None of the Great Houses had armies like the Sardaukar.
Think of them as the Emperor’s special forces - if special forces were raised on a prison planet and indoctrinated into a warrior cult.
Any one of them was rated a match for any ten ordinary Landsraad military conscripts. At the apex of their sway over the affairs of the Universe, their swordsmanship was said to match that of the Ginaz tenth level and their cunning abilities at in-fighting were reputed to approach those of a Bene Gesserit adept.
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The Sardaukar came from Salusa Secundus, officially the Emperor’s prison planet, but really more of an extreme boot camp where six out of thirteen people died before hitting puberty.
Talk about trauma bonding.
Nothing builds character quite like surviving a death world, as Duke Leto noted when he called it “the mystique of shared suffering.”
The Sardaukar cult, as depicted in Dune (2021)
Being the most feared fighting force in the Known Universe came with one unexpected downside, however: overconfidence.
When they encountered the Fremen on Arrakis, they learned that they weren’t the only ones shaped by a merciless environment.
“It was a good fight,” the Fremen said. “We lost only two men and spilled the water from more than a hundred of theirs.”
There were Sardaukar at every gun, Hawat thought. This desert madman speaks casually of losing only two men against Sardaukar!
“We would not have lost the two except for those others fighting beside the Harkonnens,” the Fremen said. “Some of those are good fighters.”
One of Hawat’s men limped forward, looked down at the squatting Fremen. “Are you talking about Sardaukar?”
“He’s talking about Sardaukar,” Hawat said.
While various expanded universe materials offer different origin stories for the Sardaukar, this deep dive sticks to Frank Herbert’s original six Dune novels.
There’s plenty to unpack here - from their distinctive combat tactics to their eventual fate under Leto II’s rule.
🔒 In the full article:
The Sardaukar military organization and training methods
Their combat tactics and special equipment
Their role in the Emperor’s political machinations
Their devastating encounters with the Fremen
Their attempted restoration under Farad’n
Their influence on later Imperial forces
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