Vorkosigan, Aral

Surname:	Vorkosigan
Given Name:	Aral
Aliases:
Place of Birth:	Barrayar

Details

Aral Vorkosigan was born the son of the equally famous General Count Piotr Vorkosigan. After the death of Count Piotr and without a an heir being named, Aral Vorkosigan is next in line to the throne of Barrayar, although many will argue otherwise, most notably Aral himself.

His introduction to politics and war came at the early age of 11 when Yuri Vorbarra sent his death-squads to kill him, his older brother and his mother in the opening moves of Ezar's Civil War that propelled Ezar to the throne of Barrayar with the aid of General Piotr, and Aral Vorkosian's grand-father Prince Xav. While he managed to survive, Aral Vorkosigan saw his mother killed by a sonic grenade shot into her stomach.

He entered Imperial service soon after and quickly moved through the ranks.

In his early twenties, Aral was married in a wedding arranged by his father. It did not take many years before Aral discovered that his wife was adulterous. He confronted her with this fact and then killed both of her lovers in illegal duels. On hearing that her lovers were dead his wife killed herself with a plasma arc. Aral's duels never became known to anyone else and it was assumed that his wife had killed herself because her lovers had duelled with each other. It was long suspected at the time that Aral had in fact murdered his own wife and he himself occasionally wondered if his father, Count Piotr, feeling responsible for arranging the marriage might have killed her. Nothing was ever proven either way. During this low point in Aral's life he had an affair with Ges Vorrutyer, who died at Escobar.

Aral Vorkosigan next came to public fame, while at the rank of Admiral, with his masterful planning and execution of the invasion of Komarr. Unfortunately he became known as the "Butcher of Komarr" after an incident in which the ruling senate of Komarr had surrendered under terms and was killed, behind Aral Vorkosigan's back and against his orders by the Political Officer. Aral Vorkosigan, who had pledged his word to the prisoners' safety, executed the Political Officer with his own hands on the bridge of his flagship. For this execution, which was suppressed, Aral was demoted to Captain.

The time following this was a form of exile imposed on Aral. He was at one point stationed at Kiril Island and for his later commands received mostly the worst officers and crews of the service. It is believed that during this time he first met Sergeant Bothari.

While commanding the General Vorkraft, Aral was required to protect a forward fleet supply depot, for an invasion of Escobar, on the yet unnamed planet Sergyar. An attempt to capture a Betan Surrvey mission was used by the Political Officer to stage a mutiny. Aral survived an assassination attempt and trekked through the jungle with his future wife, Commander Cordelia Naismith of the Betan Survey mission, to the supply depot and later managed to regain command of his ship. The Betan ship and all its surviving crew, escaped.

Heavily oposed to the Escobar invasion, Aral Vorkosigan was promoted to Commodore and assigned the task of planning and executing the emergency withdrawl of the Barrayaran forces, something not considered neccessary by the entire commands staff.

The Escobar invasion was part of an elaborate consipiricy, created by, Emperor Ezar, Captain Negri and Aral, to assassinate Prince Serg, the Emperor's son, who had become a danger to the Empire and his own son, the future Emperor Gregor.

Just prior to the invasion of Escobar, Cordelia Naismith was captured by Admiral Vorrutyer. Sergeant Bothari, recognising Captain Naismith, freed her by killing Vorrutyer and both were subsequently hidden by Aral Vorkosigan and Simon Illyan, who had been assigned to watch Aral after the mutiny on the General Vorkraft.

After the death of Prince Serg and the retreat of the Barrayarran forces, Aral was promoted to Admiral and given charge of the clean-up operations. It was during this time that Aral pledged his protection to 17 babies handed over to Barrayar in uterine replicators by the Escobaran forces.

Returing from the Escobar invasion, Aral withdrew from public life and became mostly a recluse. He considered his honour damaged or destroyed and was slowly trying to drink himself to death. This ended with the arrival of and his subsequent marriage to Cordelia Naismith.

Shortly after his marriage, Aral was appointed Regent of Barrayar by the dying Emperor Ezar. Aral, in turn, appointed Lieutenant Koudelka as his secretary.

One of the first disagreeable decisions Aral had to take was to allow the legally required execution of Carl Vorhalas, the son of Count Vorhalas and nephew of Rulf Vorhalas. The latter was a friend of Aral's and died at Escobar.

An assassination attempt by an unknown assailant using a sonic grenade nearly killed Aral Vorkosigan and is considered by many to have been the precursor to what happened next.

The death of Emperor Ezar and his appointment of Aral as regent, soon resulted in a coup attempt by Count Vordarian which stared with a soltoxin gas assassination attempt on Aral by Evon Vorhalas, bother of the executed Carl Vorhalas. Both Aral and Cordelia survived this attack, but their unborn son, Miles Poitr Vorkosigan, was seriously damaged by side-effects of the anitdote.

Gergor Vorbarra was rescued from Vordarian by the dying Captain Negri and brought to Aral who quickly hid him and then proceeded to fight Vordarian for the throne on Gegor's behalf.

The Vordarian Pretendership came to an end when Cordelia, acting against Aral's wishes rescued their captive son, having Sergeant Bothari kill Vordarian in the process.

Because of the death of Princess Kareen during the Pretendership, Aral and Cordelia were declared the foster parents of the six-year-old Emperor Gregor by the Council of Counts.

The poor condition of Aral's son after the soltoxin attack, resulted in a serious disagreement between Aral and his father, and after the Prendership, General Piotr refused to allow Miles to carry his name and ejected Aral and Cordelia from Vorkosigan House. As a result, Aral and his family moved into the Palace.

Aral used his position to try and introduce many modernising reforms to Barrayar and achieved much during his time as Regent.

When the Emperor became of age, Aral gladly handed the throne over to Emperor Gregor and stepped down from the post of Regent, something many believed he would never actually do. During this time Aral became mostly reconciliated with his father and moved back into Vorkosigan House.

Soon after his resignation, Aral was elected Prime Minister, a position he retained for many years.

Difficulties arose when his son was accused of treason, which also happened shortly after the death of Count Piotr, and also during the Cetegandan invasion attempt of the Hegen Hub. Aral personally took command of the Barrayarran fleet which led the Hegen Alliance to victory.

During the time when it was believed that Aral's son Miles was dead and the arrival of Miles' clone brother Mark Pierre Vorkosigan on Barrayar, Aral suffered a small heart attack. This finally convinced him to resign from the office of Prime Minister.

Unwilling to do without Aral's service and experience, Emperor Gregor appointed Aral as Viceroy of the newly colonised Sergyar, a post which he still retains. Ironically this was the very post Emperor Ezar had unsuccessfully attempted to brib Aral with to obtain his support for the assassination of Prince Serg.

Due to Aral's absence from Barrayar, his duties as Count are carried out by his son, Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, in his name.