then again, DE is branded as "non-canon"...

[TMA_1]

more and more, I am beginning to think that the history of earth is such a distant societal memory that it isnt as revered as many other sci fi series make it to be.

[Andrew]

I think this partially has to do with Dune taking place in such a distant future and the fact that known space (# of planets etc) is such a large area, it is hard to remember earth.

[Dunenewt]

13402 Ceres gains the Imperial Seat after a planetoid strikes Terra.

13402-13399 THE RESCUE OF THE TREASURES from Terra.

13360 Terra re-seeded and set aside (by Imperial edict) as a natural park.

Ceres as in the asteroid?  Or is it a dwarf planet these days..?

[TMA_1]

hmm I have always been curious as well, I would agree that it is talking about the dwarf planet.