The Dune Encyclopedia

by Willis E McNelly

  The maula pistol was invented by Jen Maltherin, a native of Bezel II, in 3741; but the technology which led to its invention can be traced directly to the visit paid that planet by the Butlerian Jihad in 192 B.G. Bezel II was an example of the Jihad's earliest excesses: Jehanne Butter's horde leveled every industrial facility the world possessed and then carried out a second wave of attacks which destroyed most of the civilian housing. Fully eighty percent of the population of Bezel II was killed, leaving the shaken survivors to consider how best to avoid a repeat engagement with the Jihad's fleet which sometimes returned to interdict worlds believed to have indulged in technological backsliding.

  The Bezelians decided their best defense lay in outdoing the fanatics at their own speciality. When investigative scouts, sent back to check the sector of which Bezel II was a part, made planetfall on that world in 180 BG, they discovered that the natives had completed their work for them: on all of Bezel II, no device more complicated than a windmill was in evidence. Planetary law forbade an individual to build or possess machinery which exceeded stringent anti-technological guidelines. The scouts returned to the fleet with glowing reports concerning the Bezelians's newfound orthodoxy.

  The maula pistol during its earliest centuries of production followed the guidelines to a nicety. The components were machined by hand or by the simplest sort of shop equipment, and the guns were assembled in "factories" which could most charitably be described as cottage industries. The pistols manufactured during this time were not those which would later gain popularity in the Imperium: these were heavier, less accurate models most often used in hunting calboc, the animal most nearly resembling a marsupial deer which provided the Bezelians with the bulk of their meat supply.

  So deeply ingrained were the habits acquired after the Jihad that it was not until 6783 that restrictions on import of more advanced technology were loosened. It was the work of another full millennium to bring Bezel II to a par with its neighboring worlds so far as manufacturing practices and materials were concerned.

  In 7891, the first modern maula pistols entered the interplanetary market. They proved to be one of the few Bezelian exports which sold well. Most of the Imperium was sufficiently recovered from the effects of the Jihad by this time that there was little demand for the kind of simplistic technology most Bezelian products represented.

  Their popularity remained high until 10769, when the pistols were included in one of the earliest weaponry bans issued as part of Leto's Peace.

  Further references: Lors Karden, The Flame and the Flower: A Short History of the Butlerian Jihad (Yorba: Rose).

  MELANGE (spice)

  [The following entries on melange appear to have been independent reports (RRC NS 2:12 and RRC NS 2:13) Commissioned by the Bene Gesserit in the early days of the reign of Leto II. — Ed.]

  BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY. A complex bio-polymer originating only on Arrakis. Its several biological activities include interaction with various centers of the central nervous system (CNS), interaction with the immune system, and deposition within the sclera of the eyes. To date the structure of the biologically active portion of spice has not been isolated, although it is known that other portions of the molecule contain glycoprotein, a cupric heme and cinnamic acid.

  The interaction with the CNS is primarily in the Köhliker-Kramptz center, which controls time-space awareness. In most humans this center is rudimentary, consisting of only a small number of cells (K-K cells) in the central cortex of the brain. Ingestion of spice stimulates the growth of K-K cells so that the individual becomes more aware of his/her time-space environment. It is due to the action of the spice on the K-K cells that melange is addictive. If quantities in excess of 2 grams daily per 70 kilograms of body weight are ingested, severe addiction is encountered. Withdrawal from the spice from an addict results in insanity and eventual death due to the action of the breakdown products of K-K cells on the other cells of the CNS.

  Bene Gesserit research suggests that females capable of becoming Reverend Mothers have inherently well-developed Köhliker-Kramptz centers. One theory proposed is that some component of the Köhliker-Kramptz center is genetically sex-linked. If that is true, then it is probable that Paul Atreides represented a mutation in that component rather that a true product of the B.G. breeding program. This deviation is one explanation for the unique action of spice on the Atreides family. Precedent has been set for mutation in the genes controlling the Köhliker-Kramptz center. The Guild Steersmen were manipulated genetically so that they had highly developed Köhliker-Kramptz centers, although originally their genetic engineers did not know the exact location or composition of the time-space awareness center.

  The geriatric properties of melange are considerable. The addict's predicted life-span is increased two to four times that of normal, depending upon the age at which the spice was first ingested as well as the dose. When the spice is digested, certain as yet unidentified breakdown products are absorbed into the bloodstream. These products interact with T-cells of the immune system, rendering the addict immune to most bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral agents of disease. Moreover, changes which occur in body cells due to aging or malignant transformation are rapidly recognized and the cells are eliminated. Ingestion of spice also imparts an immunity to many common poisons.

  One of the most striking results of a diet high in melange is the "Eyes of Ibad," the characteristic "blue on blue" eye color: the whites and irises of the eyes turn a deep blue. The precise mechanism of action is not known, but it is thought that certain of the components of melange have affinity for the stroma of the sclera. The 640 A axial periodicity of the collagen fibrils may entrap the melange components deposited because of the relative deficiency of water-binding substances in the sclera. The oblique arrangement and variability in collagen fibril diameter also serve to maintain the entrapment of the melange components.

  Visual acuity is not reduced by the deposition of the blue pigment. In fact, in the white sun light of Arrakis, the pigment acts as a blue filter, increasing contrast and enhancing vision.

  The incomplete knowledge of the structure of melange prevents us from knowing all the interactions of this unique compound with the human body.

  M.S.

  Further references: MELANGE, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION; SPICE entries; Alizhii Köhliker and Zhiemer Kramptz, "Unique Cells Present in the Brain Cortex of a Genetic Prescient," Journal of Interplanetary Medicine, 59:110-131; Sin Qadrin, Static Barriers of the Cerebral Cortex (Richese: U. Of Bailey Press); R.M. Cassius Ida Treac, "New Views of an Old System," Archives Quarterly Review, 15:199-253; Javid sen-Garu, "Analysis of the Time-Space Awareness Centers of the Guild Steersman," Journal of Psychoperception, 23: 821-829.

  CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. A complex biopolymer produced during the life cycle of the sandworm of Arrakis. The chemical structure of this remarkable geriatric pharmaceutical agent has not yet been fully elucidated, nor have attempts to produce the substance synthetically been successful.

  Reports of the molecular weight of melange have varied from 100 x 106 to 2 x 1012, depending upon the method of determination. This has led Nidim, et al. to speculate that melange is a heterogeneous mixture of polymers of various sizes. The substance is hydrophilic, readily dissolved in aqueous solutions but not in organic solvents.

  To our best knowledge the polymer is composed of subunits of proteoglycan-heme derivatives of cinnamic acid. Siharis has isolated subunits of the following structure through Shimmelson degradation:

  The exact nature of the polymerization of these subunits is not known. Since the isolated subunits have none of the geriatric properties of melange, we can assume that during he degradation process another, biologically active, chemical moiety is lost. The deep blue color of melange is due in part to the presence of the heme group. It is believed, however, that the biologically active portion of the molecule possesses a fluorescent quality in certain light wavelengths.

  With Lasi-Sync spectroscopy of refined melange, several f
ree-radicals have been detected within the molecule. The manner in which these free-radicals are protected and heir exact composition has not been shown. The presence of the free-radicals leads to the speculation that the biological activity resides in that portion of the molecule. Moreover, until the means of protecting the highly reactive free-radicals has been found, it is highly unlikely that this portion of melange will be isolated, much less synthetically produced.

  M.S.

  Further references: MELANGE, BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY; H. Nidim, T. Fenslow, and L. Shamo, Review of the Chemistry of Melange, (Caladan: Second Great House Conference on Chemistry), 13474; Andre Shimmelson, "Interaction of Organolytic Acids with Biopolymers," Interplanetary Journal of Suk Pharmacy, 173:202-222.

  MENTATS, HISTORY OF THE ORDER

  Founded 1234 during the reign of Mikael I, the Builder, by Gilbertus Albans (1192-1294); originally established on the planet Septimus, later moved to Tleilax (1246); expanded and reorganized by Grodon Orpar Playt (1186-1272); suppressed by Leto II in 11745.

  Gilbertus Albans, a Septimian philosopher and logician, conceived a program of far-reaching importance one spring morning in 1231 during some leisure-time reading on the Butlerian Jihad. It occurred to Albans that the legendary computers had been built by humans, and it seemed unlikely to him that they had possessed capacities beyond those of the trained human mind. Over the next few years, he devised a plan of study for the production of human computers, which he named Mentats, and recruited students for the program. The early Order, located on Septimus, consisted of three ranks of adepts: Memorizers, Processors, and Hypothesists. Although often in financial difficulties for his infant Order, Albans refused to allow his Mentats to serve until they had passed through all three ranks. But he did allow those still in training to publicize Mentat abilities, and that practice led to the relocation of the Order House.

  Of the three ranks, Processors were the most vulnerable. Their training stressed unquestioning acceptance of the direction of others, and they were therefore totally dependent on the good will of those around them. In the Training House they were safely in the care of the Order until they progressed to the relative security of the third rank, Hypothesist.

  One tragic incident on Septimus almost led to the disgrace of the Order. Albans would take his young trainees to various cities from time to time, exhibiting their skills to seek support for his program. On one such occasion, a group of five Processors became separated from the main party. Under instructions from Albans to wait by the city's sports stadium, the group asked a passerby how to find the stadium. He said, "Just follow them — they're on the way to the stadium," and pointed to a band of gladiators. The Processors fell in step behind the gladiators, followed them into the arena, and were killed in the melee of the day's program. There are similar stories of Processors being kidnapped (no difficult task) for carnival sideshow curiosities. Albans saw that at worst the Order risked destruction and at best faced public ridicule. He therefore contracted with the Spacing Guild to relocate to Tleilax. For a percentage of the profits, the Tleilaxu agreed to supply the Order with military protection, beginning an association that was to have regrettable consequences centuries later.

  Once Albans was able to train a sufficient number of Hypothesists in seclusion on Tleilax, he undertook an effective campaign to persuade CHOAM directors and managers of the extraordinary value of Mentats. So economically successful was his program, and so secret were his training methods, that for centuries the Order grew rich. Its Tleilaxu protectors also prospered from their share, and some speculate that the wealth from these early years gave the Tleilaxu the investment capital for their programs in biogenetic engineering. Others suggest that the success and secrecy of the Order of Mentats led the greedy Tleilaxu to attempt the production of Mentats by other means.

  GRODON ORPAR PLAYT III. Grodon Orpar Playt III, an author, statistician, and sometime military theoretician, retired as Planetary Governor of Stormstile to accept a CHOAM directorship. During his service in that capacity he heard of the work of Albans and personally encountered several Mentats. When his term as director expired, he made contact with the Order; as his career suggests, he possessed a prodigious intellect, and he completed the Mentat training program in three months. His value was self-evident to Albans, who was persuaded by Playt to expand the program to meet the needs of government leaders. Playt proposed the three senior ranks of Generalist, Simulationist, and Advisor, and extended the training program to accommodate the new ranks in a thorough revision of Albans' Mentat Handbook. His revision remained almost unchanged for millennia thereafter.

  GROWTH OF THE ORDER. The Order grew, slowly at first, but ever more quickly as CHOAM executives realized the worth of Mentats. Their rigorous discipline, commitment to logic, and avoidance of emotion provided for peaceful and orderly expansion of the Order. By 1625 the Order House reached its optimal size, accurately predicted by Albans:

  PROBATIONAIRES

  Infants and toddlers 225

  Children 3 to 6 years old 440

  Children 7 to 10 years old 400

  Children 11 to 13 years old 280

  CANDIDATES

  Fourteen-year-olds 90

  APPLICANTS

  Fifteen-year-olds 80

  MINOR ORDINARIES

  Memorizers 60

  Processors 55

  Hypothesists 50

  MAJOR ORDINARIES

  Generalists 10

  Simulationists 6

  Advisors 4

  The Order also comfortably supported a staff of 1700 at the House and a field staff of 200 in its auxiliary, The Friends of the Order of Mentats.

  CHALLENGES TO THE ORDER. As centuries passed, the scope of the training program changed little. But this stability was challenged during the unprecedented economic growth of the Imperium, particularly under Avelard II (reigned 1624-1647). Under severe political pressure, Avelard came within a whisker of sending troops to Tleilax to force the Order to expand its training program. Proctor Makarfo Bonn resisted the demands to alter the size, pace, or quality of the Order's training efforts, and finally persuaded Avelard that neither Imperium, CHOAM, nor Landsraad would gain from watered-down Mentat training. The Tleilaxu claimed part credit for Avelard's forbearance, releasing the news after the crisis that they had threatened to resist the invasion with force; this claim has met with uniform skepticism whenever the relative strengths are considered of the united Sardaukar and Landsraad on the one hand, and the Tleilaxu on the other.

  The Order faced significant problems from radical neo-Butlerians in whatever form that fanaticism emerged over the centuries. Among the most violent were the Pularsanian Leftists, who considered Mentats as traitors who had turned their minds into organic machines. The terror of the Pularsanians was directed against the individual Mentat, though, and assassination — not mass force — was their favored tactic.

  The Tleilaxu could not guarantee the security of Mentats scattered in ones and twos over a thousand worlds; the necessity of defending a Mentat’s person led to the inclusion of martial arts into the Mentat curriculum. The Ginaz School of Master Swordsmen, for example, provided training to Advisor rank Mentats, thus helping to create the specialization of Mentat Assassin. By the tenth millennium, Mentat Assassins — Thufir Hawat of House Atreides or Piter de Vries of House Harkonnen, for example — were sine qua non for a major house with higher aspirations.

  Other specializations were appearing at this nexus of powerful political forces: the ghola Duncan Idaho presented to Muad'Dib by the Tleilaxu was a Zensunni philosopher-Mentat. The author of the standard work on the history of the Order, Dondar Kooreeg, feels that the ghola's Mentat training was crucial to his unprecedented recovery of his pre-ghola identity.

  The truly regrettable waste in Mentat specialization was the failure to link Mentat training with either the Spacing Guild or Bene Gesserit programs. All such attempts (and many were extended) met with hostility.

  DECLINE OF THE ORDER. One soc
iety that welcomed Mentat experience was the Tleilaxu, They boasted that through their experiments in controlled mutation, they had combined Mentat ability with specially tailored accomplishments (or perversions) of their own. One result was the notorious KMP ("Killer-Mentat Program").

  The founder of the Order, Albans himself, had warned against combining Mentat training with any form of specialization, but with the passage of millennia his admonitions were ignored, most disastrously by Proctor Hiebines XI in 10054. He agreed with the Tleilaxu to supply third- and fourth-rank Mentats for experiments aimed at achieving a genetic sub-structure upon which to ground a streamlined Mentat training program. Although the plan was sold to Hiebines as a low-risk way of multiplying well-qualified Mentats, its ultimate result was the destruction of the order. The Tleilaxu gained access to the secret Mentat programs, but their products were utter failures — rebellious against their masters, disloyal to the Order, and guilty of heinous miscalculations. Tleilax-Mentats were worse than useless, causing the reputation of the Order to plunge and even reliable Mentats to be mistrusted. From this catastrophe arose the fear of "Twisted Mentats."

  The Order of Mentats never regained its former prestige, but still enjoyed limited respect in some sectors until the reign of Leto II. During the first thousand years of that Emperor's reign, his Fish Speakers and planetary administrators systematically promoted Mentat-doubt. This scheme, with Leto's other plasteel-fisted policies, led to a diminished need for Mentats and greater public suspicion of their contributions.