Summary
Dune: Awakeningisn’t the first video game or book in the vast IP to alter the setting or lore, exploring other parts of the story. TheDuneuniverse is uniquely suited to the concept of alternate timelines, and many writers and creators have explored different possibilities if Frank Herbert’s original story had taken a different turn.
The story ofDune: Awakeningremains faithful to the original series, featuring the noble houses, the Emperor, and key characters such as Jessica, Leto Atreides, Doctor Yue, and Duncan Idaho. The universe is still organized under the Imperial rule of House Harkonnen, and the Bene Gesserit continue their shadowy machinations. However, these are mostly cosmetic issues, and the game developers had something different in mindwith this new adventure.
1Paul Atredies Was Never Born
Ariste Is the Heir Of House Atreides
This is an MMO and an RPG, which means the player is the main character, so it makes sense that one of thefirst and most importantdifferences is the absence of Paul Atreides. This allows the main character to take his place, perhaps not as the Chosen One, but as a figure of equal weight in the prophecy.
Instead of giving birth to Paul, Jessica obeys the Bene Gesserit and gives birth to a daughter, Ariste, who is intended to marry into House Harkonnen as part of the original plan with the bloodlines. Although she’s the heir to House Atreides, she’s expected to give birth to the Kwisach Hadderach eventually, but not be the child of prophecy herself.
2Trained As A Truthsayer
Jessica Discovers Yue’s Betrayal
Jessica doesn’tdefy the Bene Gesseritin this timeline, and they reward her for her loyalty and service by training her as a Truthsayer. Her heightened powers reveal Yue’s treachery, and he’s unable to poison the Duke and lower the House’s shields to make way for the Harkonnen attack.
The Bene Gesserit wants both houses to survive, which is one of the reasons they gave Jessica the power to defend the Atreides. The Emperor has similar designs to play both houses against each other, and strategically positions the Sadukar on Arrakis in the conflict.
3Duke Leto Survives
The War Of Assassins Begins
Duke Leto survives, as does most of House Atreides, but the battle that ended in one night in the original lore becomes a multi-year conflict, with Arrakisas the staging area. Both Houses are evenly matched, and the Emperor isn’t taking sides this time, resulting in the ongoing conflict that forms part of the setting inDune: Awakening.
When the game begins, Arrakis has already been the site of this conflict for several years, which explains the scrap metal and spare batteries scattered everywhere. Scavengers and bandits are an even more constant presence, now picking through the bodies of dead soldiers in addition to foraging in the desert.
4The Sadukar Police Arrakis
The Emperor Ensures The Flow Of Spice
The Emperor and his family couldn’t care less about the battle between Houses Atreides and Harkonnen as long as the spice continues to flow. Instead of using the Sadukar to fight against one side or the other, the Emperor’s guard acts as a global military police force, protecting the interests of traders and corporate contracts that depend onmelange.
This is a departure from the original story that had the Emperor siding with House Harkonnen to defeat the ever-growing power and popularity of House Atreides. In this version, Duke Leto had a Truthsayer by his side, and House Corinno wisely decided to stay on the sidelines.
5Surface Vegetation
“Not A Drop Of Rain On Arrakis”
This breaks the lorein the sense that Arrakis was originally such a harsh environment that literally nothing but the worms could survive in the desert. This is because the worms don’t need moisture at all, but consume things that other beings can’t, like rocks, minerals, or even machinery.
There are a few ways the nature of the planet can be tweaked to explain this, such as plants that can draw water from porous rocks, or through a system of natural condensation like the desert mouse. Even the smallest bit of moisture can harm or even kill a worm, which is why water is used to drown the young worms when it’s time to extract the Water of Life.
Rivers and lakes are used to kill or confine worms in the books. The flowers and plants that are used in the Crafting and Research parts of the game wouldn’t have existed on the original planet, at least not on the dry, rocky surface, and certainly not in places in the south, where the massive sandstorms are prevalent.
6The Fremen Have Disappeared
Are They Hidden Or Extinct?
In the original story, the Fremen were certainly reclusive, but there was never any doubt that they existed and were present somewhere on the planet. House Harkonnen underestimated their numbers, and House Atreides sought to utilize their “desert power.”
InDune: Awakening, the narration at the beginning suggests that the Fremen have disappeared entirely, that they’ve either left the desert completely or have simply died out. This ups the stakes for the narrative as a whole, since Dune isn’t the same place without the locals.
One of the first things the protagonist finds out is that this is not the case. The Bene Gesserit mother that players interact with during the character creation process tasks them with finding the Fremen, so they obviously still exist; they’ve utilized their survivalist skills to hide their numbers even more efficiently.
