Paul Atreides / Muad'Dib
Heir to House Atreides, trained in Bene Gesserit disciplines and Mentat computation. Spice awakens his prescience and turns him into the political and religious leader of the Fremen.
Lady Jessica
Paul's mother and Duke Leto's concubine. A Bene Gesserit who disobeyed her order by bearing a son, she becomes a Fremen Reverend Mother and discovers that the Baron is her father.
Duke Leto Atreides
Paul's father and ruler of House Atreides. He accepts Arrakis knowing it is a trap and seeks the Fremen alliance that Paul eventually secures.
Chani
Daughter of Liet-Kynes and Paul's Fremen partner. She becomes his lover, adviser, and mother of his first son.
Stilgar
Naib of Sietch Tabr. He protects Paul and Jessica, teaches them Fremen customs, and becomes one of Paul's principal commanders.
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Head of House Harkonnen and architect of the Atreides destruction. He is Jessica's unknown father and Paul's grandfather.
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen
The Baron's favored nephew and intended successor. He serves as Paul's political and martial counterpart.
Glossu Rabban
The Baron's brutal nephew, installed on Arrakis to terrorize the population before Feyd's planned arrival as a supposed liberator.
Liet-Kynes
Imperial planetologist and secret leader of the Fremen. He inherits and advances the plan to transform Arrakis ecologically.
Gurney Halleck
Atreides warrior, musician, and one of Paul's teachers. After the fall of the house, he joins the spice smugglers before reuniting with Paul.
Thufir Hawat
The Atreides Mentat. Deceived into suspecting Jessica and later forced into Harkonnen service, he remains loyal to Paul at the end.
Duncan Idaho
Atreides swordmaster who earns the Fremen's trust. He dies protecting Paul and Jessica during their escape.
Dr. Wellington Yueh
The Atreides physician whose supposedly unbreakable conditioning is overcome through the Harkonnens' torture of his wife. His betrayal destroys the house, but his counterplot enables Paul and Jessica to survive.
Alia Atreides
Paul's younger sister, awakened before birth when Jessica transforms the Water of Life. As a toddler she possesses adult ancestral awareness and kills the Baron.
Emperor Shaddam IV
Padishah Emperor who secretly lends Sardaukar to the Harkonnens because he fears Duke Leto's popularity and military potential.
Princess Irulan
The Emperor's daughter and the supposed author of the historical epigraphs. Paul claims her as a political wife to secure the throne.
Spoiler Warning
The summaries below reveal the entire novel, including the fall of House Atreides, the deaths of Duke Leto and Paul's son, and Paul's seizure of the throne. Dune divides its 48 untitled chapters into three named books; chapter numbering below follows that structure.