House Atreides
The noble house sent to Arrakis as a trap in Frank Herbert's Dune.
House Atreides is the noble house of Duke Leto Atreides in Frank Herbert's Dune (1965). As the novel begins, the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, feeling threatened by the rising power and influence of the Atreides, puts Leto in control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, as a trap. The move inflames the long-simmering War of Assassins with House Harkonnen, a feud ignited 10,000 years before when an Atreides had a Harkonnen banished for cowardice after the Butlerian Jihad.
Quick Facts
- Members
- Duke Leto Atreides, Paul Atreides
- Fief
- Arrakis (from the start of Dune)
- Rival
- House Harkonnen
Facts from the source article.
Background
Leto's predecessor on Arrakis was the villainous Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and failing to match his spice production would harm the position of House Atreides in CHOAM. In the so-called "Arrakis Affair", Leto's son Paul Atreides takes control of first the Fremen and then Arrakis itself; absolute control over the spice lets him depose Shaddam and become ruler of the known universe, with Shaddam's eldest daughter Princess Irulan as his wife.
More in Great Houses & Organizations
Related in Dune
Links follow this subject's own source article.
Elsewhere in Dune
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced