House Atreides is one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad, the feudal assembly of noble families that governs the Imperium alongside the Padishah Emperor. Renowned for their honour, military excellence, and the loyalty they inspire in their followers, the Atreides are respected throughout the known universe - and feared by the Emperor precisely because of that respect. Their ancestral home is the ocean world of Caladan, but the events of Dune begin when they are granted stewardship of Arrakis, the desert planet and sole source of the spice melange. The house's central members across the saga include Duke Leto, Lady Jessica, Paul, Alia, and the twins Leto II and Ghanima. The Atreides bloodline carries the genetic legacy of the Bene Gesserit breeding programme and produces some of the most powerful prescient minds in human history.

The Bene Gesserit are an ancient and secretive sisterhood of women who have developed extraordinary mental and physical abilities through generations of training and selective breeding. Their powers include the Voice (a form of command that compels obedience), Other Memory (access to the genetic memories of female ancestors), and superhuman observation and deduction. For thousands of years, the Bene Gesserit have pursued a covert breeding programme designed to produce the Kwisatz Haderach - a male Bene Gesserit with the ability to see where they cannot. The sisterhood operates as a political power behind every throne in the Imperium, placing their trained sisters as wives, concubines, and advisors to the ruling houses. The Bene Gesserit are neither heroes nor villains - they are pragmatists playing a longer game than anyone else, and their plans span centuries.