History Literature / ChapterhouseDune

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in ''Heretics'' and in ''Chapterhouse'' unresolved. Creator/FrankHerbert died shortly after publication, but 15 years after ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' was published Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", which culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for "Dune 7" don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

* GenderBender[=/=]{{Hermaphrodite}}: Face Dancers are described as "Jadacha hermaphrodites" (a term with an unknown meaning) and "mules" due to their sterility. They are able to change appearance and gender at will, and perform the role of either gender, but cannot reproduce.
* GhostMemory: Bene Gesserit acolytes receive the total line of their predecessors' memories when undergoing the Water of Life. Later books have Bene Gesserit placing their foreheads together to exchange genetic memory in times of extreme danger.

* KillAndReplace: A favorite tactic of Tleilaxu Face Dancer {{Shape Shifter}}s.
* KlingonPromotion: The position of Great Honored Matre.

* NoTranshumanismAllowed: Both subverted and played straight. Deliberate breeding programs are used to create humans with intelligence, reflexes, lifespan, capacity higher consciousness and physical capabilities far beyond those of current-day humans, but a religious taboo is kept in place on genetically engineering anything recognizably inhuman or unable to interbreed back into the larger human population. Thus, the characters and societies remain human while simultaneously having greater advancements over modern man than modern man has over homo erectus. The Tleilaxu, however, have no religious taboo on inhumanity and gleefully make a living selling inhuman humans genetically-engineered for specific purposes.
* NumberedHomeworld: The planet Ix (pronounced as spelled) developed from millennia of language-development to the point that the original prefix was lost, and Ix came to be pronounced as a word rather than as "IX", or 9 in Roman numerals.

* PaintingTheMedium: Some words like "SPICE" and "VOICE" tend to be printed in capital block letters to give them a sort of mystical echo, though it doesn't appear in every edition of the book. However, there are no capital letters in the Hebrew language, so the Hebrew translation has these words printed in bold and in a larger typeface than the rest of the sentence. This method makes them even more creepy and resonant than the original, if at all possible.
* PeopleJars: Used and subverted in which genetic clones (and other creatures) are grown in 'Axlotl tanks'. [[spoiler:The tanks are revealed to be 'people' as well.]]

%%* [[TheButlerDidIt The Rabbi Did It]]

* SplitPersonalityTakeover: Advanced Face Dancers at the time of ''Heretics of Dune'' make a memory-print of their victim's mind and therefore mimic them perfectly. Too perfectly, as it turns out. Leave one in the job long enough and [[spoiler:he forgets he's a Face Dancer]].
* StandardSciFiHistory: The background history of the Imperium tends to follow this trend. The Buterlian Jihad serves the role of World War III by resetting the political and technological situation. The Corrino-led Imperium serves as the First Empire, and the Paul/Leto II regimes as the Second Empire. It's one of the few examples in which the Second Empire follows up the first without an Interregnum. There is an Interregnum (referred to as "The Scattering"), but it occurs only after the collapse of the Second Empire.

* TrilogyCreep: An interesting example. ''Dune'' was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' fitting directly after the first. ''Messiah'' was fleshed out while writing ''Dune'' and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted ''Children'' to be expanded as well and also became its own book. ''God Emperor'' and the last two in the series, ''Heretics'' and ''Chapterhouse'', are genuine examples of a trilogy creep, though the fact that ''Chapterhouse'' ends some '''5,000''' years after the originals makes it fair to regard these three as a trilogy of their own.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The [[spoiler:Advanced Face Dancers against the Lost Tleilaxu, and then the Old Empire Tleilaxu in ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse: Dune'']].
* TwoPartTrilogy: Dune was originally conceived as one large masterwork, with the two sequels of ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' entwined into the story. Considering the original is 412 pages, the second 222, and the third 592, they were obviously split. This creates an interesting case of the first book being easily stand-alone, while the two sequels are more closely connected but can still in a way also be stand-alone. They also allowed for ''God-Emperor of Dune'', basically a midquel that set up the last two books in the series to be written. It's just kinda hard to say where TwoPartTrilogy begins and TrilogyCreep ends, or even what was intended to be a simple, ''honest'' trilogy.

* VoiceOfTheLegion: The billions of ego memories within genetic memory-awakened individuals can appear like this, especially to the pre-born.
* VoluntaryShapeShifting: Face Dancers.

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Also, any Honored Matre who kills the Great Honored Matre [[KlingonPromotion becomes Great Honored Matre herself]].

On Chapterhouse, the last remaining sandworm has begun the Spice cycle anew, turning the once lush and fertile world into desert. In addition, the sisterhood has the last remaining Tleilaxu Master, Scytale, in their possession, giving them the technology of the Axolotl tanks in order to make both gholas and artificial spice. Odrade chooses to use this technology to restore Miles Teg to lead the sisterhood into combat. Odrade and her inner-circle deduce that the Honored Matres are on the run from something even worse out in the Scattering.

* AuthorCatchphrase:
** "Ah-h-h-h-h."
** "Plans within plans...wheels within wheels..."

* CloningBlues: Gholas (clones of the dead), especially the multiple incarnations of Duncan Idaho.

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in ''Heretics'' and in ''Chapterhouse'' unresolved. Creator/FrankHerbert died shortly after publication, but 15 years after ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' was published Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", which culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for 'Dune 7' don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Honored Matre power structure

The Honored Matre Murbella, brought back to Chapterhouse, trains as a Bene Gesserit. Duncan Idaho, locked in the no-ship in order to avoid prescient detection, continues his relationship with Murbella and serves the sisterhood as Mentat abd weapons master. Duncan has several odd visions and dreams of alien technologies and an elderly couple watching from afar. Sheeana also continues her training and initiation into the sisterhood, where the Missionaria has plans for her.

* PaintingTheMedium: Some words like "SPICE" and "VOICE" tend to be printed in capital block letters to give them a sort of mystical echo, though it doesn't appear in every edition of the book. However, there are no capital letters in the Hebrew language, so the Hebrew translation has these words printed in bold and in a larger typeface than the rest of the sentence. This method makes them even more creepy and resfonant than the original, if at all possible.

* CombatClairvoyance: After his transformation under the T-probe in ''Heretics'', Miles Teg has this ability cranked UpToEleven, to the point where he can see the positions of the normally undetectable no-ships.

* HyperAwareness: Taken UpToEleven with Miles Teg, who, after a run-in with a T-Probe in the previous book, has developed the ability to detect [[InvisibilityCloak no-ships and no-chambers]], as well as SuperSpeed, ''and'' is a Bene Gesserit-trained Mentat on top of everything else.

* TrilogyCreep: An interesting example. ''Dune'' was actually conceived as one long book, with the sequels ''Dune Messiah'' and ''Children of Dune'' fitting directly after the first. ''Messiah'' was fleshed out while writing ''Dune'' and eventually became its own novel, which due to its expansion then warranted ''Children'' to be expanded as well and also became its own book. ''God Emperor of Dune'' and the last two in the series, ''Heretics'' and ''Chapterhouse'' are genuine examples of a trilogy creep, though the fact that the story is now over ''10,000'' years past in the originals, it's fair to say that they're a trilogy of their own.

* VoluntaryShapeShifting: Face Dancers

* AmbiguousSituation: The true nature of the elderly duo Danial and Marty.

''Chapterhouse: Dune'' continues shortly after the events of ''Literature/HereticsOfDune''. The Tleilax and Rakis have both been destroyed, cutting off the supply of the precious Spice, while the Honored Matres have overrun the Old Imperium, forcing the Bene Gesserit sisterhood to flee at every turn. Mother Superior Odrade is fighting for time to put [[ThePlan her plan]] to save the sisterhood and the Imperium in motion.

The Honored Matre Murbella, brought back to Chapterhouse, trains as a Bene Gesserit. Duncan Idaho, locked in the no-ship in order to avoid prescient detection, continues his relationship with Murbella and serves the sisterhood as mentat-weapons master. Duncan has several odd visions and dreams of alien technologies and an elderly couple watching from afar. Sheeana also continues her training and initiation into the sisterhood, where the Missionaria has plans for her.

* AmbiguousSituation: The true nature of the elderly couple Danial and Matty.

[[caption-width-right:292:The Sister Act III: Back in the Spice Habit]]

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in ''Heretics'' and in ''Chapterhouse'' unresolved. Since Creator/FrankHerbert died shortly after publication, it has been a point of contention among fans as to whether Frank Herbert had intended a third book to fill out the ''Heretics/Chapterhouse'' story or if he purposely intended to leave the story open and let the readers determine their own ending. 15 years after ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' was published, Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", these plans culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for 'Dune 7' don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

* AbsentAliens: Unless you count the Sandworms, and their [[{{Precursors}} implied creators]]. Even then, the sentience was added after the fact, by Leto II.
** Plenty of non-sentient species are also mentioned in passing. There's a lot of ''life'' in the universe, but none of it talks back.

* AIIsACrapshoot: In the original books, it was not that the computers were inherently bad, it was that humanity chose to destroy them because they were making humans lazy and limiting humanity's potential, effectively making them dependent on sentient machines for survival. Computer AI was later demonized.
** Chapterhouse examines this more than other books in the series, with cyborgs and with robotic servants on Junction.

* AncientAstronauts[=/=]AllMythsAreTrue: A variant in that humans themselves fill this role, with the Bene Gesserit purposely spreading myths based on heroic and religious archetypes throughout fledgling colonies to make use of the people there later.
* AncientConspiracy: Although they are more visible than most ancient conspiracies, the Bene Gesserit definitely count: they have manipulated practically all existing religions in the ''Dune'' universe to be tools for their purposes, to the point a Bene Gesserit can basically go to any planet and detect different cues and codes within the local religion's tenets to know exactly what to say and do to present herself as a paragon, prophet or even messiah of the local religion. This is how Lady Jessica insinuates herself and Paul into the Fremen culture. Of course, Jessica had no way of knowing Paul would become an ACTUAL messiah.

* AttackPatternAlpha: Various factions each have their own, mostly secret languages that are dead to other populations.

* BadassFamily: Atreides.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Inverted, Subverted, Justified, and Invoked. All depends on your personal interpretation, and which characters you examine. Frank himself said one of the main themes of the series was putting all your faith into one person and following them blindly. You can ''follow'' someone, but to utterly ''submit'' to them leads to total destruction.

** Mentats as well are "human computers". They are trained to possess photographic memories and deduce perfectly logical conclusions from the barest minimum of information. A Mentat Advisor is one of the most valuable assets that a noble house can have. Miles Teg in the later novels is a mentat generalissimo. But just try using one as an iPod.

* TheChosenOne[=/=]MessianicArchetype: Sheeana in the final two books, [[spoiler:though she doesn't get to fulfill that role, being instead set up for it as a decoy to get the Honored Matres to destroy Arrakis]]. Her ability to command sandworms is still useful, though and there was some hint there may still be a role for her in that direction.
** The series as a whole shows [[DeconstructedTrope just how disastrous these tropes would be]] in reality.

* CombatClairvoyance: The Kwisatz Haderach has the ability to (among other things) see into the future. Mentats can also see the future by way of "projecting" the possible outcomes of a given choice, but their role is not usually that of a military strategist.
** After his transformation under the T-probe in ''Heretics'', Miles Teg has this ability cranked UpToEleven, to the point where he can see the positions of the normally undetectable no-ships.

* CoolButInefficient: A lot of the tech, [[JustifiedTrope justifying]] the FeudalFuture / PunkPunk feel of TheVerse. Much of this is deliberate due to prohibitions against thinking machines and the dominance of shields in warfare.
* CrapsackWorld: Dune is a universe of tyrannical regimes, war and constant backstabbing. And even the most moral factions aren't that moral either -- see BlackAndGrayMorality.

* CultureChopSuey: A classic example. Millennia of galactic colonization have created completely new unrecognizable ethnicities and modified versions of current Earth religions.

* DarwinistDesire: The Bene Gesserit are still breeding to produce stronger genetic stock, but are actively avoiding the breeding of another Kwisatz Haderach.

* FaceYourFears: The Litany against fear promotes doing this whenever possible.
* FasterThanLightTravel: Foldspace

* GeneticMemory: Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers (and Wild Mothers such as the Fremen's and Rebecca) get genetic memories of all their female ancestors, the Kwisatz Haderach gets them for ''all'' his ancestors, as do children of these two. [[CloningBlues Gholas]] can gain past life memories this way too, by being manipulated into doing something their original self would never have done.
* GenderBender[=/=]{{Hermaphrodite}}: Face Dancers are described as "Jadacha hermaphrodites" (a term with an unknown meaning) and "mules" due to their sterility. They are able to change appearance and gender at will, and perform the role of either gender, but cannot reproduce.
* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: The appendix to ''Dune'' lists several "awareness-spectrum narcotics" that increased the user's understanding and mental abilities, including melange (by Guild Navigators), the Fremen "Water of Life" (which affected Paul Atreides and his sister Alia), and the drugs used by Bene Gesserit Truthsayers (who were {{Living Lie Detector}}s).

* HyperAwareness[=/=]SherlockScan[=/=]SpiderSense: The Bene Gesserit use their hyper awareness as a tool for manipulation. Descriptions of Bene Gesserit thought processes in the novels are often comparable to chess masters watching the world around them like one big chessboard, and calmly noting their accruing advantage. At one point a Bene Gesserit correctly deduces that there is a hidden room on the other side of a large banquet room by noting the subtle geometry of the walls of the room and the objects in it as being specifically designed to produce a slight echo where those in the hidden room can listen in.
** Even with mental processing as incredible as that, the Bene Gesserit still only learn those abilities as a ''supplementary'' skill for their main areas of expertise. The mentats, however, specialize specifically in HyperAwareness and so are infinitely more adept than even the best Bene Gesserit. Then you take a Bene Gesserit and train her (or occasionally him) as a Mentat....
** Taken UpToEleven with Miles Teg, who, after a run-in with a T-Probe in the previous book, has developed the ability to detect [[InvisibilityCloak no-ships and no-chambers]], as well as SuperSpeed, ''and'' is a Bene Gesserit-trained Mentat on top of everything else.

* InstantOracleJustAddWater: The Guild Navigators adapted to life in a spice-filled environment which granted them precognition and the ability to navigate at FTL speeds. They spend most of their lives inside of zero gravity tubes filled with spice laden air rather than a tub of water, but same concept.

* LongevityTreatment: One of many uses for spice, when it is plentiful lifespans of three hundred years aren't uncommon.
* MainliningTheMonster: Sandworms are the source of the invaluable Spice, without which galactic civilization would collapse. While keeping them captive is unfeasible to say the least, the need to preserve their species runs at odds with the Fremen drive to make Arrakis more liveable for humans, making it a ''major'' political issue.

* MindProbe: Many, many variations, including the Ixian Probe, its successor the T-Probe, and the abilities of Face Dancers to take a memory imprint of their victims even after death. They are so common by this time, that anyone with secret knowledge takes a special drug named "shere" that is designed to foil mental probes.

* MonochromaticEyes[=/=]TechnicolorEyes: A result of high-level Spice addiction, when enough ingestion saturates the blood stream and stains the eyes. Described in the books as "blue-on-blue".
* TheNavigator: An entire guild of them, who depend on spice to guide their ships.

* OccultBlueEyes: The influence of Spice turns people's eyes an unnatural bright blue. The turning blue is implied to be a normal biological reaction of humans exposed to spice. However Spice also gives psionic abilities to at least some humans which links the two together in people's minds.
** Inverted with the Honored Matres' eyes, which turn orange when agitated.

* PsychoSerum[=/=]SuperSerum: The Spice is both a boon and bane for humanity, politically, culturally, and biologically. Leto II spends his entire (extremely) long life [[ThePlan trying to get humanity over its spice addiction]]. He succeeds -- sorta.
* [[TheButlerDidIt The Rabbi Did It]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Mainly due to the effects of the Spice, many people extend their life far greater than would be possible without. The Emperor Shaddam is described by his daughter Princess Irulan as looking around 50 despite being in his late 80s. He dies due to work-related stress rather than old age.
** The Bene Gesserit take this to the extremes. With complete control over their biochemical makeup, they can slow down or speed up the aging process at will or choose to ''look'' younger or older while chemically being another age. They rarely take advantage of this, however, because such power can be intoxicating and dangerous. If someone outside the inner-Bene Gesserit organization were to notice the true extent of their powers it could lead to their destruction from superstitious outsiders as well as loss of [[TheManBehindTheMan influence over the Empire]]. Leto II ends up doing this, living up to 3,500 years before [[spoiler:being (willingly) assassinated.]]
** The pre-Born count in a different way. While chemically and physically true to their age, exposure to the Water of Life in the womb awakens their GeneticMemory. This leads to a personality being composed solely of their complete lineage of ego memories, upwards of hundreds of thousands of generations. Leto II and his sister Ghanima are both nine when they begin wresting control of the empire from their similarly-affected aunt, and must constantly chastise anyone that presumes them to be mere "children." They never had a childhood, nor a life of their own. Only the memories of billions.
** And finally Duncan Idaho. [[spoiler:He has clocked up at least 5,000 years through hundreds of ghola-incarnations, although most incarnations only possess the original Duncan's memories, each is blissfully unaware of the many copies that have existed between the original and himself. Then the final Duncan finds a way to awaken the memories of ''all'' the ghola-incarnations to create a chain of memory-lifetimes. And having realised ''that'', he uses it on Miles Teg.]]

* SandWorm: Possibly the TropeMaker.

* SolidGoldPoop: Spice is formed via the excretions of the sand trout mixed with water.

* SpiceOfLife: The Spice itself, which is the most valued commodity in the entire universe.

* TheSpock: Mentats. Although not all of them are by any means moral and logical.
* StandardTimeUnits: Years are known as "Standard years", or SY, and are described as being about 20 hours less than the "so-called primitive year".

* StarfishAliens: The sandworms, which are gigantic (as in up-to-half-kilometer-long) wormlike creatures that live in the desert. They also have a larval form, which begin as microbial "sand plankton" that serve as food to the adults, and grow into a small roughly diamond-shaped form called sandtrout AKA "Little Makers". The sandtrout are later revealed to seal away all the water on the planet, which is highly toxic to the adult form, and secrete the precursors to the addictive and PsychicPowers-granting Spice, which triggers their transformation into the sandworm "Makers".
** They also inhale carbon dioxide and breathe out fresh oxygen, working as a substitute for the nearly non-existant plantlife on Arrakis. This also {{justifie|dTrope}}s why such a SingleBiomePlanet can have a breathable atmosphere. The byproducts of the worms are suspiciously Terran-friendly indeed. Various characters {{lampshade|Hanging}} this occasionally, even suggesting the idea that sandworms may be in fact {{Lost|Technology}} OrganicTechnology for terraforming planets ([[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke created]] [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup a long time ago]] by humans, presumably).

* {{Unobtainium}}: The Spice.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: The universe features wheels-within-wheels plots and dense mythology, although the poetic descriptions can make the book enjoyable even to those who fail to understand it.

* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Justified in that after the Butlerian Jihad, complex autonomous machines are forbidden for millennia. Even regular old calculators are replaced by (highly-paid) people known as Mentats.

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in Heretics and in Chapterhouse unresolved. Since Creator/FrankHerbert died shortly after publication, it has been a point of contention among fans as to whether Frank Herbert had intended a third book to fill out the ''Heretics/Chapterhouse'' story or if he purposely intended to leave the story open and let the readers determine their own ending. 15 years after ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' was published, Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", these plans culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for 'Dune 7' don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in Heretics and in Chapterhouse unresolved. Since Creator/FrankHerbert died shortly after publication, it has been a point of contention among fans as to whether Frank Herbert had intended a third book to fill out the Heretics/Chapterhouse story or if he purposely intended to leave the story open and let the readers determine their own ending. 15 years after Chapterhouse: Dune was published, Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", these plans culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for 'Dune 7' don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

'''Note''': ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' has an open ending, leaving many of the plot points introduced in Heretics and in Chapterhouse unresolved. Since Creator/FrankHerbert [[AuthorExistenceFailure died shortly after publication]], it has been a point of contention among fans as to whether Frank Herbert had intended a third book to fill out the Heretics/Chapterhouse story or if he purposely intended to leave the story open and let the readers determine their own ending. 15 years after Chapterhouse: Dune was published, Frank's son Brian announced that he had found plans for "Dune 7", these plans culminated in ''Literature/HuntersOfDune'' and ''Literature/SandwormsOfDune'' written by Brian Herbert and Creator/KevinJAnderson. Some fans however still insist that either the notes for 'Dune 7' don't exist or that the authors didn't follow them.

** Even with mental processing as incredible as that, the Bene Gesserit still only learn those abilities as a ''supplementary'' skill for their main areas of expertise. The mentats, however, specialize specifically in HyperAwareness and so are infinitely more adept then even the best Bene Gesserit. Then you take a Bene Gesserit and train her (or occasionally him) as a Mentat....

** Id: Bellonda, by far the most emotional and impulsive of the trio. Really weirdly played as she's a Bene Gesserit-Mentat, so one would thing she'd be the most controlled and stoic of the group.

* TheCasanova: Duncan Idaho, though he Pails in comparison to other honered matres.