Shaddam Corrino IV

The Padishah Emperor Shaddam Raphael Corrino IV (10,119-10,202 A.G.), the eighty-first and last of the line of House Corrino to occupy the Golden Lion Throne. Shaddam reigned from 10,156 A.G. (the date his father, Elrood IX, succumbed to chaumurky) until he was replaced by the 10,193 A.G. Regency set up in the name of his eldest daughter, the Princess Irulan.

Shaddam was officially the son of Elrood Corrino IX through his fourth wife, Habla (10,071-10,132 A.G.). Unofficially, however, the eighty-first ruler of the Known Universe came to be through a far more convoluted series of events. Elrood’s first wife, the lady Barbara of House Mutelli (9,997-10,026 A.G.), produced two children, Wensicia (10,018-10,182 A.G.) and Elliot (10,020-10,021 A.G.) After her son Elliot was murdered as an infant by Elrood himself, she went insane. Elrood still kept her, impregnating her repeatedly, and the fertilized embryos were placed in storage for later dynastic emergencies. Such an emergency came about during Elrood’s marriage to Habla, whom he married in 10,100 A.G. After nineteen years of marriage, Habla had produced no children. Elrood implanted one of Barbara’s frozen embryos into Habla, and thus Habla gave birth to Shaddam. It is doubtful that Shaddam himself knew, or ever learned, the identity of his true genetic mother.