Page "House Harkonnen" Paragraph 8

The Prelude to Dune series, also by Brian Herbert and Anderson, explores the decades immediately prior to the events in Dune.

This series establishes Vladimir's father Dmitri Harkonnen as a benevolent man who leaves House Atreides in peace.

It is during Dmitri's reign that House Harkonnen grows in status and is rewarded with the governorship of Arrakis by Shaddam's father, Padishah Emperor Elrood Corrino IX.

According to Prelude to Dune, Dmitri's first wife Victoria bore Vladimir ; the marriage had ended with a bitter divorce.

Dmitri had two sons with his subsequent wife Daphne ; Marotin, a mentally retarded son who had died at age 28 of natural causes, and Abulurd, eventually Dmitri's favorite child.

A peace-loving man and the polar opposite of his older brother Vladimir, Abulurd is happy to relinquish the Harkonnen name, adopt his wife's surname " Rabban ," and retire to Lankiveil to distance himself from the self-serving, underhanded, and violent actions of both his brother and of his own son, Glossu.

Abulurd is later enraged when Glossu goes on a whale-hunting rampage, driving the Bjondax whales away from the area indefinitely and crippling the whale fur industry disastrously.

When Abulurd later discovers one of his brother's illegal spice hoards on Lankiveil, he distributes it to his people ; Glossu returns and strangles his father to death.