Whitmore Bludd

Whitmore Bludd was a Ginaz Swordmaster instructor and a brilliant architect, descended from Porce Bludd, the altruistic nobleman of the Butlerian Jihad. He served House Ecaz as a personal bodyguard and later built the Grand Palace of Emperor Paul Muad'Dib Atreides on Arrakis.

Swordmaster of Ginaz#

Bludd used his personal wealth to build a luxurious palace on his island on Ginaz, where he taught fencing to future Swordmasters. He drilled his students with sharpened rapiers, insisting they neither damage their fine clothing nor wound one another, which made scoring a touch far harder than in older forms of the art. When Duncan Idaho broke the rules and fought like a bar brawler rather than a true warrior, Bludd strongly admonished him.

Service to House Ecaz#

After the Ginaz school was destroyed, Bludd entered the service of House Ecaz as personal bodyguard to Ilesa Ecaz, daughter of Archduke Armand Ecaz. In 10187 AG the Ecaz family traveled to Cala City on Caladan for Ilesa to marry Duke Leto Atreides. During the wedding ceremony, hexagonal blades spun out from decorative flower pots; Armand lost an arm, and as a blade glided toward Ilesa, Bludd hesitated an instant too long and failed to stop it from severing her jugular. His friend Rivvy Dinari died saving the Archduke, while Bludd watched Ilesa bleed to death. He spent the rest of the War of Assassins of 10187 AG in grief at his failure, and continued to serve House Ecaz for the next several years.

Architect of the Grand Palace#

A year after Paul Atreides became Emperor, Bludd arrived on Arrakis on behalf of Archduke Armand. Paul set him to build a Grand Palace greater than anything in the Corrino Imperium, a task Bludd welcomed as a chance to put his name in the history books. Korba, Paul's head Fedaykin, was placed in charge alongside him. The two clashed over their visions, Bludd favoring artistry and grandeur while Korba wanted overwhelming religious significance, but together they raised a vast and magnificent palace for Muad'Dib.

The hunter-seeker plot#

Bludd grew disillusioned, convinced he would be remembered only as a footnote while Rivvy Dinari was honored as a hero. To make a name for himself he secretly installed several dozen modified Ixian hunter-seekers in the new audience chamber, weapons that could be programmed against specific targets and fitted with poison needles, each loaded with a different toxin to defeat Paul's Bene Gesserit ability to neutralize poisons. He also hid a bomb in the throne. During the Great Surrender ceremony, with representatives of most Houses present, he activated the hunter-seekers and rushed forward intending to die defending the Emperor and Irulan.

To his dismay, Paul defended himself and Chani unaided, metabolizing the poisons and smashing the weapons, though dozens of representatives died, including Irulan's sister Rugi. Bludd himself was struck but survived after medics administered the antidote Paul had identified. Under questioning by Korba's security forces he did not deny his guilt, admitting he had staged the attempt to die heroically and earn a place in history, content that his name would live on in infamy. On the day of his execution, Bludd and ten scapegoats were taken before an angry crowd outside the palace, where Paul let the people tear the condemned limb from limb, ending his life.