She is known mainly as the Fremen wife and legal concubine of Paul Atreides (Muad'Dib). She is the mother of the twins Ghanima and Leto Atreides II. Her first son was killed in a Harkonnen raid on their home in the deep desert of planet Arrakis.
Paul had visions of them together when he was still living in his ancestral home on Caladan. Chani was put in charge of Paul when he and his mother Jessica Atreides first came to live with the Fremen.
Chani died while giving birth to the twins. The Tleilaxu agent Scytale offered to resurrect her as a ghola on certain extortionate conditions, but Paul declined the offer violently.