Aurelius Venport/XD

Aurelius Venport (228 BG - 164 BG] was a highly acclaimed entrepreneur, credited with founding the private corporation that would later evolve into the Spacing Guild. He was an egocentric man, and realized at the end of his life that the knowledge he had not really fulfilled his own image.

Life
Venport was a successful and well-known businessman of Rossak within the League of Nobles before the start of the Butlerian Jihad. But he found even greater success during the protracted conflict with the thinking machines.

At the start of the Jihad, Venport was the mate to Zufa Cenva, the Supreme Sorceress of Rossak. Cenva chose him as her mate because of his promising genetics profile. Meanwhile he befriended Zufa's dwarf daughter, Norma.

But despite his genetics potential, he failed to provide Zufa with a healthy living child after several attempts, and Zufa was stuck with Norma, incapable of maintaining her Sorceress heritage. Zufa blamed Venport exclusively for her lack of breeding success and severed the relationship, believing she could find a more genetically capable mate.

During the Assault on Rossak Venport was prompted by Zufa to evacuate the people. Aurelius led the unskilled people to his personal supply caches, shelters, processing huts in the jungles. Six young men ran from room to room in the cave city while Zufa gathered her Sorceress commandos and prepared themselves inside an internal room that Venport had designed for his business meetings. Venport had made certain every woman had a breathing mask while he evacuated the rest of the population.

In time, the scattered refugees would return. Aurelius Venport would bring them back. Under his supervision, the Rossak people would rebuild and repair the cliff cities with pride and confidence, knowing that they had stood up against the Thinking Machines.

VenKee Enterprises
Along with a business contact, the Tleilaxu Tuk Keedair, Aurelius founded VenKee Enterprises in 202 BG, initially for distribution of the Spice Melange from Arrakis. Later the company focused more on faster-than-light travel, especially after their Arrakis spice-mining rights were forcibly removed and opened up to competing businesses.

Norma's adaptation of the Holtzman Effect first gave Venport the glowglobes who then distributed them commercially. Venport solved a dispute with Tio Holtzman by offering 1/3 of his future gains to Poritrin and Lord Niko Bludd for the next 20 years. One major condition was that Norma would be released from her contract with Holtzman.

While she worked on Poritrin, he came often to visit her until he realized he was in love with her and in 176 BG he proposed to her. However they still had not established their family. Two years later while Venport was still off to Arrakis to settle the problem with the Wormriders, Holtzman persuaded Bludd to close the project and expel Cenva and Keedair from the planet. They raided her laboratories under the auspice of her working against the security of Poritrin.

When Venport returned to Starda he found it devastated after the second Slave revolt. Flyer pilot Nathra Kiane flew him over the city and he found no trace of Norma. Norma meanwhile was captured by Xerxes and tortured in space, but Norma not only survived, her dormant psychic abilities awakened and transformed her body to a gorgeous one, much to Venport's happy surprise when he was invited to Kolhar and meet her.

Venport was invited to Norma and Zufa's new project and together the three set about transforming Kolhar into the first Junction, a massive construction yard to build ships with Norma's new Holtzman engines in 173 BG. It was during this time that Aurelius and Norma finally consummated their love. The pair eventually produced four children, of which only Adrien had his father's business acumen. Norma played a significant role in the expansion of the VenKee business empire.

In 164 BG he was persuaded by Serena Butler to offer the technology to the Army of the Jihad. That would be a setback to his finance, but on the long run, it would make him one of the most rich persons, after the end of the war. For this, he was awarded the Manion Cross.

Death
Yorek Thurr, Iblis Ginjo's head of Jipol, had all along been a double agent for Omnius. His service included information on the whereabouts of Zufa Cenva and Aurelius Venport's shuttle. Which allowed the Neos to attack them.

While returning with his previous mate Zufa from Salusa Secundus their vessel was intercepted by Beowulf and other neo-cymek rogues, when the Titans Hecate's asteroid helped them survive. It swallowed their ship in order to help them. But believing the ancient cymek to be hostile Zufa destroyed all three beings with a massive mental energy discharge.

Appearances

 * Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
 * Dune: The Machine Crusade
 * Dune: The Battle of Corrin
 * Sisterhood of Dune (Mentioned only)
 * Dune: House Corrino (Mentioned only)
 * God Emperor of Dune