[Dune] Arrakis and the Fremen – Part 2

Fremen Traditions – Stillsuits and water

Water conservation is one of the most essentials of the Fremen culture. Stillsuits were special body moisture retaining suits that didn’t waist even a drop of water off from a fremen’s body.

Spitting was considered ‘sharing one’s moisture’ and considered an honorable greeting. In the same context, tears were also the highest respect a fremen could pay to another person.

Some lore even assumed that fremen also had a much faster blood clotting mechanism to retain moisture as much as possible from physical wounds.

 

 

Even from the dead, fremen would extract all the moisture out from the corpse. Each sietch had a water conservation point and water was considered a shared asset among the sietch.

Water was also used as a type of currency or a token of honor for the fremen. The stillsuit could retain water from breath, urine, sweat or any kind of form of water emitted from the body.

 

 

This allowed the fremens survive the harsh desert environment of Arrakis.

The larvae of sand worms, sand trouts could detect and store massive amounts of water so sometimes fremen would use water as bait to lure sand trouts. Sand trout fluid was rich in terms of water and the taste was not so bad either.

 

 

Fremen’s warrior culture

The harsh environment, the lack of water, and the limited technologies available on Arrakis redeemed the Fremen’s culture. Survival on Arrakis itself was proof of strength.

Leto Atreides 1st Duke of Arrakis referred this as the “Desert Power”. Arrakis and Fremen playing an important role in the Dune Universe connects with the whole idea of the Dune series.

 

 

In short, the theme would be “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. “The essence of humans to thrive is to survive, endure and overcome the obstacles of life”. Fremens would resolve disputes by ritual combat called amtal.

In the film, Paul Atreides is put into amtal so Lady Atreides and Paul could be accepted by the Fremen.

 

 

Once amtal duel starts, one’s krysknife must draw blood and the life of the opponent. Even by honorable death, the corpse of the defeated is extracted of its water.

This brutal but inevitable warrior culture sculpts the Fremen warriors that could even take down the galaxy’s most elite warriors the Sardaukar and this warrior culture reflects the main theme of the book.

 

 

Fremen religion – Benne Gesserit

The Benne Gesserit have been ‘engineering religions’ throughout the whole galaxy. When the Corrino Empire was formed, the Orange Catholic Bible became the religious standard of the empire.

The Orange Catholic Bible held the religious idioms of the major religions on earth whose history was wiped out as part of the anti-thinking machine and anti-computer, anti-artificial intelligence war the Butlerian Jihad.

 

 

The Fremen also held beliefs of the Orange Catholic Bible and the Benne Gesserit has propagated the idea of a Kwisatz Haderach although they didn’t directly refer the word itself. This religion engineering led to the idea “Lisan Al’ Gaib” among the Fremens.

Liaison Al’ Gaib meant “The voice from the Outer World” that was the messiah or the savior of the Fremen. Upon Paul Atreides’s arrival on Arrakis, the fremens would cry out Lisan Al’Gaib in the film.

 

 

The term Liaison Al’ Gaib also was an insurance in cases of Benne Gesserit members end up stranded in fremen territory. The Bene Gesserit encouraged the beliefs of a divine figure of the Orange Catholic Bible and the developed the concept of Madhi of the Fremen religion to the belief of Lisan Al’ Gaib, the messiah.

 

 

Fremen and Religion - Sayyadina 

The Orange Catholic Bible and the Bene Gesserit did influence the religions of the Fremen, however, its core values were based on the Fremen ancestors the Zensunni. Survival, fight and worship of water and the Sandworm th Shai Hulud is the core essence of the Fremen religion.

The Fremen believed in a “Madhi” who is a savior that would make Arrakis prosperous. The Madhi is also referred as Lisan Al’ Gaib, the messiah. Sayyadina were the religious leaders of the Fremen sietch.

 

 

The sorceresses originated from rogue Bene Gesserit members. The leader of the Fremen Sayyadina is also referred as a Reverend Mother. Only through the deadly test of withstanding the consumption of the Water of Life, could a Reverend Mother be born.

The Water of Life is the fluids of a young sand worm that is toxic and a raw form of Mélange Spice. If a sayyadina could withstand the Water of Life and survive, exponential prescience abilities would awaken.

The Reverend Mother born by the ritual also named the agony of spice would be acknowledged as the grand religious leader.

 

Why did Arrakis have to be set as a desert?

The Fremen surely were inspired by the middle east. (The novel is written in the 1960) The two largest religions in the world Islam and Christianity were both born in the middle east.

Frank Herbert’s largest message of Dune is the unpredictable potential of humans and their exponential growth when they face the most extreme challenges of life.

 

 

The Middle East was a harsh environment, but humans could survive this harsh environment bloom civilization. Religions or strong faith was one of the key factors for such survival.

How the middle east was the birthplace of two of the largest religions on earth, Arrakis was set as a hostile dessert environment that would become the birthplace and provide the moment of awakening of the Kwisatz Haderach, the Lisan Al’Gaib.

 

 

This idea of Dune was also utilized in the Star Wars series planet Tatooine. The jedi order was also influenced by the superhuman Bene Gesserit.

Tatooine becomes the birthplace of the savior of the Star Wars series as well. Thus, Arrakis had to show that its environment is hostile and brutal to justify the awakening of the Kwisatz Haderach, Paul Atreides.