House Atreides
House Atreides is a family that features in Dune.
Contents |
History
House Atreides was an aristocratic noble human family within the Old Empire who ruled the world of Caladan.
House Atreides was led by the Duke Leto Atreides whose concubine was the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica. She had been instructed by her order to bear only female children as part of their breeding program, but out of love for Leto, she bore him a son: Paul Atreides. This seemingly innocuous choice would drastically change the course of humanity forever.
A millennia-long feud exists between the Atreides and the decadent House Harkonnen, who have essentially bought their status while the Atreides are related to the Emperor by blood. The fact that an Atreides once had a Harkonnen banished for cowardice in ancient times is still bitterly remembered some 10,000 years later. The Atreides are lured to the desert planet Arrakis under the pretense of taking over the spice-mining operation there. The spice was the most valuable commodity in the universe, as it made interstellar travel possible, extends life and can unlock dormant abilities in the Bene Gesserit, and Arrakis was its only known source. But Leto and his family are caught in a plot to destroy them, orchestrated by the Baron Harkonnen and Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV himself, who is threatened by Leto's rising power and influence.
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 was their prophesied messiah, the Mahdi. Jessica gives birth to Leto's daughter, Alia Atreides; whom the Bene Gesserit call an Abomination because Jessica, while still pregnant, underwent the ritual spice agony, thus inadvertently awakening Alia to full consciousness in the womb. Paul himself decides to go through the spice agony to test whether he may be the Kwisatz Haderach, and succeeds. As a result of Jessica's earlier choice to have a son, the goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program; the Kwisatz Haderach was born a generation early, went unnoticed and lived outside of the Sisterhood's control. Soon Paul was able to amass an army of Fremen, their fierce fighting skills enhanced by training in the Bene Gesserit martial arts the Fremen call the "weirding way". He and his Fremen concubine Chani have a son they call Leto, but the boy was 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 threatening the destruction of all spice production manages to depose Shaddam and ascends to the throne in his place.
Overview
House Atreides rules the water planet of Caladan, employing noble spirit, just ways, and virtue in its endeavors. Also proficient in war, the family has even developed an Atreides battle language
Members
- Leto Atreides :
Notes
- House Atreides was created by Frank Herbert where he featured in the setting of the Dune universe.
- In "Afterword by Brian Herbert" (1965), Brian Herbert noted that House Atreides was based on the heroic but ill-fated Greek mythological House Atreus.
In other media
Television
Films
Video games
Appearances
- Dune: (1965)
- Dune: House Atreides: (1999)
External Links
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