In Dune, Paul's prescience begins manifesting itself through dreams while he is still living in his ancestral home on the planet Caladan; he sees Chani in these visions, though they have not yet met.

That woman over there will be my wife and you but a concubine because this is a political thing and we must weld peace out of this moment, enlist the Great Houses of the Landsraad.

With their breeding program in mind, the Bene Gesserit are desperate to regain control of Paul's bloodline, and are fearful of the effect Chani's "wild" genes may have on their offspring.

"[6] Artificial insemination is prohibited in the wake of the Butlerian Jihad, and the idea of it is as horrific to the Sisterhood as the loss of the "precious Atreides genes".

[6] Irulan, herself Bene Gesserit-trained, secretly feeds Chani contraceptives to prevent her from conceiving an Imperial heir.

Through his prescience, Paul can see that Chani's death during childbirth is far less painful and cruel than her possible future fates had she survived.

At the end of the novel, Chani's memory-self becomes a guardian against Ghanima's other ancestral memories who may try to possess her, allowing her daughter's personality to continue and grow in safety.

In the 2006 Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson sequel Hunters of Dune, gholas of Paul and Chani are among the others created to assist mankind in the climactic battle with what turns out to be the thinking machines.

[12][13] Zendaya's portrayal of Chani, along with Timothée Chalamet's Paul, were added to Fortnite Battle Royale in October 2021.

When he pledges to marry Princess Irulan and gains the Emperor's power, Chani refuses to bow to him and departs on a sandworm.