House
Atreides (Major)
House Atreides hails
from the water planet of Caladan, and employs unlikely methods in its endeavors: noble spirit, just ways and unfailing virtue.
Ruling its homeworld Caladan for generations with justice and generosity, House Atreides has perfected a form of government
that results in a well-organized society and a spiritually satisfied people. Little wonder that Caladan is the lush, prosperous
paradise that it is. However, the House is also proficient in war; it has even developed an Atreides battle language. The
colors of House Atreides are green and black; their symbol is a red hawk.
House
Boro (Minor)
House Boro was the
imperial house that ruled the Old Empire before its downfall at the hands of the Thinking Machines. During the Butlerian Jihad,
Iblis Ginjo married Camie Boro, the last descendant of House Boro, as part of his plan to ascend in the League of Nobles.
Their great-granddaughter Jessica Boro-Ginjo would later marry Faykan Corrino, the first Padishah Emperor, making future members
of House Corrino and House Atreides descendants of House Boro.
House
Corrino (Major)
Imperial House Corrino
was founded by Viceroy Faykan Butler, the grandnephew of Serena Butler. Faykan had married Jessica Boro-Ginjo, a descendant
of both the first Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo and also of the last Emperors of the Old Empire. In a speech given immediately
after the Battle of Corrin, the final battle of the Butlerian Jihad, Faykan took much of the credit for the victory (though
the battle was mainly organized and carried out by Supreme Bashar Vorian Atreides) and announced that he would change his
name to Corrino in recognition of this historic event. He then combined the positions of Viceroy and Grand Patriarch into
one office, declaring himself Emperor of Humanity.
House
Ecaz (Major)
House Ecaz rules
the fourth planet of Alpha Centauri B, also named Ecaz. During the events of Prelude to Dune, the head of the House is Archduke
Armand Ecaz. At this time, House Ecaz was in kanly, or vendetta, with House Moritani.
House
Hagal (Minor)
House Hagal allied
itself with the Imperial House Corrino when Padishah Emperor Elrood IX wed Yvette Hagal. Their daughter Edwina would later
be the great-grandmother of Paul Atreides. Their homeworld of Hagal was once rich in gems before it was mined out.
House
Harkonnen (Major)
One of the Great
Houses of the Imperium, House Harkonnen is driven by a kanly (vendetta) against House Atreides. The vendetta originated at
the Battle of Corrin, the battle that ended the Butlerian Jihad and founded the Imperium. The first Abulurd Harkonnen had
refused an order from his superior Vorian Atreides to kill a multitude of humans enslaved by the thinking machines. Though he had only wanted to save innocent people, Abulurd was demonized by Vorian and labeled a coward
and a traitor. Abulurd's own brother Faykan Corrino exiled him from the League Worlds, to the frosty planet of Lankiveil.
House Harkonnen worked its way back into the graces of the Imperium, manipulating the price of whale-fur to purchase its way
into the nobility.
House
Moritani (Major)
House Moritani are
at war with House Ecaz of the Landsraad. Their stronghold is the second planet of the star Niushe, Grumman. In the year 10,175
A.G., the Viscount Hundro Moritani allied with House Harkonnen in an attempt to conquer the Atreides home world of Caladan.
The attempt failed when the Ducal Mentat of House Atreides, Thufir Hawat, tricked the Moritani/Harkonnen space-fleet into
believing that Duke Leto had a gigantic water fleet, which were actually harmless fishing boats.
House
Mutelli (Minor)
House Mutelli also
wed one of its own, Barbara, to Emperor Elrood IX.
House
Novebruns (Minor)
House Novebruns
is noted in Children of Dune when Gurney Halleck recounts that "three hundred and twenty-one liters [of melange] were said
to have bought half of Novebruns Planet from the Mutelli family." In Dune: House Corrino, the Lord of House Novebruns formally
requested that Emperor Shaddam IV grant the destroyed House Taligari world of Zanovar to him so that he could mine it for
"valuable raw materials."
House Ordos (Minor)
One of the more
powerful members of the great council of the Imperium, the Landsraad, House Ordos is from the ice planet Sigma Draconis IV,
and is considered to be a mercantile house. Ordos may
have their origins in China, since their family name is the
same as that of the Ordos Desert of China.
House
Richese (Major)
Though Richese was
a Synchronized World under thinking machine control during the Butlerian Jihad, 10,000 years later it had become home to the
wealthy House Richese. House Richese had taken over the valuable melange production
operations of the planet Arrakis, the only known source of the all-important spice. However, the vast expenses required for
the harvesting of the spice — combined with an economic war with the more advanced House Vernius of Ix — had bankrupted
House Richese. After being ousted from the planetary governorship of Arrakis (and replaced by the Harkonnens, House Richese
had salvaged some of its respectability through arranged marital alliances with other Houses (Helena's
marriage to Paulus Atreides among them).
House
Taligari (Minor)
In the Prelude to
Dune series, House Taligari had adopted Tyros Reffa, illegitimate son of Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX and his concubine
Shando Balut, later the wife of Earl Dominic Vernius of Ix. Their homeworld was the recreational planet Zanovar.
House
Vernius (Major)
The main industry
on Ix is the production of machines that continuously test the bounds of the precepts set down by the Butlerian Jihad. The
rival of House Vernius is House Richese, which also specializes in machinery, but doesn't create controversial machinery.
The strongest ally of House Vernius is House Atreides; their friendship began when the Earl Dominic Vernius and Duke Paulus
Atreides fought together in the Ecaz Revolt around 10,130 A.G.