Fremen

Fremen
Illustration of a Fremen by Jim Burns, featured on the cover of Frank Herbert's short story collection Eye (1985)
Plot element from the Dune franchise
First appearance	Dune (1965)
Created by	Frank Herbert
Genre	Science fiction
In-story information
Type	Human culture
Specific traits and abilities	Desert survival, water conservation, fighting abilities
Affiliation	House Atreides Sandworms

The Fremen /ˈfrɛmən/ are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), which is the sole known source in the universe of the all-important spice melange. Long overlooked by the rest of the Imperium and considered backward savages, in reality they are an extremely hardy people and exist in large numbers. The Fremen had come to the planet thousands of years before the events of the novel as the Zensunni Wanderers, a religious sect in retreat. As humans in extremis, over time they adapt their culture and way of life to survive and thrive in the incredibly harsh conditions of Arrakis. The Fremen are distinguished by their fierce fighting abilities and adeptness at survival in these conditions. With water such a rare commodity on the planet, their culture revolves around its preservation and conservation. Herbert based their culture, in part, on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and Tuaregs.

In Dune, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica undergoes the spice agony and gains access to the memories of her ancestors as well as those of the Fremen Reverend Mother Ramallo. This reveals to Jessica that "the Fremen culture was far older than she had suspected. There had been Fremen on Poritrin ... a people grown soft with an easy planet, fair game for Imperial raiders to harvest and plant human colonies on Bela Tegeuse and Salusa Secundus ... Jessica saw the slave cribs on Bela Tegeuse ... saw the weeding out and the selecting that spread men to Rossak and Harmonthep." Herbert elaborates in "Terminology of the Imperium," the glossary of Dune, by noting that the planet Poritrin is "considered by many Zensunni Wanderers as their planet of origin, although clues in their language and mythology show far more ancient planetary roots." The former Imperial capital (and later prison world) Salusa Secundus is "the second stopping point in migrations of the Wandering Zensunni. Fremen tradition says they were slaves on S.S. for nine generations." The "third stopping place" is noted as Bela Tegeuse, and Harmonthep is the "sixth stop."