Guild Navigator

With the Guild Navigator rank being a coveted position in the Spacing Guild, many Guildsmen follow a complicated process of excess Melange ingestion to achieve the prescience necessary for becoming a Navigator. Gaining prescience makes a Guildsman graduate to a Guild Navigator, and biological mutation due to overdependence on Melange happens.

The Guild Navigators of the Spacing Guild – Definition

A Guild Navigator is a humanoid creature who works as a spacefolder craft pilot. Guild Navigators used an excessive amount of Melange to boost their mental abilities to the point of prescience.

Gaining prescience made the Guild Navigator powerful enough to glimpse the future and plot a safe course for spacecraft across foldspace. From the first Guild Navigator, Norma Cenva, all Guild Navigators got mutated by the excessive amount of Melange they consumed; this made them develop weird humanoid features.

The Role Played by Guild Navigators in the Dune Universe

The first mention of Guild Navigators was in Frank Herbert’s 1965 ‘Dune.’ In the novel, Paul notes the extent of power Guild Navigators had over discerning the future in a quote:

Think of that! The finest Guild Navigators, men who can quest ahead through time to find the safest course for the fastest Heighliners, all of them seeking me.

Rarely ever seen, Guild Navigators are the backbone of space travel; this is because their limited prescience grants them the ability to see into the near future and plot a course through the mine-field of foldspace. The Guild Navigators’ crucial role makes them a key player in the events of ‘Dune.’

Because of their severe jealousy and want for monopoly, the Spacing Guild tags Paul Atreides as an enemy who sought to destroy the balance in the universe. With this declaration, the Spacing Guild using Edric joins the plot against Paul. Edric becomes a crucial part of the plan against Paul, as he uses his prescience to shield the conspiracy from him. Though Paul almost dies, he escapes death and kills Scytale. Shortly after Paul walks into the desert, the conspirators, including Edric, get killed by Alia.

The History of the Guild Navigators

In ‘Legends of Dune’ by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the history of the Guild Navigators gets revealed. Before the Navigators, supercomputers performed the task of navigating through interstellar space. However, the Butlerian Jihad caused the outlaw of machines; this led Norma Cenva to use Melange on herself. Gaining prescience, Norma Cenva could predict the future path a heighliner could safely follow in the deep throes of space; this made her the first Guild Navigator. In ‘The Battle of Corrin,’ Norma mutated due to excessive Melange intake; this gets described in the quote:

Her direct physical senses were deadened, and Norma no longer cared about taste, touch, or smell. She found it remarkable to see webbing between her fingers and toes. Her face, once blunt-featured and later flawless, now had a small mouth and tiny eyes surrounded by smooth folds. Her head was immense, while the rest of her body atrophied to a useless appendage.

Physical Appearance of a Guild NAvigator

Though the navigators get rarely seen, there are few cases where their original physical form got seen. The excess Melange intake by the Guild Navigators causes a biological mutation in them. The Guild Navigators had to be in tanks pumping Spice gas to stay alive. Because of overdependence, a Guild Navigator becomes practically useless when they get cut off from their never-ending Melange supply.

A Guild Navigator is a humanoid creature hidden inside the constraint of a tank that pumps Spice gas. The Navigator possesses finned hands and feet with an elongated body frame and repositioned limbs. The Navigators’ face looks repulsive as they have a tiny mouth made into a V-shape and a flappy nose which caused their breathing to sound weird. Due to excess mutation, a Guild Navigator’s voice becomes so bad that only translators make it possible for anyone to understand what they say. The eyes of a Guild Navigator are so blue that it appears black from afar.

Glossary Terms Related to Guild Navigators

Here is a list of words associated with Guild Navigators:

1. Eyes of Ibad: This is the name given to the eyes of a Guild Navigator. The Eyes of Ibad are so blue that to a distant observer, they will look black.
2. Spacefolder: A Spacefolder is a machine capable of moving faster than the speed of light due to the Holtzman effect.
3. Heighliner: A Heighliner is a starship used by the Spacing Guild to transport people and objects across the vast expanse of space.
4. Navigator Tanks: Navigator Tanks are large anti-gravitation tanks used to protect the prescience of Guild Navigators by constantly pumping them Spice gas. Navigators get placed into the tanks at the beginning of their training as elite Guildsmen.
5. Spice Gas: Spice gas is the gaseous form of Melange used by the Guild Navigators for prescience.
6. Steersmen: Steersmen are advanced Guild Navigators.
7. Pilots: Pilots are Guild Navigators of low rank.

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