Shaddam IV
The 81st Padishah Emperor of House Corrino.
Shaddam IV was the 81st Padishah Emperor of House Corrino. He came to the throne after quietly arranging the death of his own father, Elrood IX. He ruled with growing anxiety over any Great House whose popularity or military strength might threaten Corrino supremacy. He feared Duke Leto Atreides' rising influence and formidable fighting corps. So he conspired in secret with Baron Harkonnen to destroy House Atreides once it took the Arrakis fief. He deployed his elite Sardaukar troops disguised as Harkonnen reinforcements, in direct violation of the Great Convention. The gambit backfired badly. Paul Atreides, the very heir he had tried to eliminate, survived to lead a Fremen army. That army shattered his supposedly invincible legions and toppled him from the Golden Lion Throne. Deposed and exiled to the harsh prison world of Salusa Secundus, Shaddam lived out his years as a humbled reminder. Ten thousand years of unbroken Corrino rule could end in a single, badly miscalculated betrayal.
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