Description

[Kannon]

Castle Caladan is an ancient structure that defines the Atreides rule over the planet. It is the Ducal residence and the seat of government and many other administrative functions. It has no small military significance as well, as the it was erected from thick stone and rises directly from a cliff promontory that goes perpendicularly down to the sea below, and there may be vaults, caves and tunnels within the hide the trump cards of Atreides power. There are at least a couple of thopter landing pads that open directly out of the cliffside.

The decor is mostly severe and monotonous, cedar wood on stone. Vaulted ceilings and wooden beams patterned with family symbolism look alike in all parts of the castle. The layout is very convoluted and asymmetric, intuitive to only those who have long lived or served in it. By design or not, it is a significant deterrent against infiltration by assassins.

Public areas and courtyards, one directly adjacent to the orchards by a winding cliffside path, the other leading to the landing zone for spacecraft, face the Cala City. Ducal living spaces and those of their closest advisors, guards and agents, as well as their offices and facilities face the ocean, with rotund windows and balconies opening more boldly to the outside, providing stunning views. Not only onto the seas of Caladan, but also at the distant Mount Syubi further inland, across the estuary.

The most representative space of the castle is the Dining Hall. One one hand, this area was very much like the rest of the castle, just more lavish. However, the ceiling was renovated not so long ago, with the stone overlaid with black Hagal quartz that imitate starlit skies. A great portrait of Duke Paulus Atreides, the Old Duke, Leto's father, captured whole in a charismatic pose while wearing his traje de luces and holding the sword that was now Duncan's, overlooked Leto's end of the table. The entrance on the opposite wall was 'decorated' with a taxidermy mount of the severed head of the great Salusan bull that had slain him. The Ducal blood on its horns is also preserved. Many, including Leto's prior concubines, have considered the bull head garish and unnecessary, but the Red Duke has never budged on the eccentricity of keeping it where it was, glaring at everyone's meals.