Most of the feudal powers began as economic or military units but, with a very few exceptions, those that lasted became a combination of both. Such exceptions as the Sardaukar, who depended for their power upon simple force majeur, or the planet of Dendros, whose enormous forests provided a continuing source of wealth for some few million militarily unorganized citizens, were very rare; indeed, the Sardaukar were unique. In the normal case, successful feudal powers, especially those that managed to gain control of a planet, based their power upon a combination of dominance of the world's economy and control of its military forces.
Some worlds managed to escape subjection by a feudal power, whether foreign or home grown. Two of the most famous are Tupile and Tleilax, but they were permitted to survive as non-feudal only because they rendered the Imperium some special service which demanded that they remain outside the Imperium, The Tleilaxu provided that forbidden commodity, technology, while the Tupile entente provided a refuge for defeated Houses. Without such a refuge, such Houses would have been destroyed. The House Corrino lasted as long as it did by avoiding such extremes whenever possible.
Feudal states are imperialistic insofar as their power and their opponents will permit, and these new governments were no exception. The wealthier or more militarily powerful expanded their boundaries as swiftly as they could, and the weaker soon fell prey to the strong. There were certain limits upon this expansion, though. For a time the possibility of interstellar empire was gone with the machines that had been the object of the Butlerian Jihad. Interstellar travel had become slow, limited to small, highspeed vessels carrying precious cargoes of luxury goods. The slow pace of invasion fleets over star distances prohibited long-range invasion.
Once the stronger had absorbed the weaker, a rough balance of powers emerged in the various major sectors of the inhabited worlds. Certain planets, very wealthy or unusually skillful militarily, separated themselves and established their positions among the great forces within the ranks of the great feudal states. The rivalry was intense, but futile; none of them was able to mark itself as clearly superior to the rest of their fellows, no matter how hard each tried. This remained the state of affairs until the rise of the Sardaukar.
Under such circumstances, the quite understandable suspicions which arose between the great feudal states only made easier their conquest by the legions from Salusa Secundus. Their antagonisms hindered what might have been their only chance for survival: it was impossible for them to unite quickly. One may doubt that even their united forces would have sufficed, but the point will remain moot, as efforts at unified resistance were begun far too late.
For the Landsraad, however, the rise of the Sardaukar and the creation of House Corrino caused the second great change in relatively recent times. The rise of feudal powers had fundamentally changed the nature of most of the constituent governments; the emergence of House Corrino united the Landsraad as it had never been. Finally the feudal powers were able to perceive a danger greater than each other, and the advantages of the Landsraad as the focus of non-Imperial power became obvious. It was the only organization which provided a means of channeling the common interests of thousands of worlds against the Sardaukar. The dominance of military power lay with the feudal states; thus the strength of the Great Houses within the Landsraad was augmented.
This increase in the strength of the Great Houses was made complete by the arrival of the Spacing Guild and the creation of CHOAM. The chartering of the development corporation, which gave to feudal powers a monopoly on access to the services of the Guild, effectively destroyed the few remaining non-feudal governments within the Landsraad. Not long after the development of the Guild monopoly, the High Council of the Landsraad ceased to be chosen by lot. The old body was dissolved and a new group of members was elected by the meeting of the Landsraad. The membership remained at one hundred; after the first election, members were replaced only by a vote of the High Council: from that time, the Council renewed itself by co-optation.
The downfall of House Corrino after ten millennia of rule, and the triumph of House Atreides after the ravages of the Fremen Jihad, did not affect the structure or traditional function of the Landsraad as the focus of power against the Imperial House. Given the dominance of House Atreides within CHOAM, and the ravages of the Jihad, the power of the Landsraad was much decreased, however, and it was never able regain the position of a near equal to the Imperial power.
F.M.
Further references: CHOAM; BUTLERIAN JIHAD; IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION; T.B. Jones, series of articles in Journal of Ancient Economies (Lagash VII); T. Eboyane, The Faufreluches. The Gnat Chain of Being, and Natural Science (Yorba: Rose).
LASER WEAPONS
(Lasguns). Developed during the First Empire as weapons of war. Since the development of the Holtzman Shield, though, the use of lasers has diminished considerably, and they are used today almost exclusively as antiwildlife weapons and in sport shooting. The earliest lasguns were massive mounted weapons weighing upwards of several tons, and were used as antiaircraft weapons, or in orbit as antisatellite weapons. Shortly after their invention, the first portable lasguns were developed and produced, and until the general acceptance of the Holtzman Shield, lasers were the main weapons of all armed conflict.
Development. Lasers were first developed for industrial use as cutting torches, scalpels, and drills. The primitive devices were immobile and had an effective range of only a few meters. They were large, bulky, awkward to operate and required massive amounts of power. The first lasguns were simply adaptations of the industrial laser, with longer range but few other changes. These impractical weapons could not compete with the projectile weapons of the day, and were never widely produced. Legend has it that the first widely produced lasguns were the Antisatellite Lasers, produced by Houses Washington and Steel during the very beginnings of the atomic age, when both Houses shared a single planet and neither was sure that the other would not use atomics. These lasguns were still large and used too much power, but the value of having them in orbit nevertheless was seen as an overriding benefit.
The first truly personal laser was developed late in the First Empire, and was intended for use mainly as a communications device. However it was quickly discovered that the power could be stepped up (albeit at the cost of more rapidly depleting the power pack) and that this increase converted the message laser into a lasgun that could be carried and used by a single person. These "communications devices" already had the form of more conventional rifles (since the message beam had to be visually aimed by the user) so their adaptation as weapons may not have been accidental. The main drawbacks of the first lasguns were the large, heavy powerpacks and their limited numbers of firings before recharging. Even at a range of one hundred meters against an unprotected target, a user of a primitive lasgun could count only on ten or so shots from a single powerpack. In addition, these weapons still used visible light, which limited their effectiveness when used in an atmosphere (because of the diffraction effects of the gases), and which also made the weapons embarrassingly subject to reflection from intentionally mirrored or naturally reflective surfaces.
The next major step in lasgun development was the development of so-called "Radio Lasers," which used radiations outside of the wavelengths of visible light as the lasing frequencies. This development, coupled with continuing advances in power storage technology, allowed the lasgun to come into its own as the weapon of choice of all combatants.
The most powerful lasguns were the ones using the wavelengths of long-wave radio: they were almost impossible to detect or block, and had extremely long ranges. Unfortunately, they also required very large chambers, due to the length of the waves being produced, and were impractical as anything except mounted weapons, either on spaceships or in defensive positions.
The lasgun of popular memory usually employed deep-ultraviolet wavelengths and ranged in size from small hand-held weapons to heavy, mounted, barely portable weapons, and included the popular
laserifle. The crewed weapons usually had a separate powerpack, which could be discarded when depleted and replaced in the field; personal weapons were generally charged by "power-buttons," small batteries which were inserted into the stock or grip of the weapon and either discarded, replaced or recharged when depleted. The advent of lightweight batteries gave lasgun users the ability to fight for extended periods of time without resupply, and made lasguns the basic combat weapon for all branches of the military.
Lasguns today. The development of the Holtzman Effect Shield spelled the end of the lasgun as a common weapon. Today, lasgun manufacture and ownership is strongly restricted, since accidental contact between a laser beam and one of the ubiquitous personal shields is extremely deadly. Collectors and others who own lasguns are normally prohibited from owning the power sources for their weapons, except in certain specified locations where lasgun enthusiasts gather to test their target-shooting skills, or on wild planets, where lasguns are still highly useful as protective weapons.
W.D.I.
Further reference: HOLTZMAN EFFECT.
LETO'S CART
Before discoveries in the Rakis Finds of schematics and manuals of the legendary device known as "Leto's Cart," all that was known of it was that it used both wheels and "suspensor bubbles" for transportation, was covered by a canopy which became clear or opaque as desired, and was unique. Since the only model was destroyed when Leto died, all else remained a mystery.
We now know that Leto's cart was seven meters long, three meters wide and, with its canopy raised, two meters tall. Because of Leto's special requirements, the cart was intended to be driven by a prone driver: judging from the control surfaces, it could be operated effectively only by Leto.
The body of the cart was a shallow shell, with a low rim which became a wide ramp for entry and exit. Four wide wheels could be dropped from recesses in the corners of the shell, allowing this more efficient mode of travel when ground conditions permitted. Built into the bottom of the shell was the main motive system; two rows of six suspensor bubbles each. The Holtzman Effect fields created by miniaturized generators automatically provided exactly enough lift to counterbalance the weight of the cart and any passengers. The bubbles were shielded by refracted magnetic fields as a safeguard against lasgun attacks. This protection, long thought impossible, was kept secret. Thus, many historians dismissed the suspensor bubbles of Leto's Cart as an utter fabrication, since eye-witnesses once reported that a lasgun beam struck the bottom of the cart. Actually, the beams struck the magnetic fields surrounding the suspensor bubbles, and when the magnetic system overloaded, a failsafe mechanism instantly vaporized the Holtzman generator in a puff of orange-yellow smoke.
The Emperor guided his cart through use of his atrophied legs. Two control slots were located in the rear of the cart, and received Leto's legs when he lay in it. The cart was directed by moving the legs from side to side for turns, up or down for acceleration or deceleration, and in specific opposing directions to activate special functions such as switching from wheel to suspensor mode.
There were no provisions for maintenance access to the interior of the cart: no doubt security precautions directed that its interior be solid-state. A single panel in the interior of the shell near the driver's left side accepted a wafer battery every few months. The cart also contained several capacitors which allowed it to be operated from stored power for a number of days, even without a battery in the power circuits.
A full-sized mockup of Leto's Cart is currently being built at the Discovery Museum on Rakis; a working model is expected within two years.
Further references: ATREIDES LETO II; IX; Alan Bartke, Survey of Ixian Technology, 10900-13500 (Finally: Mosaic).
LICALLO, TAIAZOR
(12191-12277). The first figure in the field of music of the Second Empire. Nearly all the composers and musicians who followed him were influenced by his work. He wrote in all the important musical forms of his day, and brought all of these to their highest fulfillment. In doing so, he was continuing a family tradition of musical performance that had lasted for seven generations.
Licallo himself told the story of his ancestor Veit Licallo, a shopkeeper by trade, who began playing his citheron (an ancient forerunner of the baliset and cittern) in rhythm to the sounds of the bazaar on which his little store fronted. "And that is how music first entered our family," wrote Taiazor.1
The Licallos were a tightly knit family, and in their home province on the planet Chusuk, successive members held the post of court musician at Lectis Maxima, seat of the Bashilius Dilowa, and served as choir directors in the churches of Dilowa and Gegen for two hundred years. When one resigned or died, he or she was replaced by another member of the family. By the birth of Taiazor in 12191, the term licallo had already become synonymous with "musician" in many of the planetary dialects. There are references in Dilovan records to "bands of musicians or licallos..."2 According to Licallo's first biographer, Mian Tebery, the family used to hold annual reunions at which "they would amuse themselves by singing chorales and folksongs (whose contents were often naughty as well as humorous), all of which were sung in such a way that several parts improvised made a kind of harmony together."3
As a boy, Taiazor was taught to play the baliset, the finger pipes, and the Carillon bells, while his great-uncle, the venerable Filip Licallo, started him on the organum. Taiazor continued both his musical and his classical studies when he went to live with his half-brother, Dion Licallo, after he was orphaned at the age of ten. When he was fifteen, Taiazor began to support himself as school organist at St. Gregorica's Collegium in Gegen. Here he advanced his studies in chorus, theory, and composition, and studied advanced keyboard technique under the tutelage of Linan Mobh (b. 12165, Chusuk; d. 12259). At eighteen he left the Collegium and was employed as organist and choir director in the nearby village of Shaobela, but the young Taiazor discovered that since he was only a little older than some of his choristers, it was almost impossible for him to keep order. The Shaobela watch records tell of a public brawl between Taiazor and one of his tenors, who attacked him with a stick. The youths were separated before blood could be drawn, but at the hearing the boy testified that he had acted under extreme provocation: Licallo had criticized his singing of a particularly difficult passage in the liturgy for St. Genesius by using the deadly insult "zipelfagotisti," a word as difficult to translate as it is to pronounce.
The incident was characteristic of the person of Licallo: he spent much of his adult life in one scrape or another, constantly fighting with his superiors, and he had a notoriously short temper. He was utterly frank on matters on which he was an expert, but his lack of diplomacy made him many bitter enemies. However, he was modest about his own art, completely fair, and eager to learn from other composers.
At twenty, he took a leave of absence from his post and went to Dilowa, by then the major center for music on Chusuk, for further study. Upon returning to his position, he was criticized for his introduction of "many fanciful ideas" on the way to play in church, and especially for his bringing to the gallery a young woman from Dilowa as his assistant. The girl was his second cousin Estra, who became his wife in niMiklim of that year (12212); Estra died only two years later, in giving birth to their second child. He remarried the next year, to Rauzmiir Niveam, one of his choir members, who bore him twelve more children. Licallo often joked that he could make a sizable orchestra from the members of his household alone.
In his twenties, in order to teach his children music both vocal and instrumental, Licallo began to create a series of instructional pieces for the baliset, which began with the simplest of melodies and proceeded to extremely complex pieces. These were collected under the title, Etudes and Progressions for Baliset, which G.M. Redbrick praised as "the soul of the baliset." On the strength of these pieces he was offered the position of director of music at the newly founded St. Sateel School for Boys, established by endowment from House Chula. It was there that he wrote the bulk of
his work.
Among his most famous works is the choral setting of The Trial of St. Sateel, now regarded as the greatest choral work in the Galach language. When it was first produced it was coldly received as being "too theatrical." Ironically, it was considered too provincial when it was performed in Arrakeen, where Caladan opera was setting the fashion, driving Licallo's similar "tegor strum" out of popularity. In his Art of Tegor and The Counterpoint Treasury, Licallo wrote a veritable encyclopedia of baliset music. In his Silversmith Variations for Organum, he took a simple workman's tune and set it to over thirty variations. In his opera of the Battle of Corrin, Au Koreen Miin, he mimicked the Caladan style even as he created startling new projections for voice.
So much attention has been given to Licallo's instrumental and symphonic work, and his operas performed so often in their languages of composition, Gegesh or Gatach, that little note has been made of his musical puns, the weaving into his songs of the names of his friends, and the like. But the composer was much aware of the conditions of performance, being a performer himself, and when setting words to music he often added marginal notes to guide the acting of whatever the singer was involved in. Thus, in Au Koreen Miin, in the aria "Ii wat sin utaud't tuyaur tubyaud't," the singer is to quickly down a glass of wine, throw the glass over his shoulder, and sing "utaud't" ("toast") in an undulating twenty-five-note passage. In The Seven Sailors, a serious motet "Strai noot fremii fresiidit" ("Do not leave my side") changes to comedy as one by one the singers leave the stage, leaving the tenor looking nervously from side to side as the song ends.
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