Leto I Atreides



Leto Atreides aka the Red Duke (10140 AG-10191 AG), born in planet Caladan, only son of Duke Mintor Atreides and the concubine Bekah, who died in delivery. With his Bene Gesserit concubine, Lady Jessica, he was father of Emperor Paul Atreides and Regent Alia. Grandfather of Leto Atreides II, the God-Emperor.

Since 10163 AG, he was the 267th and last Duke of House Atreides, and ruler of Caladan. He was well known because his even-handed and compassionate leadership style.

Biography
Leto was the only child of Duke Mintor Atreides out of the concubine Bekah, who died in delivery.

He was trained as a matador and received combat training in operations on Wallor Tertius. He served on the Atreides flagship Van Atreides as a subaltern.

He was granted authority at 16, when Duke Mintor sent him as the Designated Observer for House Atreides to the revolt at Mask Prime. During a planetary assault, Leto felt the strategy was weak, and unilaterally withheld the Atreides contingent. Indeed 3 brigades and at least 2 cruisers of Houses Harkonnen and Kaastaar were destroyed.

His patient and lifesaving tactics of siege, psywar and sabotage had worked brilliantly; the na-Duke was in the Palace of Mask, in complete control of the rebellious planet, when a new contingent of Imperial levies was sent to their aid. A subsequent Imperial Inquest concurred that the original attack plan was badly flawed. Thanks to Leto's judgment, the Atreides forces were among the only survivors of the carnage.

This first sign of his legendary judgment and strong leadership won him the immediate loyalty of the Atreides forces from then on.

Leto was only partway through his military training, under the general tutelage of the famed household mentat Thufir Hawat, when Duke Mintor was killed in the Corrida in 10163 AG.

Dukedom
"If they were all simply as correct and as sure of their place as the Duke, the Empire would be a paradise"

- Shaddam IV after an audience with Leto

The new Duke demanded the right to avenge his father's death on the horns of El Muerte, a symbolic and politically astute act to prove his bravery and win the support and trust of the Caladan people. Leto entered the corrida for a last time, only to kill El Muerte with his father's estoque.

Soon after ascending the Ducal throne, Leto had to encounter a mutiny within his own troops on the planet Pinskau, who held prisoners their own officers. Leto took the time and care to uncover the true reason for his and to ensure that their totally justifiable grievances were dealt with. This was a chance to cement the loyalty of his troops forever, by sheer force of personality and evidence of his unbreakable integrity.

Shaddam IV, a devotee of the Corrida, had taken a mild interest in Leto ever since his ascension to the Ducal throne. After the mutiny, Leto was summoned to a private audience with the emperor. It is reported that the emperor wished to discuss nothing but the battle with El Muerte, but they held the meeting so long that his schedules were being thrown off and upon the repeated urgings of his social secretary the audience had to end.

From 10158 AG until 10174 AG, Duke Leto continued to make a name for himself as one of the most honorable of the nobility. When House Harkonnen managed a raid on House Tipnear, a close ally of House Atreides, Leto summoned household troops of House Chusak (another victim of Harkonnen raids) and Tipnear and proceeded in retaliation with a "black" raid on Giedi Prime in 10165 AG. A combined force of Atreides Guards and allies landed on Giedi Prime and took over the slave-market city of Baathaas: approximately 20000 slaves were freed, and immense damage was done to the Harkonnen slaving fleet based there. The slaves were taken to Caladan where they were given their freedom and were offered passage to any of the systems that had taken part in the raid. This was the action that brought Gurney Halleck, into the service of House Atreides.

The retaliation was "black" since it was without flags or insignia, no declaration of war, no admission of participation afterwards, and it was a typical example of the adventures he embarked upon during that period.

The Duke managed another victory in the Battle of Thar system (10167 AG), for which he was granted the title Chevalier of the Imperium by Emperor Shaddam IV Corrino, not only a symbol of his undeniable bravery, but also of Shaddam's growing respect for him.

Marriage and family
"I have all that an honest man could want — the love of a woman, the loyalty of my subjects, the respect of my peers, and a son"

- Leto I

The Duke refused to marry for political reasons. While he had no concumbine in the Castle, he had the habit of selling his concubines their own contracts after a short time, usually for a penny. When his buyers brought him a lady who eventually bored him, he dismissed his buyers with distressing regularity.

In 10175 AG, one of the Duke's buyers, with some trepidation, and after careful investigation by the mentat Thufir Hawat, brought the Duke Jessica Atreides/DE as a Bound Concubine for his household, a present from the headmistress of the Bene Gesserit school on Caladan. After a few hours the Duke arrived for his meal with the new concubine on his arm (a privilege never granted any other concubine) and during the dinner, he included Jessica in the table conversation.

The next day, Leto summoned the buyer to him and announced that he was dismissed. The buyer was stunned, and began stammering apologies to the Duke, but the Duke explained to him that he no longer required his services, and offered him the position of a quartermaster-general and take charge of all trade to and from Caladan.

It was announced five months later that the Lady Jessica was to bear the Duke's first child. A boy was born four months later, and was named Paul. This new family led the Duke to adopt a more domestic lifestyle. He no longer paced the castle like a caged animal when there was peace (though he still went on campaign with his troops whenever the Levy was summoned, and fought bravely in their front). He threw himself fully into the education of his son, so that he would grow up worthy of the Atreides crest.

With the able assistance of Warmaster Halleck and Swordmaster (later Warmaster) Duncan Idaho, Leto began training Paul in command as soon as Paul could speak.

The emperor's affection resulted to jealous nobles attempting to undermine Leto's position at the court. In the Battle of Grumman (10176 AG), Atreides forces again saved the day, making Shaddam IV (always suspicious, like all emperors) and his counselors realize that too much success on the battlefield is much worse than too little: Leto with his incredibly loyal troops, would become too powerful, too popular, and (in spite of his obvious loyalty) a threat to the throne.

Thus it was that by the enemies of the Atreides hatched a plan, which require the transplantation of House Atreides from Caladan to Arrakis, in the guise of a reward.

Death
During the invasion Leto was betrayed by his private Suk Doctor, Wellington Yueh, and turned over to the Harkonnens. Though Yueh had given Leto the chance to kill the Baron Harkonnen using a poisoned tooth embedded in the Duke's mouth, the scheme failed. Consequently Leto died during the assassination attempt, but the Baron Harkonnen survived - although his twisted mentat Piter de Vries was killed by the poison.

Some years later, Leto's remains were recovered by his son Paul in Arrakeen. Paul laid his father's remains to rest in the Skull Tomb in the desert of Arrakis. The late Duke's legacy was felt in Paul's reign as Emperor, and also in the conception of a daughter Alia, carried by Jessica but only discovered after Leto's death.

Character
Throughout his lifetime, Leto showed faith in and care for his troops and commanders. His fairness and wisdom gained him a House force famous as the most loyal, trustworthy and honorable in the Imperium.

Nevertheless, the Duke continued being Leto the Just, administering Caladan as best he knew. He had the habit of taking promising young orphans into the Household, where they were raised as members of his own family. At times, there were up to a dozen children in Castle Caladan, who would stay until they were apprenticed off to a good master. The Duke had the habit of selling his concubines their own contracts after a short time, usually for a penny and a habit of dismissing his buyers with distressing regularity when they brought him a lady who eventually bored him.

His reputation made those less worthy continually sniped at Leto, thinking his example to be a subtle insult against themselves. Leto's refusal to marry for political reasons did not help against this attitude.

The emperor's acknowledgement of Leto as an exemplar of correct Noble behavior very likely led, paradoxically, to his demise, death and the near-destruction of his house; the emperor's obvious affection for Leto caused intense jealousy among those not so favored. The Court was almost universally illdisposed toward this upstart Duke from some unknown backwater planet whose only export was the insignificant and distasteful "pundi rice".

Archetypal analysis
The Duke lived at the time when masculinity was losing its exclusive hold on people's psyches and feminine consciousness was just beginning to come into its own. Most people of his time retained the traditional belief that intelligence, power, order, even civilization itself, were essentially masculine property. The Duke perfectly incarnated the best, vitally Archetypal manliness, but it proved insufficient, as he died defeated.