Aral Vorkosigan

Aral Vorkosigan is a fictitious character from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan Saga" series. He met and married Captain Cordelia Naismith, and together they had the child Miles Vorkosigan.

Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan was the youngest man to ever reach the rank of admiral in the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service. He was considered the most brilliant strategist in all of Barrayar, and possibly one of the best throughout the entire Vorkosigan Saga galaxy by many military history buffs, such as Ky Tung.

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.

Personal life

For the first thirteen years of Aral Vorkosigan's life, the reigning ruler of Barrayar was Mad Emperor Yuri. He was a psychotic emperor, who became extremely paranoid about conspirators plotting to kill him to gain the throne. His paranoia mounted, until he finally ordered death squads to kill every potential heir to the imperial bloodline. These persons included the then eleven-year-old Aral Vorkosigan, his siblings, and his mother, Olivia, daughter of Prince Xav Vorbarra. Aral and his mother and sister were caught at an official state luncheon. He survived, but his mother and sister were killed. Aral and his baby cousin Padma Vorpatril (son of Olivia's sister) were the only people to survive the encounter at the luncheon. Yuri did not attempt to kill Aral's father Piotr, who was not in the line of succession. Mad Emperor Yuri was overthrown two years later by General Count Piotr Vorkosigan and Ezar Vorbarra. Vorbarra soon took the throne as rightful heir to Emperor Yuri.

At the age of twenty, Aral had an arranged marriage to a girl of eighteen from the Vorrutyer clan. While he was away on missions frequently, his wife had two affairs, and when he found out he killed both her lovers in duels to avenge his honor. It was assumed that they had killed each other; this was a fortunate thing for Aral, as dueling was forbidden, under penalty of death. His wife committed suicide by shooting herself in the face with a plasma arc - Aral wondered about this odd method of suicide and suspected his father Piotr might have killed her, since he had arranged their marriage. Aral never asked his father, out of fear Piotr would answer in the affirmative. After Aral's first wife's death, when Aral describes himself as drunken and reckless, he also had a homosexual affair with future adversary (and possibly his first wife's brother) Ges Vorrutyer, also in the military. At forty-four, he met and married Captain Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony - both Ges and Cordelia herself felt that she represented an ideal mate to satisfy Aral's bisexual tendencies: a woman in the military. They had one son, Miles Vorkosigan, who is the main protagonist of the Vorkosigan Saga - though, technically, they have "two" sons, or at the very least, a son once removed in Miles' clone brother, Lord Mark.

Imperial Service

Like most young Vor lords, Aral decided to enlist, and went to officer's training at the Imperial Service Academy in his late teens. He quickly rose through the ranks and reached the position of admiral. As admiral, Aral Vorkosigan led the Barrayaran conquest of Komarr. Through military genius, a fortunate situation, and use of minimal force, Aral captured the whole planet of Komarr quickly and efficiently.

The near-bloodless victory was marred by an incident called The Solstice Massacre, which took place when one of Aral's subordinates (a political officer) ordered the deaths of 200 captive Komarran leaders without Aral's knowledge or consent. The subordinate was quickly executed by Vorkosigan. The Komarran massacre, and a widespread belief that Vorkosigan murdered the political officer to cover up his own implication in the massacre, earned him the nick name, the "Butcher of Komarr".

He was soon demoted back to captain because of internal affairs within the Barrayaran command. It was during this period that he served as commander of an arctic base on Barrayar known as "Camp Permafrost", a base that his son Miles would later serve at. At this point, Aral was approximately 41. The well defined chronology picks up with Aral as captain of the warship "The General Vorkraft"; this is still a punishment, as he has apparently been given the dregs of the service, earning the nickname "Vorkosigan's leper colony". At that point in Barrayaran history, there was much upheaval within the government, including much corruption in the military and so called "political service". There were "political officers" aboard every ship, to ensure that the military was doing exactly what this service wished. One such political officer on Vorkosigan's ship attempted to mutiny, along with some other high level crew members. To do so, they attempted to assassinate Vorkosigan. This is where the first novel, "Shards of Honor", begins. Vorkosigan successfully takes back his command.

Some months later Aral, promoted to the rank of Commodore, is led by the corrupt and sinister Admiral Ges Vorrutyer and heir to the throne Prince Serg on an invasion of the planet Escobar. In truth, the invasion of Escobar turns out to be a ruse choreographed by Emperor Ezar Vorbarra to kill the admiral and the prince for the sake of Barrayar's future. The emperor reasoned that if Prince Serg had inherited the throne, Barrayar would have undergone a period of political darkness and tyranny. After their deaths, Vorkosigan is the ranking commander, and he quickly retreats all forces from Escobar.

Political career

After the failed Escobaran campaign, Vorkosigan was fed up with military service. He married Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony and settled down to build a family. Prince Gregor, son of Prince Serg, is the Emperor's heir. As the emperor's health failed, he appointed Aral as Regent-Elect of Barrayar until Prince Gregor's legal majority (at age 20). Aral reluctantly accepted this, realizing that while he might not be the best General or politician, he could not trust anyone else with the task.

History intervened as Count Vordarian attempted a coup in Vorbarr Sultana, taking Prince Serg's widow Princess Kareen as his consort. Aral coordinated the counter-revolution from a military base, as Cordelia organized a clandestine raid on the Palace to recover the uterine replicator containing their son, Miles. As a result, Vordarian was killed, the Palace partially burned, and the coup was stopped.

After serving as Regent of Barrayar, Aral Vorkosigan turned over the Imperium to Emperor Gregor Vorbarra. Subsequently, Aral was appointed Prime Minister of Barrayar and thus still held a prominent role in imperial politics. He retired from this position after suffering a near-fatal heart attack in "Mirror Dance" and later became the Viceroy of Sergyar, a newly settled world that was most recent addition to the Barrayan empire.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Aral's father, General Count Piotr Vorkosigan died, thus making Aral Count Vorkosigan. His full title as of the end of "Diplomatic Immunity" is "Admiral Viceroy Count Aral Vorkosigan, Former Regent and Prime Minister of Barrayar".

ee also

*My word as Vor
*Butcher of Komarr