Zoave Twilight:
A planet with several jump points, among them the third jump point from Vega Station. It is mentioned by Vorob'yev as being the ultimate goal of the Cetagandans in their dealings with the planet Marilac. It is unwillingly abiding by the arms embargo placed on Vega Station by the Cetagandan Empire. Later, Miles and three ships from the Dendarii fleet are orbiting this planet after their mission to recover the Barrayaran courier being held hostage. (C, M, MD)
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
A Map of the Vorkosigan Universe
Topology of the Wormhole Nexus
Crystal Carroll and Suford Lewis
The next page shows a map of the topology of the wormhole nexus. No attempt has been made to indicate where in the galaxy these systems and stations lie or how far apart they are; only the wormhole connectivity is shown. Actual locations and the five-dimensional wormholes connecting them would be impossible to show on a two-dimensional page. The wormhole connectivity, however, can be nicely arranged into this flat diagram.
This diagram contains all the systems and stations with specified locations as revealed so far. Other systems, stations, wormholes, and connections exist. Below is the list of the systems we know exist without knowing their relationship to the ones shown on the map.
Systems of Unspecified Location:
Beni Ra
Frost
Hespari
Kshatria
Minos
Nuovo Brasil
Skya
Varusa Tertius
Walshea
APPENDIX II
Timelines of the Vorkosigan Saga
Miles Vorkosigan/Naismith:
His Universe and Times
Approx. 200 years before Miles's birth—Falling Free
Quaddies are created by genetic engineering.
During Beta-Barrayaran War—Shards of Honor
Cordelia Naismith meets Lord Aral Vorkosigan while on opposite sides of a war. Despite difficulties, they fall in love and are married.
The Vordarian Pretendership—Barrayar
While Cordelia is pregnant, an attempt to assassinate Aral by poison gas fails, but Cordelia is affected; Miles Vorkosigan is born with bones that will always be brittle and other medical problems. His growth will be stunted.
Miles is 17— The Warrior's Apprentice
Miles fails to pass physical test to get into the Service Academy. On a trip, necessities force him to improvise the Free Dendarii Mercenaries into existence; he has unintended but unavoidable adventures for four months. Leaves the Dendarii in Ky Tung's competent hands and takes Elli Quinn to Beta for rebuilding of her damaged face; returns to Barrayar to thwart plot against his father. Emperor pulls strings to get Miles into the Academy.
Miles is 20—"The Mountains of Mourning" in Borders of Infinity,The Vor Game
Ensign Miles graduates and immediately has to take on one of the duties of the Barrayaran nobility and act as detective and judge in a murder case. Shortly afterwards, his first military assignment ends with his arrest. Miles has to rejoin the Dendarii to rescue the young Barrayaran emperor. Emperor accepts Dendarii as his personal secret service force.
Miles is 22— Cetaganda
Miles and his cousin Ivan attend a Cetagandan state funeral and are caught up in Cetagandan internal politics.
Miles is 23—Ethan of Athos
Miles sends Commander Elli Quinn, who's been given a new face on Beta, on a solo mission to Kline Station.
Miles is 23—"Labyrinth" in Borders of Infinity
Now a Barrayaran Lieutenant, Miles goes with the Dendarii to smuggle a scientist out of Jackson's Whole. Miles's fragile leg bones have been replaced by synthetics.
Miles is 24—"The Borders of Infinity" in Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms
Miles plots from within a Cetagandan prison camp on Dagoola IV to free the prisoners. The Dendarii fleet is pursued by the Cetagandans and finally reaches Earth for repairs. Miles has to juggle both his identities at once, raise money for repairs, and defeat a plot to replace him with a double. Ky Tung stays on Earth. Commander Elli Quinn is now Miles's right-hand officer. Miles and the Dendarii depart for Sector IV on a rescue mission.
Miles is 25—Borders of Infinity
Hospitalized after previous mission, Miles's broken arms are replaced by synthetic bones. With Simon Illyan, Miles undoes yet another plot against his father while flat on his back.
Miles is 28— Mirror Dance
Miles meets his clone brother Mark again, this time on Jackson's Whole.
Miles is 29— Memory
Miles hits thirty; thirty hits back.
Miles is 30—Komarr
Emperor Gregor dispatches Miles to Komarr to investigate a space accident, where he finds old politics and new technology make a deadly mix.
Miles is 30— A Civil Campaign
The Emperor's wedding sparks romance and intrigue on Barrayar, and Miles plunges up to his neck in both.
Miles is 32— Diplomatic Immunity
Miles and Ekaterin's honeymoon journey is interrupted by an Auditorial mission to Quaddiespace, where they encounter old friends, new enemies, and a double handful of intrigue.
800 Years in Barrayaran and Galactic Human History
60 Years in Barrayaran and Galactic Human History
APPENDIX III
A Brief Guide to Barrayaran Genealogy
Some Barrayaran Genealogy
Suford Lewis
This article specifically attempts to address two matters: the problem of the Imperial succession and the problem of the Imperial madness. Both of these color the history of Aral Vorkosigan and his family. For this purpose there are three important family lines: the Vorkosigans with their linkages to the Vorrutyers, Vorbarras, and Vorpatrils; the Vorbarras leading to the current Emperor; and the Vorpatrils with their connection to the Vorbarras.
In Shards of Honor it is mentioned that Dorca inherited the Imperium through his mother's line and in Barrayar it is mentioned that his great-uncle had his stables built in a particular place in the Imperial Residence, giving his relationship to the old Vorbarra line more specifically. Since he inherited through his mother, his surname was probably not Vorbarra, though he undoubtedly took that name as Emperor. On the other hand, Ezar apparently was a Vorbarra and some kind of cousin to Dorca.
On his deathbed in Shards of Honor, Emperor Ezar says there are five men with better claims than his by blood to be Emperor. Aral Vorkosigan heads this list. Vidal Vordarian, Padma Vorpatril, Lord Vortaine, and Count Vordrozda are the four others. Since Ezar says their claims are better than his, they must be more directly related either to Emperor Dorca or to the "true Vorbarra line" that Dorca replaced.
We know that Aral Vorkosigan and Padma Vorpatril are the grandsons of Prince Xav Vorbarra and Aral has the senior claim because his father married Xav's older daughter. We also know that Mad Emperor Yuri did his best to murder anyone with any claim to the Imperium and that this eliminated Aral's mother, brother, and sister along with numerous others.
Yuri certainly noticed that Aral and Padma stood in relation to him exactly as Dorca had stood to the previous emperor. We don't know about any brothers or sisters Padma may have had, only that none survived Yuri's Massacre. We know Aral's uncle, Xav's son, was also killed. So, although Aral may claim Salic Law bars him from the Imperium, this is a legalistic argument that has had little practical force in the past.
In The Warrior's Apprentice Miles Vorkosigan mentions that Ivan Vorpatril, his second cousin, is his heir. Likewise, Ivan is very aware of Lord Vortaine as heir to his title and of Count Vordrozda as heir to Lord Vortaine. Indeed, Miles works out that this relationship is Count Vordrozda's motivation for charging him with treasonous intent in raising an armed force and for Admiral Hessman sending Ivan with the doomed courier supposedly sent to fetch Miles to answer this charge. It is also mentioned that Lord Vortaine's daughter, unmarried and fiftyish, would get her father's money bu
t Count Vordrozda would get any title. This makes it obvious that Lord Vortaine has no sons. Vordrozda's maneuverings are aimed eventually at the Imperium. Since Ivan is not that close in line for the Vorpatril countship, what other title could be relevant? It is the Vorbarra heritage that is of interest relative to Lord Vordrozda.
What can we figure out about Lord Vortaine? As heir to Ivan, he must relate into Ivan's line to Prince Xav through a daughter of Xav younger than Ivan's grandmother or a daughter of Dorca. It has to be a daughter, because Vortaine inherits from Ivan rather than the other way around. All we need for Count Vordrozda to be Lord Vortaine's heir is for Vordrozda to similarly inherit from the same line via a yet younger daughter.
Vortaine and Vordrozda were heirs to Miles's and Ivan's fathers similarly, and figured in Ezar's calculations as potential successors to Yuri. It is their ages, as closer contemporaries to Aral, that make it more likely that they are grandsons of daughters of Dorca rather than of other daughters of Xav. Confirming this, all the rest of Xav's descendants were eliminated by Yuri's Massacre. The most distant Vortaine can be is third cousin, because if he were a fourth cousin, Gregor would be Ivan's heir before him. In the diagram above, Vortaine and Vordrozda are second cousins to Miles's and Ivan's fathers, thus second cousins once removed to Miles and Ivan. Note that Gregor is also a second cousin once removed.
Padma Vorpatril had no siblings that survived Yuri's Massacre. This also means that Ivan has no first cousins younger than himself on his father's side. Indeed, he seems not to have any first cousins at all, but that may only reflect his mother's attitude about her own family. That Alys Vorpatril chose to maintain very close ties to the Vorkosigans, incidentally thus to the Regent of Barrayar, rather than to other relatives, probably says more about her political interests than about the existence of first cousins to Ivan on his mother's side. However, any first cousins Ivan might have, related to his mother's line, would not be his heirs relative to any titles he might inherit through Prince Xav.
Just the information that Aral "heads the list" eliminates the possibility of any male children of Yuri or any brothers of Yuri and Xav, at least any surviving ones or ones with surviving male children. Aral and Padma, sons of Xav's first and second daughters, respectively, are also mentioned as the only descendants of Xav to survive Yuri's massacre.
We never find out much about Vidal Vordarian's claim. We only know that he spent a lot of time contemplating his genealogy. This implies that there was some problem about his claim, too, but he managed to convince himself of its justice. In order to convince himself that his claim was comparable to Aral Vor kosigan's, his claim needed to differ from Aral's by more than just which of Xav's siblings it derived from. Vordarian may have been the sort of stolid conservative type who could have been convinced simply by the fact that his own line contained no tainted off-worlders. However, Vordarian cannot trace to a brother of Yuri and Xav since none and no heirs of any survived Yuri's Massacre. Possibly he could trace back to a sister, as Vortaine and Vordrozda do. However, let's give him more credit than that, and look at another option.
Say Dorca's sister married a Vordarian from which the descent went straight to Vidal. With Aral appointed as Regent and Vidal Vordarian fearing that Aral would seize the Imperium, Vordarian can argue that his claim is just as good as Aral's (ignoring that Aral has not yet claimed the Imperium) and make his own preemptive strike. The subtle point of which relationship takes precedence, besides depending on precisely what the Barrayaran rules are, is also exactly the sort of thing that often gets decided by strength of arms and spinelessly rubber-stamped by legitimizing bodies afterward.
Without going back to Dorca's great-uncle and what siblings he might have had, just going back to Dorca himself and looking at Dorca's siblings opens up a new set of possible claimants to the Imperium. Actually, these would hardly be new; Yuri must have thought of them, too, and killed as many of them as he could. However, it is also known that he did not get all of them.
If Dorca had a brother whose daughter married a Vordarian, the effect would be essentially the same. We know that there is a female link somewhere just because Vidal is a Vordarian rather than a Vorbarra. So we can easily generate a relationship that gives Vordarian a claim. Obviously a claim that goes through two females is not as good as a claim that goes through only one. Perhaps that is why there are only five contenders. Everyone else who might have a claim has two or more females in the linkage.
The other consideration that determines how good a claim is is how far back you have to go to get to an emperor. The fewer generations you have to go back, the better. By that token, Vordarian's claim is not as good as any of the others as he has to go back to the generation before Xav. However, perhaps he has convinced himself that this is really better, as it harks back to a "better" age.
What about Ezar? Since Aral claims that Salic Law bars him (and thus everyone else we know of), there is an implication that Ezar has male line descent that legitimizes his claim. It does not have to be more legitimate than that of Yuri or Xav; just by being through the male line, it is automatically better than the rest. Piotr, when he persuaded Ezar to assume the throne, probably just made the argument that Ezar would make a better ruler and he, Piotr, and all his troops wanted him. A glance at the possibilities and Piotr's encouragement—these were all his relatives; he knew them pretty well, remember—should have been enough to convince him.
For instance, say Ezar's great-grandfather was the youngest brother to the emperor who was Dorca's great-uncle. This would make Ezar a third cousin to Yuri and Xav. Now, if Ezar's son Serg's madness has the same source as Yuri's, Ezar's relationship to Dorca could be irrelevant to it. It is only necessary that Ezar marry a sister or daughter of Yuri. Indeed, if the madness descends from a Vorrutyer source, as has also been hinted, Yuri likely inherited it through his mother and Serg from his mother, making Ezar's relationship to Dorca—second cousin, once removed—irrelevant.
In The Warrior's Apprentice Miles remarks that he is related to Mad Emperor Yuri through two separate lines of descent. He is contemplating the likelihood that he may go mad. We can identify one line easily through Prince Xav. Yuri's madness could have come from his mother, who seems to have been a Vorrutyer. In Shards of Honor, Aral mentions this same Prince Xav as having married a Betan, so that means the other line of descent must be through Piotr.
Since Piotr is ninth-generation Vorkosigan, it must be through Piotr's mother or grandmother. If we assume Piotr Pierre was the first son, this makes Pierre the first name of his mother's father, who was likely a Vorrutyer. In A Civil Campaign we learn of Pierre "le Sanguinaire" Vorrutyer, who was Emperor Dorca's strong right arm and whose eldest daughter married a Vorkosigan. This is very likely the second link. This would be like Miles's thoroughness and, further, like his fatalism to note that whichever line Yuri got it from, Miles is related to both, and to the more likely Vorrutyer line, twice.
If the genetic disposition to madness comes from the V orrutyers, Yuri's, Serg's, and Ges Vorrutyer's madness could then all have a common origin. During the reigns of Dorca, Yuri, and Ezar, the Vorrutyers were very close to the emperors. The terrible architecture of the government buildings built during Yuri's reign is attributed to a crazy Vorrutyer architect in Yuri's favor. Dorca married a Vorrutyer. Piotr's father married a Vorrutyer. The Vorrutyers are apparently very thorough in consolidating alliances with everybody of any note. Aral and Ges Vorrutyer were probably second cousins and childhood friends just as Miles and Ivan are second cousins and childhood friends and similarly with Gregor as well. Further, Aral's first wife was apparently a Vorrutyer and Ges's sister—that would have boded very ill for their children and probably for their home life if she had become mad in time.
This easily gets us to Vorrutyers and madness through the Vorkosigan line. Should we suspect that Dorca and Pierre "le Sanguinaire" were also cousins? Or that Dorca married Pierre's sister (possibly his own cousin)? Alternatively (or even, in addition
), Pierre could have been related to Dorca's father, who might have been a Vorrutyer, since Dorca inherited through his mother, and thus she was a Vorbarra. Any of these possibilities make Miles's second connection with Yuri's line less direct than his first, but if the connection with Yuri's line that we want is actually to a Vorrutyer madman, then this can do it. With the Vorrutyer penchant for marrying their daughters to powerful families, sometimes several generations in a row, the deleterious effects of cousin marriages alone should have made many of the "best" families somewhat barmy even without a specific tendency to madness.
Since Mad Yuri did not count Piotr as a Vorbarra descendant, these links through Piotr Pierre to the Vorrutyers meet the need to get to the "mad" part of Yuri's inheritance without getting to the Imperial part. Miles certainly has two separate links if one link is through his grandfather Piotr, and the other is through his great-grandfather Xav. Let us not quibble about whether this is really "Yuri's line," since the real worry is in inheriting Yuri's madness. "Yuri's line" is a reasonable shorthand for the blood that resulted in Yuri's madness.
In The Vor Game Miles mentions six factions on the succession issue, although it is not clear whether or not he is making them up for Cavilo's benefit. The old list was: Vorkosigan, Vorpatril, Vortaine, Vordrozda, Vordarian. This is only five and it is not clear that all actually have surviving claimants. It is also possible that Lord Vortaine's daughter, said to be in her fifties in The Warrior's Apprentice, did marry and have children, providing a continuing Vortaine-derived line. Yes, this is rather late, but my great-grandmother had her last child at fifty-two and some women continue to be fertile even later. Vordrozda could have had brothers or sisters and continuing lines through them. Just because no one is mentioned as linked to Vordarian does not mean that the line of descent he based his claim on has to have ended with his death.
The Vorkosigan Companion Page 48