What Is The Spacing Guild | Dune Lore

[Music] hello and welcome to another Doon lore video the first film in the knieval news two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's beloved science fiction novel is on its way and an anticipation of its release I've been exploring this universes intricate characters however in this video I'd like to delve into what I think is one of the more interesting aspects of the universe that being space travel and the mysterious organization that has monopolized it the spacing guild in Frank Herbert's novel the ships that transport the entirety of House Atreides from their home world of Caledon to the desert planet of Arrakis are called highliners these are ships owned by the spacing guild that are so immense in size that they're able to hold many thousands of passengers equipment and goods the novel doesn't include very many details on a ship design just that they are enormous in size so other than that there is definitely some room for creative liberties to be taken with the design the 1984 film in the sci-fi channel miniseries in the year 2000 both depicted the guild ships as gigantic cylindrical vessels however this detail is not described in the book in the dune encyclopedia it states that highliners were a globular shape but it is sort of an obscure reference I'm not sure whether or not any artist will be looking to any prior renderings as a source from which they'll base their design so at this moment it's really hard to know exactly how Denis Villeneuve will choose to depict these ships his inspiration may not stem from anything we've seen previously and since other creators have taken certain liberties with Frank Herbert's novel it would make sense that Denis might do that as well he could be basing ship design on simply his own imagination and the images that came to mind when he read the book I actually admire that about Frank Herbert's world building technique I like the fact that there isn't much exposition in this story that includes my new details about ship design and detailing all the specifics of the Highliner engines and how they work I would end up feeling like I am reading an encyclopedia and it would take away from the experience and the flow of the story world building is done through the characters experiences revealing details that are only necessary to the story which allows for your imagination to fill in the rest the concept of space travel in this universe is presented in a vastly different way than what we're used to seeing in a science fiction property in Star Trek for example ships travel through space due to a propulsion system known as work drive and of course there is loads of other technology assisting in this process and other science fiction franchises use a similar concept in dune faster-than-light travel is achieved exclusively by the spacing guild and their ships engines with the practical application of the Holtzman effect which is the idea of folding space to achieve instantaneous space travel however folding space is extremely risky unless you're able to chart a safe course I think Han Solo summed up the importance of this best hyper spacing like Dustin crops boy precise calculations we'd fly right through a star or supernova net an injured foot grew up wait wouldn't you however in dune navicomputer x' don't exist in this universe all computing technology is banned so there is no way to digitally chart coordinates so this meant that humans would need to get creative in his book Frank Herbert wanted to delve into what mankind's development would be over time without the focus being on the technology of the future when the story of dune begins we become aware of this unique aspect of this universe the Reverend Mother Gaius helenm Ohio of the Bene Gesserit comes to visit Paul and she goes on to relate that thousands of years ago humans had reached a point in their development where they had turned their thinking over to machines and had thus become enslaved by them ten thousand years ago the great conflict referred to as the but Larry and jihad led to the banishment of all machines made in the likeness of a human mind she continues in her account of history saying that it forced human minds to develop schools were started to train human talents and that the two chief survivors of those ancient schools were they been a Jesuit and the spacing gilt like the vintage a syrette the spacing guild is an immensely powerful organization and is equally secretive to outsiders the Bene Gesserit Mentats and members of the spacing guild came to further their human talents and abilities over thousands of years to a superhuman degree and evolving to a point of being able to perform functions that had previously been done by machines and just like the village a syrette the drug spice more formally known as melange is an integral part of the Gil's inner workings with the aid of spice the Bene Gesserit can access their female ancestral memories as well as enable them to see into the future to a limited degree members of the spacing guild who become navigators are entirely dependent on spice and require vast amounts of the drug so as to heighten their senses to the point of having multi-dimensional awareness which enables them to foresee and navigate safe paths for space travel in the book this ability is also described as them questing ahead through time to find the safest course it's basically the dune version of a navicomputer before the guild navigators existed interstellar travel was still possible however because there was no way of knowing whether or not the course was safe about one in every eight ships that attempted faster than light travel by means of the holtzmann engines would be destroyed it was essentially Russian roulette in space this is why the navigators ability to chart safe courses became so crucial in the universe of doom so because the guild maintains the entire monopoly on space travel they can charge whatever fees they want for their ships and their services because they've cornered the market they are able to wield tremendous power and influence in the galaxy and can easily turn the tide at the political landscape if they so choose they mostly exert their influence in the political arena to maintain their dominance over the universe's economy overall they couldn't care less who is ruling the Empire as long as a spice keeps flowing not only to meet their economic goals but also because they have become completely and utterly dependent upon the substance a spice is incredibly addictive and withdrawals from it can be deadly especially to those who ingest quantities to the levels that the members of the spacing guild do over time the spice mutates its members until they reach the senior rank as guild navigator which is the most prestigious position in the guild by the time they reach this point they have long lost any part that once made them human in order to become a navigator its members must consume large quantities of spice and are gradually mutated by it to where they then have to be continuously immersed in a tank filled with a highly concentrated version of the substance that exists in gaseous form the guild is just as jealous of its privacy as it is of its domination of space travel it is strictly forbidden for anyone outside of the guilt to attempt to see one of these navigators in the book Paul expresses interest in trying to get a glimpse of one of the Guild's men however he is quickly corrected by his father who warns that by doing so their house would be risking their shipping privileges I am curious to see if denis villeneuve will bring these mysterious skill navigators into his film I'd really like to see exactly what Denis would have in mind if he were to choose to present these creatures on screen as previous adaptations have the space and guild is talked about often in the story of dune and certainly their heavy influences felt throughout however while other guild members are seen briefly in the novel the senior Gil navigators themselves are not physically encountered in Frank Herbert's first novel actually they are not even described until the second book in his series dune Messiah in the first chapter of that novel a guild navigator is described as a humanoid fish in his tank of spiced gas he has an elongated figure vaguely humanoid with fin feet and huge leaf and membranous hands he is a fish in a strange sea I've seen artists renderings that kind of look like The Creature from the Black Lagoon and that's how I usually pictured them when I read the books it certainly has been interesting to see the previous adaptations of these beings and how the artists imagined them David Lynch's version certainly took the most dramatic approach with the navigators this is probably the most famous scene in this film it's definitely visually striking and memorable again there was some creative Liberty taken here by including the scene in the first place which I presume was to demonstrate the great influence that guilt holes in the universe and how even the Emperor yields to their commands so to a degree I can understand including a scene like this for that reason the navigators themselves in the 1984 film looked more like a giant worm like squid with little human hands either way they don't really seem fish like and notably do not have the deep blue eyes of spice saturation I'm not ultra fond of the close-up shots of the navigator however the tank itself does look like a strange sea within very eerie looking taking these different approaches into account it definitely makes me wonder what approach Denis Villeneuve will use to depict space travel and the heavy influence the spacing guilt holds in the universe he has said he's going by what's in the book and if it's based solely on this century in the universe we may have vastly different ship designs than we were thinking of and also we may not see the navigators at all if he does include them I think it may be similar to the miniseries and that we the audience will get a glimpse but not the characters in the story Villeneuve certainly has a good reputation of creating visually stunning imagery so if it is done right this could be one of the most visually intriguing scenes of the first movie if he does choose to include the navigators in this way then I am very interested in seeing his interpretation of them and how he imagined them when he first read Frank Herbert's epic story I hope you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up if you did and be sure to subscribe for more dune and other sci-fi and fantasy content and I'd love to hear your thoughts and speculations on the space and guilt and The Navigators themselves do you think Danny will include them in his adaptation what are your thoughts on the previous attempts to depict them thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day you

Channel: Nerd Cookies

Views: 405,188

Keywords: spacing guild, dune movie, frank herbert, denis villeneuve, dune lore, dune 2020, guild navigator, denis villeneuve dune, space travel, dune movie 2020, spacing guild navigator, spacing guild heighliner, dune spacing guild navigator, dune miniseries spacing guild, guild navigator dune, guild navigator dune movie, guild navigator folding space, dune spice guild navigator, spice guild navigator, dune guild navigator scene, 3rd stage guild navigator, dune 1984 guild navigator

Id: PrD9maOyiPU

Length: 11min 55sec (715 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020