Desert War

The Desert War was the term the Princess Irulan used in her writings to describe the conflict between House Atreides and House Harkonnen from 10191 to 10193 AG.

Shaddam IV's Trap
In 10190 AG, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, feeling threatened by his adoptive cousin, Leto Atreides I, Duke of House Atreides, who had trained a small army under Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho well enough to rival the Sardaukar, conspired with House Harkonnen, long time rivals of House Atreides. Shaddam pressured Leto to surrender the fief of his native planet Caladan to Count Hasimir Fenring, and to take over the administration and spice mining operations of Arrakis. House Atreides took control of Arrakis in 10191, as according to the Emperor's plan. A spy was also placed with the Atreides - Dr Wellington Yueh.

Beginning of the War
After a supposed asssassination attempt on Leto's son Paul, Dr Yueh lowered the defensive house shields and used sedative drugs to disable Leto, Paul, and Jessica, leaving the Atreides leaderless and disorganized under the Harkonnen and Sardaukar military onslaught in the Siege of Arrakeen. The Atreides army was crushed, with only a few remnants managing to escape. This attack marked the beginning of the War. Paul and Jessica were sent into the desert to die. Because of the use of truthsayers in the Empire, the Baron Harkonnen needed to be able to say truthfully that he was not (directly) responsible for their deaths. However, this plan was foiled by arrangements made by Yueh (he hated the Baron and wished to at least save Paul and Jessica) and Paul and Jessica managed to kill their captors and escape into the desert, leaving the Harkonnens to believe that they died in a coriolis storm.

Yueh's Attempt on the Baron's Life
Yueh, eager for a shot at killing the baron he so deeply despised and knowing he wouldn't have the chance, planted a fake tooth in the Duke Leto's mouth. When bitten, the tooth would emit a poison that would be fatal to both Leto, and hopefully, the Baron. When Yueh handed over Leto, the Baron killed Yueh. Leto, still paralyzed, but conscious, attempted to kill the Baron by breaking the gas capsule, but misjudged his moment, and was only successful in killing the Baron's adviser and Mentat, Piter de Vries.

Paul and Jessica's Alliance with the Fremen
In the deep desert, under the pressure of extreme circumstances and the increased doses of Spice that he has been ingesting simply by living on Arrakis, some of Paul's powers came into fruition, and his ability to see possible futures exploded into awareness. He saw many things, a way out of his situation, and the restoration of the Atreides, if only he could make contact with the native Fremen and survive. After a dangerous crossing of the desert, Paul and Jessica managed to meet up with a troop of Fremen. Paul and Jessica proved their worth by disarming Fremen in unarmed combat, aided by Bene Gesserit prana-bindu training – the "Weirding Way" – and the Fremen leader Stilgar gladly accepted them into his troop because he would like to add that skill to the Fremen people. Paul also met a young woman, Chani, daughter of Liet Kynes, whom he had long seen in his dreams. During this scuffle, Paul disarmed a proud Fremen, Jamis, who took offence at this "presumptuous" youth, and challenged Paul to a fight to the death. Although at first unwilling to kill, he triumphed easily, making his name in the tribe, and also succeeding to the position of head of the household of the dead man. Stilgar gave Paul the name Usul – meaning "the strong base of a pillar" – as his private name within the troop; Paul gave himself the name "Paul Muad'dib" as his public Fremen name.

When they returned to the troop's sietch, they discovered the Fremen Reverend Mother was near death, and with the fortuitous arrival of Jessica, a Bene Gesserit, they made Jessica their Sayyadina. Jessica, not realizing the consequences of what the Fremen were about to do, accepted to cement her place in the tribe. Halfway through the process she realized she has made a mistake, that she was involved in a similar process to how the Bene Gesserit make their own Reverend Mothers who could see genetic memories, and realized that the baby in her womb, fathered by Leto before his death, would also go through the process. This had truly unfortunate consequences, because it was a Bene Gesserit teaching that any such baby would not have the strength to withstand the memories of its ancestors.

By 10193 AG, two years later, Paul had become something of a religious leader among the Fremen. Chani became his lover and bore him a son, whom he called Leto. He and his mother trained the Fremen of Sietch Tabr and other Fremen who sought out Paul in his religious guise, in the Weirding Way, the Bene Gesserit's prana-bindu fighting techniques. Under his leadership his "Fedaykin" experienced victory after victory against the Harkonnens, and Paul's prestige and aura among the Fremen grew. However, in order to be truly accepted by the Fremen he had to become a sandrider. Paul attempted it and succeeded, becoming a full member of the sietch.

The same day, a band of smugglers sought melange too deep in the desert, and the Fremen of Sietch Tabr sprung a trap. In the middle of the battle Paul recognised his weapons teacher, Gurney Halleck, and called on him and his men to surrender. Gurney was overjoyed and overwhelmed in equal measure. He surrendered his men, and joined Paul's service. Among Gurney's men, however, were some Imperial spies who attempted to kill Paul. They were unsuccessful, and they were captured by the Fedaykin. Paul gave secret orders for the spies to be allowed to escape, so that they would reveal that Paul Atreides still lived on Arrakis. Taking advantage of recruiting Gurney Halleck, Paul used the moment to solve his leadership problem. Since he had become a wormrider many of his followers had expected him to challenge Stilgar, his greatest friend among the Fremen, in order to take control of Sietch Tabr. But Paul broke tradition and in doing so forced Stilgar to do the same, managing to sidestep this issue by proclaiming himself the ruling Duke of Arrakis, and thus took power without killing his friend. They returned to Sietch Tabr. Gurney was shocked to discover Jessica is still alive, because he believed she was the one who betrayed the Atreides and that Paul did not know. Gurney was about to kill her when Paul walked in, managed to stop him, and explained that Yueh was the traitor. Gurney was almost broken by his nearly fatal and tragic error, but Jessica forgived him and he was bound even further into Atreides and Jessica's service.

Approach of the Battle of Arrakeen
Paul's power among the Fremen grew, but he was still frustrated. He was not all he could be: he could not control his journeys into the future, and much of it was still blank to him. So he took a truly risky step and consumed a tiny amount of spice essence, and so attempted to perform the male equivalent of the Reverend Mother ceremony. Previously to this no man hd survived this experience, and it seemed that he failed also, because he sank into a coma. Paul neglected to tell anyone what he is doing; many people thought he is dead, although others, primarily the Fedaykin, believed he is in a religious trance. His mother, Jessica, did all she can to wake him but failed, so out of desperation she called Chani from the deep desert to help. Chani, through her more personal knowledge of Paul's dreams and desires, realised what a mad thing Paul has done, and used spice essence converted by Jessica using her powers as a Reverend Mother to bring him out of his trance. For Paul no time had passed, and he gloried in his new memories and powers — he told his mother and Chani immediately that the Emperor himself was currently orbiting the planet with many Sardaukar, ready to attack. He had proven the Bene Gesserit wrong: he was the Kwisatz Haderach, appearing one generation ahead of the prediction. He declared that it was now time to destroy the Harkonnens.

Fremen attacks on the Harkonnens had already managed to almost entirely stop the flow of the spice from Arrakis. This forced the Emperor to act, and he came to Arrakis with all his Sardaukar, and also levied of all the other noble houses, to annihilate the Fremen if necessary in order to get the spice flowing again. By now the Emperor was aware of who Muad'Dib was. In advance of his arrival, he sent a large Sardaukar force into the deep desert for information. Attacking a sietch, they managed to kill Paul's son, and capture Alia – Paul's sister – but were driven off by Fremen children, old people and women.

Battle of Arrakeen
After the Emperor himself had landed, Paul launched the final attack. Using the House Atriedes' family atomics (nuclear weapons) that his men managed to retrieve after the Harkonnen attack, he blew a hole in the Shield Wall that protected the capital of Arrakeen from the surrounding desert and its fierce storms. By using the weapons this way, he narrowly avoided contravening the universal ban against using atomics on people, which would have required the other noble houses to retaliate with "planetary annihilation". The Fremen attacked under cover of a huge desert storm, riding sandworms from the desert through the hole in the Shield Wall. The great static force of the sandstorm then shorted out all of the Sarduakar's defensive shields. The Sardaukar were unable to withstand the full force of the Fremen, caught as they were in total surprise, and the Emperor was forced to surrender. The combined forces of the Landsraad still loomed in orbit around the planet, but Paul threatened to destroy the Spice if any of them try to land, and they backed off. In the surprise of Muad'Dib's attack, Alia managed to escape, and in the process killed the Baron Harkonnen.

Realizing that Muad'dib was not some mad Fremen religious leader changed the situation dramatically for the Emperor. Feyd-Rautha, the Baron's nephew, an acclaimed gladiator, challenged Paul to single combat; claiming rights of kanly as had been declared by Paul's father Leto. Paul agreed even knowing that it is possible he would die, but after a difficult fight during which Feyd-Rautha attempted treachery in the form of a poisoned knife and needle, Paul eventually triumphed.

Fall of Shaddam IV and beginning of the Atreides Empire
Paul refused to take any more nonsense. He forced the Emperor from the throne by the simple expedience of taking power from the real rulers of the Empire – the Spacing Guild – who controlled space travel. He again threatened to destroy the spice if they did not ship all the troops home. The Spacing Guild had no choice – their limited powers of prophecy showed Paul is capable of it – and they sent everyone home. The Emperor abdicated and retired to Salusa Secundus in 10196. Paul married the Emperor's eldest daughter, Irulan, and assumed control of the Empire. Irulan later wrote extensively on the subject of Muad'Dib, having nothing of him but knowledge of his lifestyle and patterns of thought. Paul sent a Fremen jihad across the known universe that would last until 10208.

Trivia

 * The Desert War is also known as the "Arrakis Affair"; Frank Herbert referred to the Arrakis Affair multiple times during the appendix of Dune.