Duke Leto Atreides
The honorable head of House Atreides.
The Landsraad called him 'Leto the Just,' a name earned through decades of honorable, humane rule. That reputation grew too popular for comfort. It was why Emperor Shaddam IV handed him the Arrakis fief. Leto took the assignment knowing it smelled like a trap. It was one. His Suk physician, Dr. Wellington Yueh, had been blackmailed through the kidnapping of his wife. Yueh disabled House Atreides' shields at the exact moment Harkonnen and Sardaukar forces struck Arrakeen together. Leto refused to go quietly. He had hidden a poison gas capsule in a false tooth, a last gambit to kill Baron Harkonnen at close range. He died attempting it. His death drove his son Paul and his wife Jessica into the open desert. That flight would eventually bring down every House responsible for his ruin. The memory of an honorable duke undone by treachery became a cornerstone of the Atreides legend. Paul carried it with him into his own reign.
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