e Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and his wife the Lady Anunl, House Comno regent for her son Farad'n (Harq al-Ada) until his alliance with House Atreides It seems that Wensicia was the only member of a highly literary farml> who left no writing of her own Thus, sources for her life are the unfinished autobiography of her son, Note* to My Life her sister Irulan's autobiography, In My talker's House and the Lady Anunl s journals all found in the Rakis Hoard The information paints a por trait of a woman who strove all her life to he her father s only son The third of five girls Wensicia was raised and trained at home primarily by her father, her sister Irulan, and their tutors She had little contact with her mother more from Anunl s expressed preference than from her mother s death when Wensicia was six The Lady Anunl has little pleasant to say about her daughter and one journal entry, made when Wensicia was four shows that Anunl regretted having ever given birth to the child Anunl complained that Wensicia practiced cruelty for pleasure and was heard to laugh only when she had caused suffering Appar ently the only person who could influence the child s behavior at this state was her CORRINO WENSICIA CORRINO WENSICIA father, and Anunl records that he took little interest in Wensicia, being primarily con cerned with his oldest child, irulan Harq al Ada, rather than seeing aimless cruelty m his mother, instead saw a life-long attempt to become the ruthless family leader her father was unable and her sister Irulan unwilling to be My mother's motto was Always pay attention to detail She had a solid sense of self and plate, even after my grandfather had been deposed by the Atreides She had always been the strongest supporter of the Sardaukar m the family even when it meant arguing fiercely against Shaddam s somewhat lackadaisical neglect of them She saw more clearly than he did that the Sardaukar were the strength of House Cornno Unfortunately whenever she had power her methods were more- often expedient than humane and her manners more often imperious than decorous As a child, Wensicia imitated the Bene Gessent regimens her mother taught to Irulan When their mother died, Irulan s training was assumed by a tutor, the Reverend Moth er Agnppa Jeunne Masi, a woman who was, apparently far more attracted to Wensicia than to her formal student R M Masi is the only female companion ever mentioned who accepted Wensicia enthusiastically (Irulan seems almost jealous in her accounts of the relationship) From R M Mast, Wensicia learned many of the Bene Gessent martial arts, the accumulation of data techniques, and the use of poisons Wensicia was particularly interested m the history of the Assassins Irulan records the household gossip that the death of their sister Chalice, quite soon after the death of their mother, was the result of the novice Wensicia's experimentation with simple poisons Both Irulan and al-Ada, however, stoutly deny the validi