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This article or section refers to elements from Original Dune |
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This article refers to elements from Original Dune Pages for this subject as it appears in other canons:
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A Spice hoard refers to a stockpile of spice. Generally, it refers to Leto II's legendary spice hoard, though other organizations kept stockpiles of their own.
Known Hoards
House Harkonnen
House Harkonnen maintained a large spice hoard on their home planet of Giedi Prime. It was destroyed by a House Atreides special operation shortly after they gained control of Arrakis.
House Corrino
It is extremely likely that House Corrino maintained a large spice hoard. The hoard on Kaitain/DE was discovered.
Spacing Guild
Being wholly dependent upon the spice for interstellar travel, the Spacing Guild likely maintained a large spice hoard.
Bene Gesserit
Being dependent upon the spice for the creation of Reverend Mothers, the Bene Gesserit maintained their own spice hoard. Shortly after Leto II's death, it dwindled away to almost nothing before the sandworms and spice reappeared on Rakis.
Leto Atreides II
A hoard of the spice melange was secreted away by the God-Emperor, Leto Atreides II, before his death.
During Leto's reign, melange was strictly controlled. As a result, the hoard's value as currency was said to be incalculable. Only the God-Emperor knew where the hoard was kept. Not even the emperor's last majordomo, Moneo Atreides, knew its location. Over the 1500 years after Leto's reign ended, the legend of the "great spice hoard" passed into myth.
The hoard was eventually discovered by a Fremen girl and a Bene Gesserit. Sheeana Brugh and Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade discovered to hoard hidden in the Shield Wall, after being led there by a sandworm that was said to contain a pearl of Leto's consciousness.
With the hoard, Odrade discovered several messages inscribed by Leto on the walls in Chakobsa, messages he intended for a Bene Gesserit to find. The hoard itself, while still relatively large, was not considered to be a priceless fortune by this time. After Leto's death, the Bene Tleilax had developed a way to successfully synthesise melange. Its value, though still very high, had by now dropped significantly.
The hoard of melange, fabled for its immense wealth for so long, was successfully removed from the Shield Wall by the Bene Gesserit and distributed between the Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax, and the Spacing Guild, to be added to their respective stockpiles.
Great Spice Hoard
Legends existed of an even larger and much more ancient hoard, predating the First Empire and the Spacing Guild. Leto II's majordomo learned of this myth and shared it with the God-Emperor, who was disturbed by it, rather than amused as he had expected.