House Corrino

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Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, portrayed by Giancarlo Giannini in the Dune miniseries

Arms similar to those of the Imperial House described in the canonical Dune series (scarlet with a gold lion)

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

Imperial House Corrino is a Great House and the ruling family of the Imperium in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. The Corrinos came to power after mankind's victory against the thinking machines at the Battle of Corrin (from which they took their name), and ruled until deposed by Paul Atreides approximately 10,000 years later.

[edit] Founding

According to the Legends of Dune series, 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.

Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, portrayed by José Ferrer in David Lynch's Dune (1984)

[edit] Rule as Emperors

Members of this Imperial House ruled as Padishah Emperors of the Known Universe for over 10,000 years, from the time of the Butlerian Jihad until the defeat of the 81st Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV by "Muad'dib" (Paul Atreides) and the Fremen. Shaddam IV had five daughters, though only two play a part in the events of the Dune saga: Princess Irulan became the wife (in name only) of Paul Atreides to effect his ascension to the throne, and Princess Wensicia was the mother of Farad'n, the future companion of Ghanima Atreides.

The Imperial House Corrino's ancestral planet was Salusa Secundus, the seat of imperial power since the Butlerian Jihad. Due to an atomic aggression by a renegade House, House Corrino and the Golden Lion Throne moved to Kaitain. The identity of the offending house was subsequently erased from history. The resulting harsh conditions on Salusa Secundus encouraged the survival of the strong, and allowed the Corrinos to develop the universe's most-feared military units, the warrior-fanatic Sardaukar, the means by which House Corrino controlled the Empire.

[edit] Exile

Princess Irulan Corrino, played by Julie Cox in the 2000 TV miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune

Following their exile to Salusa Secundus after being deposed by Paul Atreides, the Corrinos gradually recovered strength. A few years later, Prince Farad'n, the grandson of Shaddam IV and the last hope for a new Corrino Emperor, made a bid for the throne (spurred on by his mother Wensicia).

The proposed return to glory for the House Corrino did not succeed, and Paul's heirs Leto Atreides II and his twin sister Ghanima rose to power at the death of the Regent, Paul's sister Alia. Leto II had been rendered sterile by the process of binding with the sandtrout, so to continue the line he reached an agreement with the Corrinos: Leto would marry Ghanima in a political arrangement, but Farad'n (who would never rule or marry Ghanima) would sire all future heirs apparent to the throne.

Following Leto II's death after 3,500 years of rule, the Empire of a Million Worlds collapsed in The Scattering, as billions fled chaos and famine to seek new opportunities in unknown space. Siona Atreides, the descendant of Farad'n and Ghanima and the culmination of Leto's breeding program, assumed stewardship of his Empire with Duncan Idaho. Some 1,500 years later, in the events of Heretics of Dune, Duncan and Siona's powerful bloodline permeates the universe and lives on in such luminaries as Miles Teg and Darwi Odrade.

[edit] Corrino family tree

[edit] Computer game storylines

Emperor Frederick Corrino IV, played by Adrian Sparks, seated on the Golden Lion Throne, from the computer game Dune 2000

For the computer game Dune 2000 and its sequel Emperor: Battle for Dune, Westwood Studios included live-action cutscenes that employed the same costuming style as David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune. These scenes told a non-canon alternate storyline involving Arrakis, the spice melange and the Great Houses while introducing a new Great House, House Ordos, to the Dune universe.

In Westwood's computer game storyline, a Corrino emperor named Frederick Corrino IV incites three Great Houses (House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos) to wage a feudalistic war on the planet Arrakis. When Emperor Frederick is later poisoned, at the conclusion of Dune 2000, by his own Bene Gesserit concubine, the reign of House Corrino ends. At the beginning of Emperor: Battle for Dune, the Spacing Guild pronounces the start of a War of Assassins between the three aforesaid Great Houses for control of the Golden Lion Throne. Meanwhile, the Sardaukar seeks a new powerful House to serve. House Ordos procures a ghola of the deceased Frederick Corrino from the Bene Tleilax and presents the ghola Frederick to two Sardaukar bursegs (generals). This ghola was so identical to the recently deceased Corrino emperor that one of the two bursegs kneeled to the ghola when he first saw it. This ghola was to act as House Ordos' puppet on the imperial throne should House Ordos win its War of Assassins against House Atreides and House Harkonnen and secures the loyalty of the Sardaukar.

[edit] See also

• House Atreides
• House Harkonnen