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This article or section refers to elements from the Dune Encyclopedia There are separate pages for this subject as it appears in the other canons, the reasons for this are explained here |
Leto Atreides (10140 AG-10191 AG), born in planet Caladan, only son of Duke Mintor Atreides and the concubine Bekah, who died in delivery. Father of Paul Atreides and Regent Alia. Grandfather of Leto Atreides II, the God-Emperor.
Last Duke of House Atreides and ruler of Caladan. He was well known because his even-handed and compassionate leadership style.
Life
Leto was trained as a matador like his father 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. Leto unilaterally withheld the House contingent from a planetary assault as he justly felt the strategy was weak. Indeed 3 brigades and at least 2 cruisers of Houses Harkonnen and Kaastaar were destroyed, and an Imperial Inquest concurred that the attack plan was badly flawed. The Atreides forces were among the only survivors of the carnage at Mask Prime.
A new contingent of Imperial levies was sent to their aid, but by the time of their arrival 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.
His judgment and strong leadership won him the immediate loyalty of the Atreides forces, a loyalty which was to grow to somewhat legendary proportions over the course of Leto's reign.
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 reveal his bravery and win the support and trust of the populace. Leto killed El Muerte with his father's estoque. He never entered the Corrida again.
Soon after ascending the Ducal throne, Leto had to encunter 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
Throughout his lifetime, Leto showed the same faith in and care for his troops and commanders on hundreds of lesser occasions. His fairness and wisdom gained him a House force which was known as the most loyal, trustworthy and honorable in the Imperium.
Duke Leto Atreides in his uniform
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.
Leto's reputation brought him a considerable amount of trouble, as those less worthy than himself continually sniped at Leto, thinking his example to be a subtle insult against themselves, This attitude was not helped by the duke's refusal to marry for political reasons, nor was it eased by the Duke's 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. The award was only the mind in Shaddam IV's reign, and was taken, rightly, as a sure symbol not only of Leto's undeniable bravery, but also of Shaddam's growing respect for this oldfashioned, outspoken, hawk-faced man,
The emperor's acknowledgement
of Leto as an exemplar of correct
Noble behavior very likely led,
paradoxically, to Leto's death and the
near-destruction of his house, since the
emperor's obvious affection for Leto
caused intense jealousy among those
not so favored. The Court, never a very
friendly place for outsiders in the best
of times, was almost universally illdisposed
toward this upstart Duke from
some unknown backwater planet where
the only export was some distasteful
item called "pundi rice"!
Nevertheless, the Duke continued being Leto the Just, administering Caladan as best he knew how. One of his kinder actions, and one which greatly increased his prestige, was his 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 at the castle 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.
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
Leto in Dune (video game)
In 10175 AG, one of the Duke's buyers, after careful investigation by the mentat Thufir Hawat, brought the Duke a present from the Bene Gesserit school on Caladan, offered by the headmistress at the school as a Bound Concubine for the duke's household. It was thus with some trepidation that the buyer introduced Jessica to Leto and discreetly removed himself from their presence.
After a few hours the Duke arrived for his meal a few hours later, 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 the services of a buyer at all, but of a quartermaster-general; and if the buyer would consent to take this position 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.
Unfortunately, storm clouds were massing on the horizon. The emperor's affection had led to a steady and consistent effort by jealous nobles to undermine Leto's position at the court. Their whispering campaigns began to have their effect, especially when, in the Battle of Grumman (10176 AG), Leto's Atreides forces again saved the day. Shaddam IV, like all emperors, was a suspicious man, and realized that too much success on the battlefield is much worse than too little: he knew, and his counselors agreed, that Duke Leto might become too powerful, too popular, to hold in check. His incredibly loyal troops and his almost perfect rapport with them made him a threat to the throne, in spite of his obvious loyalty.
Thus it was that by 10190 Shaddam IV was responsive to a plan, hatched by enemies of House Atreides, to require the transplantation of House Atreides from Caladan to Arrakis, in the guise of a reward.
Migration to Arrakis
Leto Atreides I portrayed by actor William Hurt.
- "Here I am, here I remain!"
After almost two decades of rule on Caladan with the Lady Jessica, Leto was ordered by the Emperor to take over the planetary fief of Arrakis from House Harkonnen, and thus was required to move his House from Caladan to 'Dune'. Arrakis was a notoriously difficult planet to manage, but as the only source of the spice melange, it was also unimaginably important. Thus the role brought both jeopardy and the jealousy of Leto's fellow noblemen among the Great Houses. Thus, Leto leapt at the chance to increase his standing in the Landsraad, even though he knew it would also put his House in great peril. Leto committed all his resources to the venture, and it was said that to illustrate this point to his people and the people of Arrakis, that upon his arrival he planted a flag upon the battlements at Arrakeen and proclaimed: "Here I am, here I remain!"
Leto's resolve was strengthened by a letter the Emperor had sent him upon his Arrival on Arrakis. Addressed to his "Noble Duke", the letter outlined that Leto was given House Corrino's full support to introduce and uphold the rule of the Faufreluches. This letter served to illustrate Corrino duplicity, for at the same time, Shaddam IV was plotting Leto's demise.
During consolidation of his rule over Arrakis, Leto made a quick and positive impact on the people of Dune. His fairhandedness, political savvy, and personal charisma saw many in Arrakeen society, from the Fremen to the aristocratic Houses Minor, become supporters. However, only a short while into Leto's rule on Dune, the Emperor gave Baron Vladimir Harkonnen approval to invade and destroy House Atreides, even going so far as to provide some of his own Sardaukar in support. The Emperor's urgency in disposing of House Atreides was amplified by the fact that he had come to know that the Duke Leto had managed to develop a small force of soldiers capable of rivalling the Emperor's Sardaukar. This had been accomplished through Leto's principal advisors and generals, namely Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, and Gurney Halleck.
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.
Legacy
In some ways, Leto lived on in his son Paul and grandson Leto II, through their possession of Other Memory. It was also partially Leto's love for Duncan Idaho that saw Leto II maintain a series of Idaho gholas throughout his reign. During both Paul's and Leto II's reign, millions flocked to visit Leto I's shrine, since Atreides ancestry had taken on a religious mystique. More than this however, Leto came to symbolise all that was good about the Atreides bloodline, namely courage, integrity, loyalty, justice, and honour. Because of this some have postulated that had Leto survived his rule of Arrakis, he would have eventually commanded the same fanaticism of the Fremen with which they came to follow his son Paul. Indeed, some have taken this argument further and postulated that his popularity with those he ruled, combined with his popularity in the Landsraad, may have seen him eventually ascend to the Golden Lion Throne. Thus, the positive strength of character and many talents Leto was generally regarded to possess, and the possibilities of what might have been, illustrates the inherent tragedy of his story.
Behind the Scenes
Leto Atreides was portrayed by German actor Jurgen Prochnow in the 1984 film adaptation of Dune. In the 2000 Dune Miniseries, He was portrayed by actor William Hurt.
Appearances
| Preceded by Minotauros Atreides |
Siridar-Duke of Caladan 10163 AG - 10191 AG |
Succeeded by Paul Atreides as head of House Atreides |