House Atreides

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For the novel of the same name, see Dune: House Atreides.

House Atreides is a fictional noble family from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. One of the Great Houses of the feudal interstellar empire known as the Imperium, its members play a role in every novel in the series.

Contents 1 The original series 1.1 Dune 1.2 Dune Messiah 1.3 Children of Dune 1.4 God Emperor of Dune 1.5 Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune 2 Prelude to Dune 3 Political, economic and military power 4 Mythological origins 5 Atreides family tree 6 The Atreides in the Dune games 7 References

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 (in the 1984 film version, this language is presented as a system of hand signals; the novels also include a spoken language). The colors of House Atreides are green and black; their symbol is a red hawk.

[edit] The original series

[edit] Dune

At the time of the original novel Dune, House Atreides is ruled by the Duke Leto Atreides I. His concubine is the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica; she had been instructed by her order to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program. But out of love for Leto, she gave him a son: Paul Atreides. This seemingly innocuous choice would drastically change the course of mankind forever.

The Atreides are lured to the desert planet Arrakis under the pretense of taking over the spice-mining operation there. The spice is the most valuable commodity in the universe — it makes interstellar travel possible, extends life and can unlock dormant abilities in the Bene Gesserit — and Arrakis is its only known source. But Leto and his family are caught in a plot to destroy them, orchestrated by their rivals of millennia, House Harkonnen, and the jealous Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV himself.

An attack on the Atreides, assisted by a Harkonnen traitor in their midst and the Imperial Sardaukar soldier-fanatics, results in Leto's death. Paul and Jessica flee into the desert and are presumed dead; they find a place with the native Fremen, who believe Paul is their prophesied messiah, the Mahdi. Jessica gives birth to Leto's daughter, Alia; the child is what the Bene Gesserit call an Abomination because Jessica had undergone the ritual Spice agony while pregnant, inadvertently awakening Alia to full consciousness in the womb. As a result of Jessica's earlier choice to have a son, Paul himself is the Kwisatz Haderach — the goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program — born a generation early and out of the Sisterhood's control.

Soon Paul is able to amass an army of Fremen, their fierce fighting skills enhanced by training in the Bene Gesserit Weirding Way. He and his Fremen concubine Chani have a son they call Leto, but the boy is killed in infancy as the battle for Arrakis intensifies. Now called Muad'Dib, Paul leads the Fremen forces to victory over the Emperor's Sardaukar on Arrakis, and by threating the destruction of all spice production manages to depose Shaddam and ascend the throne in his place.

[edit] Dune Messiah

Over a decade later in Dune Messiah, Emperor Paul remains in a political marriage with Shaddam's eldest daughter, Princess Irulan, and has yet to conceive another child with his true love Chani. His rule is threatened by a conspiracy spun by the other major powers in the Imperium: the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Tleilax, Irulan herself and even some of the Fremen. All have reasons to resent his stranglehold on the universe and the jihad it has unleashed. Paul lets these plots play out and manages to keep his Empire intact, but not without a price; he is blinded by the explosion of a stone burner, and Chani dies giving birth to his only heirs, the twins Leto II and Ghanima. Paul disappears into the desert, in accordance with Fremen custom for the blind, leaving Alia as Imperial Regent and guardian of his son and daughter.

[edit] Children of Dune

In Children of Dune, Leto II and Ghanima are uncertain of the future. Nine years old but mature beyond their years, the pair manuever around the ever-increasing machinations of their aunt Alia, who is slowly but surely succumbing to Abomination. Alia herself is wary of the Lady Jessica, returned from Caladan with questionable intentions. The ego-memory of the evil Baron Harkonnen, Jessica's secret father, seduces Alia from within, promising his help in fighting off the multitude of ancestral personalities struggling for control. Soon, however, he himself has possessed her. Alia's subsequent attempt to eliminate her mother — as well as a Corrino plot to assassinate the twins — sets off a Fremen rebellion and puts the religion of Muad'Dib in turmoil. As Leto's eyes are opened to the Golden Path that will save mankind, a mysterious blind man known as The Preacher appears to undermine Alia and her priests in the eyes of the people. He, of course, is Paul Atreides. Leto sacrifices his humanity and, for the sake of the survival of the human race, chooses to accept transformation into a sandworm, the fearsome giant beasts of Arrakis which actually control the spice cycle. He delves into a pool of sandtrout, which form a living skin around him; his resulting body is superhuman, becoming nearly invulnerable, capable of tremendous speed and possessing the strength of many men. Paul is killed, but Leto's ascension is now guaranteed. Alia, fully fallen into madness, manages to regain control of her body long enough to leap out a high window to her death. Leto weds his sister Ghanima in a political union to consolidate power; unable to father children, he instead intends for her to take Farad'n Corrino as a mate. This union will produce a long bloodline, which Leto will manipulate in his own breeding program to achieve the goals of his Golden Path.

[edit] God Emperor of Dune

Over 3,500 years later, a seemingly-immortal Leto is the title character in God Emperor of Dune. Known as the Tyrant, he has dominated humanity to a breaking point; he himself has become a full man-worm hybrid, immense in size and physically more sandworm than human. His breeding program has resulted in the birth of Siona Atreides (daughter of Moneo), who possesses unique genes that make her invisible to prescience. Ready to let the final stage of his Golden Path play itself out, Leto allows Siona's plan to assassinate him to unfold. He dies, leaving Siona and the latest Duncan Idaho ghola continue the Atreides line and pass on Siona's precious genes.

[edit] Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune

Another 1,500 years passes; in the interim, humanity had been thrown into chaos. The breakdown of Leto's empire, severe famine on many worlds and the introduction of Ixian navigation machines had caused billions of people to leave the settled worlds, striking off into unknown space in a diaspora known as the Scattering. This resettlement had been one of Leto's goals for mankind's ultimate survival; the exponential growth in human numbers and colonized planets, combined with the dissemination of Siona's genes which render their bearer invisible to prescience, ensured humanity's survival by making it impossible for any one force to track down every human in the universe — at least some would survive somewhere.

In Heretics of Dune, one descendant of Siona Atreides is Miles Teg, renowned commander of the military forces of the Bene Gesserit, who bears a remarkable resemblance to his ancestor, Duke Leto I. Teg's secret daughter is Darwi Odrade (a variant on Atreides), a Bene Gesserit sister who eventually becomes Mother Superior of the Sisterhood during their ongoing struggle with the fierce Honored Matres.

Chapterhouse Dune finds the Tleilaxu Master Scytale a prisoner of the Bene Gesserit; one of his secret bargaining chips is a nullentropy capsule containing cells carefully and secretly collected by the Tleilaxu for millennia. These cells include those of Paul Atreides, Duke Leto Atreides and Leto II, Lady Jessica, Chani and other legendary figures.

[edit] Prelude to Dune

The Dukes Atreides
Name	Reign
Miklos Atreides[1]	Unknown
Kean Atreides[2]	Unknown
Paulus Atreides	??? - 10,156 A.G.
Leto Atreides I	10,156 - 10,191 A.G.
Emperor Paul Atreides	10,191 - 10,209 A.G.
Imperial Regent Alia Atreides	10,209 - 10,219 A.G.
Leto Atreides II "The God Emperor"	10,219 - 13,728 A.G.
Abolition of Ducal and Imperial thrones

The prequel trilogy Prelude to Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson chronicles the upbringing of young Leto I prior to the events of Dune. Son to Duke Paulus Atreides and Lady Helena, Leto makes a lifelong friend in Rhombur Vernius, son of Paulus' own longtime ally, Earl Dominic of the doomed House Vernius of Ix.

Icy and religious Lady Helena, daughter of Count Ilban of House Richese, is unhappy with the alliance; Richese and Ix are rivals in the production of complex machinery, and she believes the Ixians often flout the sacred proscriptions of the Butlerian Jihad, which prohibit the creation of machines "in the likeness of the human mind." Helena plots against her husband, hoping to rule through her son; she arranges for a Salusan bull to be drugged to make it stronger and more savage, knowing that skilled bullfighter Paulus is set to meet it in the ring. Paulus is killed, and soon Leto's suspicions of his mother's involvement are proven correct. Preferring to have her executed, he instead banishes her to the Sisters of Isolation, knowing it is in the best interest of the people that no one ever knows of her treachery.

[edit] Political, economic and military power

At the beginning of the prequel trilogy, Atreides power was capable but limited. It was secure on Caladan and had an uncommon reputation for honour and decency in politics. While Caladan produced sustainable resources (pundi rice) and some luxury items (Caladanian wines were the best wines in the known universe) it does not have the economic power of Ix or Arrakis (Under Harkonnen stewardship).

During the period of Duke Leto's rule, use of a combination of Thufir Hawat, Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho methods brought Atreides soldiers to a quality approaching that of the Sardaukar, with the ability to expand the force to a size matching the Emperor's army.

Meanwhile, Leto's actions and words throughout his reign move him into a very popular political position. While not having the economic strength of House Corrino, Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV sees a rising threat to his power, matched with his inability to produce a male heir (due to the manipulations of the Bene Gesserit to produce a power vacuum into which they would be able to move their Messiah, who was to be born to Jessica's daughter and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen).

In an effort to counter the Leto's rise, Shaddam forms a secret alliance with House Harkonnen to eliminate House Atreides. However realising the trap he is entering, Leto attempts to forge an alliance with the Fremen. Although Leto does not live to see his vision of "Desert Power," his son turns the Fremen into the greatest army the universe had seen to date. This army begins a Jihad that spreads out across the universe establishing the Atreides rule of the Imperium (centered on Arrakis instead of Kaitain).

Leto II increased the control over the empire with his Fish Speaker army in order to repress humanity as part of the plan for his Golden Path.

While no longer a single entity, the Shaitan descendants of Leto continue to influence humanity until the sterilisation of Arrakis by the Honored Matres. In spite of the death of all but one of these worms, the surviving part of humanity is in part descended from Siona Atreides and so while Atreides in name are a memory, their legacy will continue on as long as humanity.

[edit] Mythological origins

In the original novels, House Atreides claims descent from Agamemnon, a son of Atreus, in Greek mythology. The descendants of Atreus are called "Atreides" (plural "Atreidai", Latinized as "Atreidae") in the Greek language. This Royal House included many significant figures in Greek myth.

In the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson Legends of Dune novels, the Atreides family line goes back to the Greeks on Old Earth. Vorian Atreides was the thirteenth son of the Titan Agamemnon, one of the twenty Titans who conquered the Old Empire, and was a Human Trustee in Omnius' Machine Empire. He began the family house of the Atreides and was Muad'Dib's ancestor.

[edit] Atreides family tree

Atreus

Agamemnon b. circa 1200 B.C.

Agamemnon (born Andrew Skouros circa 1255 B.G.)

Vorian Atreides b. 223 B.G.

House Vernius

House Richese

House Corrino

Miklos Atreides

Yvette Hagal 10,024 - 10,075 A.G.

Elrood Corrino IX 9,999 - 10,156 A.G.

Kean Atreides

Ilban Richese

Edwina Corrino 10,070 - 10,123 A.G.

House Harkonnen

Bene Gesserit

Paulus Atreides 10,089 - 10,156 A.G.

Helena Richese b. 10,095 A.G.

Vladimir Harkonnen 10,110 - 10,193 A.G.

Tanidia Nerus d. 10,207 A.G.

Kailea Vernius d. 10,174 A.G.

Leto Atreides I 10,140 - 10,191 A.G.

Lady Jessica 10,154 - 10,256 A.G.

Victor Atreides 10,168 - 10,174 A.G.

Paul Atreides 10,176 - 10,219 A.G.

Chani d. 10,207 A.G.

Alia Atreides 10,191 - 10,219 A.G.

Leto (10192? - 10193? A.G.)

Leto Atreides II 10,207 - 13,728 A.G.

Ghanima Atreides b. 10,207 A.G.

Farad'n Corrino b. 10,198 A.G.

Moneo Atreides 13,610-13,728 A.G.

Duncan Idaho

Siona Atreides

Miles Teg

Darwi Odrade

[edit] The Atreides in the Dune games

House Atreides has been featured in all of the Dune computer games:

Game	Notes
Dune	The game casts the player as Paul Atreides, with the goal of driving the Harkonnens out of spice management.
Dune II	If you choose the Atreides campaign, you can build a unique tank called the Sonic Tank. The Fremen are special units invoked from the Atreides Palace, uncontrollable but summonable by the player.
Dune 2000	Like Dune II as before, but the Fremen are controllable.
Emperor: Battle for Dune	The alliance between the Atreides and the Fremen is dissolved, but can still be forged.
Frank Herbert's Dune	Cast as Paul Atreides, the player must win the trust of the Fremen on Arrakis and defeat Baron Harkonnen.

[edit] References