The Bene Gesserit's Guide to Dune
The Houses
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major and minor houses of the Landsraad...

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.

 

Just as the Prana-bindu allows the Bene Gesserit to precisely control each muscle and nerve, they also have complete control over their internal organs and body chemistry. A Sister can completely control her breathing and heart rate to the degree that she can appear dead to most tests even after intense physical exertion. They can control their need for food and water to the extremes of hunger and thirst, and even commit suicide at will by simply stopping their hearts. The Bene Gesserit are therefore immune to poisons, as they can simply change the chemical makeup of any harmful substance in their body and render it harmless. It is hinted that should a Bene Gesserit wish to, she could slow her aging process dramatically, controlling every aspect of her metabolism. Of course, no Bene Gesserit would ever do this, as it would call too much attention to the Sisterhood and reveal too much of their abilities.

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