The Great Houses of Dune: Every House Explained

The Imperium of Dune is a feudal empire spread over thousands of worlds. At the top sits the Padishah Emperor. Under him the noble Houses hold planets as fiefs and meet in the Landsraad, their council, while CHOAM, the great trading company the Emperor and the Houses control together, decides who gets rich. The Spacing Guild and the Bene Gesserit are silent partners in that company, and the whole balance is held in place by the Great Convention, whose chief law forbids using atomics on people. Class lines are rigid, a system the books call the faufreluches: a place for every man, and every man in his place. (Dune (appendix))

How the Houses work#

The glossary printed with Dune draws the line clearly. A House is the ruling clan of a planet or a planetary system. A House Major holds a planetary fief and does business between the stars. A House Minor belongs to the planet-bound entrepreneurial class, rich perhaps, but tied to one world. (Dune (appendix))

Great Houses settle their quarrels through kanly, the formal feud with strict rules, and through the War of Assassins, a limited war fought under the Great Convention that is meant to spare bystanders. The Landsraad was supposed to protect any single House from being singled out and destroyed by the Emperor. When House Atreides fell, the other Houses let it happen, because the Duke's popularity had made them jealous. (Dune; Dune (appendix))

Power is also measured in money. Directorships in CHOAM are the real prize, and a House that loses its CHOAM seat loses most of its future. That is one reason the Emperor and the Harkonnens were so frightened of Duke Leto: his standing in the Landsraad was rising fast. (Dune)

The Imperial House#

House Corrino#

• Homeworld: Kaitain, the Imperial capital. The House came originally from Salusa Secundus, which became the Imperial prison planet once the court moved to Kaitain.
• Heads: Shaddam Corrino IV, 81st Padishah Emperor of his line, during the events of Dune. His father was Elrood Corrino IX.
• Known for: The Golden Lion Throne and the Sardaukar, the fanatical soldier caste raised on the brutal conditions of Salusa Secundus.

The House took its name from the Battle of Corrin, fought in space near Sigma Draconis in 88 BG, which settled the rise of the ruling family from Salusa Secundus. For about ten thousand years it held the throne by playing the Great Houses against one another and keeping the Sardaukar as the one army no single House could match. Shaddam IV feared the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides, so he secretly lent Sardaukar to House Harkonnen to destroy the Atreides on Arrakis. The plan failed when Paul Atreides survived, raised the Fremen and defeated the Emperor at the Battle of Arrakeen in 10193 AG. (Dune; Dune (appendix))

Fate: Shaddam gave up the throne and went into exile on Salusa Secundus, while his eldest daughter Irulan married Paul and became his chronicler. His daughter Wensicia later plotted to kill Paul's twin children and put her son Farad'n on the throne. The plot failed. Farad'n renounced his mother, served Leto II and was matched with Ghanima Atreides, which folded the Corrino line into the new dynasty. (Dune; Dune Messiah; Children of Dune)

See House Corrino for the full history.

Great Houses#

House Atreides#

• Homeworld: Caladan, an ocean world, until the move to Arrakis in 10191 AG.
• Heads: Duke Leto Atreides I, then his son Paul Atreides, later Leto Atreides II.
• Known for: Honour, loyalty from its people, and the best-trained small army among the Great Houses. The family claimed descent from the House of Atreus of Greek myth.

Duke Leto was the most popular man in the Landsraad, which made him dangerous. Shaddam IV gave him the fief of Arrakis as a trap, and in 10191 AG the Harkonnens and the Sardaukar struck. Leto died, and his concubine Lady Jessica fled into the desert with Paul. Taken in by the Fremen, Paul became Muad'Dib, defeated the Emperor and took the throne. His jihad killed billions across the Imperium. His son Leto II then ruled as God Emperor for about 3,500 years to set humanity on the Golden Path. (Dune; Dune Messiah; Children of Dune; God Emperor of Dune)

Fate: After Leto II's death the House stopped being a political power, but the bloodline did not end. It passed through Ghanima and the Bene Gesserit breeding records, and fifteen centuries later the Bashar Miles Teg still carried Atreides features and Atreides genes. (God Emperor of Dune; Heretics of Dune)

See House Atreides and the Atreides-Harkonnen feud.

House Harkonnen#

• Homeworld: Giedi Prime, with holdings on Lankiveil.
• Heads: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, with his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha as heirs.
• Known for: Cruelty, cunning, and a huge fortune built on spice.

The feud with the Atreides went back to the Butlerian Jihad, when a Harkonnen was banished for cowardice after the Battle of Corrin. The House climbed back to power through trade and held Arrakis for eighty years under a CHOAM contract, squeezing the planet and its people for spice. The Baron ran the attack on Arrakeen in 10191 AG with Sardaukar help and gave Arrakis back to Rabban to bleed dry, planning to hand it later to Feyd-Rautha as a rescuer. (Dune; Dune (appendix))

Fate: Alia Atreides, still a small child, killed the Baron with a poisoned needle during the Battle of Arrakeen in 10193 AG, and Paul killed Feyd-Rautha in a duel the same day. The House was finished. The great irony is that Lady Jessica was the Baron's natural daughter, so Paul and every Atreides after him carried Harkonnen blood. (Dune)

See House Harkonnen.

House Vernius#

• Homeworld: Ix, a machine world built underground.
• Heads: Earl Dominic Vernius and his wife Shando; later their son Rhombur.
• Known for: Ixian technology, above all a new design of heighliner built for the Spacing Guild.

Frank Herbert wrote about Ix and its inventors in Dune Messiah and God Emperor of Dune, but never named a ruling House. House Vernius is a creation of the prequels. In them Dominic won Elrood IX's favour in battle, then angered him by marrying Shando, one of the Emperor's former concubines. Elrood backed a revolt of Ix's suboid workers, and the Bene Tleilax took the planet. The Vernius family was declared renegade. Rhombur and his sister Kailea escaped to Caladan, where they grew up with the young Leto Atreides and where Kailea became Leto's concubine and the mother of his first son, Victor. (Expanded books: Dune: House Atreides; Dune: House Harkonnen)

Fate: Shando was hunted down and killed by Sardaukar, and Dominic died fighting from a hidden base on Arrakis. Kailea's plot against Leto killed Victor and left Rhombur badly maimed, and she took her own life. Rhombur, rebuilt as a cyborg, led the campaign that took Ix back from the Tleilaxu and restored House Vernius, then died on a mission in 10188 AG. (Expanded books: Dune: House Atreides; Dune: House Harkonnen; Dune: House Corrino; Paul of Dune)

House Richese#

• Homeworld: Richese, fourth planet of Eridani A.
• Heads: Count Ilban Richese in the years before Dune.
• Known for: Machine culture. Frank Herbert's glossary ranks Richese with Ix as supreme in that field and notes it for miniaturisation.

The planet comes from Frank Herbert. The ruling family's story comes from the prequels. Ilban married Edwina Corrino, a daughter of Elrood IX, and their daughter Helena married Duke Paulus Atreides, which makes Helena Atreides the grandmother of Paul. Under Ilban the House lost an all-out economic war with Ix and slid into decline, left with a reputation for copying Ixian work. (Dune (appendix); Expanded books: Dune: House Atreides)

Fate: During Shaddam's Great Spice War the Sardaukar destroyed Korona, the Richesian research moon, for hoarding spice, and Ilban lost his eyes in the attack. The House survived the Corrino years diminished. (Expanded books: Dune: House Corrino)

See House Richese.

House Ecaz#

• Homeworld: Ecaz, fourth planet of Alpha Centauri B.
• Heads: Archduke Armand Ecaz; his daughters Sanya and Ilesa.
• Known for: The planet's plant life. Frank Herbert calls Ecaz the sculptor's paradise for its fogwood, which can be shaped by thought alone.

Ecaz itself is in Frank Herbert's glossary. The House and its Archduke come from the expanded books. Armand's long feud with House Moritani turned into two Wars of Assassins. In the first, Moritani forces bombarded the Archducal Palace, and his heir Sanya was kidnapped and publicly executed on Grumman. In 10187 AG Armand offered his last daughter Ilesa to Duke Leto Atreides, but Moritani agents attacked the wedding on Caladan and Ilesa was killed, which started the War of Assassins of 10187 AG. (Dune (appendix); Expanded books: Dune: House Harkonnen; Dune: House Corrino; Paul of Dune)

Fate: With Atreides help, Ecaz destroyed House Moritani and took its fiefs, but Armand was left as the last of his line. He later submitted Ecaz to Emperor Paul. (Expanded books: Paul of Dune)

House Moritani#

• Homeworld: Grumman, second planet of Niushe.
• Heads: Viscount Hundro Moritani, in the expanded books.
• Known for: Feuding. Frank Herbert's glossary says Grumman is noted chiefly for the feud of its ruling House with House Ginaz.

In Dune, House Moritani is a name and a reputation: the House that fought and beat House Ginaz in a War of Assassins. Duncan Idaho says his sword was first blooded on Grumman, which suggests he fought there on the Ginaz side. (Dune; Dune (appendix))

The expanded books give the Viscount a face. Hundro's only son Wolfram wasted away from an illness whose cure grew only on Ecaz, and Archduke Armand would not lift his embargo. After the boy died, Hundro set out to destroy Ecaz, struck at Ilesa's wedding on Caladan and drew House Atreides into the war, while House Harkonnen backed him in secret. (Expanded books: Paul of Dune)

Fate: The Atreides and Ecazi besieged the Moritani capital, Ritka, and the Emperor stepped in to stop the war. House Moritani collapsed completely, and its holdings went to Ecaz. (Expanded books: Paul of Dune)

House Ginaz#

• Homeworld: Frank Herbert names no planet. The expanded books have a planet Ginaz, an ocean world of islands, but no ruling House there.
• Known for: The Swordmasters. Duncan Idaho is introduced in Dune as a Swordmaster of the Ginaz.

Frank Herbert's glossary describes House Ginaz as one-time allies of Duke Leto Atreides, defeated in the War of Assassins with Grumman. That one line is nearly all the original novels say. The expanded books drop the House and build the school out into a famous academy on the planet Ginaz, run by a council of veteran Swordmasters, where many Great Houses sent their best fighters to train and where Duncan spent eight years. (Dune; Dune (appendix); Expanded books: Dune: House Harkonnen)

Fate: Beaten by House Moritani. The Swordmasters of Ginaz outlived the House as a tradition. (Dune (appendix))

See House Ginaz.

House Thorvald#

• Homeworld: Ipyr, a green world.
• Head: Earl Memnon Thorvald.
• Known for: Leading the first rebellion of noble Houses against Emperor Paul.

House Thorvald comes only from the expanded books. Memnon's sister Firenza married Shaddam IV in 10187 AG as his fourth wife, and her early death at court left the Earl bitter. When Paul called the Landsraad to submit after the Fremen took Kaitain, Memnon walked out of the Assembly and raised the rebel Houses. His forces fought the jihad on several worlds for years and he tried to claim credit for an attempt on Paul's life that he had not made. (Expanded books: Paul of Dune)

Fate: In 10198 AG Paul foresaw a Thorvald plan to attack Caladan and seize Lady Jessica. The rebel fleet was stranded in deep space, House Thorvald was wiped out and Ipyr was sterilised. (Expanded books: Paul of Dune)

Minor Houses and others#

House Fenring#

• Homeworld: Not given.
• Head: Count Hasimir Fenring, with his wife Lady Margot Fenring.
• Known for: Being the Emperor's closest friend and his most dangerous agent.

Fenring is a Count rather than the ruler of a famous world, and Frank Herbert keeps his family in the background. The appendix gives his dates as 10133 to 10225 AG. A genetic eunuch and one of the deadliest fighters in the Imperium, he was a failed product of the Bene Gesserit breeding programme. Margot was a Bene Gesserit, and she left a message for Lady Jessica in the conservatory at Arrakeen. At the end of Dune, Shaddam ordered Fenring to kill Paul, and Fenring refused. (Dune; Dune (appendix))

Fate: Frank Herbert doesn't follow him far past Arrakeen, but by the appendix's dates he outlived Shaddam IV by more than twenty years. (Dune (appendix))

House Metulli#

• Homeworld: Novebruns, at least in part.
• Known for: One famous sale.

House Metulli gets one line in Frank Herbert, and it tells you a lot about spice. During Alia's regency the Metulli family sold half of the planet Novebruns for three hundred and twenty-one litres of melange. That's the price of half a world. (Children of Dune)

Fate: Unknown.

House Hagal#

• Homeworld: Hagal, the Jewel Planet, second planet of Theta Shaowei.
• Known for: Gems. Frank Herbert's glossary says the planet was mined out in the time of Shaddam I.

Hagal appears in Frank Herbert as a planet, not as a House with named rulers. The expanded books make House Hagal a family tied to the throne by marriage. See also Hagal. (Dune (appendix))

Fate: Not recorded.

House Taligari#

• Homeworld: Zanovar, with Artisia as the seat of its Senate.
• Known for: Scholarship and the arts, and for raising Tyros Reffa, a secret son of Elrood IX.

House Taligari comes only from the expanded books. Its Docent Glax Othn took charge of Reffa as a child, which made the House a quiet threat to Shaddam, who did not want a half-brother with a claim to the throne. (Expanded books: Dune: House Corrino)

Fate: In the Great Spice War, Shaddam had the Sardaukar burn Zanovar on the pretext that it was hiding spice, killing millions. Glax Othn was among the dead, executed by the Sardaukar during the attack. The massacre shocked the Landsraad. (Expanded books: Dune: House Corrino)

House Tantor#

• Homeworld: Salusa Secundus, in the days before the Corrino empire.
• Known for: Raising Xavier Harkonnen.

Another expanded-book family, from the age of the Butlerian Jihad. Emil and Lucille Tantor took in the orphaned Xavier Harkonnen and raised him alongside their own late-born son Vergyl. (Expanded books: Dune: The Butlerian Jihad)

Fate: Not recorded.

House Alexin and House Maros#

• Homeworld: House Alexin lost Pelouzen to atomics and was granted Poritrin by the Landsraad.
• Known for: A War of Assassins that ended in a draw.

These two come only from The Dune Encyclopedia, a 1984 reference book written as if from inside the universe. It is not part of either set of novels. It describes a War of Assassins between Alexin and Maros that did so much damage to both sides that each surrendered. (The Dune Encyclopedia)

Fate: Not recorded.

House Ordos#

• Homeworld: Draconis IV, an ice world in the Sigma Draconis system.
• Rulers: The Executrix, a four-member council that speaks through a single voice called the Speaker, in Emperor: Battle for Dune.
• Known for: Wealth, smuggling, sabotage and banned technology. In the games the Ordos are a cartel of rich merchant families rather than a single noble bloodline.

House Ordos is not in Frank Herbert's novels, and it isn't in the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson books either. Its story comes from Westwood Studios' strategy game Dune II (1992), where Emperor Frederick IV sets three Houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnens and the Ordos, against each other for control of Arrakis. The Ordos fight with fast units and tricks like the Deviator, a tank whose gas turns enemy units to the Ordos side for a time. (Dune II)

The House came back in Dune 2000, a remake of the same war, where its Mentat is the half-machine Edric O. Emperor: Battle for Dune expanded it again, naming Draconis IV as its home and the Executrix as its rulers. (Dune 2000; Emperor: Battle for Dune)

The name itself is older than the games. The Dune Encyclopedia, the 1984 reference book, lists House Ordos as a Great House, though that book isn't canon to the novels either and gives the Ordos none of the story the games do. (The Dune Encyclopedia)

Fate: Depends on the game and the side played. None of it happens in the novels. (Dune II; Emperor: Battle for Dune)

Where the Houses stand after Muad'Dib#

Paul's victory didn't abolish the Landsraad. The Great Houses went on under the Atreides, weaker and watched, and some fought back: the expanded books give that role to House Thorvald, while Frank Herbert shows the Houses swallowed by Muad'Dib's Jihad and then held in check for millennia by Leto II. When the God Emperor died, the old order of Houses fell apart in the Famine Times and the Scattering, and by Heretics of Dune the powers that matter are the Bene Gesserit, the Tleilaxu, Ix and the returning Honored Matres. The Atreides survive as a bloodline, not a House. (Dune Messiah; God Emperor of Dune; Heretics of Dune; Expanded books: Paul of Dune)