Ekaterin Vorsoisson

Ekaterin Vorsoisson is a character in Lois McMaster Bujold's sci-fi series, the Vorkosigan Saga. Her character is first introduced with the "Vorsoisson" surname, though it changes to "Vorkosigan" when she marries Miles.

Ekaterin Vorvayne

Ekaterin was born to the comparatively low Vor family, the "Vorvaynes." Her mother was the sister of Dr. Vorthys, who later became an Imperial Auditor, one of eight expert troubleshooters for the Emperor.

As the Professor points out in the novel "Komarr", sometimes the low Vor are more passionate about the tradition of "Vor" than the "High Vor", the true aristocracy. Thus Ekaterin grew up believing in the need to live up to her word, which left her with few options when her marriage went bad. She also developed a hard shell around her, thanks to the torments of her older brothers. The fact that she has three older brothers is itself an artefact of the changes in Barrayaran society, as the technology allowing parents to choose the sex of their children collided with a cultural preference for male children.

Ekaterin's mother died of disease when Ekaterin was a teenager. When her father later desired to remarry, he encouraged an arranged marriage between Ekaterin and Etienne Vorsoisson, in order to tidy up family affairs. Ekaterin, who was 20 at the time, accepted Etienne, who was ten years older, and the couple seemed initially happy. Although she genuinely loved him, she also saw the marriage as her part in the "Vor pageant".

Madame Ekaterin Vorsoisson

In marrying Etienne Vorsoisson her name changed, though the "Vorsoissons" were still low Vor, and thus she did not gain the title "Lady". This marriage became troubled and is a major plot element to the book "Komarr". They had a child, Nikolai, who was seven-eight years old at Komarr. Unlike most contemporary couples, they chose to gestate Nikolai the natural way, instead of using an "artificial uterus". This was partly because Etienne knew of his genetic disease and did not want to undergo medical checks which would have revealed it.

Etienne Vorsoisson

Etienne "Tien" Vorsoisson was Ekaterin's first husband and the father of her son, Nikolai. Despite his advantages as a member of the "Vor", Etienne was a failure at most things. In his ten-year stint in the Army, he never rose above the low rank of lieutenant. His subsequent employment was characterized by movement from one administrative position to another, which he blamed on the incompetence of others. To make matters worse, he found that he carried the stigma of a genetic disease, "Vorzohn's Dystrophy", which would have killed his brother had he not killed himself in an apparent air crash. Although the disease was treatable, Etienne refused to seek treatment on Barrayar, taking a position instead on the planet Komarr in order to build funds to get treated outside the Barrayaran Empire. However he bet most of his money, along with some loans and bribes, on a "merchant adventure" which went disastrously wrong. By the time of his death he faced financial ruin and possible prosecution.

Etienne died during the novel "Komarr", in an accident caused by his own fecklessness. During the investigation of Tien's death and his part in a mysterious conspiracy, Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan realizes that he has fallen in love with Ekaterin, having previously ignored his nascent feelings while she was still Tien's wife.

Ekaterin, for her part, had made up her mind to walk away from Tien, her marriage and her son, because of her husband's psychological abuse. In her words, she had "come to the end of myself". Having been ground down to nothing, she had nothing but her own honor to sustain her, and in leaving Tien she abandoned even that. It is at this point that Tien's death threw her life into confusion, but also offered her a way out with honor.

Drawn by accident into the lair of the conspirators, she found enough courage and ingenuity to ruin their plot. In this she returned to her own vision of herself as a "Vor", being willing to sacrifice everything, including her own life, to defend Barrayer. This in turn convinced Miles Vorkosigan that she was indeed the woman for him.

Lady Ekaterin Vorkosigan

Returning to Barrayar, Ekaterin went to live in the Vorthys household in Vorbarr Sultana. She entered the traditional "year of mourning" for her husband, with the hidden desire never to remarry. Miles Vorkosigan, however, was determined to woo her, while his cousin Ivan Vorpatril mischievously caused other single Vor males to call on her. The result was a social disaster of epic proportions, recounted in the novel "A Civil Campaign". Dealing with the fallout from this, complicated by insidious Barrayaran dynastic politics, led to Ekaterin discovering Miles's true self, and eventually to her proposing to him in front of the entire Council of Counts.

She thus became, in full, Lady Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson Vorkosigan. As such, she plays a significant role in the novel "Diplomatic Immunity".