The na-Baron Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is a character and antagonist in the science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.
The younger nephew of the cruel, powerful and cunning Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the young Feyd is as lean and muscular as the Baron is morbidly obese.
Feyd and his elder brother Glossu Rabban are the legal sons of Baron Harkonnen's youngest demibrother, Abulurd Rabban, who had renounced the Harkonnen name and all rights to the title when given the subdistrict governorship of Rabban-Lankiveil.
As Dune begins, Feyd-Rautha figures heavily in the Baron's plans to gain power for House Harkonnen. The Baron favors the handsome and charismatic Feyd over Feyd's older brother Glossu Rabban ("The Beast") because of Feyd's extreme intelligence and his dedication to the Harkonnen culture of carefully planned and subtly executed sadism and cruelty, as opposed to Rabban's outright brutality.
