Spacing Guild

Spacing Guild
Mutated Guild Navigator suspended in a tank filled with spice gas, accompanied by Guild agents, from the David Lynch film Dune (1984).
Plot element from the Dune franchise
First appearance	Dune (1965)
Created by	Frank Herbert
Genre	Science fiction
In-story information
Type	Organization
Specific traits and abilities	Control the monopoly on space travel and banking

The Spacing Guild is an organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. With its monopoly on interstellar travel and banking, the power of the Guild is balanced against that of the Padishah Emperor as well as of the assembled noble Houses of the Landsraad. Mutated Guild Navigators use the spice drug melange to successfully navigate "folded space" and safely guide enormous heighliner starships from planet to planet instantaneously. Essentially apolitical, the Guild is primarily concerned with the flow of commerce and preservation of the economy that supports them; although their ability to dictate the terms of and fees for all transport gives them influence in the political arena, they do not pursue political goals beyond their economic ones. It is noted in Dune (1965) that Houses of the Imperium may contract with the Guild to be removed "to a place of safety outside the System"; in the past, some Houses in danger of ruin or defeat have "become renegade Houses, taking family atomics and shields and fleeing beyond the Imperium". The Guild controls a "sanctuary planet" (or planets) known as Tupile intended for such "defeated Houses of the Imperium ... Location(s) known only to the Guild and maintained inviolate under the Guild Peace".

In Dune, Paul Atreides defeats Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in a battle on Arrakis. He demands first the Emperor's daughter for a wife, which would make Paul heir to the throne, and second that the Emperor immediately step down. The demands are coupled with a threat to destroy the spice. Since that would end all interstellar transit, the Guild sides with Paul, threatening to strand the Emperor and his troops on Arrakis if he does not relinquish the throne.