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 and prostitute. Bothari's personality is variously described as fragmented, insane, or chameleon-like. While a child, his mother repeatedly sold him to customers until he was old enough and large enough to fight back. His 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. 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 that bubble up from within his mind.
Barrayar is a science fiction novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog in July–October 1991, and then published in book form by Baen Books in October 1991. Barrayar won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1992. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the seventh full-length novel of the series, in publication order. Barrayar is a direct sequel to Bujold's first novel, Shards of Honor (1986), and the two are paired in the 1996 omnibus Cordelia's Honor.
A midwife is a professional in midwifery. Their education and training equips them to recognise the variations of normal progress of labor, and understand how to deal with deviations from normal. They may intervene in high risk situations such as breech births, twin births and births where the baby is in a posterior position, using non-invasive techniques. When a pregnant woman requires care beyond the midwife's scope of practice, they refer women to obstetricians or perinatologists, who are medical specialists in complications related to pregnancy and birth, including surgical and instrumental deliveries. In many parts of the world, these professions work in tandem to provide care to childbearing women. In others, only the midwife is available to provide care, and in yet other countries many women elect to utilize obstetricians primarily over midwives.
The one environment in which he has shown himself able to exist in a reasonably functional capacity is the military, where he was a superbly effective foot-soldier. At some point during his military career, he came to the attention of the sadistic, perverted Ges Vorrutyer, who used him to fulfill his personal sadistic sexual fantasies, especially with captured prisoners of war. Compelled to exist in this environment, 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 to a certain extent. Completely loyal to Vorkosigan, he retained his fealty even when Vorrutyer began using him again, so when Vorrutyer directed him to rape Cordelia Naismith, formerly Vorkosigan's prisoner and someone Vorkosigan had told him to protect, he first refused to do it, and then when Vorrutyer attempted to do the deed himself, killed Vorrutyer instead.
Aral Vorkosigan is a fictional character appearing in American writer Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series of science fiction books. Known throughout this universe as "The Butcher of Komarr", he dominates the imagination of the two main point-of-view characters in the Vorkosigan Saga, Cordelia, who becomes his wife, and their son Miles. He appears, at least briefly or as an important if absent figure, in all the novels of the series except Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos and Falling Free. He also provides the narrative framework for the presentation of three short stories in Borders of Infinity.
Cordelia Naismith is the name of two fictional characters by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. One is from the science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga. The other is the title character of the Victorian era Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment" included in her anthology Dreamweaver's Dilemma.
After this incident, he left the military and became a Vorkosigan Armsman, one of 20 personal bodyguards allowed to a Count of Barrayar. He also acquired a daughter, Elena, who was one of a group of children who had been the product of rape of Escobarans by Barrayarans during the failed invasion. Escobar sent these children, as fetuses in uterine replicators, to their Barrayaran fathers. Elena's mother had been one of the prisoners Bothari had abused, for weeks, at the direction 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, eventually, 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.
Count is a title and position in the government of Barrayar in Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction series the Vorkosigan Saga.
Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is a protagonist of a series of science fiction novels and short stories, known as the Vorkosigan Saga, written by American author Lois McMaster Bujold.
The Dendarii Mercenaries are a mercenary organisation appearing in American writer Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series of science fiction works. They were founded by Miles Vorkosigan in The Warrior's Apprentice.
When Cordelia married into the family, Bothari transferred his deepest loyalty to her, accompanying her on her mission to rescue her still-developing son Miles from the Imperial Residence while it 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 while Vordarian's troops were hunting for aristocrats to hold hostage. He was instrumental in rescuing the pregnant Lady Alys Vorpatril, and thanks to the midwifing skills he learned from his mother, he delivered Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril while they were hiding from Vordarian's soldiers.
Captain Lord Ivan Vorpatril, also known as "That Idiot Ivan" or "Ivan, You Idiot", is a fictional character in American writer Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series of science fiction novels. He is Miles Vorkosigan's second cousin, foil, burden, workhorse, and - before Miles has children - his formal heir. He is everything Miles is not - tall, handsome, and athletic. He waltzed into the military academy and waltzed right back out into one plum posting after another. He inhabits any uniform - even the Dendarii's - like a second skin.
Sending Alys, Ivan and the young Lieutenant "Kou" Koudelka to make their way back to the loyalist base, he went with Cordelia and former Imperial bodyguard Ludmilla "Drou" 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 were distracted and the group was able to escape.
With the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, Bothari 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 Elena's mother, who Miles had inadvertently hired to be one of his mercenaries, as revenge for the torture and rape he had done to her under Ges Vorrutyer's direction. Ironically, in the mentally deranged state he was in at the time of the rape, he had convinced himself they were in love, so his final words to her as she killed him 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, saw him as a hero, her personal knight errant. That is what he became, thanks to her, becoming a better man than he ever hoped to be.
