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The Vorkosigans
Tropes that apply to the whole Vorkosigan clan:
- Badass Family: When you're Vor, it's almost a given, but when even your supposedly-cuddly, pacifist Betan mother has a reputation for bringing home the heads of your enemies in a shopping bag...
- Beware the Nice Ones: Both as a whole and as individuals. As a whole, they appear relatively nice for high Vor, and as individuals, the order in which you should choose a Vorkosigan to pick on is: "The Butcher of Komarr", the deformed runt of an Imperial Auditor, the cuddly pacifist Betan, and the chubby businessman with deep cover assassination training. And yes, that is in descending order of preference. And no, it's not a good idea whichever one you go for, because it will pretty definitely catch the attention of the rest.
- Deadpan Snarker: All of them.
- Seen It All: Piotr Vorkosigan cut his teeth fighting the Cetagandans 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 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.Miles: Grandfather once said to me, when I was upset about, God, I don’t even remember which one, "We’re Vorkosigans. If the charge isn’t at least murder or treason, it’s not worth rolling over in bed for." Then he thought a moment and changed it to, "Treason, anyway." And after another, "And sometimes not even then."
Miles Vorkosigan
Miles Naismith Vorkosigan
"Your forward momentum is going to lead all your followers over a cliff someday. On the way down, you'll convince 'em all they can fly. Lead on, my lord. I'm flapping as hard as I can."
— Mayhew on Miles' leadership style. Warrior's Apprentice
The eldest (originally only) son and heir to the Vorkosigan Countship, victim of a soltoxin attack while still in utero, the antitoxin to which left him with an abnormally stunted stature and frighteningly brittle bones, Miles grew up military-mad in a culture that despised him for a mutie. When he fails his qualifying physical for the Barrayaran military at seventeen, the death of his grandfather and a "breather" trip to Beta Colony with his friend Elena Bothari and her father Sergeant Konstantine Bothari, followed by a chance meeting with a drunk-and-suicidal jump pilot, changes the course of his life, ending in him becoming the admiral of a mercenary fleet at seventeen and launching a career beyond his wildest adolescent imaginings.
Not that Miles doesn't pay for his victories in blood, sweat, and tears...
- Almighty Janitor: Despite commanding his own mercenary fleet as Admiral Naismith, Miles never manages to rise past the rank of Lieutenant until after he gets himself fired from ImpSec in the Barrayaran service.
- Amazon Chaser: All of his romantic targets are tall even for a regular person: Elena, Elli, Ekaterin, and especially Taura, who is nine feet tall. The only reason he never pursued any of the Koudelka girls is that they are Like Brother and Sister to him; instead, he subjected them to military drills.
- Batman Gambit: His frequent modus operandi. He gets it from both his parents.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Another tool in his tactical repertoire.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Miles is a deeply caring soul and almost compulsively determined to do right by everyone he can, from helping a miserable drunken jump pilot keep his beloved ship from being repossessed to helping ten thousand POWs escape a Cetagandan prison camp when he was only supposed to engineer the breakout of one of them. ("Daring Rescues our specialty!" Granted, if he'd stuck to his original objectives, the mission would have been pointless; the one POW he'd gone in to get was not in a fit state to be helpful.) Cross him, or worse yet, mess with his loved ones, and you will be very, very sorry.
- Big Brother Instinct: Toward Mark.
- Big Damn Heroes: Miles loves doing this, even when it puts his life on the line. It gets him Killed Off for Real for the better part of Mirror Dance.
- Blood Knight: Very mild, but Quinn and Kareen both note that people shooting at him makes him excited.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He may be crazy (even his own mother thinks so), but he's very, very good at what he does.
- Busman's Holiday: Miles can't go anywhere but that something gigantic and political comes down on his head.
- But Not Too Foreign: Since Aral's maternal Grandmother was also a Betan, Miles is actually only 3/8ths Barrayaran. He doesn't tend to call people's attention to the math. In A Civil Campaign, he tells Count Vorbretten he's technically less than half a Barrayan — then winces inwardly because he left himself wide open for a height joke. (To his credit, Vorbretten doesn't take the bait, or ever even considered it.)
- Challenge Seeker: Gets called this by more than one character in various ways, including "adrenaline junkie".
- Character Development: 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 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 Human Shield), Miles says, "No, I wouldn't have been able to", probably remembering Sergeant Beatrice.
- Chick Magnet: Despite the loss of his first love Elena, Miles doesn't seem to have any trouble attracting strong, capable, badass women (and hermaphrodites; even if Bel Thorne's interest was unrequited, they still worked well together), and has remarkably successful relationships with them, to the point where he still trusted Rowan Durona enough to consider her performing an illicit medical procedure on his brain in Memory, and after A Civil Campaign, Elli sent him a kinky (if snarky) wedding gift and Taura stood as Second to his wife Ekaterin during the marriage ceremony.
- Deadpan Snarker: Miles' snark is weapons-grade. (It really says something when two people [Cordelia, Mark] are able to top him in that regard.)
- Determinator: He takes this to frightening levels. A minor but telling example: 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 later leads both Miles and Ekaterin to an epiphany: Miles to the fact that 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 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.
- Driven to Suicide: Three times as a teen, one time only known to him and Bothari after a girl sleeps with him out of curiosity and abandons him.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Something Miles borrowed from his father, notably after the Dinner Party.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: A major motivator and source of consternation for Miles, especially at the start of the series. Coming to terms with the classified nature of his work and accepting his public identity as Lord Vorkosigan is a major part of his character arc.
- In Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen it's hinted that enough historical dramas about the events of the Hegen 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.
- A Father to His Men: 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, paying for a new face for one of his soldiers (who later became a love interest — and Miles' successor), and so on.
- First-Name Basis: After being cashiered by Illyan from ImpSec for falsifying a report, Miles bitterly calls him "Simon", since he no longer works for him.
- Fragile Speedster: The speed is mostly spiritual, but for the better part of his life a simple fall could shatter his bones like glass.
- Genius Cripple: 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 Borgos found out, and is also an expert marksman and lightflyer pilot.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: 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 Barrayaran officials and even off-worlders have sussed out Miles' involvement. On the other hand, Admiral Naismith's adventures have been very public; he was once asked to be a technical expert for the Marilican film based on "Borders of Infinity".
- Guile Hero: He has to be, because of his frail physique. Even after his bones are replaced with more durable synthetics, he's still five foot zilch.note
- Has a Type: 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 Ekaterin. 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".
- Happily Married: To Ekaterin Vorsoisson, after a few false starts.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: To a lesser extent than Aral, and only among certain circles. Of course, Miles uses this to his advantage too. Once a disgruntled political opponent implied that Miles' connections allowed him to get away with murder. Miles replied "So if you truly believe that, why are you standing in my way?"
- Homage: According to Bujold, Miles was named after Miles Hendon from The Prince and the Pauper.
- Insistent Terminology: Miles would like you to know that his physical issues are teratogenic in nature, and the Vor in general are a military caste, not an aristocracy. Also, Mark is his brother, not his clone. Later in his life, Miles is much more flexible on the first issue, taking the more relaxed view that if Barrayar sees him as a mutant, his success might make things easier for actual mutants after him. It may help that he marries Ekaterin around this time, but the attitude shift had at least mostly happened before he met her.
- Knight Errant: There's a reason one omnibus is titled Miles Errant. He sees himself as one, according to his mother's amateur psychoanalysis. She even asserts his knight errant impulse is so strong a sane government wouldn't allow Miles to possess a pocket knife, let alone a private army.
- In "The Mountains Of Mourning" he has a whole Inner Monologue directed to a newborn who was killed for having a harelip where he refers to himself as her knight and swears to prevent future killings.
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 just tilt at windmills for you. I'll send in sappers to mine the twirling suckers, and blast them into the sky.- In A Civil Campaign Simon Illyan invokes Miles' Knight Errantry when telling Ekaterin: "Do you know all those old folk tales where the Count tries to get rid of his only daughter's unsuitable suitor by giving him three impossible tasks? Don't ever try that with Miles. Just...don't."
- Manipulative Bastard: Ivan several times notes that whenever they have a conversation it ends with Miles getting his way. The GURPS source book warns that if you include Miles in an adventure, he will try to take it over for himself — and if he doesn't, you're not playing him correctly. Bujold even stated she had to connive a way for Miles to be out of the picture for most of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and even then, he stuck his nose into Ivan's affairs anyway.
- Messianic Archetype: At times, particularly during Borders of Infinity when he started out pretending until he somehow wasn't pretending anymore. The madman who came up with the idea even points out that Miles thinks he's faking, but he's not.
- Even more obvious in Mirror Dance, where he is this for Mark. In the same way that, in Christianity, God is the source of our life, but only becomes 'our Father' because we are adopted into God's family because Jesus, God's son, died for us, so Mark is genetically the child of Aral and Cordelia, but only actually meets them and accepts his identity as their son because of the events which led up to Miles' being killed while trying to rescue Mark from the chaos of his own misguided attempts at heroism. And, of course, Miles does come back to life...
- Military Maverick: Despite working within Barrayaran Imperial Security for all intents and purposes, Miles got his rank and position by going totally AWOL, scamming an entire mercenary fleet into following him, and single-handedly ending a major interplanetary war. He also has a habit of driving superiors batty; it isn't until many years later that he realizes Simon Illyan's parting wish for Miles have "subordinates just like himself" was not a compliment but a very heartfelt curse. Towards the end of The Vor Game Elena notes that Miles has every commanding officer he ever served under locked up in adjacent cells aboard his flagship.
- Mother Barrayar Makes Me Strong: Even more than most Barrayarans. As a mut— uh, teratogenic — on Barrayar, the more old-fashioned find it disturbing that he should be allowed even to live and he is driven to have a successful military career just to prove the value of his existence to himself. The author herself said that she came up with him pondering the most sadistic thing she could possibly do to a character.
- Motor Mouth: When excited — this is the reason he's become the Phrase Catcher of "Unpack, Miles". Under fast penta, he goes up a notch.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Miles really really regretted allowing Bothari to torture a pilot for information, who later died from complications directly caused by it. The fact he saw an extremely disturbing side of Honorary Uncle Bothari also frightened him.
- In the same book, another disaster occurs which results in Bothari being killed by one of his Escobaran victims in front of his daughter, that is to say, THEIR daughter, and Miles' very eyes, when Miles introduces the unknown complication of Elena Visconti without knowing her history with Barrayar in general and his armsman in particular...
- My Greatest Failure: Miles has three big ones:
- Allowing Bothari to torture the jump pilot
- Not being able to save Sgt. Beatrice from dyingnote
- Getting cashiered from ImpSec for falsifying a report.note
- A fourth, forcing Ekaterin to refuse his proposal and robbing her of what she thought was a gift to Miles (designing Vorkosigan House's new garden — when Miles actually used it to get close to her) was rectified later by a heartfelt apology and trusting her by giving her space.
- In Gentleman Jole, when Cordelia tells him to think about his three biggest blunders, he says she already knows two of them. One has to wonder which of those two he withheld from her; being cashiered was very public.
- The Napoleon: A very sympathetic example, but he's still pretty insecure about his height.
- 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 obnoxious Barrayaran red tape or, more frequently, help somebody else out. In Memory, Illyan is Genre Savvy 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 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 fast penta, all he's good for is to be Gregor's personal mailman. Vorreedi doesn't buy a word of it.
- Noble Bigot: Miles isn't prejudiced against Komarrans and condemns the Solstice Massacre, 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".
- Secret-Identity Identity: The conflict between Admiral Miles Naismith and Lord Miles Vorkosigan fuels a lot of the character development in the later books, and is one of the central themes of Memory.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Miles does not escape his military career scot-free, if his constant nightmares are any indication.
- Technically a Smile: Miles is good at this. In A Civil Campaign, Miles "manufactures" a smile for Richars. Shortly after:The smile transmuted to pure snarl. He stormed around the room three times looking for something that wasn't an antique too valuable to break...
- Too Clever by Half: Miles goes a little too far with his "cleverness" in Memory when faking a report. He calls it "downright artistic", and wrestles with sending it or the real, undoctored report. He goes with the former and pays the price.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: As of Cryoburn, Miles' full title stands as Imperial Auditor Captain Count Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, Count Vorkosigan, a mouthful if ever there was one. No telling yet if he will continue to add to that.
- Underestimating Badassery:
- A common mistake when dealing with a young Miles. The smart cadets at the military academy start to be on Miles' team because he wins so much; the smartest actually try to oppose him because he represents a challenge. Tien seriously underestimates him, thinking Miles' position as Imperial Auditor is pure nepotism. Miles himself uses nepotism to explain why his chain of command is Miles —> Illyan —> Gregor; again, the smarter agents know this is pure bunk. Richars doesn't seem to understand that Miles is Old Vor in deed more than just in name. By the time of Gentlemen Jole, the general populace are starting to realize Miles is far more than just Aral's son.
- As noted under Too Clever by Half, he underestimates Illyan, and probably the only person in the universe who would be foolish enough to do so.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy:
- To Piotr, at first. He gets over it. Is a tiny bit this towards Aral, but unlike most examples of this trope, Aral is never stingy with his love and affection for Miles, nor does he make a secret of it. Miles still feels driven to make his own life "...a golden sacrifice, fit to lay at my father's feet."
- In Gentleman Jole, Miles is pressuring his son Alex about joining the military and his future as Count Vorkosigan. Miles truly does take more after his grandfather than his father.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Though sometimes, especially early on in his career, Miles's tendency to go off half-cocked can lead to a Gambit Pileup all by himself.
Cordelia Naismith
Cordelia Naismith (Countess Vorkosigan)
Aral: I told him... that you poured out honor like a fountain, all around you.
Cordelia: That's weird. I don't feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion.
Aral: Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.
Cordelia: That's weird. I don't feel full of honor, or anything else, except maybe confusion.
Aral: Naturally not. Fountains keep nothing for themselves.
— Shards of Honor
"The Admiral's Captain": Former Betan Astronomical Survey Captain, retired Science Hero, certified badass, wife of Aral and mother of Miles.
- Accidental Hero: Cordelia reluctantly takes public credit for killing Admiral Vorrutyer during the Escobar War. She takes the blame to protect her rescuer from charges of mutiny, but is quick to point out the real hero when it comes time to assign the credit.
- Action Girl: Through most of Shards of Honor, changing to Action Mom during Barrayar.
- Behind Every Great Man: Cordelia is such a powerful example, Ivan uses her as an example when warning Illyan about not accounting for Udine when dealing with Shiv, her husband.
- Bold Explorer: When first seen in Cordelia's Honor.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: A lot of Barrayarans seem to perceive her as such for her attitudes to sex and gender...not that they'd ever say that to the face of the woman who reportedly took down Ges Vorrutyer and Vidal Vordarian. The feeling's a bit mutual, and she's spent thirty years gently and quietly starting to turn the tables.
- Compelling Voice: Her "Ship's Captain" voice turns Kou and Drou to jelly in just seconds, to the amazement of Kareen.
- Cool Old Lady: By Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, she's 76 years old, and Kareen admits she'd be more comfortable talking to Cordelia about her sex life than to her own mother. Oh, and her part in the War of Vordarian's Pretendership has elevated her to
Memetic Badass status. Though, since Betans live longer than most people, she's more like a Cool Middle-Aged Lady by the standards of her own planet. - Due to the Dead:
- Cordelia gives Princess Kareen what she believes is a fitting burnt offering to her death: setting half the Imperial Palace ablaze.
- Cordelia also cut off her waist-length hair to the root and burned it in offering for Aral. For her, nothing less was appropriate, and no one questioned her.
- Fish out of Water: Initially, Cordelia on Barrayar. After thirty plus years, it's slowly starting to swing the other way.
- Free-Love Future: Cordelia has at best amused tolerance of Barrayar's extremely old-fashioned sexual mores as contrasted to her native Beta Colony. However, this does not stop her from 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.
- Fridge Horror: A case of it hits her in-universe when she finally realizes the horror her soft-heartedness must have unintentionally inflicted on the unfortunate Lt. Dubauer.
- Going Native: Averted; she remains stubbornly unassimilated. When 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 Barrayaran standards up a notch. In Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen she's resistant to ever returning to Barrayar, even to be buried next to Aral.
- Good Parents: With Aral. They complement each other as she is the nurturer while Aral is the teacher and role-model.
- Happily Married: to Aral, of course.
- I Can Change My Beloved: More I Can Change My Beloved's Planet. But Aral lives on the planet, so...
- Informed Attractiveness: Averted. Cordelia is described more than once as physically appealing, but not as a real beauty. It's her personality that really makes her attractive.
- Mama Bear:
- After what she goes through in Barrayar to rescue Miles' uterine replicator, don't you dare doubt it.
- In Mirror Dance, she hints that if domestic circumstances hadn't intervened, she would have personally invaded Jackson's Whole to rescue Miles.
- It extends to Mark as well. She has a Heroic BSoD when Mark outright tells her that he has to risk his life, if only to prove he's not responsible for Aral's death. She gets better when she realizes that Mark needs to prove himself more than she needs him to be safe.
- So much so that at the end of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen her overprotective 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.
- Medicate the Medium: She couldn't reveal the details of how she escaped captivity and participated in a Barrayaran political assassination during the Escobaran war, so her story about being in love with Aral was dismissed as obvious brainwashing.
- Memetic Badass: In-universe, becomes this among the High Vor after the events of Barrayar, although even before the 'shopping trip' various Vor wags were remarking that she supposedly ate battle cruisers for breakfast. Her public image is much lower profile: historian Duv Galeni later refers to her as "the most invisible of political wives" — Miles responds that she's invisible like oxygen: you don't notice it's there, until it's not.
- Miles later jokes when someone asks him to come shopping with them that "There's an offer seldom made to my mother's son."
- When Count Vorhalas, Aral Vorkosigan's implacable political adversary, threatens to continue to press charges that Miles raised a private army (traditional penalty: death by starvation), Miles simply points out that if Vorhalas presses the issue, he'll have to face Cordelia over it. Count Vorhalas quickly backs down. It's not just fear, though Miles can't know that. Count Vorhalas was a friend before politics drove them apart. One of his sons was also responsible for the attack that left Miles as physically damaged as he is.
- When Mark was being trained to replace Miles, Cordelia's low international profile led him to contemptuously dismiss her as a non-factor in Barrayaran politics; on his entry into Barrayaran society, he notes that her influence is evident in Gregor's governance, and when she goes into Determinator mode, the only people who seem willing to challenge her are Simon Illyan and Emperor Gregor himself — and when Simon refuses to get out of her way, she simply plows him under...
- When Cordelia says she'll talk to Kou and Drou on Mark's behalf, Mark expresses doubt. When he asks Miles how she'll handle them, Miles bemusedly replies, "Butter, meet laser beam. Laser beam, meet butter — oops!"
- Ivan warns Illyan that not including Udine in his calculations when dealing with Shiv is tantamout to not considering Cordelia when dealing with Aral. Illyan takes his warning very seriously.
- Messianic Archetype: Even moreso than her eldest son.
- My Beloved Smother: Not to Miles or Mark; in fact, just the opposite — she gives both of them plenty of room. However, she becomes one to her first infant daughter, Aurie, to the point the babysitter is driven to tears by her protectiveness. Jole notes that Cordelia's idea of raising a child were informed by the extremely fragile Miles, and Aurie probably seems like a superbaby to her in comparison. After a year, Cordelia's let up.
- Noble Bigot: Literally, even! She's not called on it explicitly, but endures a lot of suffering trying to strong-arm her way through Vor customs and traditions, and sometimes concedes she's still on Barrayar, so its lunacy must be contagious.
- Not So Above It All: When Kly tells her gum weed (a chewable tobacco-like substance with caffeine in it to boost) isn't for a high class Vor lady, Cordelia retorts that she's none of the above and needs the pick-me-up.
- Not What It Looks Like: Inverted. It's exactly what it looks like, but no one around her is willing to believe that she could possibly have genuinely fallen in love with Aral and assumes that it's Stockholm Syndrome or Barrayaran brainwashing.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: In a way. She seems to think of Barrayar as her obnoxious planet in-law and her favorite curse word is, "Barrayarans!"
- Parental Substitute: To Gregor. When told she would be essentially Gregor's governess during his formative years, she was astonished, since that gave her the most power in the entire Barrayaran Empire. Aral says the Counts think it's harmless, but he knows better and that's the reason he suggested it. Later, in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Jole tells her she'll always have ImpSec's protection and survelliance, because even if she's no longer Vicerine, she's still Gregor's foster mother, which would make her an attractive target. (Cordelia snorts Gregor knows that she'd never want him to compromise his ethics if she were kidnapped. Jole replies it would be unfair to Gregor to make him have to sacrifice her.)
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?:Adm. Jole: What’s in the box? Not a severed head—again—I trust?
Cordelia: Now, now, Oliver. Bring home one dismembered body part, once, mind you, once, and people get twitchy about checking your luggage ever after. - Sanity Slippage: Admits she's not entirely sane after she burns half the Imperial Palace with an arc thrower in Princess Kareen's honor in Barrayar.
- Shipper on Deck:
- All during Barrayar, she's frustrated at Kou and Drou's Cannot Spit It Out flirting, stating those kids were her two favorite Barrayarans. When she's given a chance to make them get together, she does.
- She then intensely desires Mark and Kareen getting together, Mark being a long-lost son and Kareen being the daughter of her two favorite Barrayans, and weaponizes her ship of them to get Kou to soften on Mark.
- The Social Expert:
- Probably the best example in a whole family full of examples. To be fair, she clung to Alys for a very long time, and it's apparent she became a good student under her.
- Interestingly though, in Cordelia's Honor she implied that she thought herself socially inept because at one time she had been exploited by a selfish lover.
- In Mirror Dance, she tells Mark that she and other Barrayaran women have been changing the planet while the men play war with their toys. She states the real battle is between the older women who had body births and the younger women who now have the option of the uterine replicator. She states that Vor society is going to change in the next decade, and the men won't see it coming 'til it's far too late.Mark: You consider the Vor system an illusion?
Cordelia: I used to. Now I would call it a creation, which, like any living thing, must be continually re-created. I’ve seen the Barrayaran system be awkward, beautiful, corrupt, stupid, honorable, frustrating, insane and breathtaking. Its gets most of the work of government done most of the time, which is about average for any system.
- Team Mom: To everyone. And given that she was Gregor's foster mother, she's arguably one to the entire Empire.
- A Threesome Is Hot: The more so since Guy on Guy Is Hot as far as Betan Cordelia is concerned. She had no problem with sharing her and Aral's marital bed with the extremely handsome Oliver Jole for about 20 years. Nor does she seem at all worried that this might repeat itself now that Aral is dead and she has continued on with the bisexual Oliver herself. She even dares Jole to kiss the hot blond boy at the kissing booth at a Sergyar fair.
- Tomboy: A bit old for the designation, but very much so by Barrayaran standards. Aral calls her "my dear Captain" for a reason. Miles observes that she wears a Barrayaran matron's skirts like a child playing dressup.
- Traumatic Haircut: Cordelia cropped her hair short after Aral passed away. Theee years later, during Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen, it's still cut short.The night she’d cut all her waist-length hair, which Aral had always loved, nearly to the roots to lay in the burning brazier. Because the usual sacrificial lock had seemed absurdly inadequate. Not one of her fellow mourners had said a word in protest, nor asked one in question. She’d never worn it longer than its current finger-length, thereafter.
- Verbal Tic: For a while in Shards of Honor, her own allies' determined efforts to undo what they assume must be brainwashing and psychological trauma inflicted on her by the Barrayarans, compounded by the sensitive political secrets she has to keep regarding what really happened, puts Cordelia under so much stress that she develops a stutter. It disappears entirely when she resolves to escape.
- Warrior Therapist: Effectively appointed herself warrior therapist to an entire planet by vowing to make Barrayar a safe place for Miles, Gregor and Elena to grow up. And she taught it to her son.
- Who Watches the Watchmen?: Mark observes that Cordelia is The Social Expert and a Warrior Therapist, but wonders, "Who shaves the barber?" After watching a conversation between her and Gregor, he gets his answer.
- Woman Scorned: Barrayar drove her half-crazy and teratogenically damaged her only son during Vordarian's coup attempt. According to her in Mirror Dance, her revenge is nothing less than changing the fundamental basis of Barrayaran society (using the uterine replicator tech). Anything worth doing...
- Yaoi Fangirl: And she's not even subtle about it. Her first reaction to finding out Aral and Jole were having an affair was to encourage it. Decades later, when dating Jole himself, she dares him to kiss an attractive, young blond man at a kissing booth — in public. He demurs, but not without giving the guy a Double Take.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A non-dichotomous example: after Cordelia takes out Vidal Vordarian, she earns the respect of the High Vor, but it enrages her for a time that Princess Kareen (Gregor's mother, who died defying Vordarian in the end after a powerless life spent trying, as Cordelia puts it, to just survive people like Serg and Ezar and Vordarian himself while protecting her son) is ignored and overlooked for her quiet courage while Cordelia's messy beheading is lauded.
Aral Vorkosigan
Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan
"A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind."
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.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Vorhalas is threatening to have Miles executed, he says he wants to see Aral beg for Miles' life. He does so in a nanosecond, causing Vorhalas to tell him to cut it out.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Aral is reasonable, kind, intelligent, level-headed, and a good father and husband. He also broke a subordinate's neck with his bare hands for murdering civilians and slaughtered two people in duels. He ordered a base commander publicly shot for allowing his soldiers to rape prisoners — and uses the footage to bring soldiers into line later. When your son's assassin-clone's Superpowered Evil Side remarks on feeling a certain kinship with you...
- Blue Blood: The bluest, as he's arguably first in line for the throne.
- The Butcher: One of his officers ordered the massacre of a group of unarmed Komarrans during the course of a planetary conquest that Aral had worked hard to make as bloodless as possible; Aral killed the man personally in a fit of rage, then got stuck with the blame for his actions.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Komarrans assumed Aral killed the political officer to cover up the fact Aral gave the order.
- Broken Ace: After both Komarr and Escobar. A new job from Emperor Ezar fixes him both times, though Ezar leaves all of the real heavy lifting to Cordelia the second time around.
- Child Soldier: His military career began at eleven when Mad Emperor Yuri's death squad killed the rest of his family.
- Cincinnatus: Despite his wife's efforts, Barrayar and the High Vor just won't let him have a peaceful retirement. He seals the comparison by relinquishing the regency at Gregor's majority, just as he said he would.
- Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Aral does it expertly with Mark, his assassin. When Mark blurts out how Ser Galen 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.
- Depraved Bisexual: Subverted. Aral is perceived as this by some of his enemies, but is in fact a thoroughly honourable man and a devoted husband and father. (Aral is bisexual, just not depraved. He admitted to Cordelia that he was having an affair with another man for months while she was away. He once stated that knowing how Betan Cordelia is, she'd probably try and get them together if it ever happened). She did.
- Driven to Suicide: A heartbroken Aral resorts to trying to kill himself with the slow death of alcoholism. Cordelia informs him when she comes back to him he's not as subtle as he thinks. Aral doesn't deny it.
- Determinator: Miles gets it from both his parents: just witness the hell Aral puts himself through during his first appearance, trekking across hostile Sergyar with a couple of Betan POWs, one of whom was the victim of a nerve disruptor attack to the head and is thus a drooling vegetable.Aral: One step at a time I can walk around the world. Watch me.
- Face of a Thug: Even Miles admits that his "sharp, penetrating eyes" are the only things outwardly differentiating him from the stock image of a stereotypical military dictator.
- The Good Chancellor: After he surrenders the regency he gets the prime ministership as a consolation prize.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Though it's largely his own fault, due to his tumultuous youth. When Cordelia's mother calls him a killer, her only defense is to point out that he'd only murdered three of them, the rest were all legitimate military casualties. Ironically, the actual incident that earned him his bad reputation off-planet was not his fault, but he already had such a scandalous reputation on Barrayar he must have looked ideal for the frame.
- Like Father, Like Son: 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.
- Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: How Aral deals with two assassins: one a mutineer from Shards of Honor, then Mark in Mirror Dance, though far more subtly.
- Manly Tears: Jole relates that during the events of The Vor Game, when Gregor showed up alive and well, Aral went to his private quarters and sobbed tears of relief, because he was deathly afraid of a bloody Succession Crisis thrice in his life.
- Medal of Dishonor: 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 as unpleasant reminders of horrible things, because you hardly ever get an opportunity to even be brave unless things have gone to hell around you.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: The fate of two of his first wife's lovers, after Aral challenged them to duels. The first fought bravely. The second was so pathetic Aral considers it murder.
- Offered the Crown: 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 non-traditional conception), then the surviving 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 clear he will not be Emperor.
- Old Soldier: He's older by Barrayaran standards when he marries for the second time, and thirty years later is still serving Barrayar.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: 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'. However, Aral has long since decided to weaponize his reputation, since he feels he's earned the weight that it brings.
- Papa Wolf: Not as obvious as Cordelia but it's there. He is also something of a Papa Wolf To His Men. Of all the things that angered him at General Metzov — including bullying Miles — what angered him most was Metzov's attempt to use trainees as a death squad.
- Polyamory: 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.
- Reluctant Ruler: 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 well-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.
- Shrouded in Myth even during his lifetime. When asked "what's he like?" Miles is forced to admit that his father is beyond comparison, and the emperor himself insisted on serving as a pallbearer at his funeral.
- So Proud of You: Unlike his own father, he doesn't withhold or hide his love from his son.
- Tranquil Fury:
- At one point Cordelia thinks that she doesn't have to worry about others overhearing his part of their argument: when he gets angry, he starts whispering.
- Both Miles and Ivan acknowledge this. In Cetaganda, when Vorreedi lets his volume drop, asking Miles if he thinks of himself as a genius, Miles gets chilled because it reminded him of his father about to spring a verbal trap. When Admiral Desplains calls Ivan "Captain" while letting his voice go dead level in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, it reminds him of Aral in a mood.
- What You Are in the Dark: Aral invokes it when defining honor and reputation: reputation is what others think of you, while honor is what you think of yourself. He comments that it's not too difficult to deal with a bad reputation if you still have honor — it's when you have a shining reputation while you feel no honor that is soul devouring.
- When She Smiles: Another shared trait with his son; he's not unattractive, but Cordelia only starts to become attracted to him the first time he really smiles with pleasure.
- You Didn't Ask: Cordelia has no idea Aral is actually of royal blood enough to have had a potential claim on the throne, until Ezar mentions it. Aral's only response is to weakly note it's on the female side of the bloodline.
Piotr Vorkosigan
General Count Piotr Vorkosigan
Aral's father, the previous Count Vorkosigan, a hard man and a veteran of the Cetagandan occupation of Barrayar.
- Cavalry Officer: However, he was canny enough to know the limitations in a hi-tech world. He still absolutely loves horses. In fact, he first started to defrost when little Miles met his horses and immediately adored them.
- Combat Pragmatist: Even during a heated argument with Aral, when Vordarian begins his coup, he and Aral become frighteningly efficient. "No wasted words," thinks Cordelia.
- Crusading Widower: Yuri Vorbarra seriously miscalculated by not including Piotr in the massacre of his relatives; the brutal death of his wife and two of his children spurred Piotr into backing Ezar in the ensuing civil war.
- Dawn of an Era: He's described as not being the last of Old Barrayar, but the first of New Barrayar.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: He mellows out to his grandson eventually, mostly due to a truckload of effort on Miles' part.
- Fair for Its Day : Most of the jerkass aspects of his personality are due to the Values Dissonance between him and the "new generation", but Miles himself argues in-universe that considering his background, he's pretty progressive and gives a lecture about how he wasn't "one of the last ancient" but "one of the first modern".
- I Want Grandkids: When Cordelia is pregnant and sonograms have shown it's a boy, it elevates her to near-deity status in Piotr's eyes.
- Jerkass: He's nice enough to his daughter-in-law, right up until it turns out she still wants to preserve her son in the aftermath of the soltoxin attack; then Piotr proceeds to treat Cordelia like garbage, belittle her, and use every advantage accorded him by blood and Barrayaran law to "dump" the still-in-utero Miles. When Aral blocks him, he picks a fight with his son and the resulting estrangement lasts for five years.
- Overranked Soldier: Made full General in his early twenties. It was during the Cetagandan Occupation, and the Emperor wasn't able to provide him with more substantial rewards for his services like supplies or reinforcements. He proved to be a Four-Star Badass anyway.
- Retired Badass: Demonstrated when Vidal Vordarian begins his coup — he hustles young Gregor and Cordelia into the hill country, and displays all of the guerilla warfare know-how he'd learned during the Cetagandan Occupation. All this and in his late 70's, early 80's and never needing to take a break or stop to breathe.
- Riddle for the Ages: Aral still doesn't know if Piotr killed Aral's fiancée for her affair with another man (she had officially committed suicide) — and doesn't want to know.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: 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 that Piotr realizes Miles' deficiencies are not genetic, and his offspring will be normal.
- Tough Love: Though Piotr eventually comes to accept and love Miles, he was fairly harsh on him during his childhood, constantly pushing him to succeed where his parents would have been more protective...because he knew his grandson would have to be tough in order to survive on Barrayar.
- You Should Have Died Instead: He almost says this to Aral in a moment of anger, but even the beginning of the sentiment ("If your brother had lived...") is enough to freeze his relations with his only living son solid then and there.
Mark Vorkosigan
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
Miles's clone-brothernote and the results of a plot by a psychotic Komarran, Mark was conditioned to be Miles, right down to imitating his physical tics and having his height and skeleton surgically (and painfully) altered to replicate the effects of the soltoxin attack.
- Berserk Button: The Jacksonian clone-body industry. It's Extremely Personal for Mark.
- Big Eater: Thanks to modern medical technology, comfort-eating is one of the less harmful ways for him to cope with his extensive psychological issues. That, and the massive weight gain also helps him look less like his brother.
- Changeling Fantasy: Invoked and defied, in which Miles tells Mark that most orphans dream of the changeling fantasy about having royal parents (which Cordelia and Aral technically are). Mark bitterly rejects this, saying he "always knew the score".
- Character Development: Arguably has more than Miles and maybe Ivan, going from a Brainwashed and Crazy Tyke Bomb to a sharp-minded businessman who is able to relate to people comfortably.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What Ser Galen and later Baron Ryoval put him through. Ryoval, being the expert, was expecting that Mark would develop a split personality to help himself survive the torture; what he wasn't expecting was how quickly and efficiently Mark managed to do it, and also the presence of Killer, which proved to be his undoing.
- Deadpan Snarker: By A Civil Campaign, he's almost as acerbic as his clone-brother (and new favourite target).
- Determinator: Despite days of torture, he manages to turn the tables and kill Baron Ryoval — despite being naked and handcuffed at the time.
- Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Miles starts it in Brothers In Arms not long after discovering Mark's existence, then the whole Vorkosigan family gets in on the act. Later on, Kareen and even Ekaterin lend their support to the effort. There are signs that the whole Koudelka clan may be warming up to him: for Mark, who never had a family, the prospect of having two is an enchanting one.
- The Hedonist: One of the legacies of his... unique history. The reasons are extremely complicated.
- Intentional Weight Gain: In Mirror Dance, Mark wants to be different from his elder brother Miles and to be his own person. So, he uses rapid weight gain to differentiate himself from Miles, preventing any attempts to use him to double for Miles.
- Non-Idle Rich: What he winds up doing later, with an eye to using his spoils to outmaneuver the Jacksonian clone-body industry and render it obsolete.
- Power of Trust: Mirror Dance. When asking each other what the most important trait of the opposite gender are, Kareen says, "Wit". Mark says "Trust", without thinking.
- Rape as Backstory: Mark's early life was truly appalling. And then Ryoval gets his hands on him.
- Self-Made Man: Mark takes the same approach to earning money that Miles does to advancing Barrayaran security.
- Sibling Rivalry: Big time, due to his very odd upbringing. He gets better later, but teasing Miles remains one of his favorite pastimes,
- Split Personality: Developed not one but four to deal with Ryoval's torture: Grunt represents Mark's sexuality, Gorge his appetite, Howl his masochism, and Killer, well...you get the idea. He's dubbed them the Black Gang (after coal-handlers who were covered with coal dust making their skin blackened, and, by extension, other people who do the unpleasant out-of-sight jobs, rather than black = evil/bad) and by A Civil Campaign has them (mostly) under control.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Averted by Cordelia, who accepts a bewildered, wary Mark as her son as per her Betan upbringing, by Miles who thinks of him as a brother and refers to him as such, and by Aral. In Gentleman Jole, Miles flatly states he is Mark's brother, not father; Cordelia had brought up that Betan law would have trouble determining whether Miles was legally a father or brother to Mark.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Except for the wife part, Mark tends to feel this way about himself and Kareen, repeatedly comparing himself to a squat toad. Kareen feels otherwise, but most of her relatives (and puzzled bystanders) tend to side with Mark's assessment. Part of this may be in contrast to Miles, who, while just as short, has been noted to have a face that's both handsome and intensely, conspicuously animated when he's not having a seizure.
- Withholding Their Name: Killer is only referred to that other one by Mark internally til that part of him needs to be unleashed. Before then, even Grunt, Gorge and Howl have no idea who he is, while Killer tells him that he's the one who knows Mark best, and vice versa.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Drifts into this territory several times.
Miles's children
- Dead Guy Junior: Taurie is named after Sergeant Taura.note
- Middle Name Basis: In Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Aral is called by his middle name, Alex.
Servants and Retainers
Konstantine Bothari
"He becomes whatever is required of him. Not a conscious process, I don't think. Piotr expects a loyal retainer, and Bothari plays the part, deadpan as you please. Vorrutyer wanted a monster, and Bothari became his torturer. And victim. I demanded a good soldier, and he became one for me. You..." his voice softened, "you are the only person I know who looks at Bothari and sees a hero. So he becomes one for you. He clings to you because you create him a greater man than he ever dreamed of being."
— Aral Vorkosigan to Cordelia about Bothari, Barrayar
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 responds 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.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: When you're a teenager on your first tour of the galaxy, what's more embarrassing than your dad trying to smuggle weaponry through spaceports? The fact that it's evidently a standing joke with the customs officials indicates that he does this every single time.
- The Atoner: His last words , after being shot by one of his victims, are "Rest now..."
- Battle Butler: To the Vorkosigans, and particularly the young Miles, right up until his death.
- Berserk Button: Call him anything you like, just don't call him a bastard.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: And when his daughter finds out his past behavior, she's totally disgusted with him. In fairness, he probably wasn't just displaying Parental Hypocrisy, but motivated by his own experience of having been sexually abused as a child, and determined to make sure that his child will never have to suffer what he did.
- Blood Knight: Manages to be simultaneously this and Shell-Shocked Veteran — 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.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: He's an expert. Just ask a certain jump pilot.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His mother was a Barrayaran prostitute who used to sell him to her customers. And that was before Ges Vorrutyer got his hands on him.
- Deceptive Legacy: Told his daughter that he had been married to her mother but she had died when she was a baby, because he didn't want his daughter to suffer the same Bastard Angst that he did.
- Hidden Depths: Cordelia, Kou and Drou are amazed to learn that he actually has some experience with midwifery, and he helps to deliver Ivan Vorpatril.
- High on Homicide: In Barrayar, Bothari admits to Cordelia that to him killing feels "better than sex...It feels even better, afterwards".
- Just Following Orders: Played with. He is so messed up that actually refusing to rape Cordelia is the bravest thing he ever does. Usually he becomes whatever his boss wants him to be; Vorrutyer wanted him to be a monster, Aral a good soldier, and Cordelia wanted him as The Champion. Later Cordelia muses that the reason he clings to the Vorkosigans is that he knows he can't trust himself, and so he follows the orders of someone he believes he can trust.
- Older Sidekick: To Cordelia in Barrayar (okay, he's only about eight years older than her, but both much more experienced in combat and much more used to the way Barrayar works than Naïve Newcomer Cordelia), and to Miles in The Warrior's Apprentice.
- Psycho Sidekick: Unusual example in that he wants to be a good person, therefore is drawn to people he can trust to be a Morality Chain for him.
- Rape by Proxy: He served as the proxy.
- Redemption Equals Affliction: Finds redemption in the first book with a Heel–Face Turn involving killing his commanding officer. He is spared being put to death for mutiny only on condition that he is tortured into developing Laser-Guided Amnesia — 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.
- Rules Lawyer: Lord Aral Vorkosigan told him to honor his wife's commands as if they were his own. Aral probably meant that as Lord Vorkosigan. Bothari interpreted that as being from Lord Regent Vorkosigan, giving Cordelia the authority of the Emperor as far as Bothari is concerned. The order is never rescinded.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Made worse by the fact that he can't even remember what the traumatic experiences that he's having flashbacks to are, but having the flashback triggered at all causes him agonising migraines.
- Shoot the Dog: In the service of Cordelia (and later Miles), Bothari often employs methods far more ruthless than either of them are comfortable with, but he gets results. He also views himself as Cordelia's dog making his death a bizarre turnabout.
- Sociopathic Hero: 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 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 Morality Chain. If he actually were a psychopath, he'd probably be even more violent and dangerous, but happier.
- Son of a Whore: And it screwed him up hugely.
- Suicide by Cop: Miles, having witnessed his last moments and knowing how fast he could have brought the weapons in reach to bear, concludes that Elena Visconti only managed to shoot him with his cooperation.
Armsman Pym
Imagine Jeeves as a former SAS commando. Notable for his ability to keep a straight face in the midst of of Miles' antics and for his hilariously dry and deadpan recountings of them afterwards. Pym's utility, competence, and discretion are legendary among those smart enough to pay attention to such things.
- Beleaguered Assistant: At first; later he offloads the job onto Roic.
- Deadpan Snarker: Though Pym is rarely snarky as such, his deadpan exterior hides an acute eye for detail and a very droll sense of humor, making him a master of the hilarious understatement.
- Old Retainer: By the time of A Civil Campaign, but he starts out as The New Guy in "The Mountains Of Mourning".
Armsman Jankowski
Quiet, good with horses.
- Flat Character: That's his entire characterization, although his children are mentioned as extras in later books.
Armsman Roic
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.
- Beleaguered Assistant: He is generally the armsman of choice to accompany the little git... er... Lord Vorkosigan on his off planet missions.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Not all the time (he's a soldier, after all), but in Cryoburn he shows a surprisingly soft side when dealing with children.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Takes this trope and runs with it in "Winterfair Gifts".
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: It's his personal hobby. He has a lot of inferiority complexes that he's working through. Understandable, considering his employers and predecessor.
- Mr. Fanservice: In-universe. When the Vorkosigan household's duties require a particularly decorative armsman, he's the one who inevitably gets dragooned into the job. When he responded to an emergency call mostly undressed — it'd been his scheduled sleep time — Martya and Kareen Koudelka are both briefly Distracted by the Sexy.
- Shrinking Violet: For a guy with his size and his career, he's surprisingly prone to feeling outclassed.
- Socially Awkward Hero: He has point of view parts in two stories: In Cryoburn he has to rescue Miles from an extremist group in a foreign planet. In "Winterfair Gifts", he has to escort Taura while she gets ready for a wedding. Guess what shows him more terrified and out of his depth.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: His brief romance with Taura, one of the few people in the universe who could render him the "tiny guy". Which leads to an epiphany: "This must be what women looked like to [Miles] all the time."
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: When he unthinkingly insults Taura in "Winterfair Gifts". He makes amends, though.
Ma Kosti
Miles' cook. He hires her after he discovers that the boxed lunches his ImpSec gate guard is getting from his mother are a lot better than the premade meals Miles has been buying and heating up for himself.
- Supreme Chef:
- Miles is advised to double her salary, as soon as some of his Vor friends find out just how good a cook she is. His aunt Lady Alys Vorpatril, the paragon of style among Vorbarr Sultana's High Vor, has shown calculating looks regarding Ma Kosti's cooking. Cordelia contemplates getting her son transferred to Sergyar so she could steal that culinary mastery for herself. And in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, even Emperor Gregor hints that he might draft her services, though in Cordelia and Gregor's case it's implied they're teasing.
- Later on in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance Ivan discovers that Lady Alys actually does avail herself of Ma Kosti's services for sufficiently important dinner parties, probably through the devious expedient of asking nicely. She also won't pass up a chance to cook for Gregor, and other characters note she's inspired by him.
Zap the Cat
A cat that was adopted by the ImpSec security detail around Vorkosigan House. She has been a fixture at Vorkosigan House ever since.
- Babies Ever After: She has several litters as the books go on. Miles offering people kittens becomes one of his standard icebreakers later on.
- Cats Are Mean: And bipolar and possibly insane.
