Vorloupulous—vohr-LOO-puh-loos—Count who sought to evade Dorca's law limiting the number of armsmen a count could have. (WA)
Vormoncrief, Alexi—vohr-MAHN-kreef, aa-LEHK-see—Lieutenant in the Barrayaran military and the nephew of Count Boriz, a meddlesome young man who didn't react well when Ekaterin refused his offer of marriage. (CC)
Vormoncrief, Boriz—______, BOH-rihz—Barrayaran count suing the Council of Counts on behalf of his son-in-law, Sigur Vorbretten. (CC)
Vormuir, Thomas—vohr-MEE_UHR, TAA-ms—Count who has a great ambition to be a father to 122 illegitimate daughters. (CC)
Vormurtos—vohr-MUHR-tohs—Lord, and supporter of Richars' cause, prone to inebriation. (CC)
Vorob'yev—vohr-OHB-yehv—Ambassador, head of Barrayaran Embassy on Eta Ceta. (C)
Vorparadijs—vohr-PAH-rah-dees—General in the Barrayaran military and Imperial Auditor appointed by Ezar, one of the seven Imperial Auditors serving when Simon was stricken. (M)
Vorpatril, Alys—vohr-PAA-trihl, AA-lihs—Lady, a woman of impeccable taste, many friends, and subtle influence, good friend to Simon Illyan. (B, CC, WG)
Vorpatril, Eugin—______, YOO-jihn—Admiral of the Barrayaran escort of the Komarran trade fleet impounded at Graf Station; his flagship is the Prince Xav. (DI)
Vorpatril, Falco—______, FAAL-koh—Count, he is Ivan's cousin several times removed. (CC)
Vorpatril, Ivan—______, AI-vn—Miles's second cousin and heir, closest coeval relative and friend since childhood. A dedicated lady's man. (B, BA, C, M, MD, WA, WG)
Vorpatril, Padma—______, PAHD-mah—only descendant of Prince Xav besides Aral to survive Yuri's assassination squads. (SH)
Vorpinski—vohr-PIHN-skee—Count, one of Alys Vorpatril's circle. (CC)
Vorreedi—vohr-REE-dee—Colonel in Imperial Security and Chief of Protocol of Barrayaran Embassy on Eta Ceta IV, also head of Intelligence department there. (C)
Vorrutyer, Byerly—vohr-ROOT-yr, BAI-r-lee—Assiduous town clown. (CC)
Vorrutyer, Dono—______, DOH-noh—Lord, formerly Lady Donna, part of her scheme to prevent Richars from succeeding to the countship. (CC)
Vorrutyer, Ges—______, GEHS—Admiral in Barrayaran military and co-commander with Prince Serg of the Barrayaran invasion fleet launched against Escobar. Killed by Bothari before the battle. (SH)
Vorrutyer, Richars—______, RIH-chahrs—Successor to Pierre that no one looks forward to, unprovably involved in other suspicious deaths. (CC)
Vorsmythe—vohr-SMAITH—Count, one of Alys Vorpatril's circle. (CC)
Vorsoisson—vohr-SWAH-sawn—Officer in the South Continent district government, best friend of Sasha Vorvayne, has a son, Etienne, about ten years older than his friend's daughter. (K, CC)
Vorsoisson, Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne—_______, ee-KAY-tr-ihn NAI_UHL vohr-VAYN—Lady, married to Etienne Vorsoisson at age twenty, has a son, Nikolai. Her uncle is Imperial Auditor Professor Vorthys. (K, CC, WG, DI)
Vorsoisson, Etienne—_______, eht-YEHN—Administrator of the Serifosa branch of the Komarr Terraforming Project, a minor bureaucrat of no particular talent, thinks everything is accomplished by doing and calling in favors, has no use for the concept of merit. Dies trying to save his own skin at the Serifosa experiment station. (K)
Vorsoisson, Nikolai—_______, NIH-koh-lai—The nine-year-old son of Ekaterin and Tien, has inherited the Vorsoisson family genetic condition, Vorzohn's Distrophy. (K, CC)
Vorsoisson, Vassily—______, VAA-sih-lee—Etienne's third cousin, guardian of Nikki after Tien's death. (CC)
Vortaine—vohr-TAYN—Count, rather elderly, Ivan's heir, one of Alys Vorpatril's circle. (WA)
Vortala—vohr-TAA-luh—Ezar's prime minister and Aral's when he is regent. (B)
Vortalon—vohr-TAA-ln—Captain, vid series jump-pilot hero, sidekick of Prince Xav, tracked down and killed those responsible for his father's death. (CC)
Vortashpula, William—vohr-TAASH-puh-luh, WIHL-ee_uhm—
Lord, acquaintance of Ivan, engaged to Lady Cassia Vorgorov. (CC)
Vorthalia—vohr-THAH-lee_uh—"The Bold," also "The Loyal," legendary hero of Barrayar also a historical person. (WA, K)
Vorthys, Georg—VOHR-tais, JOHRJ—Professor of Engineering at the Imperial University at Vorbarr Sultana, an Imperial Auditor specializing in diagnosis of engineering failures and sabotage sent to Komarr to investigate the Soletta Array accident. (CC, K, WG)
Vortrifrani—vohr-trih-FRAA-nee—Count, head of the isolationist faction. (M)
Vortugalov—vohr-TOO-gah-lawv—Count, head of the Russian language faction. (B)
Vorvane—vohr-VAYN—Lord, Minister for Heavy Industries. (MD)
Vorvayne, Edie—vohr-VAYN, EE-dee—Daughter of Hugo and Rosalie, a preteen, she has two elder brothers. (CC)
Vorvayne, Hugo—______, HYOO-goh—Holds a post in the Imperial Bureau of Mines in the northern regional HQ in Vordarian's District, Ekaterin's elder brother. (CC)
Vorvayne, Sasha—______, SAH-shuh—Officer in the South Continent district government, eager for his daughter, Ekaterin, to marry his friend's son, especially as he was remarrying. (K)
Vorvayne, Violie—______, VAI-oh-lee—Second wife of Sasha Vorvayne, stepmother to Ekaterin. (K)
Vorventa—Vohr-VEHN-tuh—Lord, "The Twice Hung," during the Time of Isolation, tried after he was dead, an unusual legal precedent on Barrayar. (K)
Vorville—vohr-VEEL—Count, head of the French language faction, one of Alys Vorpatril's circle. (CC)
Vorvolk, Henri—VOHR-vohk, ahn-REE—Count, one of the few counts Gregor's age, friend of Gregor, and an official in Accounting watching over expenses. (WA)
Vorvolynkin—vohr-voh-LIHN-kn—Count, one of Alys Vorpatril's circle. (CC)
Vorzohn's Distrophy—VOHR-zhohnz DIHS-troh-fee—Genetic condition and adult-onset neurological disorder that begins in slight tremula, progresses to mental collapse and death, treatable by complex and expensive means, curable by gene therapy. (K)
Watts—WAHTZ—Boss or supervisor of Graf Station Downsider Relations, a job that includes the duties of Portmaster. (DI)
Weddell, Vaughan—WEH-dehl, VAWN—Hugh Canaba's new identity on Barrayar. He is a genetic researcher at the Imperial Science Institute just outside Vorbarr Sultana, brought in to assist on Simon's case by Miles. (L, M)
Wyzak—WAI-zaak—Chief, Life Support Systems, Cay Habitat. (FF)
Xian—zai-AHN—Marilacan general, had sworn to return to Fallow Core but was killed before he could do so. (BI)
Yegorov—YEH-goh-rawv—Barrayaran lieutenant on the Prince Serg, attempts to advise Admiral Naismith on etiquette when meeting Aral Vorkosigan. (VG)
Yei, Sondra—YAY, SOHN-drah—Doctor, head of psychology and training for the Cay Project, she takes a spanner to Bruce Van Atta's head when he attempts to kill the quaddies. (FF)
Yenaro—yeh-NAH-roh—Cetegandan grandson of ghem-General Yenaro, the last of five leaders of the Barrayar invasion, wishes to be an imperial perfumer. (C)
Yuell—YOO-ehl—Doctor, math professor, colleague of Doctor Riva. (K)
Zamori—zaa-MOH-ree—A major working in the Imperial Military, found excuses to call on the Vorthys residence to see Ekaterin. (CC)
Zara—ZAA-rah—Quaddie pusher pilot, her skill got the strike team docked with the D-620 superjumper. (F)
An Old Earther's Guide to the Vorkosigan Universe
Denise Little
Worlds of the Imperium
The Barrayaran Imperium consists of three planets, a number of space installations, and roughly fifty million people scattered across its various components.
Barrayar
Barrayar is the homeworld of the three-planet Barrayaran Imperium. Barrayar was originally founded as an Earth Colony long ago, by what are known in Barrayaran history books as the Fifty Thousand Firsters. These settlers descended from several Earth cultures, with the result that Barrayar's official languages today are various dialects of English, French, Russian, and
Greek.
But what should have been an orderly colonization and terraforming job for these settlers soon turned into a voyage back into the Dark Ages. The interstellar wormhole through which they had transited from Earth vanished just as mysteriously as it had appeared. The colony cascaded back into a near-Stone Age without the aid of support ships from their home planet. Most of the technology of advanced civilization vanished on Barrayar.
And so the colony was lost to galactic civilization for several hundred years, a period known as the Time of Isolation. The colonization of Barrayar—unlike those of Beta Colony or Escobar—degraded into a ragged fight for survival, as the world descended into chaos.
But humans are stubborn, and the settlers managed to hang on and multiply despite hostile native flora and the constant threat of mutations cropping up among the descendants of the original settlers. A new civilization was born. A feudal aristocracy developed among the contentious settlers as factions among them fought for power over their world. The warring elite were eventually united and merged into a real unitary government by Dorca Vorbarra. His central government restored a rough and ready order planet-wide, though one that strongly favored its elites.
Ruthless customs, including infanticide, sprang up among the population to keep human mutations at bay and the colony healthy and growing. As the population grew, the canny use of all the planet's resources—native and Earth-derived—helped the colony thrive, though hardly in the ways foreseen by the initial settlement plans. Among the many problems tackled by the early colonists was how to aggressively make Barrayar hospitable to Earth-descended agriculture and animal husbandry before they all starved to death. They succeeded, but much of the original planetary ecology was irrevocably lost in the areas so cultivated.
During this Time of Isolation from galactic civilization, the basic political structure on Barrayar settled down into a single government headed by a hereditary Emperor, supported by an equally hereditary aristocracy known as the Vor. The word Vor implies an obligation of duty and service to the Emperor. The Vor were originally the planet's warrior caste.
More than a hundred years prior to the present galactic civilization, Barrayar was once again rediscovered by the larger human community. The planet rapidly absorbed newly available galactic technology, but the habits acquired during the Time of Isolation died hard. To this day, the planet remains an archaic society in the eyes of galactics, who view it as both fascinating and primitive. But its unique issues also give rise to unique virtues.
The opening of the planet to the galaxy had consequences far beyond the importation of lightflyers and computers and the exportation of a reputation as a backwater. The Cetagandans invaded Barrayar through a wormhole near Barrayar's closest neighbors, the planet Komarr, in an attempt to claim Barrayar as a colony. The Barrayarans responded in a way that the astonished Cetagandans never anticipated. Led by Ezar Vorbarra and General Piotr Vorkosigan, the Barrayaran resistance retreated to the mountains and fought back viciously, relentlessly, and successfully. It took twenty years, and the deaths of five million Barrayarans, but the Cetagandans were eventually driven off the planet.
They left an odd gift behind. Because of the necessity of utilizing every bit of their native talent to survive in the wider galaxy, the traditional Vor privileges of Imperial service were no longer reserved for the Vor alone. The war opened up the Imperium to the idea of service based on merit, rather than bloodlines. The Imperial academies were opened to non-Vor applicants based on aptitude, and the society eventually became more level, with the military serving as an egalitarian force on Barrayar. But it is still forbidden for non-Vor to privately own deadly weapons, including a wide range of swords, though many citizens gain access to such weapons through Imperial training and government service.
At the apex of Barrayar's hereditary Vor aristocracy are the counts. The term "count" derives from the job's origin in the people—accountants—who procured taxes for the Emperor from the local populace, amassed it into organized offerings, counted it, and delivered it to the proper Imperial authorities. The North Continent is divided into sixty districts, each run by its own count. The counts give their loyalty to the Emperor though a ceremony of fealty, which includes a placing of their hands between the Emperor's, and a voiced repetition of oaths. (This style of vocal affirmation—spoken vows serving as binding words of honor—is something that pervades Barrayaran society.) The fealty ceremony is renewed with the installation of each new Emperor.
The counts serve in a legislative Council, which has a great and glorious history, along with a number of highly archaic traditions, and its share of insane adventures—including the famous affirmation of a horse named Midnight as a count's legal heir. In modern Barrayar the Council of Counts is a rather mixed body of progressives, conservatives, geniuses, and idiots. But, having grown into being along with the planet, this form of government provides a workable, if occasionally erratic and confusing, arm of the Imperium. Signs of modern progress in local government are evident everywhere on the planet, thanks mainly to a law passed during Aral Vokosigan's Regency government, which allows ordinary citizens to move from Count's District to Count's District without restriction. On Barrayar, the planet's people in effect vote with their feet for the best forms of local government.
After a number of bloody insurrections, including everything from quick and dirty wars over the distribution of the horse manure from the Imperial Stable to the rebellion of counts against the insane Emperor Yuri Vorbarra, private armies have been abolished on Barrayar. All military service is through the Imperium, with the single exception of the counts' armsmen. Each count is allowed to maintain a private, oath-sworn force of twenty loyal men for personal protection.
The Barrayaran planetary day is 26.7 hours long, and Barrayaran ships keep Imperial, rather than Old Earth, time cycles. The planet has two moons, a temperate climate with four distinct seasons (as on Earth, winter, spring, summer, and fall), and a topography that is very Earth-like, including large oceans. There are two main continents and a number of islands. The North Continent was settled by the original colonists, and is the main population center of the planet, although the South Continent, which is the personal property of the Emperor, has been opened to settlement for some years and is expanding in population quickly.
Barrayar's mythology is varied. Military and cultural heroes from the planet's recent and distant past are celebrated, along with a number of carryovers from Old Earth culture, including Russian fairy tales and Greek mythology. The main holidays celebrated on Barrayar are the Emperor's Birthday, Midsummer Review, and Winterfair, where the coming of Father Frost is eagerly awaited by all Barrayaran children. The planet's society is still very much a male hierarchy, with inheritance laws based on primogeniture, and the military and Imperial Security academies are still closed to women. The Army and its domestic arm, Imperial Security, or ImpSec, are still all-male organizations. Women are making strides toward more rights, but they have a very large amount of ground to cover before true equality is achieved. Currently their power base is gained through manipulating the men around them, for better or worse. But with increasing levels of education and pressures from other galactic civilizations, great change is inevitable in the long term.
Komarr
Komarr is a planet with a single main reason for its settlement, namely a rich supply of wormhole jumppoints in its immediate vicinity. By charging a hefty tariff on all goods passed through those jump points, the various merchant families who formed the ruling oligarchy on Komarr amassed both riches and power. The planet is essentially a galactic parasite, surviving and thriving on the taxes placed on interstellar trade. The planet may have economic riches, but it is an inhospitable place. Human habitation is possible only in domed cities. An array of solar mirrors to increase the natural light sources and a planet-wide terraforming project are scheduled to make Komarr habitable by humans outside the domes in the very long term, but all current expeditions outside are on
ly possible with the use of some form of serious breathing apparatus.
The Komarrans grew up as an independent colony, but when they gave access to Cetaganda for an invasion of Barrayar, they sealed their fate to become part of the Imperium. Under the leadership of Aral Vorkosigan, Barrayar invaded and conquered Komarr. Given its lack of habitable land for any resistance to retreat to, and its vulnerability to attacks that might shatter the domes, the conquest of Komarr was quick, though not as bloodless as Vorkosigan had envisioned when setting up the invasion. During the war, two hundred members of the planet's ruling families, gathered under a flag of truce to negotiate the surrender, were killed by a political officer acting without orders from above. Despite murdering the responsible officer with his bare hands, Vorkosigan was never able to convince the Komarrans that the political officer's action wasn't planned, leaving some segments of the planet ripe for seeking revenge against Barrayar. Vorkosigan became known throughout the galaxy as "the Butcher of Komarr." But galactic aid was not forthcoming to the Komarrans from neighboring states, because Barrayar immediately reduced the tariff on interstellar goods passing through Komarr from twenty-five percent to fifteen percent. This made galactics favor keeping Komarr in Barrayaran hands.
Currently the planet seems to be adapting well to Barrayaran rule. The Imperium is fast-tracking suitable Komarrans into positions of power, and Emperor Gregor Vorbarra recently married a Komarran, Laisa Toscane. As a wedding gift to the planet, he arranged for a much-expanded solar mirror array, speeding up the terraforming project by several orders of magnitude.
Sergyar
Barrayar discovered a wormhole jump that led to the planet Sergyar, and claimed the planet as its own. Named for Emperor Ezar's son, Crown Prince Serg, the planet is earthlike and beautiful, and since it had no native species possessing higher intelligence, it was ideal for opening up to human settlement. But Barrayar's main reason for settling Sergyar in the beginning was to use it as a staging point for an invasion of Escobar. The invasion failed miserably, in part because of aid to Escobar from Beta Colony, and Prince Serg and a number of high-ranking Barrayaran military officers died in that attempt. After a peace treaty with Escobar was worked out, the planet was retasked to more peaceful purposes, and is currently a rapidly expanding human settlement. Government of the colony is handled by an Imperially appointed viceroy. Early difficulties that impeded settlement, including a terrible worm plague that hideously bloated its victims, have been overcome, and the colony is on track to become a vibrant and valuable member of the Imperium.
The Vorkosigan Companion Page 21