History Characters / VorkosiganSaga

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: "Stanis, darling..." she says, just before murdering the man who raped her.]]

* MistakenForSpies: Miles quickly notices that things don't add up and assumes it's on a secret mission for the Star Creche. Since it was not actually trained as a covert operative, this leads him to overestimate its capabilities and underestimate its desperation.

* OppositeSexClone: Although it's more like a Sexless Clone of the current Cetegandan emperor, Flechir Giaja.
* TakeAwayTheirName: Its ultimate punishment is to have its name stripped from all of the Star Creche's records.

* NiceGuy: First to his irresponsible nitwit of a foster brother/boyfriend Janos, then [[spoiler: to troubled Cetagandan gene-spliced super-agent Terrence Cee, with much more success to the latter than the former.]]

* OddFriendship: Between super-responsible, straight-laced StraightGay NonActionGuy Ethan and snarky badass ActionGirl Elli Quinn. One's a gay, strictly religious downsider, the other a [[SoBeautifulItsACurse stunningly beautiful]] spacer mercenary: together [[WunzaPlot they take on agents of the Cetagandan Empire!]]

Cetagandan Security agent in ''Cetaganda'' who ferrets out a GovernmentConspiracy in the Centagandan court with Miles' help. Later meets Miles again in ''A Civil Campaign.''

** In ''Cetaganda'', Miles advises him to get the support of Emperor Gaija to prevent any of his possibly suborned superiors from getting lethally nervous about his competence ("If you're going to cover your ass, do it right" thinks Miles). While Benin is initially dubious about going straight to the Emperor, Miles reminds him that it's not some casual familiarity Benin is seeking -- it's business, and with the murder of an Imperial servant, it's ''specifically'' Gaija's business. Benin follows Miles' advice, and makes him far more efficient in arresting a high-ranking governor and ''his own superior officer'' who set him up to fail his investigation.

%% Spoiler tages are not permitted in character descriptions. If something cannot be said without spoiler-tagging it, it doesn't go in the intro paragraph.

* BlessedWithSuck: Rish's senses are even move highly tuned than Tej's. She can't even drive a groundcar without experiencing sensory overload.

* DaytimeDramaQueen: While in hiding on Komarr she became addicted to several daytime holo-dramas. She's delighted to find out a few crewmembers on a military ship are also fans, and end up having sessions of watching tapes as they arrive.

* KnightTemplarBigBrother: In fact the Barrayarans at first think she is a genetically engineered slave-bodyguard. She ''is'' genetically engineered, but her loyalty is perfectly normal sibling loyalty. (She ''was'' to be a "jeeve", but Udine stopped the loyalty treatments because she couldn't stand the idea of her Jewels dying if she died.) Her parents tasked her with keeping an eye on her baby sister--which probably makes her more dangerous than any artificial loyalty programming ever could--and it's implied that she's been doing so for Tej's entire life.
* NobodyHereButUsStatues: She and the Jewels jobs would often be as "living statues". Of course, people would forget they could hear and see everything going on in a party, and made them perfect spies, too.

* StageName: She claims Lapis Lazuli is her stage name, "Rish" is a family nickname like Tej, Pidge, and Star. The only other Jewel we meet (Onyx) also has a family nickname, "Jet". If any of the jewels have any other names it's not mentioned.[[note]]It's implied Lapis Lazuli actually is her name, thanks to the ThemeNaming of she and her siblings, but she considers that her alternate identity as a spy.[[/note]]

* MirrorCharacter: From Miles, a fact that a number of his friends and allies are quick to hang a lampshade or five on. The only real difference is that Miles does what he does for other people, whereas Cavilo is really only out for herself.

* BigBrotherWorship: Toward Ameri who is offstage for much of the book but is her favorite sibling. Also toward Rish to some degree.
* BlessedWithSuck: Tej's highly tuned Cetagandan senses come with downsides. She has a low tolerance for sonic or visual dissonance and is subject to horrendous wormhole jump sickness. She also has this attitude to her large breasts, frustrated they made her too "top heavy" to be a serious dancer like her Jewel half-siblings.

* DCupDistress: Tej dislikes being extremely well-endowed, and not just because of the unwanted attention. She wants to be a professional dancer like her half-siblings, but she moans to Ivan she's too "top heavy" to be one.
* DoesNotKnowHerOwnStrength: When she demands she see her family who are in security detention, she lifts the officer by his jacket off his own feet, not realizing she had until she'd already did it. It's apparently InTheBlood, when Udina does the same exact thing to the BigBad, though ''she'' knows how strong she is.

* InstantExpert: The whole ghem Estif Arqua brood are half-Cetagandan, and there's canon precedence for the carefully toggled Cetagandan genes conveying InstantExpert status in a number of areas (see: René Vorbretton and music). Despite being the "control child", Tej is no exception:
** Having never really driven before landing on Barrayar, Ivan signs Tej up for driving lessons. Within a few hours she gets her learner's permit, has one moment of hitting a pillar on her first day, and then manages to get her license to drive in a ''week.'' In ''Vorbarr Sultana traffic.''

* NobleFugitive: In fact this is {{Lampshaded}} when the book comments that Tej's marriage to Ivan works perfectly in Barrayar because every [[BlueBlood blue blooded]] vor will be enchanted by a tale of rescueing a [[MirrorCharacter lost princess from a fallen dynasty.]]

* ObliviouslyEvil: Can be chalked up to haut sense of entitlement, but Moira ghem Estif manages to render even Lady Alys and Simon Illyan speechless with her matter-of-fact recounting of her late-husband's personal tragedy of losing his son during the Cetagandan occupation of Barrayar when the young man went to Vorkosigan Vashnoi to be with (and possibly rescue) his Barrayaran lover just as the Cetagandan's nuked the entire city. That she tells this tale at a ''dinner party'' hosted for her family by Lady Alys, and her nonchalant reaction to the observation that the site no longer ''glows'' leaves the Barrayarans too shocked to even be angry. Especially when she asks that the next time Ivan flies over the site (because she calmly notes that they presumably cannot land in the radioactive wasteland) that he give a nod to her deceased stepson and his boyfriend. Yet in her detached way she was sufficiently moved to remember and tell the story and request Ivan give a salute her stepson and his lover. She also mentions she conceived Udine specifically to make up to General Ghem-Estif for the loss of his (presumably) only child. Nonetheless, she seems to exhibit no concern over everyone else who was killed in the city, weighing the entire tragedy only in terms of how it [[ItsAllAboutMe personally affected her and her husband]].

* SpacePeople: As their House was originally based on a space station, albeit one relatively near an inhabitable planet, they have some of this mentality. At one point Tej has to remind herself that a fireplace is decorative rather than an environmental hazard.

Head of the Jacksonian House Ryoval, aficionado in producing horribly genetically modified slaves to satisfy the perverted desires of his wealthy customers; practically makes his fellow Jacksonian barons look human.

* CirclingMonologue: He'll indulge in this from time to time to taunt his victims, and its what ultimately kills him. His mistake was leaving Mark lucid enough to understand him.

* BaitAndSwitchTyrant: Milies initially thinks he's a deliberately obstructive superior plotting against him, but that turns out to not be the case and he and Miles end up (somewhat uneasy) friends.

* UnwantedAssistance: Toward Miles [[spoiler: after said Miles, having accidentally sabotages his chances with Laisa Toscane by introducing her to Gregor, offers to assist Duv in his courtship of Delia Koudelka.]]

** Casts a shadow over his son's life, just like Aral. But Ser Galen actually ''was'' a terrorist, while the massacre that got Aral called "TheButcher" wasn't even Aral's fault. That massacre -- which killed Ser's sister -- happens to be a major reason Ser hates Aral.
*** Aral tries to be a good father, and Miles wants to be a soldier to make Aral proud. Ser taught Duv how to be a terrorist from childhood, and Duv joined the military of their conquers to atone for his dad. Ser also created Mark, Miles' almost literal EvilTwin, as an anti-Aral assassination weapon. And abused him. Including sexually.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: After abusing and torturing Mark to train him into the perfect TykeBomb, Mark turns on him and shoots him dead.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While they're practically saints compared to the rest of Jackson's Whole, the Durona Group are still rather amoral (''especially'' for medical practitioners) and Miles privately muses that despite Lily's certain ethical quirks, she wouldn't hesitate to dispose of anyone who posed a threat or whom she had no use for. Regardless, Lily categorically refuses to have anything to with clone brain transfers, and (almost) all of her children follow suit. It's even written into their contract with House Fell.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Lily, from House Ryoval. Inverted with her first daughter, who became Baronne Bharaputra. The two women hate each other, and the latter deliberately names the clone who is intended to be her future body 'Lily' as strike at her progenitor.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Lily, from House Ryoval. Inverted with her first daughter, who became Baronne Bharaputra. The two women hate each other.

* EvilIsPetty: Ryoval, having already prolonged his life via brain transfer into a clone body, waits as his younger brother (whom he did his best to kill when they were younger) plans to do the same...and then, just when Fell's clone is fully matured and ready to be 'harvested', Ryoval has the boy assassinated, leaving Fell trapped in an aging body and frantic for some other method to save himself.

** Duv is quiet, rule-bound, and driven to work his butt off to be both good at his job and completely incorruptible -- because if he's not, he'll be ejected from his job and things will instantly become much harder for the Komarrans who try to follow him. Miles is an attention-getting maverick who acts the way he does for personal reasons. ''Good'' reasons. Usually.

Son of Komarran terrorist, Ser Galen, Duv joined the Barrayaran army after getting his [=PhD=] in Barrayaran history. An ambitious and conscientious officer, he hopes to rise in the ranks to better help his native Komarr. [[spoiler: Later married to Delia Koudelka. Also winds up the first Komarran to head [=ImpSec=] Komarran Affairs.]]

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Seriously disturbed and extraordinarily cruel Komarran terrorist who [[spoiler: helped create Mark and raised him to be a duplicate Miles as part of a byzantine plot against Aral.]] Not a good father; his son Duv was voluntarily estranged from him [[spoiler: and Mark, also after a fashion his son, shot him point-blank.]]

** Casts a shadow over his son's life, just like Aral. But Ser Galen actually ''was'' a terrorist, while the massacre that got Aral called "TheButcher" wasn't even Aral's fault. That massacre - which killed Ser's sister - happens to be a major reason Ser hates Aral.

* {{Revenge}}: His motivation.

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The eventual wife of Gregor. First introduced in ''Memory''. Their wedding forms the backdrop of the novel ''A Civil Campaign''.

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Head of the Jacksonian House Ryoval, aficionado in producing horribly genetically modified slaves to satisfy the perverted desires of his wealthy customers; practically makes his fellow Jacksonian barons look human. [[spoiler: Killed by Mark Vorkosigan mid-torture, and had his House broken up among his rivals.]]

* BodyHorror: His House's stock in trade.

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House Cordonah is run by a Jacksonian pirate and a ghem/haut Cetagandan woman. They have 11 children, six of whom were extensively genetically modified by the Baronne. Using her own gene pool, the Baronne created "Jewel" kids followed by "normal" kids in alternating sequence. The Jewels are just as much siblings as the other kids, but aren't known as such publicly.

* BattleCouple: Shiv and Udine.

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Erik.]]

* ObliviouslyEvil: Can be chalked up to haut sense of entitlement, but Moira ghem Estif manages to render even Lady Alys and Simon Illyan speechless with her matter-of-fact recounting of her late-husband's personal tragedy of losing his son during the Cetagandan occupation of Barrayar when the young man went to Vorkosigan Vashnoi to be with (and possibly rescue) his Barrayaran lover just as the Cetagandan's nuked the entire city. That she tells this tale at a ''dinner party'' hosted for her family by Lady Alys, and her nonchalant reaction to the observation that the site no longer ''glows'' leaves the Barrayarans too shocked to even be angry. Especially when she asks that the next time Ivan flies over the site (because she calmly notes that they presumably cannot land in the radioactive wasteland) that he give a nod to her deceased stepson and his boyfriend.
** Yet in her detached way she was sufficiently moved to remember and tell the story and request Ivan give a salute her stepson and his lover. She also mentions she conceived Udine specifically to make up to General Ghem-Estif for the loss of his (presumably) only child. Nonetheless, she seems to exhibit no concern over everyone else who was killed in the city, weighing the entire tragedy only in terms of how it [[ItsAllAboutMe personally affected her and her husband]].

* OnlyOneName: it appears that this is probably the case with the Jewels.
* OverlyLongName: the even-sib kids. Not surprisingly, they all go by nicknames.

* RichesToRags: The motivation behind their plot on Barrayar.

* ThemeNaming: The Jewels.

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* [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Accidently Arranged Marriage]]: Her marriage purchases an alliance with Barrayar through sheer good luck, and she never knew Ivan was the Emperor's cousin. When her dad hears about it, it seems to hurt his pride that such a useful Deal was not gotten through his scheming. Though of course she only wanted Ivan Xav, none of her earlier suitors brought as much of a political package as a bride-price. Udine comments that they didn't match because their "antibodies didn't mesh well"; Tej just thinks they were ''boring''.

* InsistentTerminology: always refers to her husband as "Ivan Xav" in every conversation and even inside her own head once she finds out that he's the only "Ivan Xav" among the many "Ivan Vorpatril"s in the Barrayaran peerage. Ivan Xav is ''her'' Ivan.
** Similarly, in her internal monologues, she always refers to Emperor Gregor as "The Gregor". Miles is similarly "The Coz".

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!! Cavilo [[spoiler:/ Livia Nu]]

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* RescueRomance: With Bel.
* [[TranshumanAliens Transhuman Alien]]: Genetically engineered for free fall.

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* [[AuthorAvatar Author's Father]]: Stated by [[WordOfGod the author]] in fact.

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-->He had slain men's bodies, and bore the mark, and knew it. He did not think he'd slain a soul, yet left the body breathing, bereft, and accusing.

* Casts a shadow over his son's life, just like Aral. But Ser Galen actually ''was'' a terrorist, while the massacre that got Aral called "TheButcher" wasn't even Aral's fault. That massacre - which killed Ser's sister - happens to be a major reason Ser hates Aral.

* Casts a shadow over his son's life, just like Aral. But Ser Galen actually ''was'' a terrorist, while the massacre that got Aral called "TheButcher" wasn't even Aral's fault. That massacre - which killed Ser's daughter - happens to be a major reason Ser hates Aral.

* {{Foil}}: To Miles. He is quiet, rule-bound, and driven to work his butt off to be both good at his job and completely incorruptible -- because if he's not, he'll be ejected from his job and things will instantly become much harder for the Komarrans who try to follow him.

* BuxomIsBetter: There's also a MyEyesAreUpHere when Ivan takes a little ''too'' long reading her nametag -- before sighing ''everyone'' has that issue. Interestingly, Tej was the only one of her siblings not to be gene-modded -- just two chromosomes from each of her parents and gene-cleaned for genetic disorders. So, her endowment is entirely natural and unplanned.

* NamesTheSame: Shares the same name as the unfortunate Lt. Dubauer, in keeping with its cover of being a Betan hermaphrodite. [[invoked]]

* OddFriendship: Between super-responsible, straight-laced StraightGay NonActionGuy Ethan and snarky badass ActionGirl Elli Quinn. One's a gay, strictly religious downsider, the other a [[SoBeautifulItsACurse stunningly beautiful]] spacer mercenary: together [[TheyFightCrime they take on agents of the Cetagandan Empire!]]

* NotWithThemForTheMoney: As a scion of "''those'' Toscanes" the money really wasn't an issue but ,despite the political advantages, she didn't marry Gregor to become Empress, she married to become Gregor's wife. As it happens, she ''also'' makes one heck of an Empress.

[[folder: Enrique Borgos]]
!!Enrique Borgos

Mark's Escobaran business partner and creator of the butter bug -- a creature that ingests organic matter of just about any variety and regurgitates it as bland nutritious goo that can be processed and flavoured in an enormous number of ways (nicknamed bug ''butter'', not bug ''vomit'', whatever Miles tells you), as well as excreting very high-quality fertilizer. He is brilliant and... fixated.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: So very. Selling more than 100% of his projects to venture capitalists is probably the best example.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Obsessed with his butter bugs, thinks customizing his bugs (which look like a giant cross between a cockroach and a termite) with his host's livery is a way to get on his good side, and adapts his dissertation ''into poetry'' because he wanted to impress a pretty lady.
* CloudCuckooLander: Enrique cares deeply for his bugs to the point that he cries when the queens die. It appears completely beyond his powers of comprehension that most people do not feel the same way immediately, or even after he explains how wonderful they are at length.
* LovableNerd: Well... Martya seems to like him, anyway.
* ManChild: He doesn't need an assistant, he needs a ''keeper''. Or a mother. He has to be reminded to bathe, eat, sleep, dress, look both ways before crossing the road, that most people are a bit cagey about eating bug puke no matter how sanitary and nutritious it is...
* StupidCrooks: Before meeting Mark, Enrique had sold several hundred percent of butter bug stock to his investors. Notably, he didn't even seem aware that this might be illegal. Or even impossible. "I was going to pay them back!"
[[/folder]]
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[[folder: Ker Dubauer]]
!!Ker Dubauer / The Unnamed Ba

A Ba servitor formerly of the Star Crèche who was the primary antagonist of ''Diplomatic Immunity''.

* CallBack: To ''Cetaganda''. It was another of the late Cetagandan Empress's confidants, and genuinely believed stealing the replicators and creating a splinter group of ''Haut'' was in accordance with her wishes.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: It makes ''horrifyingly'' liberal use of stolen Cetagandan bioweapons to slowly and ''painfully'' dissolve its victims into goo.
* FateWorseThanDeath: When Miles destroys the freezer case of genetic samples, the ba snaps and loses all sanity. When talking to the ''haut'' ladies of the Star Crèche, Miles thinks:
-->He had slain men's bodies, and bore the mark, and knew it. He did not think he'd slain a soul, yet left the body breathing, bereft, and accusing.
* MistakenForSpies: Miles quickly notices that things don't add up and assumes it's on a secret mission for the Star Creche. Since it was not actually trained as a covert operative, this leads him to overestimate its capabilities and underestimate its desperation.
* NamesTheSame: Shares the same name as the unfortunate Lt. Dubauer, in keeping with its cover of being a Betan hermaphrodite. [[invoked]]
* NoBiologicalSex: An inherent part of being a Ba.
* NoNameGiven: Its true name was never used, just the alias Ker Dubauer.
* OppositeSexClone: Although it's more like a Sexless Clone of the current Cetegandan emperor, Flechir Giaja.
* TakeAwayTheirName: Its ultimate punishment is to have its name stripped from all of the Star Creche's records.
[[/folder]]

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[[folder: Ghem Colonel Benin]]
!! Ghem Colonel Benin

Cetagandan Security agent in ''Cetaganda'' who ferrets out a GovernmentConspiracy in the Centagandan court with Miles' help. Later meets Miles again in ''A Civil Campaign.''

* AlwaysGetsHisMan: It doesn't matter to him that the victim was just a Ba servant. What matters was that someone was murdered.[[note]]Ba, however, are Imperial servants who are the direct property of the Star Creche ''and'' share genes with the Emperor himself. They're the only personnel who are allowed universal access due to their mental conditioning. So, the murder of one is tantamount to high treason.[[/note]]
* {{Ambadassador}}: In ''A Civil Campaign'' we meet him as a Ghem-general and ambassador to Barrayar with the ultimate Cetagandan reward; [[BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage a haut wife]]. He hints to Miles that Cetaganda knows who Admiral Naismath is.
* [[strike: Colonel Badass]] [[ColonelBadass General Badass]]: Thanks to Miles and Pel.
* EnemyMine: He is an agent of Barrayar's traditional rival in interstellar politics. And if Miles ever did a deep-cover job on Cetaganda, presumably he would be a WorthyOpponent. But when we see him, he is an ally of Miles.
* FallGuy: Benin was intended to be one by ''ghem''-General Naru if he didn't falsify his investigation. Miles warned him that he better get the Emperor's protection to prevent anyone from impeding his case.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: He's always on the opposite side of a mystery Miles is trying to solve, and one gets the impression that Benin has the tougher job.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** Often painted as Miles' opposite number among the Cetagandans, and apparently equally open-minded. In ''Diplomatic Immunity'', it's Benin that Miles contacts to avert a potential Cetagandan-Barrayaran conflict.
** In ''Cetaganda'', Miles advises him to get the support of Emperor Gaija to prevent any of his possibly suborned superiors from getting lethally nervous about his competence ("If you're going to cover your ass, do it right" thinks Miles). While Benin is initially dubious about going straight to the Emperor, Miles reminds him that it's not some casual familiarity Benin is seeking -- it's business, and with the murder of an Imperial servant, it's ''specifically'' Gaija's business. Benin follows Miles' advice, and makes him far more efficient in arresting a high-ranking governor and ''his own superior officer'' who set him up to fail his investigation.
%%* SecretPolice
* TribalFacePaint: Painted in Imperial rather than clan fashion to show where his loyalties were.
[[/folder]]

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[[//folder]]

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[[folder:Others]]

'''Cavilo''' [[spoiler:/ Livia Nu]]

'''Ker Dubauer / The Unnamed Ba'''

* NamesTheSame: Shares the same name as the unfortunate Lt. Dubauer.[[invoked]]

'''Doctor Ethan Urquhart'''

'''Terrence Cee'''

'''Enrique Borgos'''

'''Nicol'''

'''Ghem Colonel Benin'''

'''Leo Graf'''