House Ordos
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House Ordos is an insidious mercantile House in the Dune universe as presented in the Westwood Studios Dune video games. This House is listed in the non-canon Dune Encyclopedia[1] but has never been mentioned in any of the novels.
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[edit] Overview
House Ordos is a family from the "alternate" Dune universe of the Westwood Studios Dune video games, inspired by Frank Herbert's own Dune universe. One of the more powerful members 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.
[edit] House Ordos Emblem
In Dune II and Dune 2000, the emblem for House Ordos was a snake coiled around a book. In Emperor: Battle for Dune, the emblem was modified. The book was removed, and was replaced by a blue circle, probably representing Sigma Draconis IV. Interestingly, in The Dune Encyclopedia, the coat of arms for the Ordos was a pair a crossed bones with ivy [2] (a book and snake symbol was used for another House's coat of arms).
[edit] Quotes from the games
House Ordos, from the iceworld Draconis IV. The Ordos are known for their use of forbidden technologies. Their leader is the Executrix, four beings that share a single mind. They communicate through a creature known only as 'The Speaker'. The Ordos are mercenary, they care for nothing except power and wealth. In the language of the Ordos, there are no words for the concepts of trust or honor; there are more than 300 for the concept of profit. — Game narrator (also Lady Elara) giving a description of the House. (Emperor: Battle for Dune)
We know little of the Ordos. It is said their immense fortune comes of smuggling forbidden Ixian technologies into their icy planet. Their wealth makes them paranoid, but powerful. They are the masters of sabotage and trickery. They will not trust you so easily." — Lady Elara Moray Trieu, Bene Gesserit Truthsayer and Bound Concubine to Frederick IV (Dune 2000).
All other considerations are trivial. — The Executrix (Emperor: Battle for Dune)
We are Ordos, we are one. — Excerpt of the Executrix's speech (Emperor: Battle for Dune)
From the introductory cutscene, The War of Assassins (Emperor: Battle for Dune):
Executrix: Talk is irrelevant. Peace is not an option.
Duke Achillus: Who is this creature?
Executrix: It speaks for the Executrix of House Ordos.
Baron Rakan: Is the Executrix afraid to speak for themselves? Are they so cowardly?
Executrix (Speaker reveals all four members of the Executrix): We are the Executrix of House Ordos. We fear nothing. We will abide by the terms prescribed by this council. We will eliminate all competitors. In the end, we will prevail. All other considerations are trivial.
Baron Rakan: Let there be war then! We will control Arrakis...
Duke Achillus: You will control nothing!
[edit] History of the Insidious House Ordos
In the Dune game series, the Ordos represent one of the most greedy and selfish Great Houses in the Dune universe; their only goal is to generate revenue to sustain the pluto/technocratic elite of the House, who, to this end, have fine-tuned the House to an inhumanly specific degree. Since the Dune games focus on the struggle of three or more Major Houses to control the planet Arrakis, the Ordos are always portrayed as being driven by a calculated and single-minded mandate to destroy anything that stands between them and the most valuable substance in the known universe, the spice melange. Their origins are narrated in the game as being a convention of several wealthy families into one large cartel who hired expensive but disloyal mercenaries to fight for the House. Their Mentats have often been reported to silently disappear under mysterious circumstances although the player can guess as to their possible fate. In Dune 2000, the Mentat Edric O is rumoured to be a thinking machine ordered to exact specifications from House Vernius. The House faces stiff competition for the spice in Arrakis but can still pose a threat.
Since a great deal of the House Ordos was developed by Westwood Studios to suit their series, they have evolved over the course of the three Dune computer games.
Dune II featured them as a reclusive merchant house that dealt heavily in exotic weapons and expensive, hard to obtain (often illegal) goods. They were a sort of middle path between the noble Atreides and the evil Harkonnen, being themselves neither necessarily good nor bad. In Dune 2000, they became more mercenary; their soldiers had neither the love of their leaders (like the Atreides had), and they didn't really fear them, either (like the Harkonnens). They were, however, quite greedy, and driven primarily by profit. They are more mechanical and frigid a people than in Dune II, however they are still recognizably human, with the exception of the Mentat Edric O (different from the Ordos mentat Ammon in Dune II), who speaks in a Borg-like monotone and is often seen scanning through spectacular volumes of data in an almost casual manner. This is something which, according to Dune canon, cannot be done by ordinary Mentats (who must enter into a form of meditation to unleash the full extent of their powers).
Emperor: Battle for Dune completes the character evolution of the Ordos; they are now so cold and emotionless in their drive for profitability, that they are not perceived as human beings by the other Houses. While the Atreides and Harkonnens both possess human emotions (love and hate, respectively), despite being the opposites of each other, the Ordos are empty. While Harkonnen and Atreides characters within the game demonstrate various obvious human behaviors and thoughts, such as anger, loyalty, admiration and fear; as well as coming to some human conclusions based on these feelings, the Ordos characters demonstrate little. They rarely display emotion and their thoughts and statements reflect this fact: it is never, "We have lost a battle, we must try harder," as the Atreides might say, or, "We have lost a battle, you will win victories for us or die," as per the Harkonnen, but rather, "We have lost a battle. It is mandatory that we reclaim this territory for the following strategic reasons..." The only Ordos character ever to show an emotion is the prior strategist/overseer, who is being kept in a state of perpetual agony and wishes to die. He is shown to the player because, according to the Executrix, "Fear is an efficient tool of management."
Their soldiers are very nearly machines in the sense that they show no emotion and are driven purely by the desire to dominate. Loyalty and honor are meaningless to them, yet their language has over three hundred different terms for various kinds of profit. Ordos leaders become increasingly mechanical over the course of the games as well, the end result being the Executrix council; four humans (possibly Mentats), cybernetically hardwired to a single creature called "The Speaker." It is very likely this sort of technology flaunts the proscriptions of the Great Convention (at one point in the game, the Executrix proclaims "The Convention is irrelevant.") and the Orange Catholic Bible, however no Ordos ever seemed to be greatly concerned with such pedantic and inefficient regulations. It is also highly probable that the Ordos utilize some form of mind control, possibly chemical, to keep their citizenship from becoming spiritually dissatisfied, as the Ordos do utilize a chemical mixture known as Deviator gas, first introduced into the air supply of freighters and buildings aboard the Guild Heighliner, to control the minds of enemies, driving them into a killing frenzy.
The lasting appeal of the Ordos throughout the Dune game series is that they provide an often morbidly fascinating contrast to both Atreides and Harkonnen Houses. While it is quite a simple matter to have a "right side" founded on respect, compassion and tradition, as are the Atreides, and the Harkonnen are a fairly obvious and common depiction of a "wrong side", one which is founded upon hatred and cruelty and perversity; the Ordos have an interesting way about them, because they are utterly alien, and often exude the feeling of being foreign sentients masquerading as men. It is impossible to predict how the Ordos might react to a given situation, despite the very straight-forward reasoning they adhere to; and this is what lies at the heart of their unusual allure: in spite of being inhumanly obvious, or more likely because of it, they are among the most mysterious and unknowable of forces.
[edit] Homeworld of Sigma Draconis IV
The icy world of Draconis IV is House Ordos' home. Like the Atreides world of Caladan, Draconis IV has been left mostly in its natural state, but it is as inhospitable as Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen homeworld. Each House's homeworld, in fact, is a rather good approximation of its people's character. Caladan is a lush, fertile place, full of wonder and growth. Giedi Prime is a volcanic, industrial hell, ridden with pollution and toxicity, where nothing can be said to truly grow, but things are only manufactured at the expense of other things. Draconis IV is simultaneously like and unlike Arrakis. Like Arrakis, the world is an expansive desert where few outstanding features exist. Though, while Arrakis is possessed of a great heat, and is the breeding ground of an unparalleled rugged absoluteness, Sigma Draconis is just the opposite. Looking out over the landscape of Draconis IV, one sees what one would were one looking into the soul of a wealthy Ordos aristocrat: bleak desolation, a frigid wasteland from whence all life has been choked slowly; and despite the superficial appearance of being a pristine place of exquisite crystalline beauty, ultimately just a world where life neither could nor would want to grow — a looking glass into nothing.
[edit] Ordos Main Characters
[edit] The Ordos Executrix
Four beings with one supermind -- aside from that, little is known of The Executrix, the mysterious entity that rules the icy planet Draconis IV with all the efficiency of a computer and all the casual brutality of a dictator. With shields blocking their withered faces, the four beings are neurally networked into a single mind to maximize the efficiency of their plans to rule Arrakis and turn a nice profit. All verbal contact is performed through a creature known only as "The Speaker".
[edit] Ordos Mentat Roma Atani
A human interpreter of the Executrix, Roma Atani, briefs new Ordos generals on the state of the war on Arrakis. Cool and impassive, Atani is not one given to praise or criticism. Like a classic Ordos, her mind is a binary one: either the general fulfills the battle plan or does not. Besides, if the new general does not perform with maximum efficiency, criticism is moot. The Ordos have designed exquisite tortures to express their disapproval.
[edit] Padishah Emperor Frederick Corrino IV (Ghola)
Cell samples of the Emperor's dead body were smuggled from Kaitain by Tleilaxu spies and purchased by House Ordos. The Executrix created a ghola of him and plan on placing it on the throne as a puppet emperor. The Executrix will be the true power behind the throne; an Illuminati, so to speak.
[edit] Infamous Ordos Units
The best-known Ordos units include:
[edit] Ordos Deviator
Usually takes the place in the Ordos' tech tree for missile launcher vehicles, the Deviator fires a gas that causes the target to turncoat and join the Ordos. "Loyalty is an illusion"
The deviator fires rockets loaded with an Ixian-developed gas with the capability to effectively alter vehicles’ allegiance by confusing their data receivers to accept transmissions of a certain frequency. The platform itself is of Ordos design, and uses Holtzmann suspensors, making it fast and mobile.
A hover vehicle, the deviator fires rockets containing a gas which temporarily changes the allegiance of any vehicle, allowing it to be used against its former owners. The deviator carries energy shields that absorb initial damage. Once these are down, it is vulnerable. If damaged, it must retreat and let its health and shields recharge. All the Ordos hover vehicles may cross dustbowls but cannot run infantry down.
[edit] Ordos Saboteur
Originally was the Ordos superweapon, opposite the Atreides Fremen and the Harkonnen Death Hand. Emperor has the Saboteur as a standard soldier. They carry explosives that they use to detonate themselves in an effective suicide attack.
The Saboteur is a special military unit belonging to Ordos. Trained in the art of espionage and terrorism at the Palace, a single Saboteur can destroy almost any structure or vehicle.
Saboteurs are conditioned to absolute loyalty to House Ordos. Massive charges are strapped to their body. Their only wish is to detonate themselves amongst the enemy. When fatally wounded, their programming insists their final act is to pull the pin on the charges.
[edit] References
- ^ McNelly, Willis E. The Dune Encyclopedia, 1 June 1984, pg. 273, ISBN 0-425-06813-7 (US edition)
- ^ The Dune Encyclopedia, pg. 278.
