Sardaukar
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-->The Sardaukar are a fictional army from Frank Herbert's Dune universe, as depicted in the Dune series of science-fiction novels. They are the soldier-fanatics of the Padishah Emperor and the Corrino dynasty.
Sardaukar are the soldiers of House Corrino who rules the known universe (the Imperium) at the time of Dune. Until Paul Atreides organizes the Fremen on Arrakis, they are the foremost soldiers in the universe and are feared by all. The Sardaukar are the key to House Corrino's hold on the Imperial throne. Sardaukar troops are sometimes referred to as "House Sardaukar". While this suggests that the emperor's elite troops constitute a House in their own right, this is a misinterpretation of the meaning of "House" in this instance. The term "House Sardaukar" is more in line with "Court Jesters" in that the Sardaukar are assigned to protect a House by the Emperor and become that house's "House Sardaukar"; the Sardaukar of the House. Despite this it is still said in the novel that ranking Sardaukar do enjoy high social status in Herbert's feudal society.
Sardaukar are trained from infancy on the planet Salusa Secundus, House Corrino's original (and now environmentally barren) homeworld as well as the formal Capital world of the Empire prior to the Butlerian Jihad. Known to the rest of the Imperium as the Emperor's Prison Planet, Salusa Secundus is home to the vicious training grounds of the Sardaukar, who fight voraciously in a mock-up of natural selection - ensuring that only the best enter formal Imperial service. Like the Fremen on the planet Dune, the intense difficulties of simply surviving the barren terrain and fellow populace on Salusa Secundus leave only the toughest alive, given that environmental conditions are of such ferocity that they kill 6 out of 13 individuals before the age of eleven. Further, their training emphasized ruthlessness and near-suicidal disregard for personal safety, as well as being taught to use cruelty as a weapon from infancy, weakening opponents with terror. In conjunction with intense conditioning for loyalty to the Emperor, the Sardaukar are estimated as worth ten times their number in Landsraad house levies. The Sardaukar are normally organized under legions, each composed of ten brigades of roughly 30,000 soldiers each, and it is said that one legion alone can pacify any planet foolish enough to incur the Emperor's wrath. However, the Sardaukar have become far more complacent during the reign of Emperor Shaddam IV, when appropriations for training went down while the number of Bursegs (generals) increased. By the time of the novel Dune (the coming of Paul Atreides as the prophesied Muad'Dib), the Sardaukar were defeated by the Fremen on Arrakis and House Corrino lost the Imperial throne to House Atreides.
During Children of Dune, Princess Wensicia, daughter of the deposed Emperor Shaddam IV, initiates a plot for the return to power of her family and the Sardaukar. However, her son Farad'n voluntarily surrendered them to the new Emperor, Leto Atreides II. Leto later disbanded the Sardaukar and replaced them with the Fish Speakers.At their prime, their swordsmastery and unarmed combat ability was said to equal that of a Ginzal 10th-Level Swordmaster, while their infighting matched that of a Bene Gesserit adept.
It is known that by the time of Children of Dune, the Sardaukar were trained to the same standard as the Fremen, though their numbers were restricted to a single legion. During Shaddam IV's time, while still formidable, their strength had been sapped by overconfidence, and the sustaining mystique of their warrior religion deeply undermined by cynicism.
Before the time of the novel God Emperor of Dune, one of Leto II's many gholas (clones) of Duncan Idaho led the remnants of the Sardaukar in an unsuccessful revolt.
The defeat on Dune, the Sardaukar's later revolt against the God Emperor, and the general decline of the Sardaukar organization all finally caused the abolishment of the Sardaukar corps. They were replaced by the female Fish Speakers, who in time, by and large, had Sardaukar blood in their veins.
It is also worth mentioning that the Sardaukar appeared the Dune RTS games, though their roles in Dune II and Dune 2000 weren't much plot-essential. They were only special units trained out of Emperor's Imperial Barracks (or the Harkonnen Barracks in multiplayer). In , after the death of Emperor Corrino, the Sardaukar were compelled to observe the three Houses of the Landsaarad during the War of Assassins, allying only the House that proves the strongest. During the Atreides campaign, a Bene Tleilax Face Dancer assassin attempts to poison two generals by masquerading himself as a maid, but failed.
In the game, they are noted as being the toughest infantry units throughout, armed with a combination of miniguns, lasers and daggers. This rendered them highly effective at opposing both armoured and infantry units of opposing sides.
In comparison, the Fremen(in-game) were superb light infantry, using snipers and Fedaykin Death Commandos, possessing excellent stealth camouflage and tracking, while not sharing the resilience and firepower of the average Sardaukar infantry.
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