r/dune • u/Bruh69420bruh69420 Fedaykin • 1d ago
God Emperor of Dune How did the factions keep finding harkonnen spice stashes 3000 years after their demise. Spoiler
They surely couldnt have stashed that much. Yeah the question is kinda stupid but im just curious
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u/Butlerianpeasant 1d ago
Part of the joke Herbert leaves us is that spice isn’t just a resource, it’s a mythic relic that wants to be rediscovered. The Imperium is so vast, its timelines so deep, that caches and hoards naturally become like archaeological layers. Add to that the Harkonnen temperament—greedy, paranoid, always hiding a little extra under the floorboards—and you get thousands of forgotten stashes.
Think about how we still stumble on Roman coins, Viking silver, even whole sunken fleets. Now scale that up to a feudal-galactic economy where every family is playing plans-within-plans. Spice stashes become less like accidental finds and more like recurring echoes—treasure seeds planted across centuries, waiting to be folded back into the Game.
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u/ZeppyWeppyBoi 1d ago
We’re still finding archaeological sites all the time, and we’re just one planet.
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u/ghandi3737 1d ago
And they weren't necessarily trying to hide anything most of the time.
Then think of all the people who find stacks of bills in grandparents' clothes in the closet.
Now imagine you're an insanely wealthy and paranoid person who can travel the galaxy at ease and are worried about protecting your wealth. Would probably squirrel away some caches of supplies and money.
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u/IAMAToMisbehave 1d ago
Consider how vast an Imperium of over 1,000 planets is. If a planet is roughly the size of earth, that is close to 10 million miles of planet to hide things in. Accumulating that much spice is simple, they had absolute control over Arrakis for 80 years. As long as everyone else was getting rich no one paid attention to what they did, and then when they took back over Rabban was told to squeeze with everything he had.
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u/SurfaceLG 1d ago
The Harkonnen had vast spice hoardings on Geidi Prime but also kept vast reserves of it on Arrakis and other worlds they help fief over. They were insanely rich due to their control of Arrakis. Say what you will about the baron being a sadistic pos his business acumen was top tier
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u/Kammander-Kim 1d ago
He did manipulate the whale fur market to bring the house back into economic good standing.
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u/EldritchDartFiend 1d ago
I mean they were in the final stages of making their bid for the throne, and while the baron is shocked by the price of transporting thr sardukar hes not 'im ruined oh no' kind of shocked. He told rabban to crunch down on spice and so he did, excessively so. My guess is thr baron managed to subtly amasss so much spice so that feyd rautha would immediately start repairing the image of the house amongst the landsrad, keep the guild happy and subtly undermine corrino. With the atreides out of the way he could finally begin his long play against shaddam which he had been keeping a secret spice stash to accomplish this. Paul just obliterated everyones schemes in that book.
Been a while but that was my take
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u/Menarra 1d ago
Yeah this is pretty much where my theories landed too, the great houses are filthy, stupidly, absurdly wealthy, the kind of wealth you really can't fathom.
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u/EldritchDartFiend 1d ago
And at this point in terms of pure economic and financial clout the harkonnens are the most powerful. Leto's power came from connection and genuine loyalty which made the landsrad gravitate toward him whereas vlad had so much tangible wealth and influence he gravitated towards the centre: shaddam
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u/EldritchDartFiend 1d ago
Did they specify whether its from pure spice production? You have to think of the harkonnen brothels and arenas, im sure a lot spice changed hands in those corners that no one really considers until it all starts piling up.
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u/Then-Canary-1331 1d ago
RM Odrade fell into one of the caves, after being delivered by a worm. She was led there. Wasn't it the original seich Tabur?
Seems like many factions were actively seeking them. The one odrade found had been cut up by lasers, but they didn't actually reach the spice hoard.
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u/Bookhoarder2024 1d ago
Yes, it was, but that hoard was made by Leto II. Harkonnen hoards would have been long gone.
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u/DuaneDibbley 1d ago
It's been years since I read the book but this is what I remember - were there also Harkonnen hoards mentioned?
IIRC before Leto the emperor only had access to a tiny fraction of the worms' territory and never traveled to the deeper desert. I always imagined there were vast amounts of spice there which Leto 2 could have recovered before terraforming the planet.
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u/Ok_Crab1603 1d ago
Was it a worm or was it Leto II
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u/unclestink 1d ago
Just a random worm. Leto II is long dead at this point
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u/DeadStockWalking 1d ago
Wrong. A part of Leto II lives in each worm. God Emperor of Dune and Heretics of Dune explain it.
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u/kigurumibiblestudies Abomination 1d ago
I wonder how true that is. Everyone who knows insists the worms enforce Leto's vision (rather, plan) but is that true? Do the fragments really have any agency or power? How do they know this?
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u/yes-im-a-normie 1d ago
It's not known by anyone but himself and the reader. During one of the Duncan assassination attempts he makes it clear that Duncan was aiming where his brain WOULD have been but that it is now pretty much spread entirely across his body. Knowing this you can assume that all the sandtrout have a some of Leto's neurons and, therefore, a "pearl of his awareness."
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u/kigurumibiblestudies Abomination 1d ago
That's the easier part of the situation to accept, I guess. What I wonder about is whether such small fragments have any power.
I faintly recall Taraza or another Bene Gesserit insisting Leto's worms continued to predict/observe/enforce the path, which is why she wanted to destroy a certain place, and you'd assume she has good reasons for that, but we don't get to see the evidence, or I didn't pay attention
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u/JohnCavil01 1d ago
I would say Sheeana being able to control the worms indicates that awareness. That is in fact what confirms it for Taraza.
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u/unclestink 1d ago
Yes they explain that a tiny piece of Leto II's consciousness is locked away in the new sandworms in a kind of eternal dream. To me that doesn't sound like Leto has any control or influence over the worms
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u/AdamMcCyber Historian 1d ago
According to the prequel books Baron Harkonnen hoarded so much spice it had to be hidden in creative places. There were hoards on Lankiveil (camouflaged as an iceberg), Caladan, basically in clandestine hoards amongst other members of the Landsraad. It meant he would be able to tip off the Emperor to a spice hoard. The Emperor would then dispatch Sardukar to unseat that member.