Dune

As a growing kid, I found myself fascinated with Frank Herbert's series Dune. It was refreshing and thought provoking. Words spoken and sights described may not be the reality, but simply what the character experiences. The mind was the weapon that the protagonist was taught to wield. The entire storyline was a game of chess fought with the lives of powerful people with a central resource called Spice Melange enabling all supernatural and preternatural events in the series.

This world took place after the entire universe fought in a Machine Wars against AI, and as such, machines and AI were banned to be created. There was a Machine God who controlled the world and a massive war took place called the Butlerian Jihad. This ensured that the technological advances shall never progress in this universe due to the fear of another Machine God rising up.

The centre of the series was initially based around Paul Atriedes and his family the Ducal House of Atriedes. They were the closest relative to the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who was a weak creature controlled by various political forces, chief among which was a group of hermetic women who controlled the political powers from the shadows called Bene Gesserit, who existed from the time of Butlerian Jihad.

Apart from these nuns, there were Spacing Guilds who consumed spice and enabled spacefaring exploration and space travel without whom interstellar travel would be impossible. There were other political houses and factions who controlled some aspect of the universe and together each force kept the other in check. This stalemate ensured the enemies were forced to act in the shadows out of fear that their own opponents may use their indiscretion to annihilate them.

The centre of all these forces was the Spice Melange, commonly referred to simply as 'the spice', that was a naturally produced awareness spectrum narcotic that formed a fundamental block of commerce and technological development in the known universe for millennia. It also played an important role in travel and cultural development as it is vital for space travel by enabling Navigators of the Spacing Guild to safely guide space ships through fold space or warp space.It was an exotic consumable that was found only on one planet in the whole universe: Arrakis.

Arrakis was a desert planet with severe temperatures and extremely inhospitable environment. The local people called themselves Fremen and lived in small sietches and were isolationist by nature. These locals were so severely exploited that they wished for nothing but all these outsiders to leave them in peace. The entire planet had been used to farm this spice, and the political house who did this for centuries was the Harkonnen led by the Baron.

The House of Harkonnen was a cruel house with cruel barbaric tastes that made many people despise them. The Harkonnens held brutal gladiatorial games, held slaves and had unceasing appetite for debauchery, destruction and all based desires known to man.

On the other hand, the Ducal house of Atriedes was loved by all and known for their strong moral fibre, and as close confidant of the Emperor, the Atriedes were extremely powerful.

So powerful, in fact, that the Emperor feared that the Duke Leto Atriedes would usurp his throne from him with the support of the other political houses. This fear led to the Emperor, who under the advice of the leader of the Bene Gesserit Order, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, who served as the Emperor's Truthsayer, a distinctive honoured position that allowed the Emperor to discern the truth from the lies, believed that the only way to continue to rule the Universe and ensure the safety of his throne and power, was for the Houses Atriedes and the Harkonnen both to fall in a bitter pyrrhic bloodbath.

The Bene Gesserit had their own agenda here, as the Sisterhood had a singular goal for their Order: to bring about the birth of a supernatural being called Kwisatz Haderach, a powerful being who could see across the space and time unimpeded by his mortality, a man who had the genetic memories of his predecessors like the Reverend Mother of Bene Gesserits, was an accomplished intellectual like the Mentats, and also capable of safely navigating the fold space like a Navigator from the Spacing Guild. The Bene Gesserit had plotted and schemed with other power brokers of the Universe to breed this perfect individual whom they could then control and place on the throne.

The millennia old plot was on the final stage where a concubine to the Duke Atriedes, Jessica, trained by the Reverend Mother herself, would bear a daughter for Leto Atriedes and this daughter shall then wed the son of Baron Harkonnen, ending centuries of animosity and bringing about the politically powerful union who shall sit on the Golden Lion Throne and serve the Bene Gesserit Order's wishes to have one of their own rule the Universe.

Alas, Jessica fell in love with the Duke and out of love, bore a son Paul. This meant that Jessica went against the wishes of the Order when they were so close to their mission. And this ensured that Bene Gesserit would plot the demise of Jessica and the House Atriedes.

Paul Atriedes would start showing signs of being the One, as the Reverend Mother tests him with Gom Jabbar that Paul passes. Worried of losing the one last link to their goal, the Reverend Mother offers Jessica a way out, the Missionaria Protectiva, on Arrakis, a centuries old mission by the sisters of the Bene Gesserit Order who spread false superstitions and tales among the local people of the primitive worlds. These Missionaria Protectiva spread words that turn into legends that can protect and help future sisters of the Order by Panoplia Propheticus, a series of prophecies and legends that aid the sisters in the future when dealing with the locals.

One such Missionaria Protectiva laid a Panoplia Propheticus on Arrakis about Mahdi, the Chosen One of the Fremen, who shall aid the Fremen and live with them to bring about a Holy War across the planet and deliver the Fremen unto greener pastures and paradise where the Fremens would want for nothing.

This Chosen One was called Lisan-Al-Gaib, and the Reverend Mother hoped that with this legend, Jessica could survive the Arrakis and the death and annihilation of her house with Paul keeping the bloodline of the Atriedes alive.

But Paul ended up becoming the Kwisatz Haderach, and gave up on the Golden Path of the Bene Gesserit Order.

And in this story, the central resource that was most coveted and caused Universe wide wars was the Spice and the only place in the world that produced it was the harsh planet Arrakis.

Knowing the story and the ins and outs of the nuances of this world, I decided this world would offer me what I lack the most: Experience.

Experience handling the world at large, political and socioeconomic knowledge to manoeuvre the aristocratic courts of the Emperor, the knowledge to fight with wits and blades with enemies modified and bred by centuries and millennia of eugenics, and fighting the alluring powers of the exotic orders like Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax and even the Spacing Guild to some extent.

And when I had to face the wider realities that contained untold horror, it made sense to begin with the baptism of the world that delivered the 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 the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

I stared at the Fremen in their still suit as they stared at me with open hostility. No Fremen crosses the desert without a still suit. And no Fremen walks the sand without protection from the sietch and his allies.

A lone wolf dies but the pack survives. Fremen never lived or travelled without being in groups.

And as such, seeing me in loose natural fibres of primitive clothing belonging to before the time of the Butlerian Jihad without being bothered by the scorching heat of the planet Arrakis, the Fremen were a little unsettled and worried about me.

But, the Essence of the Warlord was utterly incredible. No environment unsettled me or caused me discomfort. I felt my body adapt every passing second as I stared at the group with a smirk.

"Who speaks for your people?" I asked as the man stared at me.

"Shouldn't the outsider introduce himself? You are a stranger to this land, and you are no Fremen. Your eyes speak that you weren't born in these deserts."

The man spoke with authority, as I smiled.

I knew what timeline I am in. And I was unworried.

"I believe you presently or in the past, hosted an Outsider. Duncan Idaho. A soldier of Atriedes and a honourable man. If he is presently staying here, I have words for him. If he's not, then I have words for the leader of this sietch. My identity is not important. If you must call me anything, call me...Warlord."

My words unsettled them even further as the group stared at me.

"Nobody knows of the outsider living with us. How did an outsider like you find out?"

The man asked as I shrugged uncaringly.

"I am not obligated to answer. I have a purpose and you either assist me or stand in my way. I cannot be denied or delayed. I am inevitable."

I declared as the men behind him raised their blades and prepared for conflict as I stared at the man who kept looking at me.

"Big words for one man in a desert. What will you do to stop us all?"

He asked mockingly as I stared at him.

"I can draw your blood and slit your throat but you Fremen respect and worship the water in the body too much to allow such travesty. I have come with a purpose and I do not wish to be delayed. Speak now or I shall be forced to act."

Something in my voice gave away the magnitude of my threat as the man seemed to have some instincts for self-preservation.

"There is no need for violence. Come."

The man raises his hand as all weapons are put away.

"This is Sietch Tabr. And I am the Naib. Stilgar."

I nodded as I expected as such.

"Sietch Tabr? I am honoured to meet the Naib. I have many names, but you may call me Changez."

I decided to use the Mongol name Changez, that was known to the world as the great Genghis Khan. After all, what symbolises warlord if not the ever expanding, ever conquering Genghis Khan?

The Naib were leaders of the Sietch, the several million Fremen on Arrakis were spread out into these tiny socio-economic biomes called sietches of which, Sietch Tabr was the largest and the most well known.

These people were simple and had simple expectations from life and the people around them. The political struggles and incomprehensibly complex web of intrigue known to the wider Imperium due to the power brokers was unknown to these people.

I looked at Stilgar and spit on the ground before him as Stilgar stilled for a moment as he stared at me.

A moment later, he spit on the ground as well.

"Is the soldier inside?" I asked as the Fremen parted ways allowing me to pass.

Since the Stilgar before me didn't look anything like the actor from the movie or any other adaptation of the Dune novels, I decided that the other characters would not bear any semblance either.

The Naib led me inside as the people took off their stillsuits within the colder insides of their sietches.

Without the still suits, these life saving climate regulating body suits, the people stared at me as I appeared without any protection and survived in the desert.

"The soldier will be here. In time. Before that, I want to know how you survived the desert without the still suits?"

I smiled.

"The desert does not hinder me. The scorching dry heat of the planet does not claim the water from my body."

I smiled as inwardly, I felt my body adapt to the spice mélange in the air. The blue particles of the spice glowed in the ethereal air of the planet as I breathed in the nootropic exotic particles with each intake.

And with the Essence of the Warlord, I adapted to the spice and its effects as my body adjusted to the heat and the environment as well as the presence of the exotic particles produced by the biological metabolism of the titanic sandworms that inhabited these lands.

I looked around as a few people brought a large man with them as I spotted the herald of House Atriedes on his shoulder.

His eyes looked at me and noticed my gaze which immediately caused him to grow weary.

"Duncan Idaho? May I have a word with you in private? I know what Duke Leto Atriedes desires from these people. And what you seek is an army. But the Fremen fight for no flag and seek no part in the Imperium's conflicts."

Duncan stared wide-eyed as the Fremen began to whisper amongst themselves while Stilgar nodded and stared at me deeply.

"Are the outsider's words true, Duncan?"

His eyes never left me as Stilgar asked Duncan who reluctantly nodded.

"I hoped to find people who can help us fight the Harkonnens and avoid their tyrannical rule to mar the beautiful planet of Arrakis."

Even if Atriedes were known to be moral, they were not above manipulations and duplicity.

Stilgar stared at me until his gaze left me and found Duncan. "The outsider speaks the truth. We seek no part in your fights. Harkonnens were a menace and many Fremen died at their hands. But for us, Atriedes merely represent the change of masters who wish to hold out leash. You go and tell your master that he can harvest his spice and leave us in peace. We want no part in his schemes."

I looked at Stilgar and shook my head.

"Maybe your earlier plan to meet Duke Leto Atriedes was not as futile as you think, Naib. Go and have a measure of the Duke and his family. Perhaps, you might find something there that makes you change your mind. I only ask that you allow me to meet the Duke with you, Duncan. I must have words with the honourable man."

Duncan was a sceptical as Stilgar looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"And how did you know that I planned to visit this new administrator of our planet?"

I smiled. "I see things. And I don't need my eyes to see them. And tragedy awaits the Atriedes. Maybe it will be wise if the so called honourable house had my assistance to help them in their time of need."