Fremen

The Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), which is the sole known source in the universe of the all-important drug melange. Long overlooked by the rest of the Imperium and considered backward savages, they are an extremely hardy people and exist in large numbers. The Fremen had come to the planet thousands of years before the events of the novel as the Zensunni Wanderers, a religious sect in retreat. As humans in extremis, over time they adapted their culture and way of life to survive and thrive in the incredibly harsh conditions of Arrakis. The Fremen are distinguished by their fierce fighting abilities and adeptness at survival in these conditions. With water being a rare commodity on the planet, their culture revolves around its preservation and conservation. Herbert based Fremen culture, in part, on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and San People.

==Origins== Dune was inspired by Herbert's research for a potential article about the United States Department of Agriculture's attempt to use poverty grasses to stabilize the Oregon Dunes in Florence, Oregon. Herbert learned that the moving dunes could "swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways." He said that in studying sand dunes, we must analyze the "black foot (people) of the Kalahari and how they utilize every drop of water. You can't just stop with the people who are living in this type of environment: you have to go on to how the environment works on the people and how they work on their environment." Herbert based Fremen culture, in part, on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and San People.