Lupino Ord

Lupino Ord was the arrogant ambassador of House Moritani who, like others of his House, held an intense hatred of House Ecaz. He is chiefly remembered for the killing of an Ecazi representative at a banquet on Arrakis hosted by Count Hasimir Fenring, a murder from which he walked free on the strength of his diplomatic immunity.

The banquet on Arrakis#

Ord attended a dinner at the Arrakis home of Count Hasimir Fenring and Lady Margot Fenring. During the banquet, Count Fenring raised the matter of the biological sabotage of the Fogtree forests, and Ord accused House Ecaz of faking a shortage to drive up prices, the very strategy he claimed the Ecazi ancestors had been driven from Terra for. The Ecaz representative Bindikk Narvi responded with indignation, and Count Fenring broke off the conversation to avert further hostility.

As the dinner went on, the drunken Ord remarked that the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV had not yet produced a male heir, only the daughters Irulan and Chalice. Lady Fenring noted that Shaddam might live another century and asked whether Ord had heard that the Emperor's wife Anirul was with child; Ord raised his glass and hoped the next child would be male, and the table mirrored the toast. He went on to question whether the funds Shaddam devoted to reproducing his own likeness were excessive, and observed that the Emperor was neglecting to train new Sardaukar while increasing the benefits of higher-ranking Bursegs, harming the soldiers' morale. After being quietly reminded that someone close to the Emperor would already know such things, Ord apologized to Fenring, but Bindikk Narvi shouted that he was an idiot.

The killing of Bindikk Narvi#

Enraged, Ord stood, grabbed his cutterdisk pistol, and shot Narvi, tearing apart his face and chest and killing him. He had moved astoundingly fast for a drunken man, leading Count Fenring to wonder whether his intoxication had been an act. As the other diners fled, Fenring ordered Ord locked in an underground tunnel. Ord protested, reminding the Count of his diplomatic immunity and insisting Fenring would not dare oppose the law, but Fenring told him not to assume what he would dare and waved the guards to take him away. Later, Count Fenring released Ord on account of that same diplomatic immunity.