Photo illustration: Vulture; Photos: Warner Bros., Attila Szvacsek/HBO

Just as Princess Jasmine is trapped in Jafar’s giant hourglass and drowns in the sand, we are back in the world of Dune again. HBO’s latest big budget IP gamble Dune: Prophecy premieres on November 17, taking over from his last major IP gamble The penguin and fulfilling similar prequel responsibilities as this summer’s big IP gamble House of the Dragon. Dragons, Birds, Worms: Is HBO’s flagship Sunday night slot going for a “we bought a zoo” thing?

Set more than 10,000 years before the events of Denis Villeneuve Dune And Dune: part two (adapted together from Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking 1965 novel), Dune: Prophecy focuses on the beginnings of the sisterhood eventually known as the Bene Gesserit. The space witch order provides ostensibly trusted advisors to the ruling Emperor of the Corrino Empire and the aristocratic Great Houses of his Imperium, such as House Atreides and House Harkonnen, but secretly harbors long-standing plans about who can and should rule. The six-episode series based on the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune by Frank’s son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, explains and contextualizes the decisions of the Bene Gesserit that led to Paul Atreides’ rise to power in the Dune movies. Emily Watson stars as Valya Harkonnen, the reverend mother who has guided and shaped the sisterhood for thirty years to meet her vision of subtle manipulation: through elaborate matchmaking schemes among the powerful elite, she hopes they can eventually produce an emperor who will rule under their control. (That’s the plan DuneAnyway; Valya’s motives are a bit murkier Dune: Prophecy.But as she tries to gain more authority in the Imperium, she is threatened by a mysterious figure from the desert planet Arrakis, Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), who has powers she does not understand and could endanger the sisterhood.

It’s a dense world! There’s unique terminology, a complex history, and a lot of lore, and it can be tricky to dive into. Dune: Prophecy with no prior knowledge of Herbert’s works or the sprawling franchise he created. If you don’t have the required five hours to watch Dune And Dune: part two or however long it would take you to read Herbert’s novels before Sunday evening, your prayers to Shai-Hulud have been answered. Here are five things to remember in advance Dune: Prophecy premieres.

Herberts Dune was actually an allegory for the American and British wars over oil, in which spices were exchanged for petroleum and gasoline. Spices look like glistening burnt orange dust, smell like cinnamon and are a natural resource produced only on Arrakis. Constant exposure turns the eyes of the native Fremen blue, and on Arrakis the substance is used for everyday food, goods and explosives. But throughout the universe, spice has become a sign of wealth and prosperity, and it is most prized for its use as medicine by the Spacing Guild; it allows the Guild Navigators to gain a type of foresight that helps them map travel through space. In a universe where everyone is constantly moving between planets, the demand for spices is enormous. Whoever controls Arrakis and the planet’s spice extraction automatically becomes one of the wealthiest and most envied families in the Imperium, as well as the target of the Fremen, who have been trying to free their planet from its occupiers for generations.

That’s how spice shapes the financial tensions and power dynamics of this world. But here’s a fun fact: the Fremen hold a ceremony involving the Water of Life—sandworm bile that becomes a narcotic because the creatures live in herb-infused sand—where the members of a community share the poison and participate in an orgy . As Paul’s lover Chani explains, “When the tribe shares the Water, we are together – all of us. We…share.” We never had a spice orgy (or an actual sex scene) in either Dune video, but maybe Dune: Prophecy will be brave enough to deliver one. This is HBO after all!

When Dune Begins, House Harkonnen, a clan of sadists, has controlled Arrakis for years, an arrangement that indicates they are closely allied with Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV of the Imperium (played in Dune: part two by Christopher Walken). As Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck says in Villeneuve’s first film, “Eighty years Arrakis belonged to House Harkonnen. …Can you imagine the wealth? … They are not human, they are cruel.” The implication is that a certain amount of House Harkonnen’s violence and capriciousness (Baron Harkonnen’s monstrously large body; their ‘pets’ resembling human spiders) stems from the wealth they have hoarded for generations. House Atreides, where the film’s protagonist Paul (Timothee Chalamet) comes from, has a justice and goodness that, in contrast to the brutality of the Harkonnens, makes the two families enemies.

The Harkonnens’ iron grip over Arrakis makes Corrino’s decision to take the planet and give it to House Atreides a surprise – until we learn that he did so to incite House Harkonnen to start a war against House Atreides. The Emperor’s plan to eliminate the entire House of Atreides, which he considers a threat to his rule due to their morality and popularity, fails when Paul, his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and his unborn sister Alia ambush the Harkonnens survive. Arrakis, adapt to life in the desert and eventually exact revenge on both the Emperor and House Harkonnen. (Important detail: Lady Jessica was born Harkonnen, which causes a schism between her and Paul when he finds out Dune: part two.) The families have hated each other for a long time, and they are locked in a kind of death spiral that casts a long shadow over the entire Dune franchise. Since Dune: Prophecy features characters from Houses Harkonnen and Atreides, expect more of that feud to play out here.

We never heard the word “jihad” in Villeneuve’s films, which means we probably never will hear the word in Villeneuve’s films. Dune: Prophecyor; the series will likely rebrand this historic moment. But the Islamic context of this word, especially how it defines a just war, was important to Herbert when he conceived the Butlerian Jihad, a “crusade against computers, thinking machines and sentient robots” led by the last free humans to to undo slavery of their kind. As explained in Dune‘s Terminology of the Imperium (a glossary that appeared at the end of the first novel), located the Butlerian Jihad more than 10,000 years before the events of Dune (in line with the Dune: Prophecy timeline) and lasted almost 100 years. The humans ultimately prevail in the conflict they call the Great Rebellion and ban these machines, creating several orders to take their place. The human computer Mentats, capable of high-level calculations and strategy, is assigned to each house, while the Guild Navigators use spices to determine paths through space.

Villeneuve’s films have not really delved into the rebellion and how it transformed the Empire and its people, but what is most important to understand from the novel is the guiding law established after the end of the Butlerian Jihad: ‘Thou shalt not make a machine that resembles a human mind.” The citizens of the Empire would actually prefer none Matrix-like situation back on their hands. Who can blame them?

There is a real divide between the faith-based world of Herbert’s book, which regularly discusses the characters’ allegiance to futuristic versions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and agnosticism, and Villeneuve’s films, which religion was almost completely removed from the story. (In particular, elements of Islam or Middle Eastern culture or languages, which appear throughout Herbert’s novel as integral world-building elements, hardly appear in the novel. Dune And Dune: part two.) Herbert’s book contains an entire appendix ‘Religion of Dune’ explaining the meaning of space travel, with lines like ‘At once space gave a different flavor and meaning to ideas of creation. That difference can be seen even in the highest religious achievements of the period. Throughout religion, the sense of the sacred was touched by anarchy from the outer darkness,” and an explanation of what the Orange Catholic Bible text, a compilation of human religions created after the Butlerian Jihad as a way to express a core aspect of the religion protects human experience, intended for its followers. Conversely, Dune And Dune: part two have some generic images of brown people wailing unintelligibly in a temple – a pale comparison to the source material.

But Dune: Prophecy is set during a fascinating time for religious faith, as the Bene Gesserit plays a role in shaping how humanity’s rejection of thinking machines and artificial intelligence will impact culture in the years to come. Is it a religious order with inherently nefarious motives, or just a group of women training and learning together? In Dunethe Bene Gesserit There are many opponents who criticize that distinction, including Paul. Even if Dune: Prophecy debunks Herbert’s idea that the women’s “symbolism, organization, and internal teaching methods were almost entirely religious,” their rituals – such as the use of the aforementioned Water of Life for the Spice Agony ceremony that connects their consciousness to their ancestors in the order – have a sense of grandeur and procedure that will still feel spiritual on screen. (Remember also that the Fremen believe in Shai-Hulud as the sandworm embodiment of their god or “Maker,” which the Bene Gesserit may not fully understand because the Fremen’s belief system approaches the world in a very different way than their own. That is a problem when Valya and Desmond, a Fremen, meet Dune: Prophecy.)

These space witches conduct a massive, generation-long breeding program to guide all the Great Houses and ultimately place the perfect person, or Kwisatz Haderach, on the Imperium throne and under their control. This supreme being – one who can see into the past like the Bene Gesserit and also into the future, perform all the special mathematical and engineering calculations of a Mentat, and travel through space like a Guild Navigator – will be born as a result of their matchmaking ; By appointing members of the sisterhood to advise various great houses, the Bene Gesserit arranges marriages between families and strengthens their power. Once the Kwisatz Haderach is born, the sisterhood will control that person when they come to the throne. Paul Atreides (who is believed to be that figure) eventually puts an end to their plans by refusing their influence, but 10,000 years ago these icons were just beginning their Punnett Squares and plans to kill life help find. One very specific, Bene Gesserit-approved way.