Arms of the Great Houses

You'll need a coat of arms before you begin your epic struggle in the Dune universe or else, why did we even buy all of these wind machines!?! While there are many rules for heraldry (you can learn more at Heraldry for RPGs) the two big rules we are most concerned with are the arms must be unique and the must be legible at a distance (or at really small size). 

Throughout the history of the Imperium, distinctive devices identifying members of the Great Houses served several purposes; how long the practice endured shows how important the nobility considered those purposes. First, a coat of arms was the signal mark of noble status. It displayed both the owner’s distinction and individuality — no other in the known worlds bore the same arms.

Second, the coat was hereditary, and therefore proved descent from an ancestry that had achieved greatness, or at least notoriety. Third, when a figure or color from the coat was used as a badge by retainers, soldiers, or servitors, the association wife the House was clear for all to see.

The origin of coats of arms is lost in the past. They were certainly used before the Imperium, and may derive from Terra itself. The names of the colors alone, unchanged in ten thousand years, prove the antiquity of the custom; what language they derive from no one can say. The approved colors are: or (yellow or gold), argent (silver), gules (red), azure (blue; compare The Azhar Book), sable (black), vert (green), purpure (compare modern Galach parfal), tenné (orange), and murrey (dark red).

Heraldry, the system of describing coats of arms, has a unique syntax, quicker illustrated than explained. Here, for example, is the blazon, or verbal description, of the arms of House Corrino: “White a lion sejant guardant erect or.” That is, on a white field, a yellow or gold lion, seated facing the viewer. Here are the arms of the more powerful Great Houses. The illustrations should clarify any doubt caused by unfamiliar terminology.¹Great Houses, Arms, Pennants, and Insignia The Dune Encyclopedia, p 377.

House Corrino

Argent a lion erect sejant guardant or.

House Alexin

Tawny a Garb proper.

Reap as you sow

House Alman

Gules an eagle displayed wings inverted Argent, beaked and armed Or, an escutcheon or with heart of the first.

House Andersson

Per saltire Or and Argent, a cross over all Azure.

Never Again

House Atreides

Sable, a falcon’s head couped gules, encircled of laurel branches vert.

No Call We Do Not Answer

House Delambre

Party per fess, azure and purpur, a bar potenty argent, in chief a lasgun or, in nombril a harp or.

A Haven for the Lost

House Desnai

Or a bend sinister azure, a crescent argent.

Beneath Beauty, Strength

Saalbach

Countess Sigrun

House Ecaz

Vert, Yggrasill Or

The Forest Endures

House Ezharian

Vert on a fess argent, three roses gules.

Warmth in the Cold

House Fenring

Argent, a chain palewise sable,two lions rampant combatant gules.

Cultrum in Umbra

House Hagal

Celeste, in bend three hand-fans Argent.

The Brightest Jewel

House Harkonnen

Ochre, an ox-headed griffin segreant sinister azure.

First to fight

House Hel

Gules, a desert wolf rampant regardant or.

Power to those Who Seek it

Homeworld: Hellsing

Duke Julius Hel

House Kenola

Argent an open book azure.

In Faith is Strength

House Kenric

Party per chevron or and vert, on a chief gules three bezants, in nombril a rocket ascending argent.

Per Aspera ad Astra

House Lindaren

Azure a scythe in bend sinister argent.

Nothing built without foundation

House Maros

Or, a terrace in base vert, an ox passant gules.

Ours is the hunt

House Mikarrol

Purpur, a gauntlet close or.

We hold the chains.

House Mondragon

Argent, a Cross Barry Nebuly Cendrée and Azure, in the first and fourth a Dragon dormant Azure.

Knowledge will Reveal

Bruxell

Scion Quinn Mondragon

House Moritani

Azure, on a bend argent a ringed planet gules, between two stars argent.

Might is Power.

House Mutelli

Argent, a tudor rose

We Know

House Novebruns

Brunâtre, three diamonds in chief proper.

Prosperity from Darkness

House Ophelion

Party per cross sable and vert, charged with crosses formy sable and lozenges argent.

House Ordos

Or, two bones white in saltire, entwined in dexter chief with ivy vert.

House Richese

Per chevron azure and argent, in chief a lamp of the last.

Technology Under Faith

Spielzeug

Flanched Gules, Bary Bendy Sinister Or and Gules, a Wing Argent.

Joy in Struggle

Etera

Duke Holzig

House Spinnette

Ochre, two kindjal in pale or.

The Two Sided Blade

House Taligari

Per pale vert and argent, a scale counter changed.

Nobility is All

House Tavian

Wavy per Pale Counterchanged, Azure and Argent, overall a Asherahn Octopus proper, maintaining four Pipes Or.

Truth is our Muse

Asherah

Agah Cas Tavian

House Thorvald

Per pale purpur and or, a hammer counter changed.

The Hammer of Wealth

House Tiiopa’it

Argent a bend azure, in chief a wolf’s head erased sable, in base a pentagon azure.

House Varnax

Gules a phoenix rising or.

From Ashes we Rise

Kallidos

Despatar Alfred Varnax

House Vernius

Purpur in bend sinister a helix copper.

Truth from Science

Ix

House Wallach

Sable, on a pale argent a closed book tenné encircled by a serpent vert.

House Wikkheiser

Azure an anchor or between alpha and omega argent.

Spacing Guild

Back to the top of Dune: Adventures in the Imperium

Join us for the Great Game!

This is a fan site devoted to running Dune: Adventures in the Imperium by Modiphius Entertainment, based on Dune created by Frank Herbert and owned by the Gale Force Nine, a Battlefront Group Company. No use of eithers’ intellectual property on this page is meant to constitute a challenge to either entities’ rights and is intended under fair use provisions. We encourage you to buy a copy of this fine RPG, if you use one of the links provided on this page we’ll receive a small fee that will help support expansion of the material found here. The planetary illustrations here are mostly from the core book and NASA. Art not coming from Modiphius, or NASA are fan works either from myself or other fans, I credit other artists where I have a source available and would appreciate your help finding the origin of other fan art included without attribution. In many places I cite the Dune Encyclopedia, a collective work released in 1983, which I got from a book of the month club accidentally and was my entry point to the Dune universe, I would love to have a link available so you could get your own, but it appears to be out of print.