|
This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune There are separate pages for this subject as it appears in the other canons, the reasons for this are explained here |
Pardot Kynes [d. 10175 AG] was an Imperial Planetologist who studied Arrakis. He remained there and married a native Fremen woman, with whom he had his only child, Liet Kynes.
Kynes was the first to be sent to study Arrakis, perhaps by Elrood Corrino IX. For Kynes, the planet was an expression of its sun's energy, ready to be reshaped
Meeting with the Fremen[]
His opportunity to shape the planet came when he was exploring the landscape in a one-man groundcar behind the Shield Wall, near the village of Windsack, one hot afternoon when he stumbled onto six Harkonnen bravos, shielded and fully armed, bullying 3 Fremen youths. It was a common scene, more slapstick than real, but Kynes realized that the bullies intended to kill the boys; one was down with a severed artery, two of the bravos were down, but it was still four armed men against two.
Kynes triggered his own shield, waded in and had silently had two of the Harkonnens dead with a slip-tip. He dodged a sword thrust, slit the third's throat with a neat entrisseur, and the remaining Harkonnen was felled by the two Fremen youths, as he saved the lad on the ground.
The Fremen were confused; he was a known Imperial servant, but was also an ally. The inexperienced youths by two days later, took him to Windshack owing him a mortal obligation. There he talked to the Fremen about water, grass, about palmaries filled with date palms and open qanats flowing across the desert.
Kynes never saw the behind-the-scenes debate raging all around him. He knew the location of a major sietch and talked like a madman, he was a water burden for the sietch and also a servant of the Imperium. He did kill Harkonnens but anyone had; he just saved three fool youths and had seen crysknives. Eventually the tau of the sietch voiced the decision.
Kynes was talking to a group that spread around him about open water, walking in the open without stillsuits, and portyguls, when Uliet, an experienced fighter, was sent with a consecrated knife to kill him, with two watermen to get his water from the body. Kynes said "Remove yourself" to Uliet who stood before him, and went on talking about secret windtraps, brushing past the man opening his for his ceremonial blow.
Uliet inexplicably, in a riddling gesture, perhaps motivated by Kynes' visionary words, walked three paces and deliberately fell on his own knife, thus "removing" himself.
Terraforming Arrakis[]
Pardot Kynes, by Dev Pramanik and Alex Guimarães, House Atreides Graphic novel
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. Kynes returned to his Imperial post, directing the Biological Testing Station bringing Fremen as personnel, stealing tools like cutterays, used to dig underground catchbasins and hidden windtraps and collect water in the basins.
Kynes was hailed as an umma, a prophet. Men, women and children went anywhere he ordered, and many died during their "missions". He set up small-unit experiments with regular interchange of data for a swift Tansley effect, accumulating millions of tiny information. He organized only isolated and rough run-through tests to put their difficulties into perspective.
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 sietch and had a son, Liet Kynes whom he taught (along with the other Fremen children) ecology and the "language" of Arrakis, of its landscape, climate, seasonal limits, and finally how to break through all ideas of force into the awareness of order.
Death[]
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 and dramatically quickened by the arrival of Muad'Dib.
Character[]
Kynes was a direct and simple man in many ways. His single-mindedness was enormous, and approached any problem with a kind of innocence, but not naïveté; he merely permitted himself no distractions. Thus, he often appeared somewhat emotionless, but was kind and helpful nonetheless. His son Liet inherited both his mother's Fremen nature and his father's ecological talent and thus he was more emotional than Pardot.
Appearances[]
- Dune (First mentioned)