Vladimir Harkonnen - Tumblr Posts
DUNE 2024
Paul and Irulan are distantly related--and they study at the same university. However, they can't stand each other and spend all their time arguing with each other.
This carries on through their university career, postgraduate school and their jobs for Empire Industries, for which Paul's father works in a very senior position and in which Irulan's dad is the CEO.
Until the day that Paul's dad is sent to Arrakis, to clean up the mess that Paul's granddad, Vladimir Harkonnen, and cousins Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha made. Paul is sent as his assistant and Irulan is told she has to choose one of the Harkonnen boys to marry; he will run the company and she will be a dutiful corporate wife.
Paul and his parents are trying to understand who's behind the acts of sabotage against them and their team on Arrakis. And Leto and Paul are trying to make a deal with the Fremen, who don't like their land being exploited. It's then that he runs into Chani, his girlfriend in University, who's working along with her mother as an environmental scientist.
Roaring 20's AU
Shaddam Corrino IV, who heads a stockbroking firm in New York, also owns a string of large warehouses, across the states, bought by his father some thirty years ago. He's been trying to sell them off, to raise money and offset the losses he suffered in the Russian and the European market due to the war and revolution, when he's approached by the Harkonnens. They're into manufacturing steel, mining coal and drilling for petroleum--also saloons and the flesh trade. They'll lease the warehouses from him, using shell companies, to store the liquor they plan to smuggle into the US when prohibition becomes law. Shaddam agrees to this proposal.
But, unknown to Shaddam, the Harkonnens have enemies, FBI agents Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, who are keeping them under scrutiny. A year after the deal is made, they raid one of the warehouses where the smuggled liquor is stored, just when Glossu Rabban Harkonnen is present to ensure the despatch of goods to their destinations. He is killed and the FBI has a lead. They also find more than liquor in that warehouse--they find drugs.
Meanwhile, Glossu's uncle, Vladimir, is determined to have his younger nephew, Feyd-Rautha, marry into the Corrino family to control the stockbroking firm Shaddam and his forebears built up. The younger Corrino girls are married; Irulan, the eldest daughter, now a woman of 28, has been looking after her father's household and her younger sisters since her mother's death seven years ago. The Baron settles upon her as the bride for his nephew.
When the local FBI station director, Leto Atreides (who is also related to him) begins asking Shaddam questions about the warehouse and its lease, he clams up, just giving Leto the name of the shell company with which he'd signed the contract. He's ready to bail when he learns that both liquor and drugs were found in that warehouse. However, Vladimir reveals he has evidence that could implicate Shaddam in his smuggling operations (tapes of their conversations re the leasing of Corrino warehouses). He says he will not reveal this if he allows his daughter Irulan to marry Feyd-Rautha. Shaddam reluctantly agrees.
When he learns of the Corrino-Harkonnen engagement, Leto begins to investigate the other warehouses Shaddam owns. He also recruits his son, Paul, who's just returned from the war in Europe, to tail Irulan, who might be in danger from the Harkonnens.
Meanwhile, Shaddam asks Hasimir Fenring, his assistant, to investigate Feyd-Rautha. Fenring digs up disturbing details of his sexual proclivities. That's when Shaddam asks Hasimir's wife, Margot, for help and also warns Irulan about what to expect.