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This article or section refers to elements from Expanded Dune There are separate pages for this subject as it appears in the other canons, the reasons for this are explained here |
- This article is about the soldier accused of cowardice after the Battle of Corrin. For the exiled demibrother of Vladimir Harkonnen, see Abulurd Rabban.
Abulurd Harkonnen I (126 BB - 68 BG), born as Abulurd Butler, was the youngest son of Quentin Vigar and Wandra Butler, the grandson of Xavier Harkonnen. Abulurd became a close friend to his mentor Vorian Atreides and rose in the ranks of the Army of the Jihad and then the Army of Humanity, but was exiled to Lankiveil after his perceived treachery during the Battle of Corrin, where his descendants built House Harkonnen.
Biography[]
Early life[]
His mother suffered a severe stroke giving birth to him, which left her catatonic, and Abulurd never met her. For this, he was less loved by his father, who blamed his youngest son for her state.
His father and brothers had earned prestige and many decorations and he also dedicated himself to the Jihad. Supreme Commander Vorian Atreides, the friend and colleague of his grandfather, helped him when he joined the Army of the Jihad.
Military career[]
When he was 18 years old, he met Vorian Atreides on Caladan, who tried to explain him the truth about the death of his grandfather, that he died heroically and not as a traitor.
During the Omnius Scourge crisis, he was appointed to lead an expedition to Ix where he should save some of the populace and provide them with melange, now discovered to have benefiting activity against the virus. He had some argue with Supreme Sorceress Ticia Cenva about the way she tried to save the bloodlines of the populace, not the humans themselves. During the argument about his grandfather, Abulurd defiantly demanded to be addressed as Harkonnen.
Soon after, he was sternly ordered by his father to return to Parmentier and investigate whether the virus has run its complete course and subsided. Vorian accompanied him and authorized an immediate field promotion of him to Tercero. After performing a proper burial to the decaying bodies of his brother and his wife, he met his niece, Rayna who had now founded the Cult of Serena, and he brought her to Salusa Secundus.
During the Great Purge, he was left on the planet with his brother Faykan Butler, to administrate the evacuation process of the planet. However Omnius' strike was recalled and the evacuees returned.
After the Jihad[]
Abulurd was decorated as a military commander after the Purge. After the end of the Jihad he took the new rank of Bator. He had served on different worlds, performing mainly civil engineering work, reconstruction, and local security while maintaining a military presence until eventually transferred to command the watchdog fleet at Corrin. However he had been sheltered from most of the major battles, protected by Vorian.
On Zimia, Abulurd was the first to notice that the piranha mites had purely optical target recognition, as well as that the mites assimilate metallic objects for their factories, never organic.
Along with Atreides, they devised a plan, to approach one of the sites disguised as shapeless lumps, covered with organic tents, carrying plasma howitzers with caustic liquids assisted with suspensors.
When they approached, they flushed caustic liquid, spraying a stream of corrosive chemicals. The whipping flames and oozing acid caused immediate damage to the manufacturing devices: metals melted, circuitry and fabrication components corroded and broke. Abulurd directed the stream into the yawning gullet of the fabrication chute. Within moments, the mobile factory groaned and collapsed in on itself, a fuming cauldron of oozing, melting materials.
When the power sources were down, the piranha mites fell down useless in a few hours. Vorian promoted Abulurd to full rank of Bashar, fourth grade. During the ceremony Faykan Butler was absent, but Vorian came in the last moment to present him with the new rank isnignia. Vorian before leaving to rescue Quentin from the cymeks on Hessra, left him all the available evidence to clear his grandfather's name.
After Yorek Thurr returned to Salusa Secundus and killed Grand Patriarch Xander Boro-Ginjo, Abulurd was the first to notice the similarity of the mysterious murdered with the presumed dead leader of the Jipol since decades ago, as seen in the evidence left to him by Vorian. After some discussion with Vidad, he learned about the forgotten Life extension technology and how it would be possible for a man like him be still alive.
Afterward, when he'd delivered his analysis to his skeptical brother, Faykan promised to take the information under advisement, but obviously had treated it with as much seriousness as he gave the task force to clear Xavier Harkonnen's name.
As part of his manhunt, Abulurd had used his own connections to study records of new arrivals on Salusa Secundus, backtracking the paths of refugees by their documentation. He'd found several surveillance images that looked strikingly similar to Thurr, but the trail had gone cold. Though the League had cast a wide net for the killer of Xander Boro-Ginjo, the net had a great many holes.
Eventually, during the march of the Cult of Serena across Zimia, Abulurd visited his laboratories where his team made research on the piranha mites. Coincidentally, Thurr also found his way in there to get claim of his own invention, and restored a dozen of them held as samples. When the two men confronted each other, Thurr hurled them on Abulurd, who activated a field distorter prototype and made himself invisible to their system. The mites eventually attacked Thurr and penetrated his Holtzman shield, mutilating slowly his body.
Battle of Corrin[]
But unfortunately during the Battle of Corrin, he disagreed with Vorian and refused to cross the Bridge of Hrethgir, which would have meant the deaths of two million human slaves. Refusing to back down from his position, Vorian relieved him of his duties and confined him. Abulurd violated his confinement and deactivated the weapons for the entire League fleet. This however did not stop the League from achieving victory: it only made it more bloody.
For this, he was branded a coward: initially he was sentenced to death, but Vorian proposed that he be named a coward and banished from the League, to which Faykan agreed. He also specified that Abulurd would retain the shameful name of Harkonnen: Vorian sworn that for ever his descendants would spit upon the name Harkonnen. After that, it was impossible to restore his grandfather's memory.
Abulurd was exiled to the backwater planet of Lankiveil, where he made a family of his own and had Dirdos and two sons. The kids grew up with tales of the Jihad and came to hate the name of Atreides. Eventually Abulurd and his wife died of fever. His family carries on the bitter legacy of his downfall, thus beginning the feud with House Atreides.
Appearance[]
Abulurd had dark-brown hair with reddish-cinnamon highlights like his grandfather's.
Behind the Scenes[]
- In The Dune Encyclopedia Abulurds parents are named Harkonnen Obeshev and Lizia Pazso di Borgo instead of Quentin Butler and Wandra Butler.It is also implied that Abulurd did indeed act out of fear and was not wrongly accused and the battle took part in space in the Nebula instead of the Planet.
Appearances[]
- Dune: The Battle of Corrin
- The Sisterhood of Dune (Mentioned only)