Question: At the end Paul makes it rain on Arrakis - wouldn't this harm the sandworms? If so, it seems like a mean move on his part, especially considering the role they played in his coup.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Arrakis did, at one time, have lakes and oceans, and the Fremen (desert people) have an ongoing secret project to restore the surface water of Arrakis (they have multi-million-liter water reservoirs all over the place beneath the planet's surface). Additionally, in the first novel it is mentioned that attempts to drill wells on Arrakis fail because they are inexplicably "plugged up" soon after they start producing water. All of this implies that the Fremen and the worms are working together to protect and hoard a great deal of the water that already exists on Arrakis. If this is the case, then the worms may value the return of surface water as much as everyone else.
Charles Austin Miller
Later on in the Dune universe the worms are limited to a large desert on the very fertile world of Arrakis, where they still produce the spice.
lionhead