Our universe operates on chaos. There is no real order, no matter how many laws, rules or proscriptions are put in place.
- Gilbertus Albans, The Path to Enlightenment
Born the son of the great Levenbrech Onum Butler, himself the son of the legendary Ruler Alarum Butler, who had first assembled and led the Butlerian Army, and the charismatic Grand Priestess of the Church of the Twelve Martyrs, Gladia Olu, thirty-year old Santirix Butler had, in all fairness, been in a lucky, priveleged position at birth to rise to command the Sardaukar. However, he was also both one of the most skilled fighters and one of the most natural leaders humankind had ever seen, and his position of Supreme Commander was well-deserved.
However, even someone as talented as Santirix could not compete against the weapons of the Bene Corrin. The sadistic Merchant Princes of the Bene Corrin used technology that came close to, and, some claimed, passed, the Butlerian proscriptions. Well, it wasn't as if law mattered that much to the Corrinu. Santirix had seen dreadful things. Millions of hunter-seekers, ripping the best and most promising young men of the Sardaukar to bits in an instant, bringing back their skin, muscles, nerves, organs - everything - to Corrin, and leaving only skeletons.
Luckily for the soul of mankind, the Corrinu would not dare openly go past the strict boundaries set by the Jihad ended twenty years ago, but there were rumors. There were always rumors. And in war, some boundaries would inevitabily be crossed...Ah, yes. The war. Ninety-eight years ago, in the early days when the Jihad was slowly approaching it's climax, the Butlerian Army sweeping across the galaxy, purging every world of sophisticated machines and AI technology, the ancestors of the hated Corrinu, who had been a wealthy government with a powerful military, had not defied the Army, allowing them to "clense" their world of thinking machines, but had refused to join them in their great crusade with their enormous army, as the survivors of the other massacres were expected to do, and did, taking out their anger on other worlds.
Instead, they had gathered all of their military power and made the famous Corrin Barricade of ships, isolating themselves from the rest of civilisation, cutting off all trade of food, water and other precious resources, and continuing to refuse to help with the Jihad. On any other world, this would have been despised, but perhaps not something to start a war over. So, one stubborn world did not want to join in on the bloodshed. As long as it was rid of machines, the Army moved on grudgingly. But the Great Army of Corrin could have ended the Jihad in a few years. Instead it had taken many more decades...and too much death.
And so, when the Jihad was finally declared over with the Last Purge and the execution of Julius the Defiant on Arrakis, and the mighty Sardaukar had began to form and grow from the best of the old Butlerian Army, the zealant leaders and veterans of the Jihad had turned to Corrin in disgust and declared war. However, as the Butlerian Army had grown and become the Sardaukar, the former Great Army of Corrin who had cowered on the planet had evolved over the years into an unstoppable killing machine - luckily, not literally - to almost rival the Sardaukar, but not quite. However, with the near-Jihad disobeying technologies the former Council of Corrin (who had become the Bene Corrin, the evil Corrinu, by this time) had developed, the Corrin Barricade had remained for two decades, and the ongoing siege had died down to occasional sudden but small and halfhearted attempts at attacks on the planet, all of which had been fruitless. The Corrinu attacks on Salusa Secundus, which had become the Capital of the Jihad League (still existing, despite the Jihad having ended twenty years ago, as no other government of rulers had been decided upon yet), were similar, but in a much more smug and successful way - casual and small legions or just swarms of hunter-seekers, as if they could not be bothered
But Supreme Commander Santirix Butler was determined not only to find a way to break the Corrin Barricade, but to launch the ultimate attack on everyone - the Battle of Corrin. He would surprise the rest of the Jihad League by commanding his Sardaukar not only to attack the Corrinu armies, but the League Ships of the royal families, the ones who had been disputing for years about who would take over leadership of the Jihad League and mold it as they saw fit. He would use his loyal Sardaukar - helped by a tiny bit of technology that came to the edges of the Jihad's proscriptions, the very boundaries of legality - to defeat the forces of the Corrinu and the royal families of the League. The latter would be easy, anyway, as they would certainly not expect it. He would then return to Salusa, surrounding the planet with Sardaukar, and declare his victory to the nobles who had stayed on the Capital, as well as the citizens of the planet. He would make himself Emperor of a new colossal Empire in the biggest coup in history. He could almost see it crystal-clear when he closed his eyes.
Everything was almost ready. The Battle of Corrin approached every day.
