Armand Ecaz

Archduke Armand Ecaz ruled House Ecaz and the planet Ecaz during the last half-century of the Corrino Empire and the first years of the Atreides Empire. A high nobleman whose reputation carried weight in the Landsraad, he was recognized by the Padishah Emperor himself. The Archduke was the sworn enemy of House Moritani of Grumman, the traditional rivals of Ecaz, and a friend and ally of Duke Leto Atreides of Caladan.

The first War of Assassins#

The long feud between Ecaz and House Moritani turned violent when the Viscount of Grumman attacked Ecaz and bombarded the Archducal Palace, burning the seat of the ancestral Mahogany Throne in the capital. Armand and his daughters barely escaped into the jungle, and his daughter Mesa died in the bombardment. Moritani agents then kidnapped his eldest daughter and heiress Sanya and his brother, both of whom were publicly executed on Grumman. The loss embittered the Archduke, who had loved Sanya deeply and had intended to marry her to Duke Leto Atreides.

The treachery was condemned by the Swordmasters of Ginaz, whose council forced the Moritani students to renounce their House or leave the school. In retaliation the Viscount raided Ginaz and damaged the Swordmasters' sanctuaries. After the school was restored, several council members became rhonin and entered Armand's household as bodyguards, among them Rivvy Dinari and Whitmore Bludd. Emperor Shaddam IV condemned Grumman's conduct and ordered a Sardaukar blockade to force peace, but the measures failed to restrain the Viscount.

The Great Spice War#

During the period known as the Great Spice War, the conflict between Ecaz and Moritani continued. In the judgment of the Atreides Mentat Thufir Hawat, House Moritani sent saboteurs to Ecaz to damage the Archduke's honor, but the plot failed when Ecazi spies captured the saboteurs and executed them publicly. Armand presented proof of the Viscount's treachery to the Emperor on Kaitain. When a plague nearly destroyed the ecosystem of the planet Beakkal, the Archduke protested before the Landsraad and demanded that Shaddam answer for the catastrophe, which the Emperor denied causing.

The War of Assassins of 10187 AG#

In 10187 AG Armand offered the hand of his last heiress, Ilesa Ecaz, to Duke Leto Atreides, who years before had been betrothed to Sanya. Leto traveled to Ecaz with his household, including his concubine Jessica, his son Paul, Gurney Halleck and the Swordmaster Duncan Idaho, escorted by Whitmore Bludd and Rivvy Dinari. At the palace the Archduke persuaded Leto to refuse all trade with Grumman. The embargo denied the dying Moritani heir Wolfram the Ecazi drug Esoit-poay, and his death drove the childless Viscount Hundro Moritani to a final revenge.

The wedding of Ilesa and Leto was to take place at Castle Caladan, attended by nobles including Earl Rhombur Vernius of Ix. Duke Prad Vidal of Elacca, a vassal of Armand secretly allied to Moritani, had hidden hexagonal blades in potted plants at the ceremony. As the wedding march began the blades flew through the hall. Dinari sacrificed himself to shield the Archduke, who lost an arm, while a blade slipped past Bludd and severed Ilesa's carotid artery, killing her. A holographic message from Hundro Moritani then declared the War of Assassins of 10187 AG. A second attempt on the wounded Archduke in a tower of the castle was defeated by Duncan Idaho, while attempts on Paul and Bronso Vernius were thwarted by Rhombur.

The fall of House Moritani#

Armand resolved to destroy House Moritani once and for all. Before he could marshal his forces, his vassal Prad Vidal announced that the Archduke was dead and claimed the succession of Ecaz. To avoid a civil war, Leto disguised himself as an assassin, spoke the ritual words of kanly, and beheaded Vidal, formally opening the war. Armand then joined the Atreides army in the siege of Ritka, the Grumman capital. The Viscount, having blackmailed Baron Vladimir Harkonnen into lending a force under Glossu Rabban, met them with cavalry mounted on Grumman stallions, but the Atreides and Ecazi prevailed and drove the Grummans back into Ritka.

Reinforced at last by Rhombur Vernius from Ix, the besiegers closed in. Hundro Moritani, revealed as the last descendant of the renegade House Tantor, ringed Ritka with atomics and ordered them detonated, intending to obliterate the assembled nobles and the Emperor himself. The plot failed because his Swordmaster Hiih Resser had secretly disabled the controls. Shaddam, who had arrived to impose peace, ordered the Viscount imprisoned, but Moritani died in a depressurization accident in space. With Grumman defeated, Armand absorbed the planet, but the war had emptied the resources of both his House and the Atreides, and he retired morally broken as the last of his line.

Later years and submission to Muad'Dib#

Armand survived to see the fall of House Atreides on Arrakis at the hands of House Harkonnen, the last surviving ally of Duke Leto after the death of Rhombur Vernius on Balut in 10188 AG. Unable to act against the Emperor's support for the Harkonnens, he remained quietly on his estates. In 10194 AG, during Muad'Dib's Jihad, he was present at the Imperial Hall of Oratory when the new Emperor Paul Atreides demanded the submission of the Landsraad. Old and heirless, Armand sent his surviving Swordmaster Whitmore Bludd to Arrakis to tell Paul that he had been a friend of Leto, and to submit his homeworld to the Jihad. Paul received the news as a blessing and took Bludd into his service as Imperial Architect of the Arrakeen palace, while the Archduke retired in peace.