Editing Spacing Guild (section)

=== Original series ===
==== ''Dune'' ====
In ''Dune'' (1965), the Spacing Guild enjoys a profitable monopoly on interstellar travel and commerce. Though powerful, the Spacing Guild has never actively tried to openly seize power over all of humanity and rule directly, instead sharing power with the Emperor and the Great Houses, and influencing events from the shadows. Paul Atreides concludes that the Guild does this out of a belief that any political empire is finite, ending sooner or later. The only way to guarantee their continual existence is to be a "parasite", propping up one imperial dynasty until it collapses, then simply switching to support the next one. At the end of the novel, Paul deposes Padishah Emperor [[Shaddam IV]] by seizing control of Arrakis, the only source of the all-important drug melange. Paul has learned the extent of the Guild's dependence on spice, and that without it they are "blind" and unable to navigate interstellar travel. The Guild is forced to side with Paul, threatening to strand the Emperor and his troops on Arrakis if he does not relinquish the throne.<ref name="Dune"/>

In 'Appendix A' of ''Dune'', Herbert wrote that the Guild, along with the Bene Gesserit order, had been responsible for the standardization of religion in the universe by promoting the adoption of the [[Orange Catholic Bible]] and offering protection to the dissenting theologians who created this book. Nonetheless, in the same appendix, Herbert held that the Guild members themselves were atheists, and only promoted this move to promote a stable societal order from which they could profit.<ref name="Dune"/> Houses of the Imperium may contract with the Guild to be removed "to a place of safety outside the System". Some Houses in danger of ruin or defeat have "become renegade Houses, taking family atomics and shields and fleeing beyond the Imperium".<ref name="Dune"/> The Guild controls a "sanctuary planet" (or planets) known as Tupile, intended for such "defeated Houses of the Imperium ... Location(s) known only to the Guild and maintained inviolate under the Guild Peace".<ref name="Terminology">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Frank |authorlink=Frank Herbert |title=[[Dune (novel)|Dune]] |chapter=Terminology of the Imperium |year=1965}}</ref>

==== ''Dune Messiah'' ====
In ''[[Dune Messiah]]'' (1969), the Navigator [[Edric (Dune)|Edric]] engages in a conspiracy to dethrone Emperor Paul Atreides, joined by the [[Bene Tleilax|Tleilaxu]] [[Face Dancer]] [[Scytale (Dune)|Scytale]], the [[Bene Gesserit]] Reverend Mother [[Gaius Helen Mohiam]], and Paul's embittered consort, [[Princess Irulan]] of [[House Corrino]].<ref name="SR">{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/dune-movie-2021-denis-villeneuve-no-guild-good/|title=Why It's a Good Thing the ''Dune'' Movie Doesn't Include the Guild|first=Adam|last=Felman|date=April 3, 2022|website=[[Screen Rant]]|access-date=October 25, 2022}}</ref> With their endless need for melange, the Spacing Guild has a vested interest in breaking Paul's stranglehold over the spice supply. Edric's involvement also protects the conspirators from discovery, as his prescience hides the activities of himself and those around him from other prescients, like Paul. The plot ultimately fails, and Edric and Mohiam are executed by [[Fremen]] naib [[Stilgar]] on orders from Paul's sister [[Alia Atreides]].<ref name="Messiah"/>

In ''[[Chapterhouse Dune]]'' (1985), a "very powerful" Navigator is described as "one of the Edrics", suggesting a possible breeding plan or use of [[ghola]]s.<ref name="Chapterhouse"/>

==== ''God Emperor of Dune'' ====
In ''[[God Emperor of Dune]]'' (1981), [[Leto II Atreides|God Emperor Leto II]] has secured complete control over of the scarce melange reserves through [[Hydraulic empire|hydraulic despotism]], making the Guild completely dependent on him. He also notes in the novel that though history has attributed the design of the first Guild ship to [[Aurelius Venport]], it was actually Venport's mistress [[Norma Cenva]] who designed it.<ref name="GEoD">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Herbert |title=[[God Emperor of Dune]] |date=1981 }}</ref>

==== ''Heretics of Dune'' and ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' ====
The fifth and sixth novels of the series, ''[[Heretics of Dune]]'' (1984) and ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' (1985), are set 5,000 years after the reign of Paul Atreides, a period that includes 3,500 years of Leto II's reign and 1,500 years following his death. The warlike [[Honored Matres]] have seized control of '''{{visible anchor|Junction}}''', the old Spacing Guild complex above [[Gammu]]. The technocrats of [[Ix (Dune)|Ix]] develop technology that the Ixians and the Administrative faction of the Spacing Guild refer to as "compilers". These compilers perform calculations very similar to computers, nearly violating the prohibitions against "[[thinking machines (Dune)|thinking machines]]" that were imposed following the [[Butlerian Jihad]] several millennia before. These compilers eliminate the need for the Navigators, and the strategic disadvantage that this aspect of melange dependency has become, because the Navigators' abilities are slowly being compromised by the severe reductions in the availability of spice resulting from the destruction of Dune and the sandworms on that planet, and the strict control by the Bene Gesserit, who maintain a monopoly over the largest stockpiles of melange. The prescient rule of Leto II that lasted 3,500 years has shown the universe the perils of prescience, namely that the entire universe can be locked into the vision of a single entity, giving that entity absolute power. The Guild, facing obsolescence and suspicion, couples itself with Ix in decline; Navigators continue to exist, but their importance in the universe is severely diminished.<ref name="Heretics"/><ref name="Chapterhouse"/> As Paul Atreides notes in ''Dune'', it was the Spacing Guild's obsession with the "safe path" that led them "ever into stagnation", and brought on their eventual obsolescence.<ref name="Dune"/>