Mockup
Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV has come to fear House Atreides, partly due to the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides and also because the talent of Leto's fighting force is beginning to rival the effectiveness of the Emperor's own dreaded Imperial Sardaukar guard. Shaddam decides that House Atreides must be destroyed, but cannot risk an attack on a single House, which would by necessity unite the other Houses against him. The Emperor instead uses the centuries-old feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen to disguise his assault, enlisting the brilliant and power-hungry Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in his plan to trap and eliminate the Atreides. Shaddam forces Leto to accept the lucrative fief of the desert planet Arrakis, the only known source of the spice melange, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. Enter into this conflict the Bene Gesserit. Their ancient breeding program, now only one generation from completion, has suddenly become horribly jeopardized: They had planned to breed an Atreides daughter with a Harkonnen son to unite the two bloodlines and produce their long-awaited superbeing, the Kwisatz Haderach. However fate would decide otherwise and instead of bearing a daughter, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica (the Duke’s Concubine) fulfilled her beloved Duke's wishes for a son and bore Paul.
The Atreides are unable to withstand a devastating Harkonnen attack, supported by Imperial Sardaukar disguised as Harkonnen. Captured, Duke Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate Baron Harkonnen; Paul and Jessica escape into the deep desert. They manage to join a band of Fremen, ferocious fighters who ride the giant sandworms of Arrakis. Paul and his mother quickly learn the ways of the Fremen, while teaching them the Bene Gesserit method of fighting. Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother, taking the concentrated spice while pregnant with her Duke’s second child. Her daughter Alia experiences all that her mother does from the spice, gaining wisdom before even being born. Living on the spice diet of the Fremen, Paul's prescience increases dramatically, enabling him to foresee future events and gaining him a religious respect from the Fremen, who regard him as their prophesied Messiah. As Paul grows in influence, he begins to plot revenge against the Harkonnen rule of the planet under his new Fremen name, Muad'Dib.
Disturbed by his lack of complete prescience Paul decides to take the Water of Life, an act that could kill him. After three weeks in a near-death state, Paul emerges as the Kwisatz Haderach. Looking into space, he sees that the Emperor and the Harkonnens have amassed a huge armada to invade the planet and regain control. Paul also discovers the way to control spice production on Arrakis. Alia is captured by Sardaukar and brought to the planet's capital Arrakeen to the Emperor itself. At that moment, under cover of a gigantic sandstorm, Paul and his army of Fremen attack the city. Alia kills the Baron with a poisoned needle during the confusion. Paul quickly overtakes the city's defenses and confronts the Emperor, threatening to destroy the spice and thereby effectively end space travel and cripple both the Imperial power and Bene Gesserit in one shot. Realizing that Paul is capable of doing all he has threatened, the Emperor is forced to abdicate and to promise his daughter in marriage to Paul. Paul ascends the throne, his control of Arrakis and the spice establishing a new kind of power over the Empire which will change the face of the known universe.