Salusa Secundus

Salusa Secundus is a fictional planet appearing in Frank Herbert's Dune universe.

It is the third planet of the Gamma Waiping system and ancestral home to the Imperial House, House Corrino and thus, the former capital planet of the Imperium. House Corrino was driven from the lush planet of Salusa Secundus long before the setting of the novel, Dune by an atomic attack carried out by a rival House who were subsequently exterminated. The Corrinos relocated the Imperial capital to Kaitain and Salusa was left as a barren wasteland with conditions comparable with those on Arrakis and was used as a prison planet for the empire's hardened criminals. However, it emerges that House Corrino continued to use Salusa and the harsh conditions there to condition the prisoners and train them as Sardaukar terror troops, reasoning that those capable of surviving the harsh conditions on Salusa Secundus would be the perfect soldiers.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

After the fall of the Imperium to Paul Atreides House Corrino is exiled to Salusa Secundus, with the exception of Princess Irulan, and from that planet Princess Wensicia, the daughter of Shaddam IV, plots an attempt to retake control of the empire for her son, Farad'n.