History Characters / VorkosiganSagaVorkosiganHouse

Tall, imposing, athletic and intelligent, Roic isn't former military like the other armsmen; he's a former police officer, taken into Count Aral's service after showing extreme heroism in a crisis. Rapidly becomes Miles right-hand man after Miles becomes Imperial Auditor since Miles finds his police experience useful.

* YouKnowImBlackRight: When he unthinkingly insults Taura in Winterfair Gifts. He makes amends, though.

A former subordinate of Aral's who had an extremely troubled history and career, he becomes a Vorkosigan Armsman after his discharge from the Imperial Service. Bothari eventually comes into Cordelia's orbit and responded to her belief in him with fierce, unquestioning devotion to her. Despite his transition from a normal soldier to a Vorkosigan armsman, his status as the family's resident and willing shooter of dogs remains unchanged.

* BloodKnight: Manages to be simultaneously this ''and'' ShellShockedVeteran - he's someone who will enthusiastically chop off an enemy's head, and the next minute be doubled up in agony, tormented by horrific flashbacks. Which is problematic if he and his companions are still in danger.

* RedemptionEqualsAffliction: Finds redemption in the first book with a HeelFaceTurn involving killing his commanding officer. He is spared being put to death for mutiny only on condition that he is tortured into developing LaserGuidedAmnesia - which wipes out his memory of the whole of the war leading up to this incident, which ultimately leads to his death anyway. He has enough memories that one of his deepest fears was that he raped Cordelia; he's supremely relieved to find out despite the snatches of images in his head, no, he didn't.

* SociopathicHero: Despite being a damaged killer with a violent, traumatic history, Bothari does his best to redeem himself through his loyalty to Cordelia and his Herculean efforts to be a good Da to his little daughter [[spoiler: by the female prisoner of war he raped while in a drug-and-Ges-induced fugue during the Escobar War]], Elena. He probably isn't actually a psychopath, given that, while he isn't always clear about whether something is right or wrong, he understands that there ''is'' a difference, and cares about it - which is why he depends on Cordelia to be his MoralityChain. If he actually were a psychopath, he'd probably be even more violent and dangerous, but happier.

* SuicideByCop: Miles, having witnessed his last moments and knowing how fast he could have bought the weapons in reach to bear, concludes that [[spoiler: Elena Visconti only managed to shoot him with his cooperation]].

* CavalryOfficer: However, he was canny enough to know the limitations in a hi-tech world. He still absolutely ''loves'' horses. In fact, he first starts to defrost when little Miles met his horses and immediately adored them.

* FairForItsDay : Most of the {{jerkass}} aspects of his personality are due to the ValuesDissonance between him and the "new generation", but Miles himself argues in-universe that considering his background, he's pretty progressive and make a lecture about how he wasn't "one of the last ancient" but "one of the first modern".

* RiddleForTheAges: Aral still doesn't know if Piotr killed Aral's fiancee for her affair with another man (she had officially committed suicide) -- and doesn't ''want'' to know.
* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: At first. He gets all the way over it. Miles remembers his grandfather 'standing behind him' in countless stressful social situations, pushing rather than protecting, and he deeply appreciates it. Often Miles' mediating internal monologue sounds as though it might have Piotr's voice (though this is never stated). Interestingly, it's 'Granda' he remembers (though only in pieces) in his cryo-amnesia. It probably helps Piotr realizes Miles' deficiences are ''not'' genetic, and his offspring will be normal.

* DefusingTheTykeBomb: Aral does it expertly with Mark, his assassin. When Mark blurts out how Ser Gelen intended him to make the assassination hurt as much as possible emotionally, Aral simply nods and critiques the plan, setting Mark at ease. It takes almost no time for Mark to be impressed and loyal to his genetic father.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Despite their differences, Aral still shares some of Piotr's attitudes. When expressing body conscious distress over Mark's weight, Cordelia tells him that's Piotr speaking. Aral replies that of course there has to be some of Piotr in him; it's inevitable.

* MedalOfDishonor: Aral secretly considers his reputation as the "Hero of Escobar" even more disgraceful than the "Butcher of Komarr" considering what he had to do to achieve it; on a wider level he appears to see all decorations unpleasant reminders of horrible things, because you hardly ever get an opportunity to even be brave unless things have gone to hell around you.

* OfferedTheCrown: Barrayaran tradition where succession is concerned was never bound by Salic inheritance, therefore Mad Emperor Yuri's proper heir would be first Prince Xav, then Xav's only living grandson by way of his elder daughter (Aral), then Aral's offspring (possibly skipped due to apparent mutations and [[UterineReplicator non-traditional conception]]), then the surving grandchild of Xav's younger daughter (Ivan). Thus nearly every plot to overthrow Ezar or Gregor has always had to deal with Aral, who has already made it be clear will not be Emperor.

* {{Polyamory}}: [[spoiler: It turns out that Aral had a roughly two decade relationship with his aide Oliver Jole. Not only was this not a secret from Cordelia, but in fact she encouraged it and they had threesomes often enough that Jole was sexually comfortable with Cordelia even after Aral was dead, though they took a break from any sort of romance with each other or others for three years after his death. It took them both that long to get over it.]]

* ReluctantRuler: Invoked by Emperor Ezar when selected to become Regent for Gregor and hold absolute power in the boy's name until adulthood. Not only does Aral take his word of honor very seriously, but he is the one man Ezar is absolutely certain ''does not '''want''''' the Imperium. Making him even more attractive as Regent is that even though Aral despises politics, he's also extremely versed in it, and knows how to deal with High Vor aristocracy and can play the Council of Counts like a fiddle. Keep in mind, Aral does have a legitimate claim to the throne, through his mother's line, so Ezar knew that the plan could have backfired had Aral had any hunger for the role.

* ShroudedInMyth even during his lifetime, When asked "what's he like?" Miles is forced to admit that his father is beyond comparison[[spoiler:, and the emperor himself insisted in serving as a pallbearer at his funeral]].

!!Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan'''

Miles' father. A brilliant man of subtle contradictions, Count Aral is the lion of modern Barrayaran history. Engineer of the brilliant conquest of Komarr, Hero of the heroic retreat from Escobar, victor in the war of Vordarian's pretendership, regent through Gregor's minority and prime minister afterwards, Aral is possibly more influential on Barrayar than even Emperor Ezar. In short, a hard act to follow.

* CompellingVoice: Her "Ship's Captain" voice turn Kou and Drou to jelly in just seconds, to the amazement of Kareen.

** Cordelia also cut off her waist-length hair to the root and burned it in offering for Aral. For her, nothing less was apropriate, and no one questioned her.

* FreeLoveFuture: Cordelia has at best amused tolerance of Barrayer's extremely old-fashioned sexual mores as contrasted to her native Beta Colony. However, this does not stop her from [[spoiler: being fully-involved in what was essentially a polyamorous marriage which included Aral's male partner. She muses about how Simon Illyan was truly terrified that she would be outraged when she returned from a trip to Beta Colony and found that her husband had taken up with another man. To his astonishment she treated it as a non-issue and in fact started sleeping with both of them herself]].

* GoingNative: Averted; she remains stubbornly unassimilated. When [[MamaBear Miles is in danger]] though, she can bring home the villain's head in a basket, thus proving that in this way she has lived up to [[ProudWarriorRace Barrayaran standards]] up a notch. [[spoiler:In ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' she's reticent to ever returning to Barrayar, even to be buried next to Aral.]]

** So much so that at the end of ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' [[spoiler: her over protective behavior drives her daughter's nanny to ''tears'' more than once. Jole assures the young lady that it's just a relic of her experience with Miles and she'll eventually ease up as she realizes her new daughter isn't made of glass.]]

** Miles later jokes when someone asks him to come shopping with them that "There's an offer seldom made of my mother's son."

** When Cordelia says she'll talk to Kou and Drou on Mark's behalf, Mark expressed doubt. When he asks Miles how she'll handle them, Miles bemusedly replies, "Butter, meet laser beam. Laser beam, meet butter -- oops!"

* {{Nepotism}}: He's sensitive about it and does everything he can to earn rank and respect on his own merits... but isn't above throwing his weight around as a Vor scion if it helps cut through [[ObstructiveBureaucrat obnoxious Barrayaran red tape]] or, more frequently, help somebody else out. In ''Memory'', Illyan is GenreSavvy enough to have discussed cashiering Miles from [=ImpSec=] with Gregor, cutting off the only person Miles could have possibly have appealed to to save him.[[note]]Miles knew better than to ask his father, who would have cut him down faster than Illyan would have.[[/note]] He also uses it as his [=ImpSec=] cover to explain why he's the only galactic agent to have a direct line to Illyan and Gregor when all other agents report to the Chief of Galactic Ops. He smoothly notes that because he can't be conditioned to resist [[TruthSerum fast penta]], all he's good for is to be Gregor's personal mailman. Voreedi doesn't buy a word of it.

** In ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' it's hinted that enough historical dramas about the events of the Hagan Hub have been made for some people to piece together Miles's mercenary work on their own. Almost twenty years later than he would've liked, but still. Officially he can't comment and has to wait for things to be declassified in due course. Unofficially, he has a collection of those dramas he likes to critique with friends who have the right security clearances.

* AFatherToHisMen: A trait he picked up from his father while running the Dendarii Mercenaries, such as making sure a neural disruptor victim got all the medical care he needed, paid for a new face for one of his soldiers (who later became a love interest -- and Miles' successor), and so on.

* GeniusCripple: He has to use his head to overcome his physical, uh, shortcomings. Fortunately, his mind is his deadliest weapon. That said, he learned plenty of physical moves, as Enrique Burgos found out, and is also an expert marksman and lightflyer pilot.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Miles for most of his life. "Hi, I'm a hero and I can't tell you why." He patiently waits for his exploits to be declassified, which by ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen'' are five years away; by that time, plenty of Barrayan officials and even off-worlders have sussed out Miles' involvement. On the other hand, Admiral Naismith's adventures have been ''very'' public, once being asked to be a technical expert for the Marilican film based on "Borders of Infinity".

* HasAType: Notes that he's consistently attracted to tall, capable, smart, confident, dark-haired women, starting with his first love Elena, followed by Elli, and ending with [[spoiler:Ekatarin]]. Taura is the one arguable exception, but ''only'' for the "confident" part, rarely. And ''maybe'' Bel, but only because it doesn't count as a "woman".

--> Peace to you, small lady. You've won a twisted poor modern knight, to wear your favor on his sleeve. But it's a twisted poor world we were both born into, that rejects us without mercy and ejects us without consultation. At least I won't [[Literature/DonQuixote just tilt at windmills for you]]. I'll send in sappers to mine the twirling suckers, and blast them into the sky

* CharacterDevelopment: Miles over the course of the series learns that ''actions have consequences'', and knowing his own limitations. He first learns it when he allows Bothari to torture a pilot. His biggest lesson was trying to lie to {{Spymaster}} Simon Illyan; needless to say, Miles seriously underestimated Illyan.[[note]]Though, Miles simply overestimated Illyan's trust in him, since he realized that ''of course'' Illyan would have a spy observing Miles. It wasn't underestimation, it was just plain stupidity.[[/note]] By ''Gentleman Jole'', when Jole insists that Miles would have done the same thing to save his children (cover them with a coat and be a HumanShield), Miles says, "No, I wouldn't have been able to", probably remembering Sargeant Beatrice.

* {{Determinator}}: He takes this to frightening levels. A minor but telling example: [[ItMakesSenseInContext when Ekaterin is hanging over the railing about to go into the Serifosa ornamental pond]], Miles grabs onto her wrists despite having no support and being considerably smaller than her, realizes this, and gets pulled into the pond with her anyway because he refuses to let go. This late leads both Miles and Ekaterin to an epiphany: Miles to the fact that [[spoiler: he couldn't have saved Sergeant Beatrice, frequent star of his nightmares and self-recriminations, from being sucked out of the shuttle during the Dagoola IV rescue because even if he had been just a little faster, he had no purchase and she outweighed him almost twice over]], and Ekaterin to the realization that [[spoiler: if Miles had managed to grab Beatrice, he would have died with her]] simply because in spite of the above, ''he would not have let go''. Admiral Naismith has to win. Miles Vorkosigan cannot lose.

%% 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.

* SeenItAll: Piotr Vorkosigan cut his teeth fighting the Cetegandans off of Barrayar and came out the victor of the subsequent civil war against his mad uncle, and (possibly) plotted to have his son's first wife murdered. Aral had a highly public troubled youth, was involved in the plan to get rid of yet another mad prince (a plan that involved an interstellar war that killed thousands), was a critical member of the new government who championed Gregor through yet another civil war, and acted faithfully as his regent for over a decade. Miles's own adventures take up the bulk of the series, and are at least equal to his father's and grandfather's in their own way. Between the three of them there are few flavors of scandal that the family hasn't been accused of at one point or another.

* NobleBigot: Miles isn't prejudiced against Komarrans, but he ''does'' think the Barraryaran conquest and continued occupation of Komarr was/is entirely justified, and he doesn't have much time or patience for anyone who's resentful about it or rebels against Barrayaran authority. He was no doubt influenced by his grandfather, who lived through the years of absolute ''hell'' that resulted from the Komarrans allowing Cetaganda access to Barrayar, plus he's fed up with Komarrans snidely asking him what it's like being the son of the "Butcher".

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Which is all the more galling for Aral, as he constantly gets this reaction for something he didn't even ''do''. He's forever attainted by the wider galaxy as "the Butcher of Komarr"; over thirty years later several Komarrans take the opportunity to get digs in at Miles about having "the Butcher" as a father, and there's genuine concern about the optics of Aral being involved in some parts of Gregor's wedding, particularly anything to do with Laisa, as Komarr's 'sacrificial maiden'.