1444296197527.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2 disclaimer Welcome to DUNE. My name is Dorian Hawkins and I love DUNE. This piece of work is one fan’s homage to that wonderful piece of work. Let me stress right from the get-go that this tome utilises the ONE ROLL ENGINE, as devised by GREG STOLZE and popularised by SHANE IVEY and DENNIS DETWILER of ARC DREAM. I do not own any rights or even claim any ownership of their game mechanics. In fact, if you even want to use this book, you need a copy of the REIGN rules (available imminently in an inexpensive pocket book version and PDF, so you really have no excuse). This game is also based on the novel DUNE by Frank Herbert. The rights to DUNE and the CHRONICLES OF DUNE do not belong to me and if there is any challenge to this fan work, holders of the license or intellectual property of DUNE and its related products should contact me at [email protected] immediately. This book is intended for people’s use until there is an official DUNE RPG out there. Until such time, I hope this meager work can suffice. Hya Hya Chouhada! Dorian Thomas Hawkins The One Roll Engine is the property of Arc Dream and Greg Stolze . DUNE is the property of Herbert Properties LLC . The writer makes no claim to such licenses and this role-playing game is available for no profit. Should any party object to this document, please contact the author and it shall be removed. 3 the known universe The year is 10,091, one hundred years before This delicate balance of power serves to prevent the events of DUNE. any particularly ambitious or destructive faction or individual from upsetting the stability of The Known Universe is one great Empire ruled society; at least, for a time. over by the Padishah Emperor. No rock escapes its influence: where man exists, so too does the Elrood Corrino IX is the 80th and current Padishah Imperium. Emperor of the Known Universe. During his reign of 138 years, Elrood married into many The supreme military power of the Emperor royal houses of the Imperium, among them through his elite army, the Sardaukar, paired House Mutelli, House Hagal and House Ecaz. with his essentially unlimited wealth, makes He is an unpredictable and harsh Emperor but him the principal power in the Known Universe. then, most of the Corrino Emperors were… While the Emperor is supreme sovereign ruler of The Landsraad, then, is a political body the universe, power is shared, in a quasi-feudal consisting of many Great Noble Houses who are arrangement with the noble houses of the vassals to the Emperor. House is idiomatic for Landsraad and with the Spacing Guild, which ruling clan of a planet or planetary system. possesses a monopoly over interstellar travel. A Great House, or House Major, directly swears Members of House Corrino have sat on the its allegiance to the Padishah Emperor in return Golden Lion throne as Padishah Emperors from for his grant of fees or fiefs. Such things can be the time of the ancient Battle of Corrin to contracts for the production of some product or modern times. service but generally, it is the granting of land in the form of a planets and moons within a given planetary system. Largely, those contracts The landsraad are tied to the lands granted. The Landsraad, as a political body plays a very The greatest example of this is Arrakis, also important role in the political and economic known as Dune. This fief yields the prestigious power balance of the Empire, which it shares Spice Mining Contract. Only the Emperor’s with the Emperor and the Spacing Guild. favourites are selected to rule Arrakis. The Landsraad represents the unification of all The Landsraad is overseen by the High Council. the other noble Houses, creating a check against This is the inner circle of the Landsraad during the power of the Emperor which is theoretically the time of the Faufreluches, "the rigid rule of a comparable force. Both the combined Houses class distinction enforced by the Imperium." The and the Emperor are in turn totally dependent Council is "empowered to act as supreme on the Guild for interstellar travel. In return, the tribunal in House to House disputes” and Spacing Guild has no purpose without the upholds the Imperial bill of rights called “The existence of the Empire. Great Convention”. The One Roll Engine is the property of Arc Dream and Greg Stolze . DUNE is the property of Herbert Properties LLC . The writer makes no claim to such licenses and this role-playing game is available for no profit. Should any party object to this document, please contact the author and it shall be removed. 4 weapons and practices, as outlined in the The great convention Assassins' Handbook. The Great Convention is a huge legal document The second is KanlyKanly, which is the enactment of which establishes the laws of the Imperium and a formal feud or vendetta in a manner that woe betide anyone who breaks them. The Great complies with the Great Convention. It often Convention’s fundamental law is that human results in an official war of attrition between life is precious and many of the articles exist to two opponents, usually Great Houses. enforce this. The act of kanly was originally created as a way For instance, the Great Convention puts a of allowing bitter disputes to be resolved proscription on computer technology stemming without any harm being brought upon innocent from the religious tenet of “Thou shalt not make bystanders. It was similar in many ways to the a machine in the likeness of a human mind”. It ancient duels made on Earth, although it also states that any weapon which causes usually had much broader ramifications. indiscriminate destruction is strictly banned, punishable by trial and execution. Thus, atomic Kanly has occurred most famously between weaponary and other weapons of mass House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and destruction are strictly prohibited. between House Moritani and House Ginaz. In both situations, Kanly resulted in the dramatic The Great Convention establishes very specific success of the former party over the latter. laws about how warfare can be conducted. Specifically, one of its laws, the Dictum Familia, Kanly requires that certain forms of conflict are prohibits all forms of informal conflict against permitted, while others are not. The use of noble blood which in turn establishes that there atomics is strictly forbidden, for example. Usage are only two legal forms of conflict and these of atomics usually means a sentence of exile. first be condoned by the High Council in a legal contract. Any grievance by one member of the Landsraad against another is brought before the High Council in a Bill of Particulars. For example, shortly after the assassination of his father Duke Leto Atreides I and the Harkonnen/Corrino invasion of the planet Arrakis in Dune, Paul Atreides expresses a desire to put forward a Bill of Particulars to the Landsraad High Council to express his grievance and point out the laws that had been broken by this invasion. A Fell Blade Paul believes that his grievance would be The first is the War of AssassinsAssassins, which supported because the Great Houses would stipulates that formal declarations of intent are never support the Sardaukar eliminating them required and it only permits certain kinds of one-by-one (which was, of course, one of the The One Roll Engine is the property of Arc Dream and Greg Stolze . DUNE is the property of Herbert Properties LLC . The writer makes no claim to such licenses and this role-playing game is available for no profit. Should any party object to this document, please contact the author and it shall be removed. 5 principal reasons why the Landsraad existed to The Sysselraad can be viewed as the Empire in begin with). miniature: the ruling House Major could easily demolish any single House Minor but together, In all grievances, a Judge of the Change is the Houses Minor could overthrow the House appointed. A Judge of the Change is "an official Major, should they wish to. appointed by the Landsraad High Council and the Emperor to monitor a change of fief, a kanly negotiation, or formal battle in a War of The Faufreluches Assassins. The Judge's arbitral authority may be challenged only before the High Council with Faufreluches is a term commonly used to the Emperor present." describe the class system employed by the Imperium. The faufreluche system is meant to provide some sort of order for the way in which humanity related with one another, both to maintain order and civility and to keep certain groups under control within the Imperium. However, it attempted to minimise alienation of individuals or minorities by catering for everyone: The catchphrase of the faufreluche A Judge of the Change system was "A place for every man and every man in his place." The highest act of law is the “Process Verbal” in which the House is put on trial. The findings of An integral part of the Faufreluche system were which can end in a sentence of execution or the Great Houses, Minor Houses, siridar fiefs, exile or being stripped of all holdings. and the Padishah Emperor. The theory behind the Faufreluche system's The houses minor existence was that, because of the vastness of the universe, and the immense distances, across Given all that, it must be stated that the Houses which humanity was scattered, a central figure - Major could not exist without the Houses the Emperor - was required to provide focus and Minor.