Dune Legacy mod for C&C: Tiberian Sun Firestorm

Emperor Tamod Corrino the 3rd - a.k.a. Tamod III - has a problem: his two eldest children have come of age at the same time, leaving him to pick one as heir. Prince Hassas Corrino and Princess Sulena Corrino, born twins, both have incredibly strong factional support within the Imperial court, and the emperor knows that whichever one he picks as heir will face stiff opposition from the other. By tradition, the firstborn male - thus Hassas - is meant to assume the crown - but the factions supporting Sulena would cause trouble if she was to be dismissed without a chance to prove herself. Tamod III knows this, and must now find a way to prove to the Imperial court, and the Landsraad, that one of them is a clear and obvious choice. Infighting between the two heirs would weaken House Corrino, and be an open invitation for the circling wolves to attack…

House Ordos is the current regent of the planet Arrakis, but in-fighting and corruption amidst the ranks of their leading body - the Executrix Council - has caused a slump in spice production in recent years. Ordos-sanctioned experimentation - led by House Tleilaxu - on the local Fremen population has driven up resentment against the Ordos regency, and Fremen attacks against the Ordos, and other off-worlders, have become commonplace. The mercantile nature of the Ordos means that they have allowed a number of Minor Houses to set up enclaves and research stations on Arrakis in exchange for licensing fees and corporate commission agreements, all of which have served to fatten the Ordos accounts at the expense of local sentiment. Tleilaxu bio-labs, Ixian tech centres, Guild wayposts and other foreign influences now dot the landscape of Arrakis, all working towards their own goals while paying their due percentages to the Ordos regents - and taking a toll in blood from the local Fremen populations.

Emperor Tamod III decides to use the deteriorating situation on Arrakis in order to deal with two problems at once: determine a clear and obvious imperial heir, and shake up the management of spice production at the same time. He calls for an Trial by Audit in the Landsraad, implicating - without stating it outright - that there are concerns about the levels of spice production on Arrakis. House Ordos, as the current regents, are to continue their work - but co-auditors would be appointed to oversee and monitor the process as well, and to determine if the Ordos arrangement is optimal. To that purpose, the emperor assigns two well-known Major Houses - House Atreides and House Harkonnen - to be participants in the Trial by Audit, granting them rights to deploy forces to Arrakis. The concept of the Trial was simple: if any one of the participants could show a marked superiority in spice production over the other participants, that House would be awarded sole regency of the planet at the end of the Trial. The Navigator Guild, together with the CHOAM merchant guild, agrees to act as arbiters in this Trial, although this immediately raises questions about the impartiality of the Navigators given that they already have an existing favourable agreement with House Ordos. CHOAM, as a true neutral, acts to counter-balance this.

House Atreides, led by Duke Moneor II Atreides, agrees to the arrangement. The duke is advanced in age, and sends his eldest - Lady Wesa Atreides - to lead operations on Arrakis. Lady Wesa is a firebrand and somewhat of an anomaly in the Imperial court where female offspring have traditionally been relegated to the roles of wives and consorts. Initially trained by the Bene Gesserit as teen, she rebelled and rejected their teachings later in life, and became a field commander in the Atreides military instead. She has already refused several offers of marriage from other Houses, exasperating several political and Bene Gesserit plans to marry her off into a relatively more quiet role. She intends to challenge the Imperial custom of passing leadership of a House from patriarch to son, and sees this Trial by Audit as her opportunity to shine. Duke Moneor has other, younger children as well, but after the death of Lady Wesa’s mother he dotes on his eldest a bit, and there is a very real chance that Lady Wesa would, in some future year, become the first Duchess of House Atreides.

House Harkonnen is in turmoil. The late Baron Fuyrd Harkonnen, after almost six years of civil conflict, has been deposed by his younger half-brother, Valentin Harkonnen. Baron Valentin has spent the past two years rebuilding the strength of House Harkonnen, but they are still weak and depleted compared to the vast forces they once fielded - before the corruption and weakness of Fuyrd undermined it all. Valentin sees himself as the rightful heir to the House, but struggles with the fear - equal parts imagined and real - that the other Great Houses of the Landsraad see him as an imposter, a pretender that will fail just as badly as the now-deposed Fuyrd. With a hand on the flow of spice from Arrakis, House Harkonnen would be able to rebuild itself to new levels of strength, while gaining leverage for new, favourable alliances with the other Houses. The Baron intends to lead from the front once on Arrakis, and brings with him Lady Pagi Harkonnen, the only of his children to survive the struggle against Fuyrd. Lady Pagi is rumoured to be trained by both the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilaxu, although none can say exactly what influence she will have on the Trial. There are also whispers that her own plans might not align perfectly with that of her father, and that not all of her siblings who fell, did so at the hands of Fuyrd’s assassins.

House Ordos, under a cloud of disgrace, reshuffles its Executrix Council and appoints two new Directors to Arrakis: Tsultrim Ordos, from his previous liaison with the Sardaukar on Salusa Secunda, and Choua Ordos, recently returned from her exploration trip in the Far Reaches. Tsultrim is to overhaul the military side of operations, and ensure that the Fremen are sufficiently neutralised that spice harvesting can continue without more operational losses; Choua, as explorer and merchandiser, is tasked with relations and liaisons on the trading front, to ensure that existing trade arrangements are honoured - and renegotiated, by force, if necessary - as well as new markets explored and captured. Both directors have been made aware of the role before them: they could either succeed, and take credit for the turnaround in the profit trajectories - or they could take the blame for everything, and be terminated along with the House Ordos regency if they were to fail the Trial by Audit. The Executrix Council did not believe in failed performance appraisal assessments.

As party to the outcome of the Trail, Emperor Tamod III sends his two heirs-to-be - Hassas and Sulena - to participate as well. The challenge to them is simple: if they could set up spice harvesting operations and gain experience in the management of Arrakis, it would help to show which heir was most suitable. While the Imperial legions could support them, there would also be a challenge: the two heirs would not be able to simply outspend the other Auditors, but would have to compete on the same playing field, against the same challenges and with the same success metrics. If they failed, it could be excused as a lack of experience - with a clear culprit to be relegated to the role of second heir. If they succeeded, it would give the emperor the perfect excuse to take the administration of Arrakis directly into House Corrino… and if only one of them survived, it would solve a great many other issues as well.

Thus, on the first day of the new year, would begin the Trail by Audit - and with it, the struggle that would determine the legacy of Dune.