Spice essence

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A substance from the Dune (novel) series.

1 Qualities
2 Uses
- 2.1 Spacing Guild
- 2.2 Bene Gesserit

[edit] Qualities

Spice essence is a bright blue liquid. It is a concentrate made from Melange, a substance obtained from the giant sandworms on Arrakis. It has a distinctive odor, described as, "bitter cinnamon," by Murbella in Chapterhouse: Dune.

When women consume the drug, they are lead by their mohatla, one of their ancesteral memories, who tries to guide them to the core of their cell-memories. While on this path, the woman can be intercepted by one of her ancestral memories. If this happens, the woman will die, as she will not be able to gain enough control over her body's internal functioning to chemically change the essence.

In almost all cases with men spice esssence is a poison that destroys the neural interconnects of whomever consumes it. It eats away at neurons in the brain until the person literally goes mad, and then dies. The only two men who have ever consumed spice essence and survived are Paul Atreides, who became the Kwisatz Haderach, and his son Leto II Atreides, who became the God Emperor of Dune.

[edit] Uses

Because it is a concentrated form of melange, spice essence is utilized in many of the same fashions.

[edit] Spacing Guild

Spacing Guild uses the spice enduce the prescient spice trance, which allows them to see through time. Only in the spice trance can a spacing guild navigator plot the safest course through space-time. This is the course that allows the heighliner that they are piloting to avoid objects with mass.

[edit] Bene Gesserit

The Bene Gesserit use the spice essence as a drug in the spice agony, which gives her potential contact with her ancestral memories. She is lead by her mohatla back through her cellular memories to the very beginning. In doing so, she gains the memories of every female ancestor that has come before her. Also, she gains complete control over her body's metabolism, and is given the ability to change the chemical structure of the essence, rendering the poison harmless.