Dune Worlds – Austin Bunton Designs

Worlds from this series of books:

III Delta Kaising
IV Anbus
Al Dhanab
Arrakis
Bela Tegeuse
Buzzell
Caladan
Chapterhouse
Chusuk
Corrin
Ecaz
Gamont
Gansireed
Gangishree
Giedi Prime
Ginaz
Grumman
Hagal
Harmonthep
Ipyr
Ix
Junction
Kaitain
Kolhar
Lampadas
Lankiveil
Lernaeus
Muritan
Naraj
Palma
Parmentier
Poritrin
Richese
Romo
Rossak
Salusa Secundus
Sikun
Synchrony
Tleilax
Tupile
Wallach IX
Zanovar

Details here.

–

Intro:

First, regarding the MWG-directory’s bullet-note summary of this saga/set: “creature-based interstellar-drives” means not supercomputer-based; it does Not mean creatures fold Space, but that the calculations or foresight come from creatures, in this empire’s case, as does the steering of the spacecraft, while there is still a powerful reactor which generates the power required to fold Space, just without any A.I..

Setting Year: 21,191 A.D. (10,191 Earth-years after the formation of The Spacing Guild)

“In the appendix of Dune it is mentioned that there are 13,300 worlds under the control of the Landsraad at the end of the Butlerian Jihad which is ten thousand years before the events of Dune.”
While that sounds like a lot, it is only ~23x23x23 (can fit in a cube-formation of that many star-systems, if there was only 1 useful world in each of those systems).
If it is instead 10 worlds per solar system, it is only a local stellar neighborhood of 11x11x11 systems.
20,000 worlds likewise spread throughout 2,000 systems would fit in a ~12x12x12 cluster; all of these are extremely tiny portions of the Milky Way galaxy.

However many there are, it is at least tens of thousands, if not tens of millions, so this webpage was very much needed, especially since the movies hardly showed but two or three of these worlds, and the books didn’t even really detail much about the vast majority of the rest.

–

Where Inisfree Is:

~20k yrs in the future, Inisfree is in New Atlantis; it has been relocating for millennia, and is now in/near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Since the foreseen/estimated/spellcrafted cutoff date/era for when all 2B people compatible with Auz… is 23,000-24,000 A.D., the Dune saga (first-author’s several-books’ setting-years) largely being a couple/few millennia before that cutoff… means maybe more than just Princess Irulan will get detected as probably-compatible, prescreened, pass prescreening, then get met in person; interviewed/screened, and then invited to come check out Inisfree.

2B averaged out over the years between 2012 and 24000 is nearly 90,959 approved newcomers per year.
24000 minus 21191 = 2,809.
90,959 newcomers x 2,809 years = 255,503,831 newcomers during that time.
If there are 44 species of humanoids, and the human species (45 total, as listed here), 255,503,831 divided by 45 = ~5,677,863 individuals per species.
If nearly 5.7 million humans are approved to know of Inisfree between 21191 and 24000 A.D., when The Scattering was caused by Emperor Paul II, trillions of humans leaving his empire/territory during that era, easily several million of them might have been offered safe-harbor in Inisfree, that they not have to flee so far (i.e. get to stay in The Milky Way (MWG)).

That 255,503,831 is the final 12% of the chosen/foreseen/spellcrafted/summoned compatibles;
when ~5.7M of them (the last foreseen-compatible humans) showed up to check out Inisfree, it already had ~88% of its guests, residents, and citizens established for years, if not decades, if not centuries, if not up to 19 millennia, and humans made up only ~2% (1/45th) of the total non-ICV population in Inisfree; they were a minority –a minority with numerous members having been kept ‘in the dark’ about how many other intelligent species and races had coexisted in the MWG all along; they had quite the learning curve upon arrival to orientation/tour.

First, incoming people from the Dune-saga’s / Paul II’s empire’s worlds would have to come to terms with these unexpected realities:

Earth hadn’t been destroyed, like many had claimed/parroted.
Inisfree was in the middle of one of its biggest oceans; it was now arguably more difficult to reach than when it had been on land (Antarctica).
Non-human intelligent beings both existed and were the majority there.
Humans were widely regarded as barely intelligent enough to even consider potentially intelligent; most beyond-humans saw mankind as having the ability to one day become intelligent, or as being on the threshold/start of intelligence, but most Outlander humans by comparison to the rest of them were more like infants or toddlers needing nearly constant supervision and guidance, and generations of schooling, growing up, calming down, etc..

So, socially/philosophically, that is where the Inisfreean collective is, not just where the city physically is in 3D-space; the people already long-since established there will tolerate the remaining foreseen/compatible humans, so long as those humans come with humbleness, willingness to learn, etc..

That said, Spice-addiction is almost instantly cured upon approach to The Perimeter Wall, and that was sometimes a thrilling surprise to the Dune humans, and other times told to them during screening/interviews to give them more incentive to trust the unexpected offer to get away from Paul II without having to ‘jump’ far and wide.

Also, the 219,000 Inisfree-like cities were now going strong for more than 19,103 Earth-years, so there would never be a necessity for crowing in their empire-capital, Inisfree; all these 219,001 cities would be pleasantly barely/sparsely populated at all/most times.

–

2026 May Notes:

The Butlerian jihad in this saga was not humans vs A.I., but humans vs. cyborgs – NatureBased0
vid

planets ruled by “Dune empire” (House Corrino):
How many planets were ruled by dune emperor at its peak? 13,300 or 1,000,000?
“When Frank Herbert’s Dune ‘universe’ is at its peak (specifically during the reign of the God Emperor, Leto II), the empire is famously referred to as the “Million Worlds”.
Here is the context behind both numbers:
1,000,000 (The “Million Worlds”): This is the romanticized, literal title used to describe the vast scope of the Old Empire. The Honored Matres (who return from their exile in “The Scattering”) famously refer to Leto II’s domain as the “Million Planets”.
13,300: This number represents the historical tally of inhabited, Landsraad-controlled worlds immediately following the Butlerian Jihad, a full 10,000 years before the events of the first book. By the time of the Emperor Leto II, that number had naturally grown, but his strict totalitarian reign largely halted new expansions and inter-planetary space travel.
While a million is the metaphorical scale of the Emperor’s known universe, the exact number is debated by historians in-universe, as many stars and outposts remained uncharted or fell into myth
..
Is dune empire just in our galaxy, or does it span the whole universe?
“The Dune empire predominantly takes place within our own galaxy (the Milky Way). While characters frequently refer to the realm as the “Known Universe”, it primarily consists of human-settled star systems relatively close to Earth. However, the later books dramatically expand this scale, eventually pushing humanity across multiple galaxies.
The exact scope of civilization evolves in two major phases throughout the books:
The Pre-Scattering Era: Throughout Frank Herbert’s initial novels, the Padishah Empire and subsequent Atreides empires are confined to a localized cluster of stars within the Milky Way (often described as the Orion Arm). While this includes thousands of worlds, it is a very small fraction of the galaxy as a whole.
The Scattering: Following the reign of Leto II (the God Emperor), humanity is forced into “The Scattering”. Trillions of people spread uncontrollably outwards across space using advanced Holtzman fold-space drives. During this era, human civilization successfully colonizes countless other galaxies, spreading across the true universe

The mind-control vocal signature was a range of chosen subtle bypasses, not a single dominating boomlike voice increase like in the 2020s movies.
vid

Wrong: “You can’t reach godhood while clinging to your homeworld.”
..
Why wrong: What the author or claimant is actually talking about is that humans do not descend from the Earth gods / demi-deity ancestors, but from Abyss/Chaos; they gravitate only to Abyss/Space, and regard change, not stability, as ultimate, thus they worship Chaos, not stable gods. Godhood comes in different forms, but they pretend only change/Chaos is godhood, thus they are polarized or at least pure-chaos, ‘blind’ to / triggered by Actual godhood/permanence.
..
video with that wrong assumption

(also useful on these webpages: Innovations, Inisfree’s Star Fleet, and L.H.S. Piloting)
3 levels of Spacing Guild spice-mutated humans:

helmsmen who ‘steer’ the ships (command them how/when to fold Space) — in spacesuits w orange dome visors, or visors showing spice-gas inside them
navigators who see all possible paths their respective ships can take, and then tell the helmsman which is safest/certain — kept in the ships, almost never talking with anyone other than helmsmen
elites/elders who see not just where ships can safely fold Space, but which ships should even fly/warp at all, and the overall direction the whole guild should take — unknown location/s, but surely kept in spice-rooms / ‘tanks’ similar to those in the ships
..
All are based on dependency, disrespecting the human form, forcing Space to temporarily become unnatural, and not even Thinking of either:
1) willing oneself to portal/instant/manifest at a destination (demigodhood / self-empowerment)
or
2) asking Space to let them through (good manners, seeing nonhuman things as intelligent; not condescending at all nonhuman things)

Tupile: known in the series as the “sanctuary planet” (or entente of sanctuary planets) where defeated, renegade Great Houses are exiled. Its location is a closely guarded secret of the Spacing Guild, and some lore suggests it, or other similar hidden systems, may exist in neighboring galaxies like Andromeda.

cube roots:

13,300 = >23
30,000 = >31
1M = 100
20M = >271
..
All those could easily, if neighbors, in a cube formation/volume, fit in a very small fraction of just one galaxy.
The implication is that there are many unsuitable worlds/systems in between, whether because they are too problematic, already ruled by others, or got destroyed in wars, etc..
Who knows

How much is a Solari worth? – NatureBased0
vid

Harkonnen surprise attack on Dune may have cost $30T, nearly bankrupting the Harkonnens. – NatureBased0
vid

Not all human-settled worlds are ruled by the emperor; there could be thousands to millions of worlds Not ruled by him.
After the scattering, eventually, maybe billions.

exhausting the sandworms
vid

Maybe the Dune stuff is still disclosure and prep/grooming…
and it is reaching me b/c many souls ahead in time know they need my mind and will and spells to better their hellish lives.

Google says:
“The Initial Catastrophe: Scientists in the Dune universe hypothesize that millions of years ago, a cosmic event—such as a cometary impact or near-miss—burned away much of the atmosphere, causing the oceans to quickly evaporate.
..
The Sandtrout Invasion: Sandtrout (the larval stage of the giant sandworms) were introduced to Arrakis. Because water is toxic to them, these creatures proliferated and sealed all remaining surface water and aquifers deep underground. Over several millennia, this resulted in the total desertification of the planet.
..
Leto II’s Terraforming: During the events of God Emperor of Dune, the God Emperor Leto II briefly returned Arrakis (then known as Rakis) to a green, temperate world with rivers and forests for about years.
..
Return to Desert: After Leto II’s death, the restored water bodies killed his worm-body, decomposing him back into sandtrout. These sandtrout again consumed and buried the water, slowly returning Arrakis to its iconic desert state over the following years.”

Sounds like sandworms might use cosmic bodies to help w their arrival, if not also terraforming.
Do they have atmokinesis, or just spatial awareness and shared consciousness, or vibration language, sufficient to coordinate the teamwork of draining oceans?

Do they have subatomic transmutation?
Are they a Space Whales race which knew how to convert sand to spice melange, engineered to addict the humans, helping keep them in Abyss prison and infighting?

Since spice mélange gives foresight/prophecy to humans,
what effect does it have on sand-plankton, and sand-worms, and other creatures?
Do those species ALSO see ahead, in their OWN timelines?
Do the sand-plankton, then, not CARE that they are sometimes eaten by sand-worms?
..
Google claims: “Unlike the prescient foresight it grants humans, spice melange does not give animals prophetic visions. Instead, in Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the spice is the fundamental driver of the planet’s ecological lifecycle.”
..
maybe, then, it does NOT give “animals” (nonhumans) foresight… b/c they lack the brains/natures/interests to even WANT that.
maybe it gives each thing… what it seeks.
for humans, that is awareness of significant upcoming events/issues.
for plankton, that is just nutrients.
for those who already HAVE foresight/clairvoyance, maybe that is something ELSE.
for those who don’t WANT their foresight anymore, maybe that is a return to NOT having it.
..
“In Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the Spice Melange does not exclusively limit its mind-altering properties to humans. Instead, the disparity comes down to genetics, training, and consciousness.
The Spice expands consciousness by allowing a consumer to unlock dormant parts of their brain. While animals are affected by the drug—it increases their lifespan, awareness, and vitality—they do not experience true foresight…”
..
what does spice melange do to a human who already can see the future without spice?
“In the Dune universe, it is virtually impossible to have true prescience without the Spice Melange. For a human who already possesses precognitive abilities, consuming heavy doses of spice exponentially acts as a powerful amplifier, supercharging their mind to calculate complex probabilities, navigate higher dimensions, and access ancestral memories.
Specifically, consuming the spice will do the following:
Supercharge Prescient Clarity: The drug sharpens the user’s visions from vague, hazy glimpses into a hyper-detailed, panoptic view of countless possible futures, allowing them to pinpoint exact paths through space and time.”
..
do humans get addicted to spice melange, or are they just addicted emotionally to being able to see the future?
“In the Dune universe, humans get physically addicted to spice melange, completely independent of the psychological or emotional effects. Stopping the intake of spice results in a severe and fatal withdrawal.”
..
why do human bodies become reliant on spice melange to survive?
“In Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the human body becomes completely reliant on the spice melange to survive because it fundamentally rewires the body’s cellular metabolism. When ingested regularly, withdrawal from the drug leads to rapid aging, severe insanity, and ultimately death.”
..
why do so many people in the empire in dune take spice melange even though it is addictive and fatal if discontinued?
“People take the spice melange despite its severe withdrawal because the rewards vastly outweigh the risks in the brutal universe of Dune. The substance is the most valuable commodity in the galaxy, granting abilities that make it absolutely essential for survival, power, and interstellar commerce.”
..
do all people in the empire in dune take spice melange, at least in small doses?
“No, not everyone in the Imperium takes spice melange. While it is a widespread and highly sought-after commodity, its staggering rarity and cost mean only a fraction of the population consumes it regularly.”

The Upper Class: Nobles, the wealthy elite, and high-ranking officials use heavily concentrated amounts. For them, it acts as a powerful geriatric, quadrupling life expectancy, though it requires immense wealth to maintain their supply.
The Middle Class: The bourgeoisie of the Imperium can afford it, but only in heavily diluted forms. They typically use it as a culinary flavoring, sprinkling it over their food once a day for its health benefits.
The Lower Class/Commoners: Billions of ordinary citizens in the galaxy never consume spice at all. It is simply too expensive, making access to it a primary indicator of wealth and political power.
The Arrakis Exception: Life on the desert planet of Dune is the primary exception. Because spice is native to the world and constantly airborne as minute particles, passive consumption is unavoidable. The native Fremen consume it daily as an integral part of their diet and culture, which causes the signature deep-blue staining of their eyes (the “Eyes of Ibad”).
..
and this constant exposure may be a major factor in what makes Fremen so good at guerilla warfare; they can foresee what their enemies will do, how to defeat any of that, where to find water and other sparse/critical resources, where sandworms are / will surface, how to survive jihading off Arrakis, etc.

..
when fremen warriors go on jihad off away from arrakis, do their bodies crave the spice melange traces that were in arrakis air? do they take spice supplements to not go into withdrawal?
“In Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, the Fremen’s bodies absolutely crave melange because they are physiologically dependent on it, not just from the air they breathe, but from widespread dietary ingestion. Once addicted, ceasing consumption leads to fatal withdrawal.
When Fremen warriors left Arrakis to wage the Jihad, they did not just go cold turkey. Because their diet on Arrakis was already heavily saturated with spice (found in their bread, coffee, and water), they simply carried massive stockpiles of it with them to space. They brought dried spice rations and wafers to sustain their addiction, ensuring they never went into withdrawal.”

what biology would explain the speed of dune sandworms?
“To explain the speed of sandworms in Dune, biologists and physicists apply real-world principles of granular physics and biomimicry. Since these colossal creatures essentially “swim” through a dense, solid medium, their anatomy and mechanics borrow heavily from Earth’s specialized desert burrowers.
..
1. Granular Fluidization (Vibrational Locomotion)
The Biology: Sandworms would likely possess specialized internal organs or cilia-like structures along their armored skin that vibrate at incredibly high, rhythmic frequencies.
The Physics: By shaking the surrounding sand at specific frequencies, the sandworm triggers a physical process called liquefaction. The friction between individual sand grains is drastically reduced, causing the dense desert sand to behave like a highly viscous fluid.
..
2. Rectilinear Locomotion
The Biology: Instead of the inching movement of earthworms, sandworms move much like enormous snakes, specifically using rectilinear locomotion. The worm’s massive internal skeleton slides forward inside its armored, scaly skin, pushing off the skin to drive the massive weight forward.
Real-World Analogue: This split between inner skeleton and outer skin is seen in pythons and legless lizards, which are rapid-burrowing reptiles.
..
3. Sandfish Skink Mechanics
The Biology: At top speeds, the worm uses its entire massive cylindrical body to generate a traveling undulatory wave, pushing the liquefied sand behind it to create thrust.
Real-World Analogue: This perfectly mirrors the desert Sandfish Skink (Scincus scincus), a small lizard that “swims” through Saharan sand by flattening its limbs and undulating its body like an eel.
..
4. Filter-Feeding Adaptations
The Biology: To maintain their immense speed, sandworms would need a constant power source. They are heavily implied to be filter feeders, scooping up billions of microscopic “sand plankton”.
Real-World Analogue: Much like a blue whale sifting krill from the ocean, the sandworm would require an advanced internal respiratory and filtering system (like baleen) to strain out oxygen and food while expelling millions of tons of displaced sand”

The sandworms might also be able to ask the sand to behave how they want; sand-kinesis.
..
The kinesis for controlling sand is psammokinesis. The term combines the Greek word psammos (meaning “sand”) and kinesis (meaning “movement” or “motion”).
..
OR they might be able to just will their bodies to move through it, REGARDLESS; i.e. not NEEDING to vibrate external cilia, or move an internal skeleton in a special way.

The Dune author was Not against A.I.., but against ridiculous misuse of power by humans, such as those who demonized perfectly good A.I./computers/tech’… so the mutants and guilds they formed After the Butlerian jihad… would never be questioned –explained in this vid by NatureBased0
(and (this is the) first vid I managed to tolerate that disgusting (Minions?) song/track in)

There are multiple reasons no aliens other than sandworms are noted by her people; 1) their choice to severely mutate their own kind is extremely off-putting to all intelligent species,
2) focused on maintaining their guilds and warring with each other, they don’t cause the ether/void to manifest or attract/summon any aliens,
and 3) the sandworms cannot see how hideous even their less-mutated / less-degenerate members are.

The Economic Engine (CHOAM): Interplanetary commerce is managed by CHOAM (Combine Honête Ober Advancer Mercator), a universal development corporation. Every Great House holds shares in CHOAM, dictating the wealth of every planet. The profits generated from shipping and the exploitation of localized planetary resources are the financial lifeblood that keeps the aristocracy functioning.

Does frank herbert explain in detail how the different empire worlds are dependent on each other?
Google:
“Yes, Frank Herbert explains how the empire worlds depend on each other by focusing on a rigid, highly specialized feudal structure. Rather than having self-sufficient planets, the Imperium’s worlds are heavily interdependent, bound together by a delicate political and economic equilibrium. [1, 2, 3]
Herbert details this interdependence through four main pillars:
1. The Monopolies (The Political Triad)
The universe’s economy and survival are governed by a three-way standoff: [1]
The Spacing Guild: The universe’s circulatory system. Because interstellar travel is entirely reliant on Guild Navigators consuming the spice melange, the Guild holds an absolute monopoly on all transportation and communication. No world can trade, import food, or deploy troops without their ships. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The Houses Major (Landsraad): The planetary rulers (such as Atreides and Harkonnen). They focus on resource extraction, manufacturing, and governing local populations, but rely on the Empire’s collective trade networks to sustain their highly specialized worlds. [1, 2, 3]
The Padishah Emperor (House Corrino): The supreme ruler who maintains stability and balance among the houses, wielding the dreaded Sardaukar military force to keep ambitious worlds in check. [1, 2, 3, 4]
2. The Economic Engine (CHOAM)
Interplanetary commerce is managed by CHOAM (Combine Honête Ober Advancer Mercator), a universal development corporation. Every Great House holds shares in CHOAM, dictating the wealth of every planet. The profits generated from shipping and the exploitation of localized planetary resources are the financial lifeblood that keeps the aristocracy functioning. [1, 2]
3. Specialized Planetary Economies
Instead of planets having balanced, independent economies, Herbert highlights severe, engineered dependency. For example: [1]
Arrakis: The indispensable heart of the empire. It is a harsh desert world that exports nothing but spice. Yet, almost every other world is economically and mechanically tethered to this single, hostile planet to keep their civilization functioning. [1, 2, 3]
Giedi Prime: An heavily industrialized, toxic world. It functions as a manufacturing powerhouse, dependent on off-world trade to import raw materials and food. [1, 2]
Ix and Tleilax: The technological and biological hubs. Worlds like Ix produce the advanced machinery (like no-ships and navigation devices), relying on other planets for base metals, energy, and political protection. [1, 2, 3]
4. The Core Warning
At its thematic core, Herbert’s universe is a cautionary tale about extreme systemic dependency. If any single thread in this web—Arrakis’s spice production, the Guild’s transportation, or the socio-economic framework of CHOAM—were cut, the interconnected worlds would collapse into chaos, starvation, and isolation within a single generation.”

Also, many worlds are uninhabited/unterraformed, used only for resources, probably harvested by drones or slaves.

Slaves and other workers, of course, are only taught what they need to know to do their jobs, never enough to achieve self-sufficiency / sustainability.
They are probably kept mortal and relatively short-lived, too.

20M ÷ 100 mentioned Houses = an avg. of 200K worlds per House,
and the cube root of 200K = >58;
ea. of those 100 Houses could have ~58×58×58 owned worlds, and many more they are aiming to spread their industry to.
..
so picture a cube-like volume of the galaxy 58 star systems across, assuming 1 used/useful/farmed world per system,
..
or picture that but as an amoebic loose territory with many unused star systems in between all the used ones, perhaps hundreds or thousands of star systems across.

Now avg. those out over time; over ~20 millennia, that (200K) would have been an increase of 10 worlds per year; <1/month.
More likely, it was 1 world per generation at first, until FTL means became more common, and then it sped up to something like 1 world per decade,
then per year,
then per month,
then maybe even weekly for a while,
and then it decreased during the Butlerian jihad and other events,
and worlds once aiming for sustainability were then brutally prevented from achieving that, if they weren’t from the start.

Some worlds are not used for resources at all, kept as garden paradises, zero pollution, etc., perhaps as backups in case strained worlds ever collapse, environmentally.
Some worlds are kept easy, pleasant, for breeding only weaker, more attractive people; pleasure kennels, so to speak.

For generations, A.I. helped terraform and maintain many worlds. Once their terraforming seemed stable/permanent, that A.I. was dialed back, if not stopped entirely.

Maybe some of these worlds were manifested, but, so far, humans of this empire seem to have no clue or faith such is even possible.
Were they brainwashed to preVent further manifestations of worlds?
If so, does that suggest there is some population number or range that is an achieved goal; someone somewhere has determined any more people or manifesters or compatible worlds would be a Bad thing?

Maybe the Dune empire at first went looking for terraformable worlds, not knowing they were manifesting whatever they imagined –in this case, random finds they then had to spend generations fine tuning,
and then they switched to terraforming them to be Worse; More dependent, once they had established foothold settlements/colonies/bases,
and then they left many as-is,
and then they set to un-terraforming some, i.e. rendering them challenging like Arrakis
..
It seems the Earth is being terraformed to be weaker,
just like the humans kept sick and dumb and infighting and repulsive,
and like they keep their dogs runty, and their cattle malnourished,
etc.

Frank Herbert assuming leaders should not have all the answers… is not wisdom, but anti-nature evil nonsense,
and reveals/betrays his nature to try and spread mis/disinformation,
he preferring less-stable things.
He was trying to seed doubt, and add chaos/complexity.
His story was torture porn.
Maybe it was just wildly misinterpreted by the typical retarded insecure chronic-liar masses, and he meant btr, but still…
So, that said, let’s do some POSITIVE worldbuilding here, filling in the gaps he intentionally left, so all those other worlds manifest far more agreeably than the ones kept dependent/unpleasant by the empire he wrote about.

Some realizations of the Dune-humans who make it to Inisfree:

Our (Their) leaders (Landsraad emperors) either were unaware of the nonhuman/humanoid intelligences/empires, or they lied to us about them, keeping us compartmentalized –which (that latter possibility) ‘fits’; those leaders had maintained a dependency-based empire/system for millennia. Whether or not it was a safeguard against any cyborg or world gaining too much power, like before (leading up to The Butlerian Jihad), was beside the point.
Those beyond/nonhumans had been able to avoid detection by incompatible/problematic humans that whole time (for millennia, even eons) in more than one way;
–abducting/kidnapping any humans who are about to report such things
–advanced camouflage even on the scale of worlds and star systems
–assassinations
–basing themselves in cosmic blind-spots or behind powerful interference, such as nebulae
–developing/existing in ways beyond all foreseen human technology advancements/directions/trends
–cleverly controlling all signals/transmissions so they never travel toward human devices/Space in the first place
–editing human memories
–fake “almosts”; like a false-flag, but across cosmic distances, designed to get human attention and keep it directed away from the nonhuman civilizations
–generating cosmic interference; not jamming targeted human devices/probes/satellites, but creating localized defensive/constant blocks to detection… on the scale of Dyson spheres
–hacking in ways which human systems were not built to notice, let alone fight against; manually preventing human tech’ from recording any detected clues/signs
–hypnosis, similar to the Neuralizer used by MIBs
–imitating human spacecraft signatures, such that occasional passes/routes near/in human-made detectors’ ranges were fooled, erroneously recording only human craft, nothing then, from their POV/assumptions, worth investigating
–jamming human sensors
–keeping humans too distracted to notice, even when human sensors/tech’ Could have detected signs/traces of other civilizations
–literally asking Space itself to keep them perfectly concealed from those humans
–magick
–media-flooding, so any reported evidence gets “lost in the noise” of far too many other reports/claims/misdirection to ever have time to investigate them all
–never/seldom flying/traveling into/through human-occupied star systems or Space-lanes (like shipping lanes)
–only making/transmitting things that humans can never notice –or, in some cases, even understand what they are looking at; things so alien to them… they just don’t register as being evidence of another civilization / development-path
–parallel dimensions/realities
–quiet, with regard to microwave/radio brackets humans tend to pay attention to; not transmitting at any of those frequencies
–repression/suppression/denial; engineering or grooming any humans who will be manning detection devices… so that those humans have the mental disorder of never being able to consciously acknowledge having found any evidence/hints of other intelligences
–secret arrangements
–slander/smear campaigns –sometimes against humans reporting findings, and other times just to make any people who believe in nonhuman intelligences look bad in the eyes of the gullible majority/masses
–telepathy to the point of mind-control; forcing humans to not document/report/study anything they notice their computers alerting them to
–underwater on many worlds, since lots of water naturally blocks even powerful radiation, and regulates temperature far better than air/atmospheres can
–whiteout equivalent on the cosmic scale; making entire communications areas, or worlds, or other things, seem like they just aren’t even there in the first place, nevermind inhabited/developed
–and still other ways
Those beyond-humans had multiple reasons for not letting Dune-humans know they exist;
–avoiding interaction with the hideous, paranoid, smelly, war-hooked humans
–deterring humans from attempting to explore too far
–foreseeing no mutually-agreeable way of coexisting or even knowing about each other (the human civilization and any nonhuman one)
–keeping human curiosity low, at least until their infighting dies down
–preventing humans from seeking to back-engineer any alien/superior tech’
–regarding humans in Space the same way Inisfreeans do; permanently damned / generationally cursed, to the prison they call The Abyss, and whom others call Hell
–safeguarding worlds so humans never consider going to them to try and control-freak bad-terraform / ruin them
–studying human nature ono the individual scale, up to the empire scale, as a control group
–using humans as buffers/placeholders, keeping more of Space occupied, monitored, less likely to be invaded by things just as bad as, if not worse than, those humans
–and more reasons
Spice melange is not the only way to expand consciousness enough to foresee the future.