Aral Vorkosigan
Encyclopedia
Aral Vorkosigan is a fictitious character from Lois McMaster Bujold
's Vorkosigan Saga
series. Known throughout this science fiction universe as “The Butcher of Komarr
,” he dominates the imagination of the two main point-of-view characters in the Vorkosigan Saga, Cordelia
(in Shards of Honor
and Barrayar
), who becomes his wife, and their son Miles
. He appears, at least briefly or as an important if absent figure, in all the novels of the series except Cetaganda
, Ethan of Athos
, and Falling Free
. He also provides the narrative framework for the presentation of three short stories in Borders of Infinity.
Near the end of the series, he is considered on his native planet, Barrayar, “a colossus bestriding the last half-century of Barrayaran history” (“Winterfair Gifts”). His full title as of the end of Diplomatic Immunity
is "Admiral Viceroy Count Aral Vorkosigan, Former Regent and Prime Minister of Barrayar." From the age of 11 until he is 44, his role is primarily military and expansionist; from 45 to 75, he dominates planetary politics; for the remaining years of his life, he and Cordelia administer the Barrayaran colony on the planet Sergyar
, where they first met. He is depicted as a man of great integrity, an honest politician, a warrior who values human lives, and an egalitarian aristocrat.
Aral is described as being below average height, stocky and not particularly handsome, but projecting an aura of power and authority. The author of the novels has likened him to the actor Oliver Reed
before he succumbed to alcohol.
Aral is the son of Count Piotr Vorkosigan
, 10th count of the backwoods Dendarii district, and Princess Olivia Vorbarra, grand-daughter of a Barrayaran emperor. Aral’s paternal grandmother was a Vorrutyer; his maternal grandmother was from Beta Colony
. Count Piotr and his wife had three children; Aral was the second of two sons.
When Aral was 11 years old, his siblings, his mother, and most of his cousins were massacred by the ruling emperor “Mad Yuri” Vorbarra
; Aral tried to defend his mother with a dinner knife. Count Piotr led a military party which deposed Yuri, installing Ezar Vorbarra as the emperor in his place. Yuri was executed by being stabbed to death and dismembered, with Aral having the privilege of wielding the knife first. Because of the massacre, Aral is one of the few surviving descendants of the Imperial line, with a possible claim on the throne through his mother (though Barrayar does not recognize descent through the female line).
At the age of 20, Aral married a cousin from the Vorrutyer family (A Civil Campaign
, ch. 3), an arranged marriage. That they loved each other is suggested by some drawings he made of her (Shards of Honor, ch. 15), but they had no children. During his absences from the capital she took two lovers. Ges Vorrutyer, a fellow lieutenant who was in love with Aral, told Aral (Shards of Honor, ch. 7), and Aral challenged both men to illegal duels. Aral killed them, but escaped charges because it was assumed the two had killed each other. His wife died, either a suicide or murder by Count Piotr, though Aral was rumored to have slain her to avenge his honor (A Civil Campaign, ch. 15). Aral then began to drink a lot and entered, or possibly was already involved in, a passionate affair with Ges Vorrutyer. Eventually Aral seems to have broken off the affair (Barrayar, ch. 3, and several references in Shards of Honor).
At age 44, at the beginning of the novels, Aral meets and falls in love with the Betan Survey captain Cordelia Naismith. According to her analysis, she provides a “solution” to his bisexuality, being both a woman and a soldier (Barrayar, ch. 5, repeated in Mirror Dance
, ch. 16). They marry and have a child, Miles, who is physically handicapped. Count Piotr attempts both abortion and infanticide of this imperfect heir, and Aral becomes estranged from his father until Miles can use his legs, at about the age of 5. Aral and Cordelia are otherwise childless until, in Mirror Dance, they discover Mark
, a clone of Miles created when Miles was about six years old. They acknowledge Mark as their son and, for a short time when Miles is MIA, the heir to the title of Count. By the time Aral dies, around 83 years old, he has four grandchildren, all Miles's children (Cryoburn
).
Two other children are fostered by Aral and Cordelia. Elena Bothari is the daughter of Sergeant Bothari
and an Escobaran woman he raped, brought back in a uterine replicator to Barrayar after the Escobar fiasco. Elena ends up marrying and settling in another planetary system. Gregor Vorbarra
is the orphaned Emperor, educated by Aral and Cordelia, who live at the Imperial Residence during their estrangement from Count Piotr, during the period when Gregor is 5 to 10 years old. At Gregor's wedding, Cordelia and Aral stand in place of Gregor's parents. At Aral's funeral, Gregor insists on being one of the pallbearers (Cryoburn, Aftermaths).
Aral is still part of the highest political and military discussions. Emperor Ezar and his chief of security, Captain Negri, plan a glorious death for Ezar’s sadistic son Serg, who will die leading a hopeless expedition to conquer the rich planet Escobar. Aral is horrified, but participates in order to minimize deaths and damage. The staging camp for the attack is the uninhabited planet which will eventually be named Sergyar, where he meets Cordelia. She becomes an important factor in the brevity of the war, both by conveying to Beta and Escobar details of the coming assault and as captain of a Betan ship escorting a secret defensive weapon to Escobar. Aral is aware of all this and takes it into his calculations in planning the retreat. After the retreat he is immediately restored to the rank of admiral and put in charge of the prisoner exchange. He then retires from the military.
Emperor Ezar dies, leaving Aral (now married to Cordelia) as regent for Ezar’s 5-year-old grandson Gregor Vorbarra. Aral’s first decision as regent is disastrous: the execution of young Carl Vorhalas for dueling. Carl’s brother seeks vengeance through a poison gas attack, which deforms the fetus Miles. Count Vordarian then leads an uprising, attempting to install himself as Gregor’s protector and then replacement; while Aral organizes the military response, Cordelia has Vordarian beheaded and ends the “Pretendership
.”
Aral’s later regency is skipped over by the novels. There are attempts at invasion by Cetaganda
and at rebellion by Komarr, both of which he puts down. We are given to understand that he reforms the military, imports and encourages the use of new technology, and generally attempts to introduce humane, rational, and egalitarian principles in Barrayaran society.
When Aral is in his early 60s, Gregor comes of age as Emperor, with Aral continuing in power as his Prime Minister and leader of the "Centrist Coalition." A year or so later, Aral’s father dies and Aral becomes the 11th Count Vorkosigan, with local duties. Aral continues for another decade in unbroken power except for brief periods when his son Miles’s adventures arouse accusations of conspiracy.
In his early 70s, Aral considers retirement from public life, and is forced by a cardiac event to give up his position as Prime Minister (Mirror Dance
). At that point (Memory
), the Emperor is planning Aral's son Miles’s military career on-planet, but Miles's own problems end his military career and confine him to Barrayar. Miles becomes his father's proxy in the Council of Counts. Emperor Gregor appoints Aral and Cordelia co-viceregents of the planet Sergyar, which is being colonized by Barryar and terraformed
. Aral still holds this position when he dies, at the end of Cryoburn.
Aral finds in Cordelia someone to whom he can confess his worst memories. She offers him a different vision of honor, which does not require bloodshed but is devoted to the protection of the living, such as her lobotomized Ensign Dubauer and the seventeen fetuses conceived by the Barrayaran military on female prisoners of war. In Mirror Dance, when he thinks he is dying, Aral attempts to offer his clone-son Mark some last words: “All true wealth is biological” (ch. 15, recalled by Mark in ch. 33).
Aral’s son Miles represents both his greatest moral challenge and his redemption. Barrayaran policy towards crippled offspring is abortion or infanticide. With Cordelia, Aral accepts Miles and encourages him to develop military and personal ambitions. Aral’s political career is in part directed towards reforming society so that it will accept Miles as Count Vorkosigan. In the short story “The Mountains of Mourning,” Miles must judge a case involving backwoods infanticide of a deformed child. This case echoes Aral’s first major decision during his Regency, whether to pardon a young man who had killed another in the traditional but outlawed practice of the duel (Barrayar, ch. 7). Aral’s decision in that case—to execute the boy as an example—contrasts with Miles’s decision; the latter is able to devise a bloodless punishment for the infanticide, breaking the cycles of bloodshed and vengeance.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo...
's Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga
The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories set in a common fictional universe by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of these were published between 1986 and 2002, with the exceptions being “Winterfair Gifts” and Cryoburn...
series. Known throughout this science fiction universe as “The Butcher of Komarr
Komarr
Komarr is a planet in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series of novels and stories.Discovered centuries prior to the Vorkosigan Saga, Komarr is undergoing a major terraforming project to make the outside air breathable. During this centuries-long program, the Komarrans are confined to domed...
,” he dominates the imagination of the two main point-of-view characters in the Vorkosigan Saga, Cordelia
Cordelia Naismith
Cordelia Naismith is the name of two fictional characters by Lois McMaster Bujold. One is the titular character from a Victorian era Sherlock Holmes short story entitled "Adventures of the Lady on the Embankment" included in her anthology Dreamweaver's Dilemma...
(in Shards of Honor
Shards of Honor
Shards of Honor is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in June 1986. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the first full-length novel in publication order.- Plot summary :...
and Barrayar
Barrayar
Barrayar is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog in July–October 1991, and then published in book form by Baen Books in October 1991. Barrayar won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel...
), who becomes his wife, and their son Miles
Miles Vorkosigan
Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is the hero of a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold known as the Vorkosigan Saga. In an article in The Vorkosigan Companion, Bujold acknowledged several real-life inspirations for the character: T. E...
. He appears, at least briefly or as an important if absent figure, in all the novels of the series except Cetaganda
Cetaganda (novel)
Cetaganda is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in four parts from October to December 1995 in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and published in book form by Baen Books in January 1996...
, Ethan of Athos
Ethan of Athos
Ethan of Athos is an English language science fiction novel that is part of the Vorkosigan Saga by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. It is an unusual item in the series in that it does not feature Miles Vorkosigan, the protagonist of almost all the other books.The name "Athos" for the main...
, and Falling Free
Falling Free
Falling Free is a novel from the Vorkosigan Saga, written by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog from December 1987 to February 1988, and won the Nebula Award for Best Novel for 1988...
. He also provides the narrative framework for the presentation of three short stories in Borders of Infinity.
Near the end of the series, he is considered on his native planet, Barrayar, “a colossus bestriding the last half-century of Barrayaran history” (“Winterfair Gifts”). His full title as of the end of Diplomatic Immunity
Diplomatic Immunity (novel)
Diplomatic Immunity is a 2002 science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003.-Plot summary :...
is "Admiral Viceroy Count Aral Vorkosigan, Former Regent and Prime Minister of Barrayar." From the age of 11 until he is 44, his role is primarily military and expansionist; from 45 to 75, he dominates planetary politics; for the remaining years of his life, he and Cordelia administer the Barrayaran colony on the planet Sergyar
Sergyar
Sergyar is one of the three planets that comprise the Barrayaran Empire in the Vorkosigan Saga. The other planets are Barrayar and Komarr. The entire planet has been said to be the personal property of Barrayaran Emperor Gregor Vorbarra.-Discovery:...
, where they first met. He is depicted as a man of great integrity, an honest politician, a warrior who values human lives, and an egalitarian aristocrat.
Aral is described as being below average height, stocky and not particularly handsome, but projecting an aura of power and authority. The author of the novels has likened him to the actor Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
before he succumbed to alcohol.
Family
Aral’s early life (before the age of 44) is known primarily from his confessions to Cordelia in Shards of Honor. The narrative assumption is that he always tells her the truth.Aral is the son of Count Piotr Vorkosigan
Count Piotr Vorkosigan
Count Piotr Vorkosigan is the father of Aral Vorkosigan and the grandfather of Miles Vorkosigan in the fictitious universe of the Vorkosigan Saga....
, 10th count of the backwoods Dendarii district, and Princess Olivia Vorbarra, grand-daughter of a Barrayaran emperor. Aral’s paternal grandmother was a Vorrutyer; his maternal grandmother was from Beta Colony
Beta Colony
Beta Colony is an important planet in Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. The planet's biome is almost entirely desert, described as "screaming hot," and the colony itself exists primarily underground.The concept of Beta Colony was first created and introduced in...
. Count Piotr and his wife had three children; Aral was the second of two sons.
When Aral was 11 years old, his siblings, his mother, and most of his cousins were massacred by the ruling emperor “Mad Yuri” Vorbarra
Vorbarra
Vorbarra is a surname in the science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. It is the surname of the Emperors of Barrayar and the namesake of the planet.The emperors of Barrayar have all carried the name Vorbarra...
; Aral tried to defend his mother with a dinner knife. Count Piotr led a military party which deposed Yuri, installing Ezar Vorbarra as the emperor in his place. Yuri was executed by being stabbed to death and dismembered, with Aral having the privilege of wielding the knife first. Because of the massacre, Aral is one of the few surviving descendants of the Imperial line, with a possible claim on the throne through his mother (though Barrayar does not recognize descent through the female line).
At the age of 20, Aral married a cousin from the Vorrutyer family (A Civil Campaign
A Civil Campaign
A Civil Campaign is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in September 1999. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the thirteenth full-length novel in publication order.- Plot summary :...
, ch. 3), an arranged marriage. That they loved each other is suggested by some drawings he made of her (Shards of Honor, ch. 15), but they had no children. During his absences from the capital she took two lovers. Ges Vorrutyer, a fellow lieutenant who was in love with Aral, told Aral (Shards of Honor, ch. 7), and Aral challenged both men to illegal duels. Aral killed them, but escaped charges because it was assumed the two had killed each other. His wife died, either a suicide or murder by Count Piotr, though Aral was rumored to have slain her to avenge his honor (A Civil Campaign, ch. 15). Aral then began to drink a lot and entered, or possibly was already involved in, a passionate affair with Ges Vorrutyer. Eventually Aral seems to have broken off the affair (Barrayar, ch. 3, and several references in Shards of Honor).
At age 44, at the beginning of the novels, Aral meets and falls in love with the Betan Survey captain Cordelia Naismith. According to her analysis, she provides a “solution” to his bisexuality, being both a woman and a soldier (Barrayar, ch. 5, repeated in Mirror Dance
Mirror Dance
Mirror Dance is a Hugo- and Locus-award-winning science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. Part of the Vorkosigan Saga, it was first published by Baen Books in March 1994.- Plot summary :...
, ch. 16). They marry and have a child, Miles, who is physically handicapped. Count Piotr attempts both abortion and infanticide of this imperfect heir, and Aral becomes estranged from his father until Miles can use his legs, at about the age of 5. Aral and Cordelia are otherwise childless until, in Mirror Dance, they discover Mark
Mark Vorkosigan
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan is a character in Lois McMaster Bujold's sci-fi Series, the Vorkosigan Saga.Taken from its original location as a sidebar to Miles Vorkosigan...
, a clone of Miles created when Miles was about six years old. They acknowledge Mark as their son and, for a short time when Miles is MIA, the heir to the title of Count. By the time Aral dies, around 83 years old, he has four grandchildren, all Miles's children (Cryoburn
Cryoburn
Cryoburn is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in October 2010. Part of the Vorkosigan Saga, it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2011, as Bujold's ninth Best Novel nomination...
).
Two other children are fostered by Aral and Cordelia. Elena Bothari is the daughter of Sergeant Bothari
Konstantin Bothari
Sergeant Konstantin Bothari is a character in the Vorkosigan Saga of science fiction novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. He was a deeply disturbed foot soldier and a classic example of an anti-hero.- Character background :...
and an Escobaran woman he raped, brought back in a uterine replicator to Barrayar after the Escobar fiasco. Elena ends up marrying and settling in another planetary system. Gregor Vorbarra
Gregor Vorbarra
Gregor Vorbarra is the Emperor of the Barrayaran Imperium in the sci-fi series the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold.As of CryoBurn, Gregor Vorbarra is the current Emperor of Barrayar...
is the orphaned Emperor, educated by Aral and Cordelia, who live at the Imperial Residence during their estrangement from Count Piotr, during the period when Gregor is 5 to 10 years old. At Gregor's wedding, Cordelia and Aral stand in place of Gregor's parents. At Aral's funeral, Gregor insists on being one of the pallbearers (Cryoburn, Aftermaths).
Public Life
Aral received his first military commission at the age of 18, and by 36 was the youngest admiral in Barrayaran history. A master strategist and tactician, he planned the conquest of Komarr, the only inhabited planet at the other end of the only wormhole access to Barrayar. His goal was to impose Barrayaran power with a minimum of fighting, and his description of the conquest became a required text for galactic military schools. However, one of his officers ordered a massacre of a large group of Komarran leaders being held together, protected by Aral’s word; this was the infamous Solstice Massacre. Without waiting for a court-martial, Aral personally executed the officer. For this act, he was demoted to Captain. On Komarr and elsewhere, it was assumed that he killed the officer in order to conceal the fact that he or the Emperor had ordered the massacre, however, resulting in his legendary reputation as "the Butcher of Komarr" and an enduring ill-will expressed in a revolt 10 years later, an assassination plot (Brothers in Arms), and an attempt by Komarrans to close Barrayar's wormhole Komarr). After his demotion, Aral spent a period at the arctic base on Kyril Island, drinking heavily, and then was given a ship to command, known as “the Leper Colony” because of the rough nature of its crew. True to its name, the crew mutinies, at the beginning of Shards of Honor.Aral is still part of the highest political and military discussions. Emperor Ezar and his chief of security, Captain Negri, plan a glorious death for Ezar’s sadistic son Serg, who will die leading a hopeless expedition to conquer the rich planet Escobar. Aral is horrified, but participates in order to minimize deaths and damage. The staging camp for the attack is the uninhabited planet which will eventually be named Sergyar, where he meets Cordelia. She becomes an important factor in the brevity of the war, both by conveying to Beta and Escobar details of the coming assault and as captain of a Betan ship escorting a secret defensive weapon to Escobar. Aral is aware of all this and takes it into his calculations in planning the retreat. After the retreat he is immediately restored to the rank of admiral and put in charge of the prisoner exchange. He then retires from the military.
Emperor Ezar dies, leaving Aral (now married to Cordelia) as regent for Ezar’s 5-year-old grandson Gregor Vorbarra. Aral’s first decision as regent is disastrous: the execution of young Carl Vorhalas for dueling. Carl’s brother seeks vengeance through a poison gas attack, which deforms the fetus Miles. Count Vordarian then leads an uprising, attempting to install himself as Gregor’s protector and then replacement; while Aral organizes the military response, Cordelia has Vordarian beheaded and ends the “Pretendership
Vordarian's Pretendership
Vordarian's Pretendership is a major event in Lois McMaster Bujold's sci-fi series, the Vorkosigan Saga.-Background:The War of Vordarian's Pretendership occurred in the novel Barrayar. Emperor Ezar had just died; his son Crown Prince Serg had died earlier in the Escobar War, leaving only Ezar's...
.”
Aral’s later regency is skipped over by the novels. There are attempts at invasion by Cetaganda
Cetaganda
Cetaganda is the collective name for an 8-planet empire in the Wormhole Nexus of the Vorkosigan Saga novels of Lois McMaster Bujold.-Cetagandan Society:...
and at rebellion by Komarr, both of which he puts down. We are given to understand that he reforms the military, imports and encourages the use of new technology, and generally attempts to introduce humane, rational, and egalitarian principles in Barrayaran society.
When Aral is in his early 60s, Gregor comes of age as Emperor, with Aral continuing in power as his Prime Minister and leader of the "Centrist Coalition." A year or so later, Aral’s father dies and Aral becomes the 11th Count Vorkosigan, with local duties. Aral continues for another decade in unbroken power except for brief periods when his son Miles’s adventures arouse accusations of conspiracy.
In his early 70s, Aral considers retirement from public life, and is forced by a cardiac event to give up his position as Prime Minister (Mirror Dance
Mirror Dance
Mirror Dance is a Hugo- and Locus-award-winning science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. Part of the Vorkosigan Saga, it was first published by Baen Books in March 1994.- Plot summary :...
). At that point (Memory
Memory (Bujold novel)
Memory is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in October 1996. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the eleventh full-length novel in publication order.- Plot summary :...
), the Emperor is planning Aral's son Miles’s military career on-planet, but Miles's own problems end his military career and confine him to Barrayar. Miles becomes his father's proxy in the Council of Counts. Emperor Gregor appoints Aral and Cordelia co-viceregents of the planet Sergyar, which is being colonized by Barryar and terraformed
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
. Aral still holds this position when he dies, at the end of Cryoburn.
Thematic Role
Aral first appears in Shards of Honor as a dark romantic hero, already 44 years old and richly experienced, both violent and sexual. He is not tall and not handsome, but he is physically powerful, charismatic, and brilliant. Passionate and high-minded, he is tormented by memories of those he has killed (or not killed) defending his honor. Cordelia loves him, it seems, because of his painful regrets and his agonized desire to transcend the code which prescribed his crimes. At his death (Cryoburn Aftermaths), she comments that he should not be frozen to await revival, but be allowed release from painful memories.Aral finds in Cordelia someone to whom he can confess his worst memories. She offers him a different vision of honor, which does not require bloodshed but is devoted to the protection of the living, such as her lobotomized Ensign Dubauer and the seventeen fetuses conceived by the Barrayaran military on female prisoners of war. In Mirror Dance, when he thinks he is dying, Aral attempts to offer his clone-son Mark some last words: “All true wealth is biological” (ch. 15, recalled by Mark in ch. 33).
Aral’s son Miles represents both his greatest moral challenge and his redemption. Barrayaran policy towards crippled offspring is abortion or infanticide. With Cordelia, Aral accepts Miles and encourages him to develop military and personal ambitions. Aral’s political career is in part directed towards reforming society so that it will accept Miles as Count Vorkosigan. In the short story “The Mountains of Mourning,” Miles must judge a case involving backwoods infanticide of a deformed child. This case echoes Aral’s first major decision during his Regency, whether to pardon a young man who had killed another in the traditional but outlawed practice of the duel (Barrayar, ch. 7). Aral’s decision in that case—to execute the boy as an example—contrasts with Miles’s decision; the latter is able to devise a bloodless punishment for the infanticide, breaking the cycles of bloodshed and vengeance.
External links
- Some thoughts on Lois McMaster Bujold’s Aral Vorkosigan, essay by Jo WaltonJo WaltonJo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Ha'penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award...
, 2010