Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV has come to fear House Atreides, partly due to the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides and also because the talent of Leto's fighting force is beginning to rival the effectiveness of the Emperor's own dreaded Imperial Sardaukar guard. Shaddam decides that House Atreides must be destroyed, but cannot risk an attack on a single House, which would by necessity unite the other Houses against him. The Emperor instead uses the centuries-old feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen to disguise his assault, enlisting the brilliant and power-hungry Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in his plan to trap and eliminate the Atreides. Shaddam forces Leto to accept the lucrative fief of the desert planet Arrakis, the only known source of the spice melange, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. Enter into this conflict the Bene Gesserit. Their ancient breeding program, now only one generation from completion, has suddenly become horribly jeopardized: They had planned to breed an Atreides daughter with a Harkonnen son to unite the two bloodlines and produce their long-awaited superbeing, the Kwisatz Haderach. However fate would decide otherwise and instead of bearing a daughter, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica (the Duke’s Concubine) fulfilled her beloved Duke's wishes for a son and bore Paul.
