Giedi Prime

Giedi Prime is a fictional planet in Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune. Novelist Herbert used this planet as an allegory warning against the potential costs and dangers of running a military industrial complex driven by fear and greed. In contrast, the Atreides home planet, one run on principles of respect and loyalty, is portrayed as a green and pleasant land. A planet of Ophiuchi B (36), Giedi is the homeworld of the vicious House Harkonnen, the sworn enemies of House Atreides.

Description
Giedi Prime is an industrial wasteland with a low photosynthetic potential, the planet's bio-resources depleted and its environment fouled with industrial pollution. Rich in mineral resources, the economy of the planet is based on mining, refineries, and industrial manufacture. In Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his heirs live in the "family city of Harko."

Due to its ravaged environment, Giedi Prime has to import almost all of its food. Society on Giedi Prime has evolved around power and conquest, and the weak rarely survive. Gladiatorial games are a common form of entertainment, particularly for nobility, and vocational combat training from an early age is the norm in all classes of society. Slavery is legal and widely practised, while judicial punishment is usually draconian. Such conditions form the basis for a vast military-industrial complex and an army conditioned by fear, which make House Harkonnen the sole contender for House Atreides &mdash; or the throne &mdash; in terms of military power.

Following the events of God Emperor of Dune, Giedi Prime is renamed "Gammu" (it is noted in Heretics of Dune that Gurney Halleck had been responsible for the renaming) and has drastically changed. Its main city is renamed "Ysai" and is oppressed by a massive building complex referred to as either "The Keep" or "Barony" (formerly "Harkonnen Keep"), one of the few remaining buildings from the Harkonnens (apart from a secret no-chamber). The efforts of various new settlers have slowly improved conditions, though the cities remain dreary and overcrowded.

Prequels


Giedi Prime is also featured in the prequel trilogies Prelude to Dune (1999-2001) and Legends of Dune (2002-2004) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The Legends of Dune series establishes that 10,000 years before the events of Dune, the planet had been pleasant in climate and appearance. Its capital, Giedi City, is described as a lush, perfectly planned metropolis, but it is devastated in an invasion by the thinking machines during the Butlerian Jihad.