tellar stress At the heart of each House, large or small old or new, was the economic machine that financed the pri vate troops, interstellar commerce, luxurious living and aspirations to power Most of the Houses used a highly centralized form of governance, based on the hereditary or elected leader, a council consisting of economic and political advisors and the com manders of the private armies, and a regular series of audiences with the populations they governed For all practical purposes, despite the claims of the Inipenum and local traditions the Houses ruled unchallenged in their local fiefs, which often consisted of one or more planets or planetary systems Only a handful of planets in the Impenum (for example Finally, Libermann, or Refuge) possessed Free Planet status, serving as open market places to the known universe The Houses used sophisticated long-range economic plan nmg to diversify their holdings, most Houses learned from the early examples of one market clans going bankrupt that diversity generally meant higher profits and greater stability and followed a practice of reinvesting their money into as many different commodi ties as possible By the time of Paul, only a few Houses still relied solely upon one particu lar drug product or service as their pnnci pal means of support At their worst the Great Houses represent ed arrogance, privilege, selfishness greed lust for power, repression military adven tumm, political machination and a blatant disregard for the rights or the desires of the populations they governed At their best, as with the House of Atreides and others the Great Houses were a workable form of government, providing guidance for the populace, economic welfare justice protec tion from Imperial bullying security, the promise of lifetime service with fair wages and a comfortable retirement selflessness and a sense of community Unfortunately given humanity s penchant for misusing pow er of all kinds the negative elements tended to outweigh the positive in most cases and the long term historical picture of the entire government system (of which the Great Houses only represented a part) is certain to show the problems inherent in the Imperial structure Ultimately it was not Leto II who destroyed the Great Houses he had only to create the proper conditions and the Houses slowly deteriorated This decline perhaps says more about the Impenum as conceived by the Comnos than it does about the Houses proper the centralization of power in the hands of one man was simultaneously the greatest boon and largest flaw to the governance of the Houses The fact that certain men or families managed to overcome the deficiencies of the system is a tribute more to their personalities or training than it is to the structure itself R R Further references GREAT HOUSES ARMS PENNANTS AND INSIGNIA ATREIDES HOUSF CORRINO HOUSE HARKONNEN HOUSE GINAZ HOUSk HOUSES MINOR MoSl of the Great Houses have been the subjects ot histories or analyses see Landsraad Information Office Standard History of the Great Houtes tr Dnigd Trap (Sdlaaa Secundus Morgan and Sharak) for a general work also uncovered on Rakis is the complete 120-voIumc set of Baron Zarn Jenl s comprehensive genealogy The Great Houses in History (9654) Many volumes of Jenl s work have been reprinted in the Temporary Series check with GREAT HOUSES, INSIGNIA 275 GREAT HOUSES, INSIGNIA your local Library Confraternity member for an up-to-date listing.