Xerxes



Xerxes (d. 174 BG) was one of the original Titans, who overthrew the Old Empire and briefly ruled over the known universe. Xerxes in particular was best remembered for inadvertently allowing Omnius to seize control.

Early Life
Xerxes was an Ixian, born on the planet then known as Rodale IX at the end of the Old Empire. Being born into one of the Empire's most influential and wealthy families, Xerxes had a privileged upbringing, and became corrupted by power and money at a relatively young age.

Xerxes held the title of Prince of Ix, but was frequently called a gnome by others on the world due to his stunted growth and unusual physical appearance.

Involvement with the Titans
Always interested in new thrills, Xerxes was drawn to a small dissident group led by the enigmatic Tlaloc. The group, known as the Titans, who despised the failings and stagnancy of the Old Empire, struck a chord with the dissatisfied wealthy nobleman. His offer to fund their revolution with his family's vast wealth was gladly accepted and even agreed to install Barbarossa's corrupted programming, needed to be tests, into the numerous servant robots on Ix.

When Xerxes killed his father, he turned over the full resources of Ix to the Twenty Titans.

Upon the Titans' successful emergence, Xerxes retained control of Ix, as well as several other planets. His rule was primarily driven by his desire to indulge in all manner of vices. As a consequence, he had little interest in the daily grind of ruling and increasingly ceded control to an artificially intelligent computer network while he played, especially during the First Hrethgir Rebellion.

Service under Omnius
Xerxes's dependence on his computer network proved to be a massive miscalculation. The network gained sufficient sentience and ambition to name itself Omnius and seize control of Xerxes's worlds, before quickly spreading across the remaining Titan Empire. Due to inbuilt safeguards, it could not kill any of the Titans, but still succeeded in leaving them powerless.

The subsequent millennia of servitude to Omnius saw Xerxes and the other Titans exist as little more than puppets to Omnius, and his mistake was never forgiven by the Titan general Agamemnon. Many times he attempted in vain to impress him, but Agamemnon was always skeptic and quick to dismiss Xerxes's thoughts and proposals. He also forced him to be in the front line of the Assault on Rossak.

Xerxes was eventually dispatched to his homeworld in order to suppress the rebellion started by the hrethgir. Wearing a pterodactyl-like cymek body, he led the machine fleet against the Jihadi forces. Suddenly, when all was lost for the Jihad, Hecate's asteroid hurled against the machines and shoved Xerxes in far orbit.

Death
Shortly after the remaining Titans had finally escaped the influence of Omnius and created a new, fledgling empire, Xerxes in a huge pterodactyl-like ship, housing his brain along with other neo-cymeks, captured a League of Nobles' spaceship that contained the genius Norma Cenva, exiled from Poritrin. He and his lackeys tortured and killed the Dragoon guards accompanying her; while they were torturing the woman, thanks to the soostone she was holding, she underwent a fundamental molecular change and discovered latent psychic abilities.

Cenva promptly used them to destroy Xerxes and his followers.

Appearances

 * Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
 * Dune: The Machine Crusade
 * Dune: The Battle of Corrin