History Fridge / VorkosiganSaga

*** The hate of mutants at his home shape every aspect of miles, but why does that hate exist? Imagine a world that is colonized by only a few (by virtue of a world) isolated colonists. Inbreeding becomes a major issue, and thus negative recessive genes will lead to birth defects regularly. This is a world where 'mutations' (depending on how one defines a mutation) occur regularly and the only possible way for the world to survive is infanticide. Think about that, they *HAD* to be willing to kill their own children at the slightest sign of birth defect to even survive. One can imagine how an experience like that would become ingrained into the cultural psychology. Sure, birth defects aren't an issue in present day, but after so many generations of them being real issues it's understandable why a stigma would exist

* Ivan has become a diplomat as of ''Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen''. This was very likely strategic on Gregor's part. Ivan's half-Jacksonian[=/=]half-Cetagandan wife Tej might be something of a political liability on Barrayar. But elsewhere in the Nexus she helps give Ivan a more cosmopolitan air and debunks the widespread of perception of Barrayarans (especially Vor) being inbred isolationists. Notably, in ''Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'', both Tej and Rish thought it was a big deal that Ivan had a mere one-eighth Betan ancestry. Gregor himself has hoped his own marriage to a Komarran would improve unity within the Imperium. Miles, five-eighths Betan, has always been one of the best adapted Vor to matters of galactic affairs. Ivan making the rounds on the diplomatic circuit with his galactic wife on his arm presents a much less parochial image of a Barrayaran Vor lord. As an added bonus, since Tej makes Ivan (and their children) too controversial to be an acceptable candidate for the throne as compared to Gregor and Mile's respective heirs, Ivan no longer has to maintain a pretense of being a ditz to avoid being the target of conspiracies. Thus Gregor could freely give him a more prominent job.

** Baryar: The world was developed intended be a Sword and Sandles world, but how does one justify that in high tech? Strand the world, let them regress, then bring them back to modern technology. Their tech may be nearly up to date, but their *culture* is still stuck in mideval world trying to adapt.

*** Why do women have so little power? because in a world where people were fighting to survive, and infanticide occured regulalry, women *had* to be breeders. The emphasis on producing children, and protecting women so they could produce children, can be seen in all over the place in policy and practices on the planet.

** On top of this, most of the characters we see strongly favoring replicator birth later in the series- Miles, Cordelia, Alys, and Ekaterin- all have extremely strong personal reasons for doing so.

** Women have all kinds of power on Barrayar, in their roles as reproducers and guardians of the genome and as mistresses of households and estates. They even enjoy certain legal immunities as lieges to their husbands who take the hit for them. Granted these are not kinds of power either men or women are taught to esteem in non-traditional societies.

* This one takes a little bit to kick in. In "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance," Ivan states that trying to judge Shiv Arqua without including his wife is like "trying to assess Uncle Aral without including Aunt Cordelia." Who else made this mistake? Ser Galen, in training Mark!

* In the denouement of ''Komarr'', pay attention to which conspirators believe Miles' warning that their MacGuffin is fatally flawed and will not work as originally intended, and which do not. You'll note that the less technically educated the conspirator is, the less willing they are to believe Miles' warning that the thing will just blow up in their faces. The Komarran conspirators' relative degree of caution about Murphy and Finagle are in direct proportion to their amount of experience as engineers!

** Its just a coincidence. Real-life military amphetamines have come in little blue pills since at least World War II. In fact, the description of the effects and side effects of Barrayaran military stimulants closely matches the military-issue methamphetamine tablets that the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe used to use (and abuse, epically), which is why they don't use those pills anymore.

* Some people have pointed out that in ''Shards of Honor'', ''in vivo'' pregnancies are considered a slightly uncommon but ordinary thing, with approximately one in four pregnancies being natural. Fast forward to ''Komarr'', and it seems that use of replicators is so ubiquitous that Niki being a body birth is viewed as a major eccentricity, and borderline abusive on Tien's part. This may seem like ContinuityDrift, but another explanation presents itself as well. Using a replicator ''guarantees'' that your children will be free of mutation, making the replicator an answer to a fear so ingrained into Barrayarans as to be practically written into their DNA.

* The Vor have a very strictly followed tradition whereby each first-born son is named after his paternal grandfather. Emperor Gregor has no apparent siblings. Gregor's paternal grandfather is named Ezar. Gregor's father Serg was shown to have had women impregnated for his unspecified [[ForTheEvulz evil amusement]]. So, it's quite probably that Gregor had an older brother who was killed by their father.

* The Vor have a very strictly followed tradition whereby each first-born son is named after his paternal grandfather. Emperor Gregor has no apparent siblings. Gregor's paternal grandfather is named Ezar. Gregor's father Serg was shown to have had women impregnated for his unspecified [[ForTheEvulz evil amusement]]. So, Gregor had an older brother who was killed by their father.

* The Vor have a very strictly followed tradition whereby each first-born son is named after his paternal grandfather. Emperor Gregor has no apparent siblings. Gregor's paternal grandfather is named Ezar. Gregor's father Serg was a CompleteMonster shown to have had women impregnated for his unspecified [[ForTheEvulz evil amusement]]. So, Gregor had an older brother who was killed by their father.

* A cultural reason for the rise of the Vor on Barrayar: The majority of immigrants were stated to be from Britain, France, Russia and Greece, countries which all have some form of noble tradition, so it would be quite easy for them to adapt to a renewed feudal state.

* FridgeBrilliance: Why are the nobles of Barrayar referred to as the Vor class when 'Vor' is Russian (Which is one of the four common tongues of Barrayar) for 'Thief'? The Vor class started out as the Emperor's tax collectors, who often had to collect taxes at swordpoint during the Time of Isolation. From the perspective of the commoners being shaken down for taxes, they probably looked like thieves.

* In the denouement of ''Komarr'', pay attention to which conspirators believe Miles' warning that their MacGuffin is fatally flawed and will not work as originally intended, and which do not. You'll note that the less technically educated the conspirator is, the less willing they are to believe Miles' warning that the thing will just blow up in their faces. The Komarran conspirators' relative degree of caution about Murphy and Finagle are in direct proportion to their amount of experience as engineers!

* In the denouement of ''Komarr'', pay attention to which conspirators believe Miles' warning that their 'wormhole collapser' is fatally flawed and will not work as originally intended, and which do not. You'll note that the less technically educated the conspirator is, the less willing they are to believe Miles' warning that the thing will just blow up in their faces. The Komarran conspirators' relative degree of caution about Murphy and Finagle are in direct proportion to their amount of experience as engineers!

* FridgeBrilliance: Why are the nobles of Barrayar referred to as the Vor class when 'Vor' is Russian (Which is one of the four common tongues of Barrayar) for 'Thief'? The Vor class started out as the Emperor's tax collectors, who often had to collect taxes at swordpoint during the Time of Isolation. From the perspective of the commoners being shaken down for taxes, they probably looked like thieves.

* Cordelia's belief that a glass of champagne [[AlcoholIsPoison will harm the developing Miles]] in ''Barrayar'' is the result of superstitious fears due to her lack of familiarity with ''in vivo'' pregnancy.

* Cordelia's belief that a glass of champagne [[AlcoholIsPoison will harm the developing Miles]] in ''Barrayar'' is the result of superstitious fears due to her lack of familiarity with ''in vivo'' pregnancy.