Title: Guild Steersman Image
Course: Science Fiction: Dune > Section: Book I

Risk your travel privledges and view a Guild Steersman.

Physical Characteristics:

The Guild Steersmen are pale-skinned humanoids over two meters in length, with large webbed feet and hands. They have tiny, dark eyes and thin mouths.

The Guildsmen live in a gaseous medium imbued with a hallucinogenic spice, melange, which heightens their innate powers of prescience. The addictive spice comprises their entire diet; Guildsmen eat, drink, and breathe melange. Their daily life cycle shifts from a "night" period of extreme torpor to a spice-induced "day" of activity.

The distinctive Guild uniform is normally fitted with a utility belt containing the Steersman's sice, devices, and weaponry.

Habitat:

The Guild Steersmen's planet of origin is lost to history. They are now born, live and ultimately die in the weightless environment of deep space. When they must make planetfall, they survive in antigravity tanks.

Culture:

The prime navigators for a vast intergalactic empire, the Guildsmen play a strategic political role in the balance of power. Their foresight enables them to guide a Guild spacecraft at translight speed into areas of least probable danger. This prescience makes Guildsmen natural conspirators, since they can predict the activities of their opponents and the success or failure of any action.

The Guild Steersmen are cynical, power-conscious beings with no allegiance to any government. They use their powers and the strength of their Guild to preserve their role in Imperial affairs and to safeguard their supply of melange. The flared nostril of a Guild Steersman reveals delicate gill filaments, saturated with the addictive spice melange.
Barlowe, Wayne D., Ian Summers, and Beth Meacham. Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. New York, NY: Workman, 1987. 46-47.