piping to match the background color on the shoulder boards, bordered with silver braid for officers Boots the high, glossy black boots had no buckles or soaps, and were made of leather Uniforms were the personal property of the soldier who wore them, and were purchased by him When off-planet, Sardaukar wore their uniforms at all times when in the public view WDI Further references* SARDAUKAR TITLES ORDERS AND AWARDS Otto Aramshara, Sardaukar Victorious tr Sir Dtuwid Gwilivz (Jtattam Vema) SAREER (also, "Last Desert of the Sorter'1) A replica-tn-numature of the planetary desert which once covered the surface of Arrakis It was established by Leto II in the (bird century of his reign (approximately 10500) The ecological transformation of Arrakis dictated that no desert would exist within another twenty-five years, the complete elimination of the desert was never part of Leto's accelerated ecological plan The Sareer was his way of ensuring that some part of the old Fremen's "sea of sand" endured The cost of die venture would likely have been prohibitive to any but the God Emperor Indications show that the landsculptmg car ned out during the project's first two years- the creation and diversion of an artificial nver, the Idaho, the complete destruction of one mountain and the reduction of two entire ranges-could not have been accomplished at an expense of under fi\e hundred billion solans The Ixian weather control satellites, placed in orbit during the third year, cost half as much again and represented an ongoing expense the Sareer would be very much a maintained desert, a delicate system which could not survive on its own in a world thoroughly gone to greenery and open water As Pardot Kyncs and his Fremen had once tended their palmanes, hoping that the tiny patches of green would eventually take over the planet, Leto was obliged to tend his desert perhaps with the same hope Because of the difficulties involved with maintaining that balance, the border of the Sareer was constantly shifting The satellites, which kept precipitation in the region to a minimum and maintained the area's high temperature, could only divert unwanted water and cold air masses, not destroy them This diversion led to the accumulation of cold zones along the boundaries, zones where small packs of ice were not uncommon, less than a kilometer tram the edges of the dunes, which further complicated the process The Sareer's average size, however remained constant, containing some 250,000 square kilometers To anyone, such as Duncan Idaho, who remembered the Dune days, the Sareer was only, as Leto referred to it at times, a "pet desert " Its very existence was endangered by its size for two reasons it was a fraction of the size required to be self-perpetuatmg and free of the need for the Ixian control devices, and it was not large enough to pass unscathed through the frequent geologic upheavals that occurred on Arrakis When ihe entire surface was composed of desert, the sudden upthrust of a mountain or the shift of an outcropping of rock made no difference in the overall ecology In an area the size of the Sareer, however, and one so delicately held back from destruction, a single such episode could be disastrous Part of the function of Leto's "eyes" in the desert was to keep him ap 450 prised of any changes so that he could arrange for the necessary counter-measures Because of the nature of his Golden Path, the God Emperor knew that the Sareer had to endure It was also, as he was to learn millennia after he had ordered it protected, the one place on Airakis where he could feel comfortable in his last stages of evolution from human to sandworm Leto and his plans for humanity were as dependent upon the Sareer for their survival as the desert itself was upon Leto C W Further references- ATREIDES.