Sadus
Sadus is a mysterious Fremen spirit that guides the player through their spice dreams as part of the main story journey. She appears as part of the 1st Trial of Aql in Mihna Cavern and serves as a guide for the player in the spice dream world.
She lived through and is knowledgeable of the hardships the Fremen endured on Harmonthep, where they were forbidden to take part in the Hajj with their children either taken from them, starved, or made into slaves.
Sadus sports a Fremen stillsuit enshrouded by a cloak and hood, and appears as a purple spirit made of spice. She encourages the player to always remember the suffering of the Fremen.
Dialogue
The First Trial of Aql
Sadus: Who is it that thinks?
Ibn qirtaiba.
The weight of a kindly god is a fearful thing.
Do you understand, wali?
Our god gave us the burning eyes of al-Lat
and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar.
“Rest in black shade.”
Bi-la kaifa!
Sadus: When we began our wandering, we suffered
until suffering was a thing we came to know within our souls.
Arrakis is suffering.
When we found it, we were home.
On Harmonthep we were made to suffer,
our children taken and made slaves.
They denied us the Hajj.
Never to forgive! Never to forget!
Sadus: The weight of a kindly god is a fearful thing.
Did not God give us the burning sun to defy?
Suffering leads to defiance.
And where does defiance lead?
Ibn qirtaiba.
Defiance leads to thought.
Who is it that thinks?
Those who suffer.
Remember Harmonthep.
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: Ibn qirtaiba.
Defiance leads to thought.
Who is it that thinks?
Player: Those who suffer.
Sadus: Those who suffer.
Remember Harmonthep.
Bi-la kaifa.
The Second Trial of Aql
Sadus: What is the purpose of thought?
Ibn qirtaiba.
Speed is a device of Shaitan.
Do you understand, wali?
Our God gave us the gift of thought
and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar.
“Knowledge without action is empty.”
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: Our wandering brought us to Rossak.
We were persecuted.
Our families burned in the fires of their ignorance.
We learned the cost of inaction.
Never to forgive! Never to forget!
Some were sent to work in mines.
The tunnels were unstable.
Our work made them more so.
We learned the cost of action.
Never to forgive! Never to forget!
It was on Rossak that the Sayyadina created the poison drug.
Words became memories.
Through thought and action combined, we learned to create.
Sadus: The weight of a kindly god is a fearful thing.
Did not God give us Shaitan to force action?
And where does action lead?
Ibn qirtaiba.
Thought and action lead to creation.
What is the purpose of thought?
To honor the Creator.
Sadus: What is the purpose of thought?
Player: To honor the Creator.
Sadus: To honor the Creator.
Remember Rossak.
Bi-la kaifa.
The Third Trial of Aql
*The altar has been desecrated.*
*Sadus offers no discourse.*
The Fourth Trial of Aql
Sadus: How do we honor the Creator?
Ibn qirtaiba.
Our enemies are as blades of grass mown down.
Do you understand, wali?
Our God gave us the gift of tau
and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar.
“Knowledge without action is empty.”
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: During our wandering we came to Salusa Secundus.
It was a place devoid of Gods
where the drums of war were constant
and violence was the religion.
They denied us the Hajj!
Never to forgive! Never to forget!
The fire of God mount over thy heart,
the fire of God set alight.
Thine enemies shall fall.
Sadus: How do we honor the Creator?
We fight.
Remember Salusa Secundus.
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: Ibn qirtaiba.
The fire of God set alight.
How do we honor the Creator?
Player: We fight.
Sadus: We fight.
Remember Salusa Secundus.
Bi-la kaifa.
The Fifth Trial of Aql
Sadus: Who is the Creator?
Ibn qirtaiba.
May his passing cleanse the world.
Do you understand, wali?
Our God gave us the gift of thought
and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar.
“Their works have been overturned.”
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: Shai-Hulud cleanses Arrakis,
creates the air we breathe,
the soft sand where we pitch our tents,
and smites our enemies.
We grew soft on Poritrin,
an easy planet,
and God brought the weight of kindliness
to prepare us for the Typhoon that comes.
Watermaster: The world is a carcass.
Who can turn away the Angel of Death?
Our footsteps are as the drums of the slavers
calling Shai-Hulud upon our enemies.
Sadus: Men must learn to live with their Gods.
Who can deny a Fremen the right
to walk or ride where he wills?
Only Shai-Hulud, the Maker.
The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing.
Did not God give us himself?
And who is God?
Sadus: Ibn qirtaiba.
Who is the Creator?
The Maker. May his passing cleanse the world.
Remember Poritrin.
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: Ibn qirtaiba.
Who is the Creator?
Player: The Maker. May his passing cleanse the world.
Sadus: The Maker. May his passing cleanse the world.
Remember Poritrin.
Bi-la kaifa.
The Sixth Trial of Aql
*The altar has been desecrated.*
*Sadus offers no discourse.*
The Seventh Trial of Aql
Sadus: Why were we created?
Ibn qirtaiba.
The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing.
Do you understand, wali?
Our god gave us the Hulasikali Wala, the wind that eats flesh
and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar.
“Carry shelter always, against the coming of Kralizec.”
Bi-la kaifa.
Sadus: For our willingness to forgive,
for our willingness to forget.
The weight of a kindly god is a fearful thing.
Why did God create us?
We are the action and knowledge of God,
and he has prepared the way.
Sadus: Ibn qirtaiba.
The Typhoon Struggle comes.
Why were we created?
Player: To survive Kralizec, the War at the End of the Universe.
Sadus: To survive Kralizec, the War at the End of the Universe.
Ya hya chouhada!
Remember Nilotic al-Ourobra.
Bi-la kaifa.
Lore
Mysticism isn't difficult when you survive each second by surmounting open hostility.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
Sadus are tutelary spirits encountered by the Player during mélange-induced visions.
SADUS: judges. The Fremen title refers to holy judges, equivalent to saints.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
"Remove yourself," Kynes said, and went on talking about secret windtraps. He brushed past the man. Kynes' back stood open for the ceremonial blow. What went on in that would-be executioner's mind cannot be known now. Did he
finally listen to Kynes and believe? Who knows? But what he did is a matter of record. Uliet was his name, Older Liet. Uliet walked three paces and deliberately fell on his own knife, thus "removing" himself. Suicide? Some say Shai-hulud moved him.
Talk about omens! …
It became apparent to the Fremen that Kynes was not a madman totally, just mad enough to be holy. He was one of the umma, the brotherhood of prophets. The shade of Uliet was advanced to the sadus, the throne of heavenly judges.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
In a series of ritual lessons accompanying the associated practical application, they introduce the Player to traditional techniques necessary for survival on Arrakis, presiding over an extended Fremen Rite of Passage, the mystical Trials of Aql, the “Tests of Reason.”
AQL: the test of reason. Originally, the "Seven Mystic Questions" beginning:
"Who is it that thinks?"
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
Their instructional method is formal, each lesson beginning with a rhetorical question presented to the initiate:
1. Who is it that thinks?
2. What is the purpose of thought?
3. —
4. How do we honor the Creator?
5. Who is the Creator?
6. —
7. Why were we created?
followed by the ceremonial opening of the liturgy with the words “Ibn qirtaiba…” ,“Thus go the holy words…”
IBN QIRTAIBA: "Thus go the holy words . . ." Formal beginning to Fremen religious incantation (derived from panoplia propheticus).
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
a relevant affirmation drawn from the Kitab al-Ibar,:
1. The weight of a kindly god is a fearful thing.
Fremen Kitab al-Ibar: "The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing. Did not God give us the burning sun (Al-Lat)? Did not God give us the Mothers of Moisture (Reverend Mothers)? Did not God give us Shaitan (Iblis, Satan)? From Shaitan did we not get the hurtfulness of speed?"
(This is the source of the Fremen saying: "Speed comes from Shaitan."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
2. Speed is a device of Shaitan.
Fremen Kitab al-Ibar: "The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing. Did not God give us the burning sun (Al-Lat)? Did not God give us the Mothers of Moisture (Reverend Mothers)? Did not God give us Shaitan (Iblis, Satan)? From Shaitan did we not get the hurtfulness of speed?"
(This is the source of the Fremen saying: "Speed comes from Shaitan."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
3. —
4. Our enemies are as blades of grass mown down.
Her mind felt as though it had rolled over within her. She recognized the sensation with a quickening of pulse. Nothing in all the Bene Gesserit training carried such a signal of recognition. It could be only the adab, the demanding memory that comes upon you of itself. She gave herself up to it, allowing the words to flow from her.
"Ibn qirtaiba," she said, "as far as the spot where the dust ends." She stretched out an arm from her robe, seeing Stilgar's eyes go wide. She heard a rustling of many robes in the background. "I see a . . . Fremen with the book of examples," she intoned. "He reads to al-Lat, the sun whom he defied and subjugated. He reads to the Sadus of the Trial and this is what he reads;
"Mine enemies are like green blades eaten down
That did stand in the path of the tempest.
Hast thou not seen what our Lord did?
He sent the pestilence among them
That did lay schemes against us.
They are like birds scattered by the huntsman.
Their schemes are like pellets of poison
That every mouth rejects."
A trembling passed through her. She dropped her arm.
Back to her from the inner cave's shadows came a whispered response of many
voices: "Their works have been overturned."
"The fire of God mount over thy heart," she said. And she thought: Now, it goes in the proper channel.
"The fire of God set alight," came the response.
She nodded. "Thine enemies shall fall," she said.
"Bi-la kaifa," they answered.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
5. May his passing cleanse the world.
In the silence that followed, they heard Kynes.
"Bless the Maker and His water," Kynes murmured. "Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people."
"What's that you're saying?" the Duke asked.
But Kynes remained silent.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
6. —
7. The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing.
Fremen Kitab al-Ibar: "The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing. Did not God give us the burning sun (Al-Lat)? Did not God give us the Mothers of Moisture (Reverend Mothers)? Did not God give us Shaitan (Iblis, Satan)? From Shaitan did we not get the hurtfulness of speed?"
(This is the source of the Fremen saying: "Speed comes from Shaitan."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
and confirmation of the seeker’s comprehension: “Do you understand, wali?”
WALI: an untried Fremen youth.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
The Sadus next emphasize and call to the supplicant’s attention the importance of the corresponding Fremen’s gifts. “Our God gave us:
1. “the burning eyes of al-Lat
AL-LAT: mankind's original sun; by usage: any planet's primary.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
Fremen Kitab al-Ibar: "The weight of a kindly God is a fearful thing. Did not God give us the burning sun (Al-Lat)? Did not God give us the Mothers of Moisture (Reverend Mothers)? Did not God give us Shaitan (Iblis, Satan)? From Shaitan did we not get the hurtfulness of speed?"
(This is the source of the Fremen saying: "Speed comes from Shaitan."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
2. “the gift of thought
3. —
4. “the gift of tau
It was the tau, the oneness of the sietch community, a compensation from the subtle poison of the spice diet they shared.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
5. “the gift of thought
6. —
7. “the Hulasikali Wala, the wind that eats flesh
Then Liet gazed back across the sea of dunes toward the approaching tempest. "The wind of the demon in the open desert. Hulasikali Wala."
"Coriolis storm," Kynes corrected, using a scientific term instead of the Fremen one his son had selected. "Winds across the open flatlands are amplified by the planet's revolutionary motion. Gusts can reach speeds up to seven hundred kilometers per hour."
— Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson (Dune: House Harkonnen, 2000)
“and the words of the Kitab al-Ibar,”
KITAB AL-IBAR: the combined survival handbook-religious manual developed by the Fremen on Arrakis.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
followed by, and further stressing each lesson’s particular theme, a direct citation from that manual:
1. “Rest in black shade.”
And quoted from the Kitab al-Ibar: "Travel by night and rest in black shade through the day."
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
2. “Knowledge without action is empty.”
“True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you've always known."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
3. —
4. “Knowledge without action is empty.”
“True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you've always known."
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Appendix II: The Religion of Dune, 1965)
5. “Their works have been overturned.”
Her mind felt as though it had rolled over within her. She recognized the sensation with a quickening of pulse. Nothing in all the Bene Gesserit training carried such a signal of recognition. It could be only the adab, the demanding memory that comes upon you of itself. She gave herself up to it, allowing the words to flow from her.
"Ibn qirtaiba," she said, "as far as the spot where the dust ends." She stretched out an arm from her robe, seeing Stilgar's eyes go wide. She heard a rustling of many robes in the background. "I see a . . . Fremen with the book of examples," she intoned. "He reads to al-Lat, the sun whom he defied and subjugated. He reads to the Sadus of the Trial and this is what he reads;
"Mine enemies are like green blades eaten down
That did stand in the path of the tempest.
Hast thou not seen what our Lord did?
He sent the pestilence among them
That did lay schemes against us.
They are like birds scattered by the huntsman.
Their schemes are like pellets of poison
That every mouth rejects."
A trembling passed through her. She dropped her arm.
Back to her from the inner cave's shadows came a whispered response of many voices: "Their works have been overturned."
"The fire of God mount over thy heart," she said. And she thought: Now, it goes in the proper channel.
"The fire of God set alight," came the response.
She nodded. "Thine enemies shall fall," she said.
"Bi-la kaifa," they answered.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
6. —
7. “Carry shelter always, against the coming of Kralizec.”
Kralizec? That wasn’t merely war or revolution; that was the Typhoon Struggle. It was a word from the furthermost Fremen legends: the battle at the end of the universe.
— Frank Herbert (Children of Dune - 1976)
The Sadus concludes the liturgy’s prefatory phase, intoning “Bi-la kaifa,” “Nothing further need be explained.”
BI-LA KAIFA: Amen. (Literally: "Nothing further need be explained.")
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
The body of the liturgy is comprised of introducing and training the initiate in the application of specific Fremen survival techniques associated with that Trial:
1. Sun avoidance
…and quoted from the Kitab al-Ibar: "Travel by night and rest in black shade through the day."
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
2. Craft and use a Static Compactor
Jessica pulled the filter across her mouth, began adjusting her hood as she watched Paul break the tent seal.
Sand rasped as he opened the sphincter and a burred fizzle of grains ran into the tent before he could immobilize it with a static compaction tool. A hole grew in the sandwall as the tool realigned the grains. He slipped out and her ears followed his progress to the surface.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
…he allowed Idaho to guide him along the edge of the basin to a rock projection. Fremen there were opening a way down into the sand with their compaction tools.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
3. —
4. Craft and use an Unfixed Crysknife / Enter the Prescient State
CRYSKNIFE: the sacred knife of the Fremen on Arrakis. It is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken from dead sandworms. The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed." An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's electrical field to prevent disintegration. Fixed knives are treated for storage. All are about 20 centimeters long.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
5. Quicksand avoidance / Worm avoidance / Craft and use a Thumper
THUMPER: short stake with spring-driven clapper at one end. The purpose: to be driven into the sand and set "thumping" to summon shai-hulud.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
6. —
7. Craft and use a Stilltent
STILLTENT: small, scalable enclosure of micro-sandwich fabric designed to reclaim as potable water the ambient moisture discharged within it by the breath of its occupants.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
during immersive situations recalling the challenges faced by the Fremen during historical incidents derived from the legendary Zensunni Wanderings, presented during successive Trials in thematically-appropriate sequence rather than in strict chronological order of occurrence:
1. Harmonthep
HARMONTHEP: Ingsley gives this as the planet name for the sixth stop in the Zensunni migration. It is supposed to have been a no longer existent satellite of Delta Pavonis.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
2. Rossak
Jessica saw the slave cribs on Bela Tegeuse down that inner corridor, saw the weeding out and the selecting that spread men to Rossak and Harmonthep. Scenes of brutal ferocity opened to her like the petals of a terrible flower. And she saw the thread of the past carried by Sayyadina after Sayyadina—first by word of mouth, hidden in the sand chanteys, then refined through their own Reverend Mothers with the discovery of the poison drug on Rossak . . . and now developed to subtle strength on Arrakis in the discovery of the Water of Life.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
3. — (*recorded*: Bela Tegeuse)
BELA TEGEUSE: fifth planet of Kuentsing: third stopping place of the Zensunni (Fremen) forced migration.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
4. Salusa Secundus
SALUSA SECUNDUS: third planet of Gamma Waiping; designated Imperial Prison Planet after removal of the Royal Court to Kaitain. Salusa Secundus is homeworld of House Corrino, and the second stopping point in migrations of the Wandering
Zensunni. Fremen tradition says they were slaves on S.S. for nine generations.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
5. Poritrin
PORITRIN: third planet of Epsilon Alangue, considered by many Zensunni Wanderers as their planet of origin, although clues in their language and mythology show far more ancient planetary roots.
— Frank Herbert (Dune – Terminology of the Imperium, 1965)
6. — (*recorded*: Thurgrod)
“I am of age! I’m the oldest person here! You’re a puling infant beside me. I can remember times more than fifty centuries past. Hah! I can even remember when we Fremen were on Thurgrod.”
— Frank Herbert (Children of Dune, 1976)
7. Nilotic al-Ourobra
"We are the people of Misr," the old woman rasped. "Since our Sunni ancestors fled from Nilotic al-Ourouba, we have known flight and death. The young go on that our people shall not die."
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
Note: The sequence of locations required for passing the Ornate Door puzzle during the Eighth Trial of Aql is in chronological order of the legendary Migration.
The Sadus’ accompanying counsel and running commentary are recurrently interspersed with Fremen aphorisms and precepts:
They denied us the Hajj.
Never to forgive! Never to forget!
Far down the corridor, an image-voice screamed: "They denied us the Hajj!"…
Far down the inner corridor, another voice screamed: "Never to forgive! Never to forget!"
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
The fire of God mount over thy heart,
the fire of God set alight.
Thine enemies shall fall.
"The fire of God mount over thy heart," she said. And she thought: Now, it goes in the proper channel.
"The fire of God set alight," came the response.
She nodded. "Thine enemies shall fall," she said.
"Bi-la kaifa," they answered.
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
Having demonstrated competence in the application of the new technique, the Trial’s original question is reiterated, directly rather than rhetorically. Only the correct response earns the Player the right of passage.
1. Who is it that thinks?
Those who suffer.
2. What is the purpose of thought?
To honor the Creator.
3. —
4. How do we honor the Creator?
We fight.
5. Who is the Creator?
The Maker. May his passing cleanse the world.
6. —
7. Why were we created?
To survive Kralizec, the War at the End of the Universe.
Ya hya chouhada!
Long live the fighters!
A deafening roar filled the cavern, echoed and re-echoed. They were cheering and chanting: "Ya hya chouhada! Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib! Ya hya chouhada!"
Jessica translated it to herself: "Long live the fighters of Muad'Dib!"
— Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965)
Gallery
