The Vorkosigan Companion (62 page)

Vortaine and Vordrozda were heirs to Miles's and Ivan's fathers similarly, and figured in Ezar's calculations as potential successors to Yuri. It is their ages, as closer contemporaries to Aral, that make it more likely that they are grandsons of daughters of Dorca rather than of other daughters of Xav. Confirming this, all the rest of Xav's descendants were eliminated by Yuri's Massacre. The most distant Vortaine can be is third cousin, because if he were a fourth cousin, Gregor would be Ivan's heir before him. In the diagram above, Vortaine and Vordrozda are second cousins to Miles's and Ivan's fathers, thus second cousins once removed to Miles and Ivan. Note that Gregor is also a second cousin once removed.

Padma Vorpatril had no siblings that survived Yuri's   Massacre. This also means that Ivan has no first cousins younger than himself on his father's side. Indeed, he seems not to have any first cousins at all, but that may only reflect his mother's attitude about her own family. That Alys Vorpatril chose to maintain very close ties to the Vorkosigans, incidentally thus to the Regent of Barrayar, rather than to other relatives, probably says more about her political interests than about the existence of first cousins to Ivan on his mother's side. However, any first cousins Ivan might have, related to his mother's line, would not be his heirs relative to any titles he might inherit through Prince Xav.

Just the information that Aral "heads the list" eliminates the possibility of any male children of Yuri or any brothers of Yuri and Xav, at least any surviving ones or ones with surviving male children. Aral and Padma, sons of Xav's first and second daughters, respectively, are also mentioned as the only descendants of Xav to survive Yuri's massacre.

We never find out much about Vidal Vordarian's claim. We only know that he spent a lot of time contemplating his genealogy. This implies that there was some problem about his claim, too, but he managed to convince himself of its justice. In order to convince himself that his claim was comparable to Aral Vor  kosigan's, his claim needed to differ from Aral's by more than just which of Xav's siblings it derived from. Vordarian may have been the sort of stolid conservative type who could have been convinced simply by the fact that his own line contained no tainted off-worlders. However, Vordarian cannot trace to a brother of Yuri and Xav since none and no heirs of any survived Yuri's Massacre. Possibly he could trace back to a sister, as Vortaine and Vordrozda do. However, let's give him more credit than that, and look at another option.

Say Dorca's sister married a Vordarian from which the descent went straight to Vidal. With Aral appointed as Regent and Vidal Vordarian fearing that Aral would seize the Imperium,   Vordarian can argue that his claim is just as good as Aral's (ignoring that Aral has not yet claimed the Imperium) and make his own preemptive strike. The subtle point of which relationship takes precedence, besides depending on precisely what the Barrayaran rules are, is also exactly the sort of thing that often gets decided by strength of arms and spinelessly rubber-stamped by legitimizing bodies afterward.

Without going back to Dorca's great-uncle and what siblings
he
might have had, just going back to Dorca himself and looking at Dorca's siblings opens up a new set of possible claimants to the Imperium. Actually, these would hardly be new; Yuri must have thought of them, too, and killed as many of them as he could. However, it is also known that he did not get all of them.

If Dorca had a brother whose daughter married a Vordarian, the effect would be essentially the same. We know that there is a female link somewhere just because Vidal is a Vordarian rather than a Vorbarra. So we can easily generate a relationship that gives Vordarian a claim. Obviously a claim that goes through two females is not as good as a claim that goes through only one. Perhaps that is why there are only five contenders. Everyone else who might have a claim has two or more females in the linkage.

The other consideration that determines how good a claim is is how far back you have to go to get to an emperor. The fewer generations you have to go back, the better. By that token, Vordarian's claim is not as good as any of the others as he has to go back to the generation before Xav. However, perhaps he has convinced himself that this is really better, as it harks back to a "better" age.

What about Ezar? Since Aral claims that Salic Law bars him (and thus everyone else we know of), there is an implication that Ezar has male line descent that legitimizes his claim. It does not have to be more legitimate than that of Yuri or Xav; just by being through the male line, it is automatically better than the rest. Piotr, when he persuaded Ezar to assume the throne, probably just made the argument that Ezar would make a better ruler and he, Piotr, and all his troops wanted him. A glance at the   possibilities and Piotr's encouragement—these were all his relatives; he knew them pretty well, remember—should have been enough to convince him.

For instance, say Ezar's great-grandfather was the youngest brother to the emperor who was Dorca's great-uncle. This would make Ezar a third cousin to Yuri and Xav. Now, if Ezar's son Serg's madness has the same source as Yuri's, Ezar's relationship to Dorca could be irrelevant to it. It is only necessary that Ezar marry a sister or daughter of Yuri. Indeed, if the madness descends from a Vorrutyer source, as has also been hinted, Yuri likely inherited it through his mother and Serg from his mother, making Ezar's relationship to Dorca—second cousin, once removed—irrelevant.

In
The Warrior's Apprentice
Miles remarks that he is related to Mad Emperor Yuri through two separate lines of descent. He is contemplating the likelihood that he may go mad. We can identify one line easily through Prince Xav. Yuri's madness could have come from his mother, who seems to have been a Vorrutyer. In
Shards of Honor
, Aral mentions this same Prince Xav as having married a Betan, so that means the other line of descent must be through Piotr.

Since Piotr is ninth-generation Vorkosigan, it must be through Piotr's mother or grandmother. If we assume Piotr Pierre was the first son, this makes Pierre the first name of his mother's father, who was likely a Vorrutyer. In
A Civil Campaign
we learn of Pierre "le Sanguinaire" Vorrutyer, who was Emperor Dorca's strong right arm and whose eldest daughter married a Vorkosigan. This is very likely the second link. This would be like Miles's thoroughness and, further, like his fatalism to note that whichever line Yuri got it from, Miles is related to both, and to the more likely Vorrutyer line, twice.

If the genetic disposition to madness comes from the V  orrutyers, Yuri's, Serg's, and Ges Vorrutyer's madness could then all have a common origin. During the reigns of Dorca, Yuri, and Ezar, the Vorrutyers were very close to the emperors. The terrible architecture of the government buildings built during Yuri's reign is attributed to a crazy Vorrutyer architect in Yuri's favor. Dorca married a Vorrutyer. Piotr's father married a Vorrutyer. The Vorrutyers are apparently very thorough in consolidating alliances with everybody of any note. Aral and Ges Vorrutyer were probably second cousins and childhood friends just as Miles and Ivan are second cousins and childhood friends and similarly with Gregor as well. Further, Aral's first wife was apparently a Vorrutyer and Ges's sister—that would have boded very ill for their children and probably for their home life if she had become mad in time.

This easily gets us to Vorrutyers and madness through the Vorkosigan line. Should we suspect that Dorca and Pierre "le Sanguinaire" were also cousins? Or that Dorca married Pierre's sister (possibly his own cousin)? Alternatively (or even, in addition), Pierre could have been related to Dorca's father, who might have been a Vorrutyer, since Dorca inherited through his mother, and thus she was a Vorbarra. Any of these possibilities make Miles's second connection with Yuri's line less direct than his first, but if the connection with Yuri's line that we want is actually to a Vorrutyer madman, then this can do it. With the Vorrutyer penchant for marrying their daughters to powerful families, sometimes several generations in a row, the deleterious effects of cousin marriages alone should have made many of the "best" families somewhat barmy even without a specific tendency to madness.

Since Mad Yuri did not count Piotr as a Vorbarra descendant, these links through Piotr Pierre to the Vorrutyers meet the need to get to the "mad" part of Yuri's inheritance without getting to the Imperial part. Miles certainly has two separate links if one link is through his grandfather Piotr, and the other is through his great-grandfather Xav. Let us not quibble about whether this is really "Yuri's line," since the real worry is in inheriting Yuri's madness. "Yuri's line" is a reasonable shorthand for the blood that resulted in Yuri's madness.

In
The Vor Game
Miles mentions six factions on the succession issue, although it is not clear whether or not he is making them up for Cavilo's benefit. The old list was: Vorkosigan, Vorpatril, Vortaine, Vordrozda, Vordarian. This is only five and it is not clear that all actually have surviving claimants. It is also possible that Lord Vortaine's daughter, said to be in her fifties in
The Warrior's Apprentice
, did marry and have children, providing a continuing Vortaine-derived line. Yes, this is rather late, but my great-grandmother had her last child at fifty-two and some women continue to be fertile even later. Vordrozda could have had brothers or sisters and continuing lines through them. Just because no one is mentioned as linked to Vordarian does not mean that the line of descent he based his claim on has to have ended with his death.

But who would be the sixth? Given the many connections of the Vorrutyers to the Vorbarras, there could be a Vorrutyer claim. There could still be descendants of not only the "true Vorbarras" Dorca supplanted (besides Ezar and his heir, Gregor), but also of who knows how many Vorbarras supplanted in the same way even earlier in Barrayar's turbulent history. Thus there is little problem coming up with six factions. It is more of a question of whom to leave out of the list: Vorkosigan, Vorpatril, Vordarian, Vortaine, Vordrozda, Vorrutyer, and "true" Vorbarra.

This doesn't include the possibility that someone thought to be dead might be alive, or that someone thought to have died unmarried and without issue might have secretly married and had legitimate issue. Nor is it impossible that illegitimate issue might make a claim, too. The Barrayarans have not progressed to the complete and certain census of citizens that Beta Colony has, and there could be more than just a few hiding out from past wars or from sweeps such as Yuri's through all rivals. They could also be patriotically, for the good of Barrayar, refraining from upsetting what appears to be a reasonable order. Ezar's father could probably have made a claim when Dorca seized the Imperium, but did not. He could have had many possible reasons for refraining—such as being only seven years old, for instance. Finally, they might be as nutty as fruitcakes, true to their Vorrutyer heritage, and not know that the Imperium could be theirs. What a wealth of opportunity!