The political entity that governed the Known Universe for over ten thousand years under the Padishah Emperors of House Corrino, from the founding of the Imperium after the Battle of Corrin to the deposition of Shaddam IV by Paul Atreides. Power was distributed in a triangular balance between the Emperor (backed by the Sardaukar), the Landsraad (the assembly of Great Houses), and CHOAM (the commercial combine), with the Spacing Guild providing interstellar transport. This structure, codified in the Great Convention, maintained relative stability through mutual distrust and counterbalancing ambitions.