ire, until Count Phihppos Atreides persuaded a special ses sion of the Landsraad that time was needed to sort out the various contentions of the heirs, and that a Regency controlled by the Landsraad would be the appropriate vehicle with which to settle the opposing claims Abuiurd earned his objections from the as sembly to his awaiting fleet, and was on the verge of attacking the Landsraad meeting site when the Atreides challenged him to kanly Abuiurd accepted the challenge and the match was held before the assembled Houses, with the Impenum at stake Har konnen was defeated after a match lasting more than an hour the Landsraad then brought a bill of attainder forward while Abulurd's body lay bleeding on the dais the Harkonnens were stripped of their titles and possessions, and exiled once again Man) of the family were killed by kanly challenges from the other Great Houses all of Abuiurd s chil dren were killed m this way before they could flee, as well as many of his cousins brothers and cousmes one grandson Irakln Harkonnen sold several of his precious jew els before they could be confiscated, used the money to buy passage on a ship to the nm planets, and there purchased a disguise and new name, setting himself up in busi ness as a weapons salesman to frontier worlds ' Rak Kharn " as he called himself, soon found that he could sell more weapons where weapons were being actively used, instead of advertising, as other businessmen might have done, he used some of his capital to foment civil disobedience, revolts, small scale civil wars, political unrest, vendettas, and religious pogroms The results were astonishing Iraklu discovered that he could increase his profits by selling an advanced weapon to one faction, peddling information about that weapon to the other faction s spies, and then disposing of the weapon m turn to the first group's enemies By such enterprise he be came a rich man, and determined to restore his family's honor Carrying his knack for creating chaos to the interplanetary level, he stimulated so much unrest that Regent Maria Mustami was forced to resign her position in 1680 her successor Damiano Fulgencio followed suit within two weeks leaving the Landsraad in the unhappy position of having HARKONNEN HOUSE OF 294 HARKONNEN HOUSE OF a Regency with no Regent During the ensu ing interregnum, the only government that existed on an Impenum wide basis was a loosely-organized committee of Great Houses Iraklu rooted out a distant Comno heir Prince Corrm bin Alman bin Henoor and promoted the restoration of the Cornnos as a solution to the Impenum's ills This lone hope in the midst of chaos seemed a divine solution to the harried ranks of the Great Houses, and they elected the pretender emperor as Cornn IV in 1701 One of Cornn's first acts was to introduce the Harkonnen name to the ranks of the Great Houses, naming Irakbi Baron Saugus, m the Colton Sector, and pressing the Landsraad to confirm his actions, which Ihey di