Pardot Kynes/XD

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Pardot Kynes was an Imperial Planetologist. At the request of Emperor Elrood IX, he moved to Arrakis to study the planet various natural phenomena. He remained there and married a native Fremen woman, with whom he had his only child, Liet Kynes.

Early career

Pardot (left) & Liet on Arrakis

Kynes' parents were bureaucratic functionaries, sent to work in the Imperial prison of Salusa Secundus when he was just a child and went along with them.

Rumors said that his parents had displeased Emperor Elrood IX somehow, and they had been transferred in disgrace. But young Pardot Kynes had found the wastelands fascinating. After the tutors were finished with him, he'd spent his days exploring the blasted wilderness. He used to take notes and study the scarce ecology that had managed to survive the ancient atomic holocaust.

Later the family was transferred to Harmonthep but young Pardot returned to Salusa and wrote definitive, complex reports on the ecology of the planet which were published. Once he was pursued by Laza tigers there, and survived.

He was an expert and well-respected ecologist, geologist, and meteorologist, with added specialties in botany and microbiology. He could live off the land just about anywhere since his needs were few; the most important of him being the harvesting of scientific knowledge. After Salusa he moved to Bela Tegeuse and other worlds.

Eventually he was chosen by Elrood IX among many candidates and was called to Kaitain. There his first experience of the astonishing structures amazed him since he was not accustomed to civilized luxury. There, the Emperor ordered him to move to Arrakis and study the planet, hoping to find how the spice melange was created.

Study of Arrakis Ecology

Shortly after his arrival to Arrakis, Kynes became fascinated by the planet's ecology. Specifically, he began to study moisture on the planet, as well as the relationship the Fremen maintained with the land. The inhospitable Harkonnens suffered his presence since he was there by the Imperial order. During one of his first months, he sent to the Emperor two regular progress reports.

Over time, Kynes came to understand the relationship between the sandworms and the spice melange, and the cycle by which spice and sandworms were created. Moreover, Kynes came also to understand the role moisture and water played in this cycle, and how to harness it. Kynes' ideas on reclaiming moisture on Arrakis lead to him developing a plan for the terraforming of the planet, which would eventually see it become a paradise. The strength of Kynes' theories was bolstered by the fact that he accidentally discovered a giant salt pan in the deep desert. This salt pan was evidence that there had once been open water on Arrakis, eons prior.

The Fremen

"Remove yourself."

―Pardot Kynes

.

Through his studies of Arrakis ecology, Kynes became intrigued with the Fremen, and came to realise that their ways of survival in a harsh environment with brutal overseers in the Harkonnens were sources of strength for them. Indeed, Kynes knew that the Fremen had potential as a people.

During an expedition into the deep desert, Kynes discovered three Fremen youths were being attacked by six Harkonnen bravos near the village of Windsack. Kynes managed to kill three of the Harkonnens; the two Fremen youths managed to kill the rest while Kynes tended the fallen one with his medpak. One of them, Ommun, took his groundcar with his injured companion, Stilgar, and Kynes was left with Turok, who guided him to his sietch.

There his fate was to be decided by Naib Heinar. The issue was debated hotly, especially since the man was an Imperial agent, but killed Harkonnens. Moreover, he spoke of open water returning to Arrakis, with lush greenery. Eventually the sietch leaders decided that Kynes would be killed. When Kynes' killer, Uliet, confronted him, Kynes reportedly said "Remove yourself", and shoved the man aside. It is unclear of the events that immediately transpired. Regardless, the would-be attacker fell on his own crysknife. This was taken to be a sign by the Fremen that Kynes was to be listened to. Eventually, most Fremen took to Kynes' vision for Arrakis' future. He taught the Fremen children, including his son, the language of ecology, and eventually managed to have the Fremen infiltrate the Imperial system on Arrakis by having some of them man the Biological Testing Stations.

Weeks after his arrival in the sietch, he composed his first report to the Emperor after a long time, which he delivered to Arrakeen. Then he married Frieth, Stilgar's sister who tended him while he stayed with them.

Terraforming Arrakis

This infiltration allowed for tools to make their way into Fremen seitches, where they were used to cut deep into rock to create catchbasins and windtraps that would collect water. Kynes had the Fremen collect copious amounts of data on the climate, biology and ecosystems of the planet. Through his research, sandtrout were discovered. Indeed, it was through the sandtrout that Kynes learned the relationship between the spice and Shai-hulud.

After discovering how melange was created, Pardot Kynes turned his attention to planting greenery. First he began with a certain poverty grass, then moved to others including:

• Poverty grass
• Ephemerals - chenopods, pigweeds, amarinth
• Scotch broom
• Low lupine
• Vine eucalyptus (from Caladan)
• Dwarf tamarisk
• Shore pine
• Candelilla
• Suguaro
• Bis-naga
• Shrubs and bushes, including camel sage, onion grass, gobi feather grass, wild alfalfa, burrow Bush, sand verbena, evening primrose, incense bush, smoke tree, creosote bush.

Following this, Kynes then introduced various animals, including:

• Burrowing animals: kit fox, kangaroo mouse, desert hare, sand terrapin
• Predators, including the desert hawk, dwarf owl, eagle, desert owl
• Insects, namely scorpion, centipede, trapdoor spider, biting wasp, wormfly
• The desert bat

Once Kynes saw the introduction of all these forms of life, he then began to plant more than two hundred different food plants, including cotton, melons, coffee and medicinals.

Kynes married into a Fremen seitch and had a son, Liet Kynes. However, he was killed in a cave-in at Plaster Basin when Liet was nineteen. Liet continued his father's work, both in an official capacity as Imperial Planetologist, but also as Fremen leader, steering them as a people toward an ultimate goal, one that Pardot Kynes had envisioned would take approximately five hundred years. This plan, however, was interrupted by the arrival of Muad'Dib.

Literary Works

During his life Kynes was known to have written many documents, and quotes from them are available to us.

Ecology of Bela Tegeuse, Initial Report to the Imperium

- The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

• Treatise on the Environmental Recovery of Post-Holocaust Salusa Secundus

- We are generalists. You can’t draw neat lines around planetwide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.

Appearances

• Dune: House Atreides
• Dune: House Harkonnen