Dune characters

Also known as young master, the boy

Appears from the start

The teenage heir of House Atreides, only son of Duke Leto and the Lady Jessica. Sharp, self-possessed, and rigorously trained in combat, statecraft, and the mental disciplines his mother has quietly taught him, he stands on the edge of adulthood as his family prepares to take control of the harsh desert planet Arrakis. He is unsettled by vivid dreams that seem, at times, to show him things before they happen.

Also known as the Duke, Leto

Appears from the start

The proud and honorable head of House Atreides and Paul's father, a ruler beloved by his people for his fairness and loyalty. Ordered by the Emperor to take over the dangerous, coveted planet Arrakis, he suspects the assignment is a trap laid by his family's ancient enemies but means to make the most of it and secure his son's future.

Also known as Jessica, the Lady Jessica

Appears from the start

Paul's mother and the Duke's bound companion, a woman of poise and hidden depths. She was raised and trained by the Bene Gesserit, a secretive sisterhood whose members master extraordinary control of body, mind, and voice, and she has passed some of that discipline to her son in defiance of her order's wishes. She is fiercely devoted to Leto and Paul.

Appears from the start

The aged Master of Assassins and chief strategist of House Atreides, a Mentat whose mind has been trained to calculate and reason like a living computer. Shrewd, watchful, and utterly loyal, he has served the Atreides for generations and takes the security of the Duke and his heir as his sacred charge.

Appears from the start

A superb swordsman and warrior in the service of House Atreides, bold, cheerful, and fiercely devoted to the Duke and to young Paul, whom he helped train. He is among the most capable fighters in the Duke's guard.

Appears from the start

A scarred, battle-hardened warrior and weapons master of House Atreides, as gifted with a baliset and a bawdy song as with a blade. Loyal and warm beneath a gruff exterior, he has trained Paul in arms and treats the boy almost as his own.

Also known as Doctor Yueh

Appears from the start

The household physician of House Atreides, a doctor of the elite Suk school, whose members undergo a deep conditioning meant to make betrayal of their patients impossible. Learned and gentle, marked by the diamond tattoo of his order, he is trusted completely by the family he serves.

Also known as the Baron

Appears from the start

The monstrously fat, brilliant, and utterly ruthless head of House Harkonnen, the ancestral enemies of the Atreides. Kept aloft by suspensor devices because of his bulk, he delights in cruelty and intrigue and has spent years plotting the destruction of Duke Leto and the recovery of Arrakis, which his house once ruled and plundered.

Appears from the start

The younger nephew of Baron Harkonnen, a handsome, vain, and vicious youth being groomed as the Baron's favored heir. Skilled and ambitious, he is a pampered killer bred to the Harkonnen taste for treachery.

Also known as Doctor Kynes, the planetologist

Appears from the start

The Imperial planetologist and ecologist assigned to Arrakis, serving as Judge of the Change that oversees the handover of the planet to House Atreides. An expert on the deep desert and the great sandworms, he knows the ways of the native Fremen better than any outsider and holds a quiet authority on the harsh world.

Appears from the start

A respected leader of the Fremen, the hardy, secretive desert people of Arrakis who survive in the deep sands beyond the reach of the cities. Proud, formidable, and bound by the strict customs of his folk, he views the offworld newcomers with wary calculation.

Appears from the start

A young woman of the Fremen, the desert dwellers of Arrakis, who appears to Paul in his strange prophetic dreams before he ever reaches the planet, so that he seems to know her face long before they meet. In his visions she is a figure of the desert, dark-eyed and fierce.