List of Vorkosigan Saga characters

This is a list of Vorkosigan Saga characters created by Lois McMaster Bujold in a series of novels and short stories.

Barrayarans
  • Miles Vorkosigan is the main protagonist of the series. He is born with severe physical disabilities, including very brittle bones, due to a failed attempt to assassinate his parents, Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan, with a chemical weapon while the latter was pregnant with him. He endures many medical treatments during his early life, and as an adult, he is short and slightly hunchbacked. However, he is highly intelligent, very energetic and extremely, even pathologically, driven to excel. He becomes a space mercenary admiral (creating the Dendarii Mercenaries on the fly out of personnel at hand), Barrayaran Imperial Security (ImpSec) agent, Imperial Auditor (second in power only to the emperor of Barrayar) and eventually Count of the Vorkosigan's District.
  • Aral Vorkosigan is an admiral and, following the death of his father, Piotr Vorkosigan, one of 60 district counts. He meets Cordelia Naismith, a Betan Survey commander, during the opening stage of Barrayar's war with Escobar; the two fall in love and, despite many obstacles, marry. Miles is their only (naturally born) child. A brilliant naval strategist and leader, Aral extricates Barrayar's forces from the debacle at Escobar. He reluctantly agrees to serve as regent for the orphaned young child emperor, Gregor Vorbarra. He and Cordelia raise Gregor with Miles. Despite his arduous responsibilities as regent, Aral sets aside time each day to spend with his fragile young son. When Emperor Gregor Vorbarra comes of age, Aral gratefully resigns his regency, but remains a force to be reckoned with. He and Cordelia are eventually appointed Viceroy and Vicereine of Sergyar, the planet where they first met.
  • Cordelia Vorkosigan, née Naismith, is a native of technologically advanced and liberal Beta Colony. She is an elite Betan Astronomical Survey commander, leading the exploration of a new planet, when she becomes entangled with Barrayarans, among them Aral. Despite the initially hostile circumstances of their meeting, she travels to Barrayar and marries Aral. She plays a pivotal role in foiling a coup attempt against Gregor. In rescuing her unborn son (in a uterine replicator) from the rebels, she brings about the end not only of Vordarian's Pretendership, but also Count Vordarian himself.
  • Piotr Vorkosigan is Aral's father. He is a leader of the guerrilla resistance to the Cetagandan occupation of Barrayar. He also plays a pivotal role in deposing Mad Emperor Yuri in favor of Ezar Vorbarra, the grandfather of Gregor Vorbarra. Like nearly all Barrayarans, he hates mutants; he tries to persuade Cordelia to abort Miles after the antidote to the poison used in the failed assassination severely harms the fetus. After the boy is born, Aral tries to have him killed as unfit to be count. Later, he comes around.
  • Gregor Vorbarra becomes Emperor of Barrayar after the death of his grandfather. He is orphaned as a child when his mother is killed during an attempted coup.
  • Konstantine Bothari is Miles' longtime bodyguard. Paranoid and homicidal, probably due to a horrific childhood, he is unwaveringly loyal to the Vorkosigans, especially Cordelia.
  • Elena Bothari is Konstantine Bothari's daughter, the product of the rape of an Escobaran prisoner of war. She is raised with Miles, Gregor and Ivan Vorpatril. Elena is Miles' first love. She becomes an officer in the Dendarii Mercenary Fleet, before leaving to raise a family.
  • Ivan Vorpatril is Miles' cousin. Handsome and intelligent, he is also indolent and seeks to avoid attention. Nonetheless, he is a loyal friend of Miles.
  • Alys Vorpatril is Ivan's mother. She serves as primary hostess for Emperor Gregor, when she is not trying to get her only offspring to marry.
  • Simon Illyan is the head of Barrayaran Imperial Security (ImpSec). When Captain Negri is killed at the onset of Vordarian's coup, Illyan is given charge of ImpSec by Aral Vorkosigan. Later, he becomes Miles' boss, to both his horror and delight.
  • Bazil "Baz" Jesek is a deserter from the Barrayaran military. He winds up the Dendarii's chief engineer. He and Elena marry and eventually leave for a more peaceful life.
  • Ludmilla Droushnakovi is a one-time bodyguard of Gregor Vorbara. She helps Cordelia end Vordarian's Pretendership. She later marries Kou Koudelka.
  • Klement "Kou" Koudelka is Aral's assistant during the latter's regency.
  • Ekaterin Vorsoisson comes to Miles' notice when, in his role as Imperial Auditor, he investigates what may be sabotage on Komarr. They are attracted to each other. After Ekaterin's husband is killed, she returns to Barrayar. Miles, aware of her skittishness towards remarrying, "secretly" courts her, with near-disastrous results, but in the end, she consents to marry him.
  • Georg Vorthys is an Imperial Auditor, engineering expert and professor and Ekaterin's uncle. He and Miles investigate what may be sabotage on Komarr. He is partially based on Bujold's father.

Dendarii
  • Admiral Naismith is Miles Vorkosigan's cover identity. Miles, as the heir of a count, is forbidden by Barrayaran law to lead a sizable, private force, so he invents Naismith to command his (unplanned and improvised on the fly) creation, the Dendarii Mercenaries. He eventually persuades Emperor Gregor Vorbarra and ImpSec head Illyan to accept the unit as a secret arm of the Barrayaran military, with the advantage of being able to go where Barrayarans cannot and mount operations that cannot be traced back to Barrayar.
  • Elli Quinn becomes Miles' second-in-command. She is also his lover, though she rejects Miles' many proposals that she become the next Lady Vorkosigan, as she detests the idea of being planet-bound. When Miles is no longer medically fit to lead the Dendarii, he chooses her as his successor.
  • Bel Thorne is a hermaphrodite from Beta Colony and a very capable Dendarii officer. It has an unrequited crush on Miles. When it allows itself to go along with a harebrained rescue mission conceived and led by Mark Vorkosigan (masquerading as Naismith), Miles has no choice but to dismiss it from the Dendarii. They, however, are reunited in Quaddiespace for one more adventure.
  • Ky Tung is a senior Dendarii captain. Initially a not-too-hostile enemy, he becomes Miles' mentor, before retiring to his native Earth.
  • Admiral Yuan Oser is the commander of the Oseran Free Mercenary Fleet. However, he is outmaneuvered at every turn by Miles during the Tau Verde Ring War and gradually loses portions of his fleet and personnel to the Barrayaran, who transforms them into the Dendarii. After Miles is absent for an unexpectedly long time, Oser manages to regain control of the fleet, only to quickly lose it again when Miles returns.
  • Arde Mayhew is a starship jump pilot, one of Miles' first recruits.

Cetagandans
  • Emperor the haut Fletchir Giaja is the ruler of the Cetagandan Empire, which is composed of two castes. The haut are engaged in ongoing genetic engineering to improve their people. The ghem serve the haut.
  • The haut Rian Degtiar is a member of the Star Creche, the topmost level of Cetagandan society which is responsible for the genetic modifications. When she crosses paths with Miles, he falls in love with her. She eventually becomes the empress of the empire.
  • The haut Pel Navarr is another, older member of the Star Creche.
  • Dag Benin becomes a ghem-general and head of Cetagandan Imperial Security.

Jacksonians
  • Mark Pierre Vorkosigan is a clone of Miles created and raised on Jackson's Whole for exiled diehard Komarran resistance fighters determined to free their planet from Barrayaran control. He is painfully and repeatedly biosculpted to look exactly like Miles so he can replace his progenitor, poison Aral Vorkosigan and attempt to seize the throne. However, he rebels and kills his trainer/tormenter, Ser Galen. Later, Mark botches a rescue of clones from Jackson's Whole, masquerading as Admiral Naismith to hijack some of the Dendarii. When Miles comes to the rescue, he is killed (though he is cryogenically frozen and later revived). It takes several attempts, but Miles manages to coax Mark into the Vorkosigan family fold. Mark, determined to distance himself as far as possible from Miles, turns his energies to entrepreneurship.
  • Georish Stauber, Baron Fell, is the leader of one of the most powerful of the Great Houses that dominate Jackson's Whole.
  • Ry Ryoval, Baron Ryoval, heads only a House Minor, but is accorded the respect of the leader of a Great House. He bears an intense grudge against Miles for the immense damage Miles inflicts on his genetic property.
  • Vasa Luigi, Baron Baraputra, commands another Great House.
  • Taura is part of an unsuccessful attempt to create a super soldier. After Miles rescues her, she becomes a member of the Dendarii and Miles' occasional lover, despite her being 8 feet (2.4 m) tall to Miles' 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m). As a fail-safe, she has a short lifespan, but the Dendarii medical staff are able to extend it somewhat.

Komarrans
  • Duv Galeni is one of the first Komarrans admitted into ImpSec.
  • Ser Galen (Ser is a Komarran title, like "mister") is a fanatical Komarran resistance leader. He is also Duv Galeni's father.
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