Landsraad
The assembly of all noble Houses, the Imperium's check on the Emperor.
The Landsraad is the political body established in Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune as the assembly of all noble Houses in the Imperium. Power in the Empire is shared among the Landsraad, the Padishah Emperor and the Spacing Guild, with the Bene Gesserit acting as a silent fourth power until the fall of Leto II. The Landsraad unites the ruling families so that, combined, they can act as a check on the individual power of the Emperor, whose own strength rests on the Sardaukar and on Arrakis and its melange.
Lore & Background
Great Houses are interplanetary entrepreneurs while minor Houses are planet-bound, and all of them compete for fiefdoms, wealth, political power and Imperial favour. The High Council is the inner circle of the Landsraad during the time of the Faufreluches, the rigid class system enforced by the Imperium, and it is empowered to act as the supreme tribunal in disputes between Houses. The Landsraad also enforces the Great Convention's ban on using atomics against human targets. A Judge of the Change is an official appointed by the High Council and the Emperor to monitor a change of fief, a kanly negotiation or a formal battle in a War of Assassins. In the prequels the Landsraad is formed by the League after the Butlerian Jihad, when Faykan Corrino takes the new Imperial throne, to keep Corrino power in check.
Reader's Guide
In Dune, after the assassination of Duke Leto and the Harkonnen-Corrino invasion of Arrakis, Paul Atreides wants to put a Bill of Particulars before the Landsraad High Council, reasoning that the Great Houses would never endorse the Sardaukar eliminating them one by one. Read this page with House Corrino, the Sardaukar and CHOAM, whose board the Emperor and the Landsraad control together.
More in Great Houses & Organizations
Elsewhere in Dune
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