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

Known to all simply as "Bothari", he is the product of the "Caravanserai", the notorious slum district of Vorbarr Sultana, the capital city of Barrayar. He never knew his father. His mother was a midwife who was a prostitute. Bothari's personality is variously described as fragmented, insane, or chameleon-like. His mother would sell him to her customers until he was old enough and large enough to fight back. Deep psychological scars and trauma can surface with the right stimulus, converting him from a cool-headed warrior to a sexual psychopath in an instant.

The one environment he can exist in is the military, where he is a superbly effective foot-soldier. He is described as very tall, with a hatchet-like facial profile, and a rumbling bass voice, which he uses sparingly. He has to take medications constantly to control the violent urges and hallucinations which bubble up from within his mind.

After enlistment he came to the attention of the sadistic, perverted Ges Vorrutyer who used him to fulfill his personal fantasies, especially with captured prisoners of war. Bothari's personality crumbled even further, but under the stolid command of Vorrutyer's sometime lover and later foe, Aral Vorkosigan, he was able to pull himself back together. Completely loyal to Vorkosigan, he retained his "fealty" even when Vorrutyer began using him again, and when Vorrutyer directed him to rape Cordelia Naismith, formerly Vorkosigan's prisoner, he killed Vorrutyer instead.

He finally left the military and became a Vorkosigan Armsman, one of 20 personal bodyguards allowed to the Count on Barrayar. He also acquired a daughter, Elena, who was one of a group of "rape children" sent to Barrayar by the Escobarans after the failed Escobaran invasion. Elena's mother had been one of the prisoners he abused on behalf of Ges Vorrutyer. Elena was placed in the care of one of the women in a village near the Vorkosigan country estate, Vorkosigan Surleau. Growing up, she became Miles Vorkosigan's playmate, first love, and eventual subordinate in his mercenary fleet. During her childhood, Bothari saved every spare coin for her dowry, so she would make a good marriage when grown.

When Cordelia married into the family, Bothari transferred his deepest loyalty to her, accompanying her on the mission to rescue her still-developing son Miles from the Imperial Residence, which was under the control of the rebel Count Vordarian. His knowledge of the ways of the "Caravanserai" enabled them to hide close to the Residence even as Vordarian's troops hunted for aristocrats to hold hostage. He was instrumental in rescuing the pregnant Lady Alys Vorpatril, and thanks to the midwife skills he learned from his mother, he delivered Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril while they hid from Vordarian's soldiers.

Sending Alys, Ivan and the young Lieutenant Koudelka to make their way back to the loyalist base, he went with Cordelia and former Imperial bodyguard Ludmilla Droushnakovi to penetrate the Palace using its secret escape routes. There, at Cordelia's command, he executed Vordarian, decapitating him with a single stroke of a fine sword blade. Unfortunately the psychological effects of this incapacitated him for a while, almost preventing their escape with the "uterine replicator" containing Miles, the object of their quest. Since the Residence was burning at the time, thanks to Bothari's own efforts with a plasma arc weapon, their pursuers had other problems.

With the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, he became Miles bodyguard, servant, mentor and something of a surrogate father, even though Aral Vorkosigan, while busy as Regent, made time to be with Miles every day. His duties ranged from driving Miles to school, and later to the Military Academy, to searching him for the concealed weapons Miles would attempt to take with him to deal with those who tormented him for being a "mutie" or mutant, a terrible accusation on Barrayar.

Pulled along with the now grown Elena and everybody else when Miles adopted the persona of Admiral Miles Naismith, talking his way into the command of a mercenary fleet, he was killed by an Escobaran woman, one of the mercenaries Miles hired, who was also the mother of the child Elena. Ironically, in his deranged state at the time, he had convinced himself they were in love even as he kept her captive, and his final words were "Lady, you are still beautiful."

The final word on Bothari belongs to Aral Vorkosigan. According to him, Bothari was what people wanted him to be. Vorrutyer wanted him for a torturer, and he was one. Vorkosigan himself wanted him as a loyal subordinate, and he was one. Cordelia, however, wanted him as a hero, her personal "knight errant". Thanks to her, that is what he became.

Elena Bothari

Elena is Konstantin's out-of-wedlock daughter, and the product of an ordered rape in the failed Escobar Invasion. Her biological or genetic mother's name is Elena Visconti. Elena Bothari eventually married Baz Jesek formerly of Barrayar, and the Dendarii Mercenaries. At one point prior to her retirement, she was Captain of the "Peregrine" one of the main ships in the Fleet.