Factions in Dune

The political aspects of the intrigue of Dune are omnipresent. So it is important to identify the different rival factions.

 

The most obvious one is the Padishah Emperor, the sovereign master of the known universe. His power is shared with other entities, among them the Landsraad and with the Spacing Guild (see below). The Sardaukar legion ensure his power: they are fanatic soldiers, trained from birth to cruelty.

 

The Landsraad has been established to protect the Noble Houses against the powers of the Emperor. Only together can they hope to fight him. So the main role for the Landsraad is to avoid that the Emperor destroys them one by one. But the Landsraad is weakened by the rivalries between the Noble Houses themselves, and they can sometime ignore some imperial move against a House when it serves their interests.

 

The Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit is an organization only composed of females. They run a school where they train their students for mental and political abilities, such as the ability to foresee the future. Their watchword is that they exist "only to serve" the Sisterhood. They have an agreement with the Emperor and most of the Noble Houses such that they choose a wife among the Bene Gesserit, and the Emperor "Truthsayer" is one of them. The daughters of noble families all become Bene Gesserit. Their training and their network make them powerful, but their taste for secrecy and their unknown goals inspire fear among other people. That's why they are sometime called "witches". Among their hidden purposes is the breeding program : by preserving some bloodlines, they want to breed a male Bene Gesserit, the Kwisatz Haderach.

 

To go from one planet to the other, space travel is needed. The Spaceguild has a monopoly on space transportation, which is very important for commerce and war. So they are very rich and powerful. But to drive their spacecraft, they need to use the spice, which is only produced on Arrakis. This gives a high value to this resource.

 

Between House Atreides and House Harkonnens, their exists a hereditary hate (see the previous article). They are the two main factions of the book, but their fight involves the other factions. As Leto Atreides is popular among the Great Houses of the Landsraad, he becomes more and more dangerous for the Emperor, who decides to ally himself with the Harkonnens. But the Bene Gesserit want to spare both Atreides and Harkonnens bloodlines - they are key bloodlines for the breeding program (thus the Kwisatz Haderach can be seen as a mélange of the best bloodline and of the worst one). And the Spaceguild is very interested in what happens on Arrakis, because of the spice.