SPICE: see Melange.
SPICE DRIVER: any Dune man who controls and directs movable machinery on the desert surface of Arrakis.
SPICE FACTORY: see Sandcrawler.
SPOTTER CONTROL: the light ornithopter in a spice-hunting group charged with control of watch and protection.
STILLSUIT: body-enclosing garment invented on Arrakis. Its fabric is a micro-sandwich performing functions of heat dissipation and filter for bodily wastes.
Reclaimed moisture is made available by tube from catchpockets.
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.
STUNNER: slow-pellet projectile weapon throwing a poison- or drug-tipped dart.
Effectiveness limited by variations in shield settings and relative motion between target and projectile.
SUBAKH UL KUHAR: "Are you well?": a Fremen greeting.
SUBAKH UN NAR: "I am well. And you?": traditional reply.
SUSPENSOR: secondary (low-drain) phase of a Holtzman field generator. It nullifies gravity within certain limits prescribed by relative mass and energy consumption.
TAHADDI AL-BURHAN: an ultimate test from which there can be no appeal (usually because it brings death or destruction).
TAHADDI CHALLENGE: Fremen challenge to mortal combat, usually to test some primal issue.
TAQWA: literally: "The price of freedom." Something of great value. That which a deity demands of a mortal (and the fear provoked by the demand).
TAU, THE: in Fremen terminology, that oneness of a sietch community enhanced by spice diet and especially the tau orgy of oneness elicited by drinking the Water of Life.
TEST-MASHAD: any test in which honor (defined as spiritual standing) is at stake.
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. (See Maker hooks.) TIDAL DUST BASIN: any of the extensive depressions in the surface of Arrakis which have been filled with dust over the centuries and in which actual dust tides (see Sandtides) have been measured.
TLEILAX: lone planet of Thalim, noted as renegade training center for Mentats; source of "twisted" Mentats.
T-P: idiomatic for telepathy.
TRAINING: when applied to Bene Gesserit, this otherwise common term assumes special meaning, referring to that conditioning of nerve and muscle (see Bindu and Prana) which is carried to the last possible notch permitted by natural function.
TROOP CARRIER: any Guild ship designed specifically for transport of troops between planets.
TRUTHSAYER: a Reverend Mother qualified to enter truthtrance and detect insincerity or falsehood.
TRUTHTRANCE: semihypnotic trance induced by one of several "awareness spectrum"
narcotics in which the petit betrayals of deliberate falsehood are apparent to the truthtrance observer. (Note: "awareness spectrum" narcotics are frequently fatal except to desensitized individuals capable of transforming the poison-configuration within their own bodies.)
TUPILE: so-called "sanctuary planet" (probably several planets) for defeated Houses of the Imperium. Location(s) known only to the Guild and maintained inviolate under the Guild Peace.
ULEMA: a Zensunni doctor of theology.
UMMA: one of the brotherhood of prophets. (A term of scorn in the Imperium, meaning any "wild" person given to fanatical prediction.) UROSHNOR: one of several sounds empty of general meaning and which Bene Gesserit implant within the psyches of selected victims for purposes of control. The sensitized person, hearing the sound, is temporarily immobilized.
USUL: Fremen: "The base of the pillar."
VAROTA: famed maker of balisets; a native of Chusuk.
VERITE: one of the Ecaz will-destroying narcotics. It renders a person incapable of falsehood.
VOICE: that combined training originated by the Bene Gesserit which permits an adept to control others merely by selected tone shadings of the voice.
WALI: an untried Fremen youth.
WALLACH IX: ninth planet of Laoujin, site of the Mother School of the Bene Gesserit.
WAR OF ASSASSINS: the limited form of warfare permitted under the Great Convention and the Guild Peace. The aim is to reduce involvement of innocent bystanders. Rules prescribe formal declarations of intent and restrict permissible weapons.
WATER BURDEN: Fremen: a mortal obligation.
WATERCOUNTERS: metal rings of different size, each designating a specific amount of water payable out of Fremen stores. Watercounters have profound significance (far beyond the idea of money) especially in birth, death, and courtship ritual.
WATER DISCIPLINE: that harsh training which fits the inhabitants of Arrakis for existence there without wasting moisture.
WATERMAN: a Fremen consecrated for and charged with the ritual duties surrounding water and the Water of Life.
WATER OF LIFE: an "illuminating" poison (see Reverend Mother). Specifically, that liquid exhalation of a sandworm (see Shai-hulud) produced at the moment of its death from drowning which is changed within the body of a Reverend Mother to become the narcotic used in the sietch tau orgy. An "awareness spectrum"
