Hasimir Fenring - Dune

In the events of Dune, Fenring serves as Governor of Arrakis during the handover period between House Harkonnen and House Atreides (he previously had been the Imperial Agent on Arrakis during the Harkonnen regime). As Padishah Emperor Shaddam's chief counsellor, Fenring is frequently described as "the Emperor's errand boy" in the novel. The dialogues written for Fenring make it seem that he suffers from a verbal tic but the speech patterns could be an affectation of the character. "Fenring seldom did anything he felt to be unnecessary, or used two words where one would do, or held himself to a single meaning in a single phrase." Baron Harkonnen refers to Fenring as "Ambassador to the Smugglers", indicating Shaddam IV's interest in spice smuggling operations on Arrakis. Fenring is later the Siridar-Absentia of the Atreides homeworld of Caladan while the Atreides occupy Arrakis.

During a subsequent visit to the Harkonnen homeworld of Giedi Prime, Fenring's wife Lady Margot, with his knowledge and following orders from the Bene Gesserit, seduces Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in order to retrieve his genetic material (through conception) for the Bene Gesserit breeding program. Fenring seems complicit in the Bene Gesserit scheme, saying "I can see now why we must have that bloodline."

In Count Fenring: A Profile (referenced via epigraph in Dune), Princess Irulan writes of Fenring's relationship with her father, Shaddam IV:

No woman, no man, no child ever was deeply intimate with my father. The closest anyone ever came to casual camaraderie with the Padishah Emperor was the relationship offered by Count Hasimir Fenring, a companion from childhood. The measure of Count Fenring's friendship may be seen first in a positive thing: he allayed the Landsraad's suspicions after the Arrakis Affair. It cost more than a billion solaris in spice bribes, so my mother said, and there were other gifts as well: slave women, royal honors, and tokens of rank. The second major evidence of the Count's friendship was negative. He refused to kill a man even though it was within his capabilities and my father commanded it. I will relate this presently.

When Shaddam is forced into a corner by Paul Atreides in Dune, he and his Truthsayer, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam, realize "they had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery." Fenring is summoned. Shaddam orders him to kill Paul, but Fenring refuses his Emperor's wishes for the only known time: "The Count focused on Paul, seeing with eyes his Lady Margot had trained in the Bene Gesserit way, aware of the mystery and hidden grandeur about this Atreides youth." Paul represents the success of the Bene Gesserit breeding program of which Fenring himself is a failure. Paul himself notes, "Fenring was one of the might-have-beens, an almost Kwisatz Haderach, crippled by a flaw in the genetic pattern — a eunuch, his talent concentrated into furtiveness and inner seclusion."

According to Appendix IV: The Almanak en-Ashraf (Selected Excerpts of the Noble Houses) in Dune, Paul ascends the Imperial throne, Fenring joins Shaddam in his forced retirement on the prison planet Salusa Secundus and Fenring dies in 10,225 A.G.