Caladan Imperium (FT Factbook)

[Kagetora]

Brief Overview
The Caladan Imperium, its capital in the Caladan system, encompasses hundreds of systems. Commonly known simply as Caladan, or the Imperium, the organization is ruled over centrally by an Emperor, supreme ruler of the Imperium. However, power is shared in a quasi-feudal arrangement with the Landsraad, Bene Gesserit, and the Spacing Guild.

Table of Contents
1. CHOAM Company
2. Landsraad
3. Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilax
4. Spacing Guild
5. Mentat
6. Notable Figures
7. Notable Locations
8. Technology

Much credit for this factbook goes to Frank Herbert and the authors of the Dune Wiki.

[Kagetora]

1. CHOAM Company

Flag of CHOAM

The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles or CHOAM essentially controls all economic affairs across the cosmos, although it relies upon the Spacing Guild for transport across space due to the Guild's monopoly on faster-than-light travel.

CHOAM touched almost all products the Guild will transport, from art forms to technology and of course melange.

Many Houses depend on CHOAM profits, and an enormous proportion of those depend on melange.

CHOAM directorships were the real evidence of political power in the Imperium, passing with the shifts of voting strength within the Landsraad as it balanced itself against the Emperor and his supporters. Directorship in the CHOAM was the key to wealth, each noble House dipping from the company's coffers whatever it could under this power.

The Structure
The corporation's management and board of directors are controlled by the Emperor and the Landsraad (with the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit as silent partners). Because of its control of inter-planetary commerce, CHOAM is the largest single source of wealth in the Empire; as such, influence in CHOAM (through partisans within it and control of directorships) is the central goal of political maneuvering, both to receive dividends and also to skim off profits.

The structure of CHOAM is similar to that of a publicly-held corporation. It consists of shareholders, and, as in a public company, major shareholders are given directorships to lead in the board of directors. In this case, however, all shareholders are nobles from the Landsraad, which consists of the Minor Houses, the Great Houses and the Imperial House. The Great Houses predictably hold the directorships of the company, but the Emperor is able to give out directorships and revoke directorships at whim. This strains the analogy between CHOAM directors and real-life shareholders: Individuals can be removed from a board of directors, but this does not typically involve revoking their stock.

[Kagetora]

2. Landsraad

The Landsraad is the body that represents all the Great Houses of the Imperium. It is ruled by the High Council and overseen by the Emperor.

The Landsraad Council meets regularly, and provides a forum within which Great Houses can relate with one another, to either negotiate trade agreements, create alliances or conduct kanly, the formalised processes of vendetta, or feud. It is also supposed to protect the Great Houses from being singled-out by the Imperial House and eliminated by it.

The Landsraad is governed by the High Council. It presides over issues such as the forms of Kanly, and whether certain Houses should be banished for breach of the Great Convention.

Motions are passed by a vote. Great Houses maintain the "lion's share" of the vote, while the Imperial House also has a powerful vote. Minor Houses have a lesser vote. However, even the Emperor has to answer to the High Council on some issues.

Notable Great Convention Clauses
-Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.
-Use of atomics against humans is cause for planetary extermination.

Kanly
Kanly is the enactment of a formal feud or vendetta in a manner that complies with the Great Convention. It often results in an official war of attrition between two opponents, usually Great Houses of the Old Imperium. Kanly requires that certain forms of conflict are permitted, while others are not. The use of atomics is forbidden, for example. Usage of atomics usually means a sentence of exile.

[Kagetora]

3. Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit are a powerful and ancient order of women whose objectives and actions formed a critical element in the evolution of humanity and the Imperium.

History
The origins of the Bene Gesserit are not widely known. What is clear is that the Bene Gesserit arose in the political turmoil that followed the Butlerian Jihad, and quickly established themselves as an influential political force.

Objectives
The primary objective of the Bene Gesserit is to attain further power and influence and help to direct humanity along a path of insight and stability. However, the timeline for their goals may stretch beyond a decade, beyond a generation, often beyond millenia. They see themselves as the slow but sure force behind much major change in the Imperium.

While unknown outside of the Bene Gesserit, they also secretly maintain a breeding program, mixing the genes of the Great Houses to keep the Imperium healthy.

Structure
Women unquestionably rule the Bene Gesserit, and while men do maintain some important roles, they are always answerable to at least one woman - the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior.
The Mother Superior: maintains ultimate control of the entire order, and invokes almost unquestioned loyalty among the subordinate Reverend Mothers. A Reverend Mother chooses her successor prior to her death, and imparts her memories and personality to her. The inheritance of the Mother Superiors, at times, diverged among multiple Reverend Mothers, usually for tactical reasons.

Kwisatz Mother: possessed the strongest tie to the other voices, in charge of the breeding program.

The subordinate Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit fulfilled many diverse roles, including intelligence gathering, diplomacy, and breeding to continue the objectives of the breeding program. They also pursued more menial roles, with their occupation determined by the quality of their genetic make-up.

Reverend Mothers: Have undergone the Spice Agony and survived. They fill the role of advisors, faculty, historians, geneticists. General authority of the Order for most members and the outside populace.
Proctor Superiors: In charge of a chapter house, each chapter house has a Proctor Superior.
Truthsayer: taught the ways to invoke the truth trance.
Sister: agents, concubines, potential wives.
Initiate

Abilities
The Bene Gesserit schools were designed to maximise the physical and mental potential of humanity, especially females. As a result, Bene Gesserit adepts possessed abilities that could not be rivalled by anyone else in the known universe.

Physically, a Bene Gesserit could control every muscle and nerve in their body, right down to the individual fibers. They were supreme in the disciplines of prana and bindu. The results of this training were numerous abilities, including:

-Oral Analysis: Upon tasting an item, a Bene Gesserit can break down the food into its ingredients, right down to its chemical composition

-Internal Organic-Chemical Control: Alteration of metabolism to render poisons harmless. This ability was used when potential Reverend Mothers took the Water of Life

-Prana Bindu: Alteration of blood flow, body temperature, heart rate, and level of consciousness, for the purposes of survival in harsh environments, or escaping from bonds

-Weirding Way: Superior hand-to-hand combat abilities. Bene Gesserit trained men and women were unrivalled in their fighting abilities. Only Imperial Sardaukar and the Fremen of Arrakis could approach the abilities of a Bene Gesserit in regards to combat techniques, attack speed, and resourcefulness.

Bene Gesserit mental abilities included supreme levels of discipline. A Bene Gesserit mind could alter its level of consciousness, for the sake of relaxation, and hyper-alertness in times of potential danger. Moreover, a Bene Gesserit trained individual could:

Petit Perception: monitor minutiae in others to detect concealed emotions, motivations, agendas, or even physical things such as concealed weapons, a false accent, surgery, or deception in general. This particular skill was useful in detecting face dancers.

3b. Bene Tleilax
Bene Tleilax, or the Tleilaxu as they are more commonly called, are a group of secretive, genetically altered humans who inhabit Tleilax, the sole planet of the star Thalim.

The customs and ethics of the Bene Tleilax lead to widespread revulsion by the other cultures of the Imperium.

Culture
The Tleilaxu are an inherently isolationist culture that is dominated by a strict hierarchy and an overriding religious zeal. They have long focused their efforts on genetics, and the pursuit of spiritual elevation through physical refinement.

Classes
The Tleilaxu are separated into several different classes, each of which has a distinct physical appearance and role within their society.

The primary groups are:
-Tleilaxu Masters: They look physically similar to small humans, most often with small close-set eyes and a set of small pointed teeth.

-Axlotl Tanks: Little more than incubation vessels, this class breeds all Tleilaxu, as well as other beings (such as gholas). It is believed these are what remain of the female sex of the Tleilaxu.

-Face Dancers: The warrior and worker class, who are capable of adapting their physical appearance to a specific task at hand. Their doppelganger ability is also used to perform espionage against other groups.

Religion
The Tleilaxu follow a strict and fervent spiritual ideology that derives itself from both the Zensunni and the Zensufi theologies. As with most cultures within the Known Universe, their faith is monotheistic.

[Kagetora]

4. Spacing Guild
The Spacing Guild, also known as the Guild of Navigators, or more simply the Guild, is an organization which holds exclusive rights to faster than light space travel. The Guild monopoly on space travel and transport and upon interstellar banking is taken as the beginning point of the Imperial Calendar. The Guild controls interstellar travel and shipping through use of massive ships, known as Heighliners, ships so massive that multiple entire fleets of the Great Houses can be contained within them.

History
Details of the Guild's emergence are contentious, although it is believed they emerged as a serious political and economic force around the time of The Great Convention. They took over one of the functions lost with the Thinking Machines, renowned for their near exclusive emphasis on mathematics and physics.

While the exact evolution of the monopoly they hold on faster than light space travel is not given, they do none-the-less wield this formidable power throughout the history of the Corrino Empire, a time known as the Guild Peace

Structure
Hierarchy

The Spacing Guild was by its very nature a secretive organization that took up functions previously covered by the Thinking Machines, just as mentats and the Bene Gesserit did. Their very existence rests on the proprietary knowledge they had clung to for thousands of years.

The inner structure of the Guild has never been fully revealed. However, it is known that the role of Guild Navigator was most prestigious, and the ambition of almost all of those who joined the Guild.

Other known Guild roles included the Chief Administrator, the administrative staff, Navigator attendants, Guild ambassadors, and technical support staff.

Dependency

The Guild Navigators are utterly dependent on the Spice Melange to safely deliver a vessel via the Holtzman Effect. Even a partial restriction on the Guild's spice requirements rendered them powerless, and reduced long distance trade and transport to a snail's pace.

Prior to the discovery of the Spice Melange's prescient powers, the use of the Spacefolder was very dangerous. One in about every eight Spacefolders was destroyed during travel, because of the lack of a viable method for avoiding gravitational hazards.

Rules
Great Houses are free to contract Guild agents and resources to establish satellite systems, transport troops, goods, and people, and perform a variety of different tasks. The Guild does however place restrictions upon use of Guild shipping. An act of war upon a Guild vessel results in embargoes of the offending party/parties' planets, absolutely destroying interstellar commerce.

[Kagetora]

5. Mentat
A Mentat is a profession or discipline that was developed as a replacement to the computers and thinking machines following the Butlerian Jihad that banned the creation of machines in the human mind's image, just as the Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit took up similar functions.

History
Gilbertus Albans displayed the first cognitive thinking and computer-like calculation capacity necessary for a Mentat.

In the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad, computers and other forms of thinking technology were made obsolete due to the OCB's commandment against thinking machines, "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind", and, at the same time, the anti-AI laws had been placed in effect; the punishment of owning such AI device or any kind being immediate death. Human computers, also known as Mentats, trained as replacements to the mechanical thinking technology, just as the all-female Bene Gesserit and the Guild of Navigators took up the same functions that had been previously covered by the Thinking Machines prior to the Jihad which banned all thinking technology.

Use
Mentats are used extensively by the Great Houses, primarily as political advisers. Thanks to their vast memories and ability to organize huge amounts of data they often provided valuable insights that would otherwise be lost. Limited Mentat training was also used to augment individuals destined for other political or military roles.

Mentats are also used, to a lesser extent by the Bene Gesserit. Though unlike the Great Houses, all Bene Gesserit Mentats are pre-conditioned Reverend Mothers.


Training
The role of Mentat requires a certain degree of mental ability, and strict mental conditioning. Though not all Mentats are of equal ability, all were typically able to guarantee employment with one of the power brokers of the Caladan Imperium.

Unlike computers, however, Mentats are not simple human calculators. Instead, the exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception are the foundations for supra-logical hypothesizing. Mentats are able to gather large amounts of data and devise concise analyses in a process that goes far beyond logical deduction: Mentats cultivate "the naïve mind", the mind without preconception or prejudice that can extract the essential patterns or logic of data and deliver, with varying degrees of certainty, useful conclusions. Indeed, this ability causes many military commanders and political leaders to undergo some form of Mentat training.

The ability to become a Mentat is a talent limited to a small number of people; thus, those with the discipline are prized in whatever role they choose. There are also varying degrees of ability. A Mentat's capabilities can be greatly increased by taking sapho juice, but using it leads to addiction. Sapho is extracted from the root of the Ecaz tree and its use doubles or even triples the Mentat's immense processing power. However, repeated use turns the user's lips a shade of red.

Mentats are required to operate within an ethical framework, which for some purposes was not desired.

[Kagetora]

6. Notable Figures

Corrin Asuara
147th Asuaran Emperor of the Caladan Imperium, Corrin has been known to ferment conflict among the Great Houses to ensure his own power. However, he could be the last of the Asuaran line, as he has no legal heir to ascend to the throne. Unlike many of his predecessors, Corrin has taken an active interest in the proceedings of the Landsraad, and has been present at nearly all of their assemblies since his ascension to the throne. A powerful player within CHOAM, holding 49.83% of shares, Corrin has nevertheless shown a mild decrease in the balance of power between the Emperor and the Landsraad.

Thufir Trankut
The Duke of Arrakis, Thufir is responsible for mining spice on the planet, selling most of it to the Spacing Guild. A CHOAM director, Thufir earns massive profits from the spice mining operations he operates on the planet, though his rule is made difficult by smugglers, rival houses, and above all the Fremen. He has not aged well since inheriting his title from his father, who was killed by a Fremen attack, the stress and blessing of the dukedom of Arrakis leaving him without the luxuries of many other planets. He has grown haggard, often looking unkempt for someone of his position.

Rachel Harkonnen
Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, Rachel is very old, over 130 years to her name. She has not been seen in public in nearly twenty years, though she is rumored to have been spotted on planets far removed from each other, as widespread as Caladan and Arrakis, Tantua and Belan.

Stilgar Makkun
The Baron of the planet Ix, Stilgar maintains massive power through indirect control on interstellar commerce and to a lesser extent, the Spacing Guild. Due to the shipyards constructed in Ix' orbit eight generations ago, the only place capable of constructing Heighliners maintains much power over the Spacing Guild. A very straightforward person, Stilgar has been seen as a very blunt figure in the Landsraad and among those he meets.

Conrad Ramsey
Conrad Ramsey is one of twenty-one of the Landsraad's High Council, and de facto head of the assembly, unofficially presiding over meetings. His powerful personality, commanding respect from those he meets, is not loud or overbearing. It comes from the power of his earldom, Myranthus, a major trading hub with a huge population from which he draws one of the most highly trained personal militaries in the Imperium. A personal friend of the Emperor, Ramsey is known to personally advise the Emperor and oversee both official and unofficial imperial actions.

Channa Calgar
Channa, the Baroness of the planet Paralos in the system of the same name, is a powerful member of the Landsraad, leading a coalition of members that remain skeptical of the power of the Emperor. She has led many votes on issues opposing the actions of the Emperor, including the appointment of the Trankut family to the dukedom of Arrakis. Very aggressive in both words and actions, Channa is both feared and respected by her peers.

29th generation head of the Paralos fiefdom, the Calgar family is thoroughly entrenched in the politics of the planet. Channa herself takes much pride in her personal attention to her own planet, and keeping order therein. Paralos is widely known as a police state, in large part due to Channa's increase of the Calgar family's military.

Kynes
Marshal Kynes is the commander of the Emperor's Sardaukar, the most dangerous military in the Imperium. Its numbers are unknown, and Kynes is known to use it ruthlessly. Since Kynes attained his rank, the Sardaukar haven't known defeat, in part because of Kynes' use of overwhelming force. Easily recognizable for a large scar across his right cheek, the commander is rarely seen outside of the Emperor's company.

[Kagetora]

7. Notable Locations

Caladan
Caladan is the third planet orbiting the star Delta Pavonis. It is a lush oceanic world, and the ancestral home of House Asuara. The Caladan Imperium has all roots in this system, and is filled with historical markers and museums.

Caladan from orbit

Environment
Rain is a common feature of the planet's meteorology. The land broken by rivers and mountains. The planet hosts a diverse and complex underwater ecosystem, and an equally rich and complex biology of the land. Between the cities of the Asuara house, the planet is widely considered a paradise planet, and is well known for vacationing by Great Houses.

Economy and Culture
Caladan maintains a large agricultural industry. Under the Asuara, the planet's economy flourishes through orchards (some of which are part of the Asuara family holdings), as well as exports of pundi rice and fine wines. Since much of the planet was ocean, a significant amount of trade on the planet was based on fishing. Indeed, fishing was such a large industry on Caladan that it became ingrained into the culture of its people. Any view of the sea from the coastline would frequently be dotted with fishing trawlers.

Notably, Caladan is the home planet of the Imperial House Asuara, Caladan is not the political center of the Imperium. Most political action happens on a neighboring planet, Pelilica, which is the home planet of the Landsraad legislature.

Arrakis
Arrakis, also known as "Dune", is a harsh desert planet located on the far edge of the Imperium in the Canopus star system. It is the sole source of the spice "melange" in the known universe, making it vitally important to Caladan interstellar travel and commerce. Arrakis is located far from the major populated worlds and their trade routes. It is orbited by two moons: the first and larger of these bore a formation which looks like a human fist; the second has a formation that resembles a kangaroo mouse.

Environment
The surface of Arrakis consists almost exclusively of dry dune deserts, and is the reason for the planet's alternative name Dune. Various weathered mountain ranges stretch across the planet, breaking up the deserts and providing shelter to the limited native lifeforms. Rock outcrops also litter the planet's surface.

The atmosphere comprises of nitrogen and oxygen in measures compatible enough to allow human beings to live on the planet without the need for respiratory equipment. The production method of atmospheric oxygen sufficient to sustain limited biological life is through sandworm's metabolism, which acts like an oxygen producing factory. Small amounts of water vapour exists in the atmosphere, and are harvested via windtraps.

The northern pole of the planet sits on a large plate of bedrock, and is ringed by mountain ranges. Thus it is protected from sandworm incursion.

This geography, combined with the milder climate, makes human habitation at the pole more comfortable, and explains the presence of the capital city Arrakeen.

Biology
Little native life survived on Arrakis, due to its scorching heat and dry climate. The various lifeforms that did endure were eclipsed by the sandworms, which roam the deep deserts of the planet. The sandworms aggressively protect their desert territory from humans and other sandworms alike.

The Fremen, traditionalist human clans, also eeked out a life on the planet, existing in the caves of rocky outcrops and mountain ranges that broke up the planet-wide desert.

Other lifeforms on Arrakis included the kangaroo mouse, known to the Fremen as Muad'Dib, small desert plants, and burrowing creatures. Some forms of flora existed on the planet, including the creosote bush. Various birds and bats are also known to exist in the ecosystems of the planet. Some of these are domesticated by the Fremen.

While a full biological expedition through the deserts of Arrakis is dangerous and expensive, many forms of life have been observed close to the northern centers of human population. Specifically,the kinds of life forms that exist on Arrakis include:

Poverty grass
Ephemerals - chenopods, pigweeds, amarinth
Scotch broom
Low lupine
Vine eucalyptus (from Caladan)
Dwarf tamarisk
Shore pine
Candelilla
Suguaro
Bis-naga
Shrubs and bushes, including camel sage, onion grass, gobi feather grass, wild alfalfa, burrow Bush, sand verbena, evening primrose, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush.

Various animals, including:

Burrowing animals: kit fox, kangaroo mouse, desert hare, sand terrapin
Predators, including the desert hawk, dwarf owl, eagle, desert owl
Insects, namely scorpion, centipede, trapdoor spider, biting wasp, wormfly
The desert bat

Salusa Secundus
Salusa Secundus is the most populated world in the entire Imperium, and serves primarily as the public headquarters of the Spacing Guild. The planet maintains veritable hordes of workers who spend their entire life on the planet or in the planet's orbit, toiling in various offices, repairing Heighliners, accounting the massive incomes and expenditures of the Guild.

Economy
The economy of Salusa is maintained through the massive profits of the Spacing Guild, in such a system that the entire wealth of the planet is simply cycled within the Guild's coffers. All local output and input is by the Guild, and workers are largely prevented by leaving the planet by inhibitive prices aboard Heighliners the Guild imposes on this population.

Biology and Ecosystem
The massive population centers of the planet has essentially wiped out any native life that once existed there. The biosphere is largely maintained through the use of oxygen factories, recycling the air to ensure that the atmosphere remains conducive to human life. New species have thrived in this new world, including odd species of rodents that inhabit the massive sewer system.

Tunanton

Tunanton
Tunanton is a historical shrine planet, reminiscent of the Butlerian Jihad, or the War of the Thinking Machines. The planet was absolutely devastated during the sweeping war, the surface essentially uninhabitable after the extensive use of atomics bathed everything in radiation. Even today, millenia later, the planet is largely a barren landscape, dotted here and there by ruins or outcroppings. They serve as bleak reminders of the use of both Thinking Machines and atomics, and Great Houses consider it a rite of passage for heirs to visit the world before taking on the mantle of head of the household.

Lunania and Ix
Lunania and Ix are considered the highest level of technology centers in the Imperium, each renowned for their prowess in their respective fields. Lunania, located in the Macronus system, is famed for miniaturization practices, pushing the bounds of nanotechnology and reducing the size of machinery in all fields. They have also received a more negative connotation for their willingness to pursue morally gray technologies, and many poisons utilized by the Great Houses originate from Lunania, as well as tools of assassination and sabotage.

Ix, its name stemming from the mispronunciation of its original name, Alkalurops IX, is famous for massive orbital shipyards and the engineering of complex machinery. Heighliners and ornithopters are built on Ix, as well as complex processing equipment and navigation equipment for the Guild.

[Kagetora]

8. Technology

Heighliners

Space Guild Heighliner

A Heighliner is a starship used by the Spacing Guild to transport people and equipment across the known universe.

Guild Heighliners are usually immense in size, tens of kilometers in length, a few kilometers in diameter. An entire planet's population and all its equipment would only take a small percentage of their payload capacity.

Spacing Guild Heighliners can be used to fold space to travel vast distances across the universe in an instant. They are piloted by Guild Navigators and Steersmen.

Lasguns
A lasgun is a continuous-wave laser projector weapon that is perhaps the most widely used hand weapon in the Imperium. It commonly takes the form of a pistol or rifle. Its firing pattern is typically a constant, narrow beam, but the nozzle can sometimes be adjusted to alter the width and spread of the beam. Its power source is a cell cartridge that can be replaced when depleted.

During the days of the Old Imperium, lasguns were often ornate in their design, with detailed scrollwork embedded into their handles, which were usually some exotic wood. However, in more recent times, the designs have become less intricate and more functional.

Lasguns are the preferred weapon for armies. However, when shields are being employed, lasguns are generally not used because contact between a lasgun beam and a shield causes massive explosions that often kills everyone within a large radius.

Thus, many soldiers and assassins prefer knives and swords in combat, both because they allow for personal shields, and because of appreciation for the the art of swordsmanship.

Shields
A defensive shield, commonly referred to as simply a shield and sometimes as a Holtzman shield, is a protective energy field that could surround the person who wore it.

With the widespread use of shields, anyone of even minimal importance wears a body shield to protect against criminals, assassins, and accidents. Such a practice makes the use of projectile weapons and thrown blades virtually obsolete. The only effective combat method is the deft use and careful precision of a handheld dagger, if moved slowly enough. New styles of fencing and knife fighting were developed to take advantage of this one small vulnerability.

Technical
A shield is produced by a Holtzman generator, the field deriving from Phase One of the suspensor-nullification effect. Shields can be calibrated to permit the passage of matter below given speeds. This is vital in personal defense shields, as one would suffocate within a shield that did not admit atmospheric gasses. Depending on the shield's setting, the object's speed while passing through the shield would range from six to nine centimeters per second. A shield can also be set to cover either the left or right side of a person if the specific need for it arose.

Shields used to protect installations can and usually do have far lower penetration velocities, as life support technologies can be used to recycle atmosphere while the shield is active.

However, if a lasgun beam hits a Holtzman field, it results in sub-atomic fusion and a nuclear explosion. The center of this blast is determined by random chance; sometimes it would originate within the shield, sometimes within the laser weapon, sometimes both.

Lack of Computers
Following the rise of the actual thinking machines, and the physical and psychological damage they inflicted on the free humans, the very concept of a sentient machine became abhorrent to humanity and they were obliterated by the Butlerian Jihad.

Animosity against seemingly intelligent machines often escalates into outright hysteria, and resulted in a widespread hatred of mechanical objects. This hatred lasted through the ages thanks to rigid cultural restrictions, a good example of which was the Orange Catholic Bible's supreme commandment: Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

Ornithopters
Ornithopters, also commonly refered to as 'thopters, are the most common small transport vessels in the Imperium. These ships are capable of carrying 6 passengers, 9 if the back seats were removed.

Ornithopter

'Thopters are also very versatile. While they were capable of space travel over short distances, these small vessels are mostly operated in planetary atmospheres. Their uses vary from human transport between cities and continents, to light cargo transport across long distances.

'Thopters are often used for military purposes and equipped with weaponry. Usually these weapons were lasguns, but they could also carry small missiles and repeating maula pistols. With the exception of the planet Arrakis, and for heavier cargo transportation, most ornithopters are equipped with shields.

Most 'thopters are winged vessels that are capable of flight through jet propulsion, as well as by mimmicking the movements of birds. While the jets are the primary propulsion system, the wings assisted in maintaining altitude, as well as maneuvering the vessels.


Atomics
Atomics refer to the process of nuclear fission, and more specifically to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. A particularly famous type of atomic weapon was the stone burner. Most atomics can be finetuned to limit their radioactive output, diameter of blast, and general destructiveness.

Atomics harbor a pronounced psychological and social stigma, and are rarely used due to traumatic historical events. Their prohibition is enforced by the Great Convention.

Mankind's aversion to atomics came from their devastating use during the war against the thinking machines. During the war, many planets were strongly affected or even destroyed.

Holtzman Drive
Holtzman Drives used in this case to fold space at the quantum level, allowing the Spacing Guild's heighliner ships to instantaneously travel far distances across space. However, the chaotic and seemingly non-deterministic quantum nature of "foldspace" requires at least limited prescience on the part of the human navigator; otherwise the absurdly complex mathematics involved in producing reliable physical projections of such events would only be possible with advanced thinking machines, which are strictly prohibited because of mankind's crusade against thinking machines, the Butlerian Jihad. To this effect, the Guild produces melange-saturated Navigators who intuitively "see paths through foldspace" in this way.

Suspensors
The Holtzman Suspensors are hovering devices which utilize the secondary (low-drain) phase of a Holtzman field generator to nullify gravity within certain limits prescribed by relative mass and energy consumption.

Suspensors are used in chairs, tables, and structures that are too massive to be physically sound, among many other obvious uses.