The Houses of the Landsraad | Dune Lore 

There is a hidden power within RU-vid known as the Nerd Cookie Nation. Their leader is secretive in nature and has earned powers few understand. But the hearts of the Nerd Cookie Nation and their love for their interests bring a shining light to an otherwise dark place.

10 Great Houses: House Atreides, House Corrino, House Fenring, House Ginaz, House Halleck, House Harkonnen, House Metulli, House Moritani, House Vernius, House Richese.

I've been stressed today for a variety of reasons. But once again, the wonderful nerd cookies stirs my imagination and soothes my nerves with detailed info on one of my favourite sci fi properties. Thank you Lady Elaine of House Nerd Cookie.

The Landsraad is never really explored in Dune, and I find that a crying shame :( If the politics of Dune are explained in the movie, I hope the life Duke Leto is explored better, showing just how dangerous he was to the status quo. He was using CHOAM to overrun the Landsraad, and the minor houses loved him for it. He reinvested the profits of his world, which is why they became so successful, and the populations of all worlds wanted to join him. He was causing disruption in Harkonnen businesses by disproving the need for oppressive serfdom and slavery. All of this also led to militaries being trained, and the Sardaukar being proven to be defeatable in combat when they were not fighting serf militias. This greatly threatened the Landsraad voting block of the Golden Lion Throne, as well as their mercenary income from those unofficial actions. So when CHOAM tells Leto that he is to be entrusted with spice harvesting because the Emperor can no longer trust Vladamir to protect that industry, he has no reason to refuse publicly. And his empire build around Caladan crumbles if he refuses, as EVERYONE needs spice. If there is anything I hope they drive home in Dune, it's this: if you take enough, you live to three times your normal life span. Once you take enough to extend your life, you are addicted for life and will eventually die without it. So my dream is, we learn WHY so many people suddenly love Leto in the Landsraad, and why it wasn't because he is some kind of "white hat" savior :) Awesome breakdown as always. Maybe you can do the Irulan style breakdown on government, and use that as the opening to the opening of Dune :)

Dune is so huge. There's so much to be explored in the Dune universe. I must say that the Bene Gesserit are the organisation that impresses me the most.

This is one aspect of the Dune universe my mind skipped over so thanks for the refresher NC! By the way someone in these comments mentioned a Dune live show with some of the big Dune content creators, I second that it would be pretty awesome to have a round table right before the movie drops and then another maybe a week afterward with reactions and second movie predictions!

Excellent videos and breakdowns! Keep up the awesome work :D.

Father! The sleeper has arisen! It is Fresh Baked Nerd Cookies! Now the true story of the world of the Spacing Guild and Spice can be understood amongst the houses of the Landsraad.

Interesting that national council translates to landsråd in Danish, and landsráð in Icelandic, while landsråd also works in Norwegian (Bokmål), and landsraad in Norwegian (Nynorsk).

The Houses of the Landsraad are like the seven noble families in the Seven Kingdoms.

The whole Landsraad, Empire, Guild and. Sisterhood house of cards 2as a fascinating construct..and so vulnerable when it's foundations (basically spice..but ultimately Atrrakis itself) got torn down 😎 Even more relevant today, perhaps, than when I first read it. The enduring mark of classic literature 🙂

This actually helped a lot thanks

Has there ever been anything hinting at the total number of houses in the Landsraad, both major AND minor? Also, makes me wonder about if there's anything at all known about "Rogue Houses" or if that's really just a minor plot point that isn't really fleshed out in the source material.

Will someone please explain this to me.... In the early scenes of Dune (part 1) the ship lands for the ceremonial transfer of Arrakis to House Atreides. Why are all the members of "the Imperial Court" wearing space suits, in particular space helmets? I understand why the members of the Spacing Guild are wearing them, because they are immersed in spice gas. But the members of the Imperial Court are all various offshoots of humans. They can all breathe the air on Caladan. So why the helmets?

I find it.funny that Padishah actually means Emperor, but I don't know why herbert has to add word Emperor to Padishah, it becomes redundant. Padishah Emperor, is like Emperor Emperor.

I felt so sad for Duke Leto, he knew he was going into a trap, but those massive governing forces at play that you mention gave him no choice.

Landsraad (literally meaning country council) is actually an old Dutch word. How and why Frank used it here is a guess. The Dutch use of Landraad (no s) was part of how the Dutch suppressed the Dutch Indies but gave the illusion of a fair justice system, where the Landraad would be a court for local cases. Also, in the Dutch Republic, when they revolted against the Spanish, the Dutch created a council of merchant houses all working together and sometimes competing to combine their power to beat the Spanish. This council was at the first part of the Spanish rule, yet, when the Spanish rule became too tyrannical, they self-organized their revolt. Ironic that later the actual use of the word was connected to their dominance over their colony. It seems Frank Herbert understood these nuanced power plays. Something lost in way too much SF.

He who controls the spice, controls the Universe! The Bene Gesserit: We got this! Paul Muad'dib: Not so fast...

Reverend Mother Elaine with the fresh lore vids.

Excellent research as usual and demonstrates the depth of Herbert's planning using historical examples to make his universe work. Parallels can be drawn with the power balance of the Holy Roman Empire; Bundesrat/Landsraad, Kaiser/Emperor, Church/Bene Gesserit etc. and the voting structure of Republican Rome.

Elaine Lore: The House of Nerd Cookies😂😂

as a non-English speaker, I was stuck at the first few pages of DUNE, almost gave up till I found this channel.

Thank you for more Dune videos. Keep up the great work Elaine!

You should read books for Audible! I'd love more of your silky smooth cadence in my ears.

The backstory of Dune is very difficult for me to suspend disbelief over. There's no chance in hell that humanity would end up being ruled by feudalism again thousands of years in the future. AT least, not with advanced technology still existing. And even less possible with humanity living on thousands of different planets (which is itself idiotic, impossible nonsense). And long-lasting dynasties are even more laughable. It just doesn't make any sense at all for Dune to really be set in the future of real Earth. Yet, I still watch the movies and enjoy them.

I love the depth and comprehensiveness you bring to such a faceted body of work. Your presentation is wonderful. In your hands, even the minutiae is utterly fascinating.

I wish Frank Herbert had given us more details about the rest of the major houses. Like what their main exports were/what they were best known for. Maybe if this movie takes off really well we'll get another spin-off series about it, or they'll be mentioned in greater detail in The Sisterhood.

Yay! More fresh baked Nerd Cookies, yummy. I want to commend you for the work that you put in Elaine. The visuals that you you use are amazing. Also, the music is wonderful. I'm a guitar player and singer so I really appreciate the effort you put into all that you do. They(whoever "they" are) say that the devil is in the details. And you do a great job with the details. The background information that you share is awesome. Thanks for all that you do. Cheers and fair winds.

The only 2 major problems I had with the new Dune movie was 1.) When Paul and Lady Jessica were chased by the sandworm, Paul makes the connection between the sandworms and spice. HE asks Jessica, "Can you smell the spice?" 2.) When he fights Jamis, at the end, Stilgar asks Jessica if Paul is toying with him, Jessica explains Paul has only trained with shields. When Paul kills Jamis, he cries, "giving water to the dead", a major point in the book, ignored by the movie.

Warning reading Dune will ruin many other franchises for you. All borrow some, some borrow all. GOT especially guilty in my eyes

Frame the emperor with nuclear attack. They would all UNITE against that, yet, they maintain nukes in case something terrible lurking out there. 😯😮 I read that 27 years ago.

Thank you, that was a good one :) For some odd reason one item that stands out to me about the Landsraad was someone* talking about how thinking long term with hardwood production had brought more than one minor house to major house status. I find it funny and interesting that in a far future universe forestry might still bring riches and power. *(my memory is that it was Paul talking about something his father, Duke Leto, said but I'm not sure). On a different note if you can ever convince Quinn to do a podcast style video with you I am most likely not the only one who could listen to the two of you talk Dune for hours.

Could you make a video about the CHOAM company: how it is organized, what are its specific powers, etc. It seems as though the corporation seems to mirror the Landsraad.

This girl's voice is sweet as spice. It's wild.

Fun fact, landsraad is a Dutch word which translates to "country council" or "council of the land".

There IS an image in there looking EXACTLY like the Galactic Senat.... Almost spoted Palpatine !!!! 😂❤

How could the emperor just decree the Harkonens forfeit Arakis for no reason if he also had to be so sneaky about how to kill off the Atredes? Wouldn’t the houses of the landsrad be primed for revolt seeing a house be evicted from a planet? Why did the emperor have to give Arakis to the Harkonens in the first place and allow them to become richer than himself? Why did the Baron think he could blackmail the emperor so his daughter would marry Feyd because he helped him kill the duke? Isn’t he also incriminating himself for committing a war crime? If Shadam wished Irulan was older so she could’ve wed Leto then why didn’t he just wed her to Paul already?

Love your Dune lore, Elaine! 😁

Do we know where the picture of the Landsraad voting together comes from? It looks like the Senate from Star Wars, but Dune was prior to Star Wars.

Thank you for the explanation of the mechanics behind the Dune societies. Herberts genius shines most brightly in this regard. After all these years I still marvel at his insight, and you, you convey your comprehension in a splendid manner. All the best.

It would be an interesting exploration if there was a Dune series that saw the events through the lens of another Great House not involved in the conflict just to see how it unfold maybe 'Down Space Dune'. Just an idea.

Whoever wrote this presentation deserves credit as well as the narrator. I do have to point out one criteria though. So far in every video I have seen that claims to describe the houses of the Landsraad, No one has actually described the houses of the landsraad save the same old three. Atreides, Harkonnen, and House Corrino. Only one video also mentioned house Ordos (which was a true delight to learn backround info on them). Please could you be the first to actually give us any infos on the many other houses, or are there none to give ?

The aspect that most intrigues me about the Landsraad is its ability to depose the emperor. At least, I think I read somewhere that it had that power.

There's so many Great Houses, I think it's hard to keep track of them all.

Whilst those far more cunning than I concern themselves with the Byzantine machinations of the Landsraad, I am far more interested in the R+D constantly being pursued on Richese and Ix. Of particular interest are the construction yards for the heighliner. The sheer scale of the facilities must be breathtaking. Of NO interest at all are axlotl tanks of the Tleilaxu. That entire concept make me recoil in revulsion. And, yes, “Long live the fighters!”

Landsraad is dutch for counsel of the land, or landcounsel to be more specific, it's quite fascinating to see that

You make great! I'm officially subscribing. 😊👍

BTW, I may not be the best judge, I enjoyed the prequels.

The Cowardice of the Landsraad during Leto's death showed there greed.

Interesting for me ? the relationship with the sisterhood and the opposition to Paul inbetween book one and two it read like around over a hundred worlds supported by 500 others and the guild and sisterhood opposed him , during a 12 year period. That war ended the landsraat power but it gets little attention

Excellent (In my best MR Burns voice). This must have taken some research to put together.

The part of the Landsraad that I always found curious was how the Imperials managed to keep power for 10,000 years. That no other house was able to amass power to the point of taking power from the Corrino. I've waffled on it, starting when I was young (I read Dune when I was 10) and though "Coooollll....", then got into my rebellious/Anarchistic 20's and went "Impossible - that ain't the same family. No way it lasts 1000 years, let alone 10,000 years. Maybe not even 100 years!", to the point now where I'm older, wiser and more curious as to how this happened. It's a problem I'm having with Sci-Fi in general now that I'm older. Fantastical/Impossible things? Not a problem for me. We have the spice melange that allows one to have all of the memories of their parent (or in some cases, parents), going back to essentially infinity? Okay, no problem. You have people travelling faster than light? Okay. You have people able to control others via sex? Sure. Bring back the dead via Ghola, and have them be able to be... essentially a resurrection? Same memories, same genetic body, etc.? Cool. These are fantastic, out of the realm of real possibility, and easy to simply accept. But this is the part that most writers think needs to be explained. It's not - explanations are nice, but really, unless you actually know the science, enough to understand any explanation, you have to just take these things on faith. We're reading Sci-Fi with the full expectation that there will be some "space magic", so trying to explain that "space magic" can actually backfire. But the things that authors tend to take for granted are the places where things start to falter. A single family having ruled the entire galaxy for 10,000 years? THAT'S what starts to break my immersion. Very few - if any - monarchs in our world have lasted more than 300 years before something major comes in and changes them. So the idea that 10,000 years of unbroken rule of the entire galaxy by a single family is where I start to go "Hold on, wait. I need more." And I'm curious to see how Frank explained that.

I am back 😎, nice lore settings 👌

I like the expanded universe because I get to learn about the other Houses.

The art of Kanly is well-known to the Queen of nerd-cookies!

Keen to see similar videos in regards to the Foundation series :)

House Richesse from the board game😮

7:00 What a wonderfully detailed painting of Baron Harkonnen and his lust for power, right down to the globe having the shield wall at the North Pole of Arrakis.

Great and beautiful arts by the way.. رسومات جميلة حقا...

I love your channel with all the deep dives into lore.

pronunciation phonetics Landsraad = Lah-nds , Rah-ad = Dutch / Afrikaans / Flemish / some German . from native speaker . Raad = council / board members (both correct) therefore national council = Landsraad then direct translation = country council / nation council / ( land council and land board or board of land ) - most direct translation . from NERD Cape Town Kaapstad - Republiek Suid Afrika / Afrique Du Sud / close to ExP.Trumps NAMBIAN KO-FE-FE from Namibia or Republic of South West Afrika our Northern neighbour like Canada and USA same languages , and former protectorate client state during cold war.

It would appear that the Imperium is in fact a Constitutional Monarchy, functioning within a Unicameral Parliamentary Oligarchy. The Landsraad would seem to be both supreme legislature and highest court, with the Emperor's role overlapping into these, as well as being the Chief Executive, tasked with enforcing Imperial norms, order and policy via the conditional use of the Sardukar. Questions remain as to whether the Empire is a Unity state or a Federation? Is the power held at the local level of planetary fiefdom delegated from and subject to the absolute power of the Landsraad, or do the fiefdoms represent independent states that have ceded aspects of their sovereignty into the hands of the Landsraad? It could further be assumed that there are three types of law in use as well. Landsraad legislation (requiring a vote to enact), Imperial degree (Subjects left to the discretion of the Emperor) and local laws.

So its only 3 named families?

Soft Chewy, filled with delightful tidbits, secret ingredients we may never know... thats a Nerd Cookie Breakfast.. ! as for houses......................... hmmm, never knew of any others than the two main protagonists in Dune. couldnt read the book, tried, and failed ( but didnt try and die at least )..

You know, this politcial/economic system is based, man. The balance of authorities would be great in any sort of post-apocalyptic world or nation trying to recover. I don't imagine it would be very pleasant to live under tho, and it certainly couldn't last forever. Perhaps this was the real problem in Dune--this feudal order was a crutch, meant to be tossed aside when the universe had sufficiently recovered from the Butlerian Jihad. But it worked so well that they didn't want to get rid of it when the time came--and so it rotted from the inside out, and was finally destroyed by Paul. Unfortunately it had gotten so finely interwoven into the culture by then that ending it cost a body count of ten thousand Holocausts. It wouldn't wouldn't have been nearly so bad if they had switched to more permanent democracy when they were supposed to. Anyway, that's my theory.

Gouse Atreides is of my interest

I find the name "Landsraad" interesting as its the exact norwegian name for the english word "Federal Council"

What I didn't really appreciate about the study of the Landsraad was all the internal strife; all the plotting, scheming. In one book; the planet was another feudal house of the Landsraad that developed many of the space vessels for CHOAM. But, the planet used slave labor, many of the slaves were a mixture of Hindu-Islamics, who eventually rebelled against their oppressors and fled, some eventually fleeing to Arrakis. They eventually become the Freman; but at the time that they fled they called themselves Free Men. What's also interesting about the book; which the title escapes me, was were the Holtsman Drive was first perfected. Honestly, I feel that there could be an entire book series on the individual houses of the Landsraad and the minor houses. But, I realize that, the farther we go from the Dune series, the more the story loses it's majesty!

The RICH over the poor!!!!!!!

I always wonder why someone never caught on to the Bene Gesserit and purged the fuck out of them. You'd think someone powerful would get suspicious eventually.

I always wanted to learn more about the landsraad. I understand the absolute focus on Dune but it would have been nice to see more exploration from Herbert’s imagination. See more of these planets and the houses that called them home. The conflicts and the houses lost over thousands of years. That’s so much history to tinker with and build upon. Very rich. A missed opportunity.

03:38 - looks very similar to the Senate in the SW Prequels. In Quinn's Ideas video on, iirc, CHOAM, he features a piece of art that looks like it could have served as inspiration for the Senate in the Prequels. It's in the style of the art done for Lynch's film but I can find no trace of it anywhere else online, even tried saving a screenshot and image searching it with Google.

If Duke Leto was so popular and had so many friends and knew going to Arrakis would be a trap and dangerous why did he not bring the troops of other houses with him so that the Atreides troops did not have to face the Sardaukar and Harkonnen blades alone

So the landssrad is essentially the Roman senate after the creation of the imperator, and in principal, like the US senate with the executive branch.

You and Quinn have some great Dune videos.

What I want to know is why this version, portrays Liet Keynes as a woman, when in the book he's Chanis stepfather

Difficult to understand, but fascinating in concept. Thank you. peace

Excellent video. A very comprehensive and easily digestible summary of the political powers in Dune universe.

Landsraad is Dutch for "Council of the country".

The narrator can barely be heard, Find a new job

I haven't watched the videos on Dune but I have a question. Where is or more to say was Earth in the Dune-verse!

great content, well dialoged and the imagery was quite beautiful, thank you.

Aaahahahaa. Der Landrat ^^

How did other houses and powers reacted destruciton of house atredias? This could be a good video?

House ix

Really enjoy the voice of the narrator, could she be a sister of hidden rank?

The fewer in control of a situation, the easier it is to manipulate the outcome.

Brilliant coverage and puts the future feudal nature of the narrative into context.

Sounds a little like the Galactic Republic Senate.

House Harkookie.

The spice must flow... The spice extends life....

Thank your so much for your deep insights into the Dune Universe. I would not have understood much of the books or movies without your help. I am very ADD so miss many clues. Thank you!

Pity we never really hear about any of the other houses.

appreciate encyclopedia background info

The intro always gets me in the mood for what’s to come.

Thank you for speaking up!

I always enjoy the 'have a very nerdy day'.

The often forgotten House Ordos

Your videos just get better and better!

Thanks elaine , loving this series , great art in the video again.