History Characters / VorkosiganSagaBarrayarans

** He finds it quite creepy himself that he is part Cetagandan as he had grown up hating them for killing his father in battle. However, the attitude to his ancestry by others is a subversion. As several vor including TheEmperor are already marrying off-worlders anyway, it may be that the key point was that his ancestor had an affair with an invader, not just an off-worlder, and that it has legal ramifications in a hereditary aristocracy.

* NothingPersonal: Distant cousin Sigur, who's gunning for René's seat, doesn't have anything against him personally, but turnover in the Council of Counts is so rare he's forced to challenge him in Richar's scheme to capture the Vorrutyer seat. He cousin Sigur shows far more grace than Richars in defeat, and the first thing he does after the lawsuit is [[WorthyOpponent congratulate René.]]

* TheCharmer: Several other characters -- and not all of them women -- note how dashing he is. Thanks to his knowledge of Vor society, he manages to gracefully convince Gregor not to block his claim on Pierra's countship despite the unusualness of circumstances. (That, and he and Miles both note that ''some''one was going to try this at some point, so the Council ''needed'' to vote on a precedent.)

* GrandDame: What Lady Donna was becoming, thanks to her knowledge of District countship and her intimate knowledge of other Counts. Ivan noted that she was slowly becoming much like his mother til Pierre's untimely death.
* GroinAttack: Since his testicles are scientifically the only XY part of his body, Richar's goons tried to castrate him.

Dono and Byerly's cousin, and a real nasty piece of work. Suspected of murdering the previous Count Vorrutyer, and perhaps his fiancee before that. Appears to have inherited all of the Vorrutyer's families' demons that somehow bypassed Byerly and Dono, only he's been sneaky enough not to get caught.

%%zce* ShootTheDog: His retaliation for Donna squealing on his attempted rape of her.

* MadArtist: All of this buildings definitely have his curious touch. For example, the [=ImpSec=] building he designed was essentially one big concrete block with no windows -- at all -- while the stairs were large and ungainly. It seems he took the idea of making the secret police's headquarters someplace no one would ever want to visit or look at; unfortunately, no one wanted to ''work'' there either, including poor Illyan.

* DomesticAbuse: Tien certainly emotionally abused her [[spoiler: and stole money from her to pay back his bad investments that should have gone to the medical treatment of their young son]], and Miles considers it verging on abuse that Tien talked Ekaterin into having her son Nikolai by body-birth when the much safer, painless uterine replicator was already widely available. (At the time Ekaterine claims that she saw it as a romantic adventure; she was twenty, Tien was ''thirty''. Considering the age difference, power imbalance, and Tien's personality overall, the abuse label holds.) At one point, Ekaterin brings up in Tien's [[spoiler: post-mortem]] defense that he had never hit her, and Miles prays to whatever god might be listening that ''his'' best beloved would have higher praise for him [[spoiler: after his own death]] than "[[DamnedByFaintPraise he never hit me]]".

One of the eight permanent Imperial Auditors and Ekatarin's great uncle by marriage, Georg Vorthys is a Professor Emeritus of Engineering Failure Analysis at Vorbarr Sultana University and is generally regarded as the Empire's authority on the subject. He is Emperor Gregor's go-to Auditor for technical/scientific issues.

Georg's wife, Ekatarin's great aunt and a professor of History at Vorbarr Sultana University. A highly accomplished academic in her own right, Miles and Gregor alike have been known to employ her and her graduate students to research historical precedents. Implied to be one of Lady Alys' secret coterie of highly influential women.

* AgentProvocateur: Manipulates his cousin Richers into prematurely sending goons to attack his other cousin Dono so as to sabotage his case against the other.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: As pay back for his agent provocateur antics at the end of ''A Civil Campaign'', Miles offers him a ''critique''. At length, with no opportunity for sarcasm spared.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Actually discussed in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.'' The conclusion reached was that Ivan wanted to know as little about By's sex life as possible, no matter who it was with. Rish and Tej, with their advanced sense of smell, notes that By just fooled around with a guy.
* BatmanGambit: One of his favorite ploys as a high Vor intelligence agent who occasionally dabbles in agent provacatuer-ing. It does sometimes bite him on the ass, though.

* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: Since many of his plots involve BatmanGambit, By has turned out to be really good at reading people.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Byerly is what is called by everyone (including himself) as a "High Vor town clown". [[spoiler:He gets his money being a spy among High Vor.]]

* TheStateless: Flees Barrayar to Jackson's Hole with the Cardonnah family. It's a cover... mostly.
* XanatosGambit: By never hedges his bet. He covers an op by hiring a contract kidnapper. He also recruits Ivan to make sure the kidnapper doesn't find his prey without telling Ivan why he was recruited. No matter what, By was going to have Tej delivered to him. (His sole mistake is that he didn't know Tej had her own personal armed bodyguard, so his plan could have gone tragically wrong.)

Byerly's cousin, and another old friend of Ivan... who was once ''Lady Donna'' Vorutyer, and more than just a friend. But when Donna's older brother dies under suspicious circumstances and she's faced with the prospect of her vile cousin Richars taking his place, she decides that extreme measures are called for. Now the new Lord Dono must engage both Richars and traditional Barrayaran society in a no-holds barred political battle in the Council of Counts, where mutual interests inevitably lead him to ally with Miles and René.

* MeatgrinderSurgery: His nervous system has to be replaced with wires, which Cordelia notes is really shoddily done. He shows no senses of disability years later; one might wonder if Cordeli paid for him to get some ''real'' nerve replacement surgery at Beta Colony.
* SwordCane: Cordelia gives him one in ''Barrayar'' to try and help alleviate his feelings of being "crippled" and "useless" (after a disruptor shot completely screws his nervous system and leaves him with trouble getting around and excruciating pain). It gets borrowed back and [[OffWithHisHead re-purposed]] later.

* ActionGirl: ''All'' of them. Their mother, for one, was Kareen and young Gregor's personal bodyguard, and she was instrumental in training them, encouraged by Cordelia; their father approved.

* GenderRarityValue: The Koudelkas went for girls after noticing that everyone else was going for boys, making their daughters about the hottest commodities on the Vorbarr Sultana dating scene -- which was the advantage they needed since they were not Vor; Koudelka's status of being the former Regent's attache made them socially acceptable, though.

* RebelLeader: Similar to his brother Yuri — he was the other face of Barrayaran Resistance, only for the wider Galactic community. Probably this was what let him to remain a little more sane afterwards.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: References to him make him seem more amiable then the [[ProudWarriorRace ferocious]] and sometimes bloodthirsty Vor of his time and one could infer him being able to better fit into Gregor's court.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Invoked when Cordeli questions her about her relationship with Vordarian, she replies he doesn't abuse his courtesans.

* MamaBear: She protects Gregor at all costs. The only reason she allows herself to be Vordarian's partner is that she was told her son drowned, and when she finds proof Gregor is still alive -- she is given her son's other (never immersed) shoe (she had the other one when Gregor was taken from her forcefully) -- she becomes lethally protective of him again.

* TheExtremistWasRight: His methods in unifying Barrayar were pretty much exactly as extreme as they get, but they ''did'' left a much more stable society, and without him the Cetagandans would definitely have a field day insted of the murderous LaResistance they've encountered.

* GunboatDiplomacy: How Dorca unified the empire though AsskickingLeadsToLeadership.

* ParentalSubstitute: Cordelia became Gregor's tutor growing up, and essentially became Kareen's successor. Gregor had already bonded with her when they were being hunted by Vordarian, and Cordelia felt guilt over not being able to save Gregor. Cordelia, when told of her role of being his mentor before he was inducted into the military at 18, ask Aral if the Council of Counts knew how much power she was being given. Aral replied no, because the Council only saw power in terms of armament and strength. As Cordelia and Aral predicted, Gregor takes after Cordelia, and tends to have a more galactic view (though he downplays it in front of Barrayarans, to appear more traditional.)

* WarriorPrince: He graduated from the Imperial Service Academy and ordered himself aboard Aral's flagship for the battle of Hegen's Hub using the argument that a reputation for leading from the front would reap both military and diplomatic benefits for Barrayar. Aral is forced to admit that after being opposed the idea, Gregor's analysis appears to be paying off.

* {{Foil}}: Both he and Fletchir Gaija became Emperor at unusually early ages (Gregor took power at 20, which was when Aral stepped down from the regency, Gaiji at 30, which Miles mused was ''fantastically'' young for Cetaganda), both have aristocratic female advisors (Gregor has Cordelia and Alys, while Gaija has the Star Crèche), and both are managing multiplanet empires. They each have learned to appear above concerns, but both know how to use {{Batman Gambit}}s and subtle political manuevering. The only difference is Gaiji is in his [=70's=] while Gregor is approaching middle age, but both are just hitting their stride as rulers.

* [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Vor Who Actually Do Something]]: He acts as a judge in local disputes as a way to gage what his subjects actually go through and keep abreast of their opinions and views.

* DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife: Being a retired Chief of [=ImpSec=] has made Illyan profoundly bored and purposeless, which is why he ''leaps'' at the chance to make a political bet with Shiv and Udina. Ivan hints to Gregor that Illyan needs work, even if it's in an unofficial role.

* TheNondescript: A useful thing for a junior [=ImpSec=] officer, which is how he began his career. Miles and Ivan note that his blankness make him even ''scarier'' these days.

* ObfuscatingDisability: In his retirement, he often finds it useful to play up how much cognitive damage yanking that chip did to his dangerously keen mind. He had to relearn how to remember things and conciously pay attention without [[PhotographicMemory the playback option in his skull]], but ''that is it''.

* PhotographicMemory: Again, thanks to a recording chip that made nine of 10 implantees go into schizophrenic madness, since basically it gave the user two sets of realities to deal with.

--0>'''Miles:''' Richars Vorrutyer sat right there and informed me that Lady Alys held no vote in Council. The fact that she has spent more years in the Vorbarr Sultana political scene than all of us here put together seemed to escape him.
** The last thing she wanted was Ivan to be part of a political plot to put him on the throne; it was a nightmare scenario for her. However, as close friends noted, if Ivan was somehow to become Emperor Ivan, she would work overdrive to make sure he was up to speed and an effective ruler, regardless of (or ''in spite of'') her relationship to him.

** In ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', she establishes herself as badass by stating that not even master manipulator Miles dare crash one of ''her'' parties uninvited.

* ModestRoyalty: Ivan is effectively the Crown Prince of the Barryanan Empire for most of the series, as cousin to Gregor. While Arial and Miles have better effective claims, Miles's apparent genetic (actually teratogenic) damage makes him ineligible, and Aral already had enough being Regent so they would force Ivan to the throne if anything happened. People avoid mentioning this generally because either they don't want Ivan to get any ideas, or they want to use Ivan as a pawn. Ivan lacks any notable title beyond a courtesy title of Lord he inherited. Tej lampshades this when she mentions her bride price being more princely than anyone lets on.

%% 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.

* BirthdayHater: Not surprising, given how it was usually celebrated. Since he was born an hour or so after his father died, his mother made the central event of his birthday celebration be a memorial service to the father he never knew. This was done every year that Ivan was in Vorbarr Sultana during his birthday until he was ''thirty five''.
* BrilliantButLazy: Actually described as having a "sharp but lazy intellect" in ''Brothers in Arms.'' It's implied he deliberately downplays it; being pretty high up in line for the throne, it saves him from being targeted. By both Imp Sec ''and'' enemies.

* TheCasanova: He dates a ''lot'' of women, any age, for the first two decades of his sex life. However, he starts becoming a lonely bachelor when all of his former flings become married (and in one case, a man.)

* GenreSavvy: Ivan knows Miles entirely too well and can press his emotional buttons easily, rarely making a mistake (except one occasion that earns him a DeathGlare that actually frightens him.)

* DefiantToTheEnd: He mocked Aral just before the latter started up Aral's dismemberment.

!![[center:'''[[Characters/VorkosiganSaga Vorkosigan Saga Character Index]]''']]

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* NiceGuy: And Miles takes advantage of this more then a bit.
** On one occasion, he tells Miles that he won't be involved in whatever scheme he's cooking up. Miles, who has nothing on his plate, tells him that's okay. Ivan promptly gets offended at the idea that Miles ''doesn't'' need him.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Although Obfuscating Normality is probably more accurate. He's no less intelligent than any of his relatives, but he consciously chooses to appear less exceptional than they (not that this is terribly hard, considering who his closest relatives are). It's a matter of self-preservation, when you're third in line for the Imperium and really don't want the job. (With Gregor siring an heir, it's a moot concern.)
** His uncle once noted that he was never sure how much of it was genuine and how much of it was an act to help protect everyone around him. Apperently it's exactly the tactic [[{{Cincinnatus}} he would have gone with himself]], but it started when Ivan should have been too young to think of it and hasn't let up since.

* [[ReassignedToAntarctica Reassigned to Riviera]]: At the end of ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'' TheEmperor (who wasn't really mad at him but wanted him off-world until the Arquas' doings were forgotten) assigned him to a consulate on an obscure planet. Since the work only takes him three mornings a week and can be done over the comconsole (computer/phone hybrid), Ivan moves the consulate from the rainy capital to a tropical island and converts his posting into an extended working vacation/honeymoon.

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* TheCaretaker: To Simon in ''Memory''.

--->'''Miles:''' Richars Vorrutyer sat right there and informed me that Lady Alys held no vote in Council. The fact that she has spent more years in the Vorbarr Sultana political scene than all of us here put together seemed to escape him.

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* DomesticAbuse: Hinted at in the behaviour of his widow Princess Kareen.
* GloryHound: Unlike Miles, very much ''not'' a positive example.

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Legendary Emperor who united Barrayar and brought the Vor under submission. Called "The Just" for his competence but not necessarily for his gentleness. Seems to be regarded by most Barrayarans as [[FairForItsDay Fair For His Day.]]

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Predecessor to Ezar. Led war against Cetaganda but grew paranoid and ordered death squad after those he feared including Aral's family.

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Quite literally as his capital punishment, he was to be cut with a blade by just about every Vor who sided against him. It was later called "Yuri's Dismemberment." [[LaserGuidedKarma Aral got the first cut.]] Since he was a child at the time, however, [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty Aral found he didn't want it as much as he'd thought]].
* DefiantToTheEnd: Mocked Aral just before he took his aforementioned cut.

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* [[OddFriendship Odd Marriage]]: With a Betan when offworld marriages were rare. As he works offworld it kind of makes sense.

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Kou and Drou's four daughters, Delia [[spoiler:Galeni]], [[spoiler:Countess]] Olivia [[spoiler:Vorrutyer]], Martya [[spoiler:Borgos]] and Kareen [[spoiler:who becomes Lady Kareen Vorkosigan in all but name]].

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!!Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson [[spoiler: Vorkosigan]]

Unhappily married to a mid-level bureaucrat on Komarr, Ekaterin is a woman of remarkable personal strength who has been socialized by a restrictive upbringing and a true {{Jerkass}} of a husband into a shadow of herself...until she gets caught up in a dangerous case that may have interstellar consequences.

-->'''Mark:''' From everything I've been able to gather -— between the lines, mostly, Ekaterin doesn't talk about him much -— Tien Vorsoisson was a pretty complete waste of food, water, oxygen, and time.

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* [[GentlemanAndAScholar Lady and a Scholar]]: Emperor Gregor values her advice on historical precedents.

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Town Clown, impoverished, imprudent, and impervious to put-downs, but very witty...if you care for a certain nasty type of humor. [[spoiler: Also an [=ImpSec=] informant, reporting to Lady Alys Vorpatril, which was fully confirmed in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance''.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: even manages to out-snark Miles.

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!!Lord [[spoiler:later Count]] Dono Vorrutyer

* TheCasanova: As Donna or Dono, doesn't matter.

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* {{Foil}}: For Oliver Jole and Aral himself.

* IfICantHaveYou: Towards Aral.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Towards Cordelia

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!!Pierre "Le Sanguinaire" Vorrutyer

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A conservative back-bencher who has hit on his own, wildly progressive scheme to improve his prospects in the never-ending demographic struggle between districts. [[spoiler: He's manufacturing liege-people, using uterine replicators, confiscated eggs, and his own sperm. All girls, to take advantage of GenderRarityValue and Barrayar's antiquated chattel and inheritance laws.]]

* DistractedByTheSexy: leading to:

* HumiliationConga: Not that he didn't deserve it.

* LaserGuidedKarma: "Dowries! ''Dowries!''" -- due to one of Barrayar's many legal quirks, the Emperor is able to set a minimum dowry (bride gift) for a Count's acknowledged female bastards. Gregor takes merciless advantage of this to punish Vormuir and discourage imitators until the relevant laws can be updated.
** The real icing on the cake is the fact that the dowries will make all ''118'' of them attractive marriage prospects even if Barrayar's demographic trends revert to something more balanced. This means Count Vormuir will almost certainly have to pay for each and every one of his transgressions.

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* InterserviceRivalry[=/=]JurisdictionFriction: Between Operations, Service Security, and Komarran police. With Komarran police, it has a nationalistic tinge, and the Auditors have a rivalry with ''everyone'' because [[InternalAffairs that's their job]].

* TortureCellar: Subverted. The lowest sub-basement was such a cellar, once upon a time. [[TheCaligula Yuri]] kept ''lots'' of people there, [[PragmaticVillainy Ezar]] kept a few, mostly those whom he had a rational reason to fear, and Aral mostly closed down its function as a dungeon. During the early part of Gregor's reign it was converted into a forensic warehouse, and a new, modern detention facility was created in the upper section. During different conspiracy panics, both Simon and Duv end up there (Simon in the old facility, Duv in the new) for a week or two until an investigation is finished. On both occasions it's commented that it does well for the perspective of a spymaster to be on the other end of the process. In Miles' time, it's mostly used to keep seized items from [=ImpSec=] missions. Once in a while, a prisoner who is too important to put anywhere else ends up there until they figure out what to do with him.

* TheCaligula: went crazy, tried to massacre everyone who had a claim on the throne.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Quite literally as his capital punishment, he was to be cut with a blade by just about every Vor who sided against him. It was later called "Yuri's Dismemberment." [[LaserGuidedKarma Aral got the first cut.]] A child at the time, however, [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty Aral found he didn't want it as much as he'd thought]].

-->'''Aral:''' He leered at me. "Strike, little boy. If you dare while you wear my uniform. My uniform on a child."

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: He sent out death squads to kill nobles he thought were plotting to overthrow him, along with their families. Funny thing about sending death squads after your nobles (and their families); after too many times, they start plotting to overthrow you -- especially when one of them is Count Piotr Pierre Vorkosigan. They eventually succeeded and then some.

* SarcasticDevotee: To Miles. This led to an amusing scene in ''Memory'', when [[spoiler:he says he'll not be roped into whatever Miles is up to. Miles (who isn't actually up to anything) says that's okay. Ivan assumes he's being given the brush-off and leaves, mildly offended.]]

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his very first appearance, Ivan appears to be legitimately unkind and unintelligent, behaving badly towards Elena and failing to recognize an obvious ''death order'' when he first sees it, neither of which is in keeping with his later personality. Some of this can be attributed to him growing up and becoming more worldly, but in general it feels that the writer adjusted his character after ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' to make him more likable and a better foil to Miles.

* NecessaryEvil: Considers all the things he did to stabilize Barrayar after Mad Yuri's War, and later to ensure that his throne would pass to Gregor under a competent regent rather than Serg, to be necessary, and under no illusions that it was not also evil. He dies hoping that there is no judgement by a higher power after death, because he knows ''exactly'' what he'd deserve if there is.

* [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Vor Who Actually Do Something]]: Judging local disputes.

* OverprotectiveDad: Morphs into one of these when [[spoiler: Kareen and Mark are outed as a couple.]] He gets over it; helps that one of his other daughters [[spoiler: hooks up with Count Dono Vorrutyer, who is Transgender]] during the same time period.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn / EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In his very first appearance, Ivan appears to be legitimately unkind and unintelligent, behaving badly towards Elena and failing to recognise an obvious ''death order'' when he sees it, neither of which is in keeping with his later personality. Some of this can be attributed to him growing up and becoming more worldly, but in general it feels that the writer adjusted his character after ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' to make him more likable and a better foil to Miles.

* ModestRoyalty: Ivan is effectively the Crown Prince of the Barryanan Empire for most of the series, as cousin to Gregor. While Arial and Miles have better effective claims, Miles's apparent genetic (actually teratogenic) damage makes him ineligible, and Arial already had enough being Regent so they would force Ivan to the throne if anything happened. People avoid mentioning this generally because either they don't want Ivan to get any ideas, or they want to use Ivan as a pawn. Ivan lacks any notable title beyond a courtesy title of Lord he inherited. Tej lampshades this when she mentions her bride price being more princely than anyone lets on.

* ModestRoyalty: Ivan is effectively the Crown Prince of the Barryanan Empire for most of the series, as cousin to Gregor. While Arial and Miles have better effective claims, Miles genetic damage makes him ineligible, and Arial already had enough being Regent so they would force Ivan to the throne if anything happened. People avoid mentioning this generally because either they don't want Ivan to get any ideas, or they want to use Ivan as a pawn. Ivan lacks any notable title beyond a courtesy title of Lord he inherited. Tej lampshades this when she mentions her bride price being more princely than anyone lets on.

* TheDreaded: You don't earn the sobriquet "Le Sanguinere" for hosting tea parties.

* GunboatDiplomacy: How Dorca unified the empire though AsskickingEqualsAuthority.