Leaders: Prophet Muad'Dib / Emperor Leto II
History: The Fremen inhabit Arrakis, also known as Dune, the desert planet that is the sole source of the spice melange in the Known Universe. The Fremen come to Dune thousands of years before the events of the Dune Liberation as the Zensunni Wanderers, a religious sect in retreat. As humans in extremis, over time they adapt their culture and way of life for their survival in the incredibly harsh conditions of Dune. They take to calling themselves the Free Men of Dune, later shortened to Fremen. The Fremen are literally the "Free Men" — convicts who had been transported to "Duneworld" to work for the spice operation of the "Hoskanners" in exchange for a reduction in their sentence.
The Fremen are organized into communities called sietches. Each sietch has a naib leader who decides what the people in the sietch will do (sending patrols, collecting spice, moving to a new place, etc.) and leads the sietch men into battle. A naib can be challenged by another fremen for leadership, and every new naib makes a ceremony in which he swears he will never fall alive into the enemy's hands. The Fremen practice polygamy, apparently as a means of pinpointing male infertility. Because their diet is rich with the spice melange, adult Fremen have blue-in-blue eyes.
Each sietch has a Sayyadina, a wise woman trained in the spiritual traditions of her people who frequently functions as an acolyte to a Fremen Reverend Mother, comparable to a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. A Sayyadina can also function as a spiritual leader in her own right. There are hints in the novels that the Sayyadina rite preceded the adoption of the role and title of the Bene Gesserit equivalent.
The Fremen system of justice relies ultimately on trial by combat. The naib of the tribe is the person who killed the previous naib in single combat. Any Fremen may challenge another to a duel to the death over matters of etiquette, law, or honour; the winner of the duel is responsible for the wife, children, and certain possessions of the loser, as well as the right of the circumstances leading to the duel. Because a duel is fought without the water-retaining stillsuit, the victor is entitled to the deathstill-reclaimed water to make up for the moisture sacrificed in the fight.
Fremen are some of the best hand to hand combatants in the universe. Their difficult upbringing and spartan existence ensure that only the strongest survive.
Paul recalled the stories of the Fremen — that their children fought as ferociously as the adults. Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV later notes, "I only sent in five troop carriers with a light attack force to pick up prisoners for questioning. We barely got away with three prisoners and one carrier. Mind you, Baron, my Sardaukar were almost overwhelmed by a force composed mostly of women, children, and old men."
Due to the invention of the personal body shield, hand to hand combat has re-entered human conflict; all forms of projectile weapons have been made semi-obsolete. Energy weapons — lasguns — react violently with a shield, creating an explosion comparable to sub-atomic fusion, killing operator and shield wearer. Body shielding may be compromised, but only by moving an edged weapon at a speed slow enough to penetrate the tuning of a shield. Additionally, shields are known to drive the fiercely territorial sandworms of Arrakis into a killing frenzy. For this reason, shields are not used on Arrakis's open regions with any frequency and as a result of these plot devices, Fremen have an edge in hand to hand combat because they do not slow their weapons when attacking, unlike those used to attacking a shielded enemy. Fremen use different archaic weapons to great effect (firearms, crossbows), but the most deadly and prized possession of a Fremen warrior is the crysknife — a personally tuned blade ground from the tooth of a sandworm. An untreated crysknife will disintegrate soon upon the death of its owner unless it is close to human flesh. Fremen tradition also demands that a drawn crysknife must not be sheathed until it draws blood. Paul Atreides (in his role as Muad'Dib) personally trains a force of Fremen "death commandos" (known as Fedaykin) in the use of the Weirding Way.
The most notable custom of the Fremen is their water conservation. Living in the desert with no natural sources of water has spurred the Fremen to build their society around the collection, storage, and conservative use of water. The Fremen think about moisture conservation, not simply water conservation. Dune (Arrakis) is a desert planet parched to such a degree that no natural open water exists on the entire planet. Thus water conservation is of utmost importance for survival. The Fremen have also evolved an extended large intestine for greater absorption of water. Water is collected from the atmosphere in windtraps that condense the humidity and add it to the underground water store. Water can also be collected from dead animals and people (especially outside wanderers) and processed in a deathstill which removes the water from the carcass for addition to the sietch water store. The Fremen who caused or discovered the death of the animal or person is then given a set of waterrings whose markings denote a volume of water equal to the amount of water collected.
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