War of Assassins
The Imperium's regulated form of warfare between noble Houses.
In Frank Herbert's Dune universe a War of Assassins is a regulated form of warfare between noble Houses, intended to reduce the involvement of innocent bystanders. Its rules require formal declarations of intent and restrict the permissible weapons. A Judge of the Change, appointed by the Landsraad High Council and the Emperor, may be assigned to monitor a formal battle in a War of Assassins, and the Assassin's Handbook is described as a third-century compilation of the poisons commonly used in one.
Lore & Background
The presence of the Atreides on Arrakis inflames the long-simmering War of Assassins between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, a feud ignited ten thousand years earlier when an Atreides had a Harkonnen banished for cowardice after the Butlerian Jihad. The appendix of Dune also records that House Ginaz, one-time allies of Duke Leto, were defeated in a War of Assassins with Grumman; the prequel Paul of Dune covers Duke Leto's War of Assassins against Grumman, and Dune: House Corrino opens one year after a War of Assassins.
Reader's Guide
Read this page with the Landsraad, which supplies the Judge of the Change, and with the Swordmasters of Ginaz, whose House lost such a war to Grumman.
More in History & Mythos
Elsewhere in Dune
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