IMPERIAL CONDITIONING: a development of the Suk Medical Schools: the highest conditioning against taking human life. Initiates are marked by a diamond tattoo on the forehead and are permitted to wear their hair long and bound by a silver Suk ring.
INKVINE: a creeping plant native to Giedi Prime and frequently used as a whip in the slave cribs. Victims are marked by beet-colored tattoos that cause residual pain for many years.
ISTISLAH: a rule for the general welfare; usually a preface to brutal necessity.
IX: see Richese.
JIHAD: a religious crusade; fanatical crusade.
JIHAD, BUTLERIAN: (see also Great Revolt) -- the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108
B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."
JUBBA CLOAK: the all-purpose cloak (it can beset to reflect or admit radiant heat, converts to a hammock or shelter) commonly worn over a stillsuit on Arrakis.
JUDGE OF THE CHANGE: an official appointed by the Landsraad High Council and the Emperor to monitor a change of fief, a kanly negotiation, or formal battle in a War of Assassins. The Judge's arbitral authority may be challenged only before the High Council with the Emperor present.
KANLY: formal feud or vendetta under the rules of the Great Convention carried on according to the strictest limitations. (See Judge of the Change.) Originally the rules were designed to protect innocent bystanders.
KARAMA: a miracle; an action initiated by the spirit world.
KHALA: traditional invocation to still the angry spirits of a place whose name you mention.
KINDJAL: double bladed short sword (or long knife) with about 20 centimeters of slightly curved blade.
KISWA; any figure or design from Fremen mythology.
KITAB AL-IBAR: the combined survival handbook-religious manual developed by the Fremen on Arrakis.
KRIMSKELL FIBER or KRIMSKELL ROPE: the "claw fiber" woven from strands of the hufuf vine from Ecaz. Knots tied in krimskell will claw tighter and tighter to preset limits when the knot-lines are pulled. (For a more detailed study, see Holjance Vohnbrook's "The Strangler Vines of Ecaz.") KULL WAHAD!: "I am profoundly stirred!" A sincere exclamation of surprise common in the Imperium. Strict interpretation depends on context. (It is said of Muad'Dib that once he watched a desert hawk chick emerge from its shell and whispered: "Kull wahad!")
KULON: wild ass of Terra's Asiatic steppes adapted for Arrakis.
KWISATZ HADERACH: "Shortening of the Way." This is the label applied by the Bene Gesserit to the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.
LA, LA, LA: Fremen cry of grief. (La translates as ultimate denial, a "no" from which you cannot appeal.)
LASGUN: continuous-wave laser projector. Its use as a weapon is limited in a field-generator-shield culture because of the explosive pyrotechnics (technically, subatomic fusion) created when its beam intersects a shield.
LEGION, IMPERIAL: ten brigades (about 30,000 men).
LIBAN: Fremen liban is spice water infused with yucca flour. Originally a sour milk drink.
LISAN AL-GAIB: "The Voice from the Outer World." In Fremen messianic legends, an off-world prophet. Sometimes translated as "Giver of Water." (See Mahdi.) LITERJON: a one-liter container for transporting water on Arrakis; made of high-density, shatterproof plastic with positive seal.
LITTLE MAKER: the half-plant-half-animal deep-sand vector of the Arrakis sandworm. The Little Maker's excretions form the pre-spice mass.
MAHDI: in the Fremen messianic legend, "The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise."
MAKER: see Shai-hulud.
MAKER HOOKS: the hooks used for capturing, mounting, and steering a sandworm of Arrakis.
MANTENE: underlying wisdom, supporting argument, first principle. (See Giudichar.)
MATING INDEX: the Bene Gesserit master record of its human breeding program aimed at producing the Kwisatz Haderach.
MAULA: slave.
MAULA PISTOL: spring-loaded gun for firing poison darts; range about forty meters.
MELANGE: the "spice of spices," the crop for which Arrakis is the unique source.
The spice, chiefly noted for its geriatric qualities, is mildly addictive when taken in small quantities, severely addictive when imbibed in quantities above two grams daily per seventy kilos of body weight. (See Ibad, Water of Life, and Pre-spice Mass.) Muad'Dib claimed the spice as a key to his prophetic powers.
Guild navigators make similar claims. Its price on the Imperial market has ranged as high as 620,000 Solaris the decagram.
MENTAT: that class of Imperial citizens trained for supreme accomplishments of logic. "Human computers."
METAGLASS: glass grown as a high-temperature gas infusion in sheets of jasmium quartz. Noted for extreme tensile strength (about 450,000 kilos per square centimeter at two centimeters' thickness) and capacity as a selective radiation filter.
MIHNA: the season for testing Fremen youths who wish admittance to manhood.
MINIMIC FILM: shigawire of one-micron diameter often used to transmit espionage and counterespionage data.
MISH-MISH: apricots.
MISR: the historical Zensunni(Fremen) term for themselves: "The People."