Jules Corrino

Jules Corrino, born Jules Butler, was the second Emperor of the Corrino Empire and an early sovereign of the dynasty that would rule the Known Universe for ten millennia. Son of the first Emperor, Faykan Corrino, he inherited a throne forged in the immediate aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad. His reign reshaped the foundations of interstellar commerce, oversaw the rise of the Great Schools, and was marked by the bitter violence that followed the compilation of the Orange Catholic Bible. He was an ancestor of the House Corrino emperors who came after him.

Origins and ascension#

Jules was born in 98 BG, the son of General Faykan Butler and his wife Jessica Boro-Ginjo, during the unsteady recovery from the Butlerian Jihad. In that era the thinking machines still held a stronghold on Corrin, and the cymeks remained active on Hessra. In 88 BG, after the cymeks were destroyed and Corrin was besieged by the League of Nobles under Faykan as Viceroy, Faykan took the name Corrino and declared himself the first Emperor. Jules became Jules Corrino and heir to the new throne. In his youth he was described as a handsome, aggressive, and charismatic young man.

When Faykan died in 78 BG, Jules ascended. One of his first acts was to amend the agreement that had been struck between the League and VenKee Enterprises during the Jihad, opening competition to the new firm Venport Holdings. By breaking the monopoly on instantaneous space travel that had stood since 108 BG, he enraged Directeur Adrien Venport and planted a grudge against the throne that the Venport line carried for generations.

Reign and the Great Schools#

Jules ruled over the period in which the Great Schools rose to replace the capabilities once provided by thinking machines. Raquella Berto-Anirul's Sisterhood expanded on Rossak, the Order of Mentats was established on Lampadas in 68 BG, and Mohandas Suk built a new base for his medical school on Salusa Secundus. In 28 BG a Suk doctor diagnosed Jules with a brain tumour after years of chronic migraines, but the Emperor refused high-technology medical procedures despite the protests of his son Roderick.

Jules fathered three children, each by a different woman, none of whom was his actual wife, the Empress Orenna Corrino. His sons Salvador and Roderick, born in 52 BG and 50 BG, would become the third and fourth Emperors. His daughter Anna was born in 26 BG to a woman named Bridgit. Salvador's mother was emotionally unbalanced and attempted to kill Jules when he ended her service as his concubine, while Roderick's mother was remembered as both lovely and highly intelligent.

The Orange Catholic Bible and its aftermath#

Beginning in 32 BG, Jules oversaw the controversial compilation of the Orange Catholic Bible. The violent response to its release by the Commission of Ecumenical Translators in 25 BG took him by surprise. Three years into the resulting riots, after several delegates had been murdered, the endangered compilator Toure Bomoko fled to Salusa Secundus with his refugees and begged the Emperor for sanctuary, which Jules granted. When Jules attempted to address a hostile mob in Zimia, the appearance went badly and he was forced to retreat with his guards. Tensions stayed high for more than a month.

Bomoko and the Empress entered into a relationship, and Jules ordered the execution of all thirty-five of the delegates, forcing his children to watch. Bomoko himself escaped and hid on Tupile with the help of Josef Venport, the new Directeur of Venport Holdings, who carried on his line's grudge against the throne. Though innocents continued to be killed by mobs hunting for Bomoko, Jules largely managed to quell the unrest.

Final years and succession#

Toward the end of his rule the Butlerian movement regained prominence under Manford Torondo, including an occupation of Tlulax in 20 BG. Jules publicly supported the movement, a stance tied to his own rejection of advanced medicine and the Suk School. In this period he struggled to hold his government together while contending with unrest in the former Unallied Planets. Jules died in 17 BG and was succeeded on the throne by his son Salvador.