House Corrino: ten thousand years enthroned
the imperial House of the Golden Lion Throne
The imperial House ruled from Kaitain and held Salusa Secundus as its fief. Paul Atreides forced Shaddam IV to give up the Golden Lion Throne.
House Corrino was for ten thousand years the ruling family of the Imperium. Its court sat on the planet Kaitain, and its older home, Salusa Secundus, became the Imperial prison planet and in the end the family's place of exile. The House held the Golden Lion Throne until the rise of Paul Atreides forced Shaddam Corrino IV to relinquish it to House Atreides. (Dune)
Origins and the Golden Lion Throne#
The Imperial House took its name from the Battle of Corrin, the space battle of 88 BG that settled the ascendancy of the ruling House from Salusa Secundus. The Corrinos then held the Golden Lion Throne for the next ten thousand years. Those years fill most of the Dune timeline, from Corrin to Paul's coronation. (Dune)
Imperial rule and the Sardaukar#
The Emperor's power was held in check by the Landsraad of the Great Houses and by the Spacing Guild, but it rested above all on the Sardaukar, the soldier-fanatics reckoned the deadliest fighters in the Known Universe. Only the combined forces of the Landsraad could hope to stand against them. The Corrinos also used them in secret, as when Shaddam sent Sardaukar in Harkonnen uniform to help destroy the Atreides. (Dune)
The plot against House Atreides#
Duke Leto's popularity in the Landsraad, and a small army trained close to Sardaukar standard, made House Atreides a threat to Shaddam IV. His answer was to give the Atreides the fief of Arrakis and then arrange their destruction through the hated House Harkonnen, an invasion that broke the rules of the Great Convention and that the Emperor backed in secret. (Dune)
Downfall#
Initially the plan appeared to succeed. Duke Leto Atreides I was killed and his family abandoned in the deep desert. A gradual uprising of the native Fremen, led by the mysterious Muad'Dib, caught both House Corrino and House Harkonnen off guard. After the Arrakis Revolt and the Battle of Arrakeen, House Corrino was forced to relinquish the Golden Lion Throne to the Atreides after thousands of years of rule. The Corrinos saw Atreides rule legitimized through Paul Atreides' marriage to Shaddam's eldest daughter, Princess Irulan Corrino. Shaddam IV and the remainder of his family were sent into effective exile on Salusa Secundus, where one of his other daughters, Princess Wensicia Corrino, later plotted the Great House's return. (Dune; Children of Dune)
Failed revival#
Wensicia's plans were also foiled by the Atreides. Her son, Prince Farad'n Corrino, became the official concubine of his step-cousin, the Crown Princess Ghanima Atreides, providing the Atreides offspring needed for Leto II's Golden Path and serving as his official scribe. (Children of Dune)
Its known members include Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX, his son Shaddam Corrino IV, and Shaddam's daughters Irulan, Chalice, Wensicia, Josifa and Rugi. (Dune)
Frequently asked questions
- What was House Corrino?
- House Corrino was the imperial House Major of the Known Universe and, for ten thousand years, the ruling family of the Imperium. Its official residence was Kaitain, and its personal fief was Salusa Secundus.
- How did House Corrino come to rule the Imperium?
- Dune's glossary says the House took its name from the Battle of Corrin in 88 BG, the space battle that settled the ascendancy of the ruling House from Salusa Secundus. It then held the Golden Lion Throne for ten thousand years.
- What was the source of House Corrino's military power?
- Its dominance rested above all on the Sardaukar, reckoned the most powerful army in the Known Universe. It was said the only way the Corrino Sardaukar could be defeated was through the combined forces of all the Great Houses of the Landsraad.
- Why did Shaddam IV plot against House Atreides?
- To discredit a rising rival and retain Corrino hegemony, Shaddam IV ordered House Atreides to take over the fief of Arrakis, then arranged its destruction through House Harkonnen by an illegal invasion of the planet.
- How did House Corrino lose the throne?
- A gradual uprising of the Fremen led by Muad'Dib caught both House Corrino and House Harkonnen off guard. After the Arrakis Revolt and the Battle of Arrakeen, House Corrino was forced to relinquish the Golden Lion Throne to the Atreides, and Shaddam IV and his family were sent into exile on Salusa Secundus.
Gallery
Images via Dune Wiki
Sources
- BookDune, Frank Herbert, 1965
- BookChildren of Dune, Frank Herbert, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1976
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
The Great Houses of Dune: Every House Explained
Every noble House of the Dune Imperium, from the Imperial House Corrino to the Great Houses of the Landsraad and the smaller families around them. Each entry gives the House's homeworld, its rulers, what it was known for and how it ended, and says which Houses come only from the later expanded novels or the games.
Battle of Corrin
The Battle of Corrin was the space battle of 88 BG from which the Imperial House Corrino took its name. Fought near Sigma Draconis, it settled the ascendancy of the ruling House from Salusa Secundus and gave rise to the feud between House Harkonnen and House Atreides.
Elrood Corrino IX
Elrood Corrino IX was the 80th and penultimate Padishah Emperor of the Corrino Empire, whose long reign ended in the slow poison of a chaumurky plot that raised his son Shaddam IV to the Golden Lion Throne.
Farad'n Corrino: the scribe Harq al-Ada
Farad'n Corrino was the grandson of the deposed Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, raised to reclaim the throne but turned instead toward scholarship by the Lady Jessica. Renouncing his mother's ambitions, he became the official scribe of the Atreides Empire under the pen name Harq al-Ada and the concubine of Ghanima Atreides.
House Atreides
House Atreides was a respected House Major of the Galactic Padishah Empire, ruled by a Duke and seated for twenty-six generations on the ocean world of Caladan. Through Paul Muad'Dib and his son Leto II, the Atreides line rose to rule the Known Universe before passing into a bloodline scattered across the millennia.
House Harkonnen: the Baron's Giedi Prime
Seated on industrial Giedi Prime and ruled by a Siridar-Baron, the Harkonnens had hated House Atreides since Corrin. Arrakeen finished them off.
Mentioned in68 entries
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Arrakis Revolt
The Arrakis Revolt was the uprising of the Fremen of Arrakis under Paul Atreides in the closing stage of the Desert War. Waged as a guerrilla campaign against the Harkonnen occupiers, it crippled spice production, drew in the Padishah Emperor, and ended with the fall of House Corrino.
Atomics: the forbidden arsenals of the Great Houses
Atomics was the Imperial term for nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the fission devices every Great House hoarded but almost never dared to use. The Great Convention made their offensive use against human targets grounds for planetary annihilation, yet the Houses kept their family arsenals in reserve, and history recorded the terrible occasions on which the ban failed.
Battle of Arrakeen
The Battle of Arrakeen was the pivotal engagement of the Arrakis Revolt, fought between Muad'Dib Paul Atreides's Fremen and the Sardaukar of Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. The Fremen routed the Imperial forces, and in the surrender that followed Paul won control of the known universe.
Battle of Corrin
The Battle of Corrin was the space battle of 88 BG from which the Imperial House Corrino took its name. Fought near Sigma Draconis, it settled the ascendancy of the ruling House from Salusa Secundus and gave rise to the feud between House Harkonnen and House Atreides.
Bene Gesserit
The Bene Gesserit were an ancient order of women who wielded power from the shadows of the Imperium through a millennia-long breeding program, mastery of body and mind, and the religious engineering of the Missionaria Protectiva. Their goal was the Kwisatz Haderach, and through him the guidance of humanity.
Butlerian Jihad: the war on thinking machines
It began with a slave rebellion on Earth in 201 BG and ended at Corrin in 88 BG. Out of it came the ban on machines in the likeness of a mind.
C'tair Pilru: rebel of occupied Ix
C'tair Pilru was an Ixian resistance fighter who was instrumental in restoring House Vernius as the rulers of Ix. Twin brother of the Guild Navigator D'murr Pilru, he failed the Guild's final test, survived the Tleilaxu conquest of his homeworld in hiding, and waged an underground war of sabotage until the planet was retaken.
Constantine Corrino: the Emperor's illegitimate son
Lord Constantine Corrino was the illegitimate son of Emperor Javicco Corrino and the Bene Gesserit Sister Francesca. Torn between his father's approval and his own pleasures, he betrayed the swordmaster Keiran Atreides to win a place at court and was named commander of the Imperial fleet, a rise the Sisterhood had quietly engineered.
Corrin V: the nine-times Emperor
Corrin V was a Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe during the turbulent Era of the Princes. He held the Golden Lion Throne on nine separate occasions between 1846 AG and 1969 AG, repeatedly deposed and restored amid the rivalries of House Corrino.
Corrinth City: the capital of Kaitain and the seat of the Corrino Empire
Corrinth City was the chief city of Kaitain and the administrative centre of the Corrino Imperium. Hassik Corrino III taxed his subjects almost to bankruptcy to build it, and Fremen troops of the Jihad sacked it after the ascension of House Atreides.
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