Editing Vorkosigan Saga (section)

==Background==
==="Vorkosiverse"===
Humanity has colonized a galaxy in which there are no competing intelligent species. Since then (at least 400 years before ''Falling Free'' or 600 years before ''Shards of Honor''), dozens of planets have been colonized and have developed divergent cultures.<ref name="timelines">Based on the timeline and map in the Appendices of ''The Vorkosigan Companion''.</ref> Barrayar was colonized and then lost contact with the rest of the galaxy, suffering a "Time of Isolation", after which it was reconnected. Due to apparent nuclear warfare that has left large areas too radioactive to inhabit, low [[genetic diversity]] on Barrayar during the time of isolation, as well as the effects of mutagenic compounds found in native Barrayaran plants, a cultural phobia about mutation developed that leads to a high level of [[xenophobia]]. Within the series, exploration and colonization of new planets is still ongoing, most notably on the planet Sergyar.

Interstellar travel is achieved by "jumping" from solar system to solar system via spatial anomalies known as [[wormholes]] that create tunnels in a five-dimensional space. Typically wormholes are bracketed by space stations, military or commercial, which provide ports for jump travel. Stations may be owned by planetary governments, or by specific commercial organizations, or they may be completely independent of any planetary organization.  Barrayar's original wormhole collapsed, a rare event leading to the Time of Isolation. Barrayar was later re-discovered via a wormhole jump from [[Komarr]]. Komarr allows the neighboring Cetagandan empire to use their wormhole to conquer Barrayar, and is later conquered in its turn when Barrayar eventually defeats the Cetagandans.

The stories feature several planetary systems, each with its own political organization, including government by corporate democracy, rule by criminal corporations, monarchies, empires and direct democracies. In most cases, there is a single government which dominates the entire planet (exceptions include Jackson's Whole and Earth). Both Cetaganda and Barrayar have empires, acquired by conquering other planets via neighboring wormholes.

As a tool to simplify the writing process, Bujold devises a standard system of timekeeping universal to all planets regardless of the length of their day and year. Bujold herself has commented that her posited system is neither technologically nor economically feasible, but is rather a convenience for storytelling.<ref name="convenience">See {{cite web |last=Bujold |first=Lois McMaster |url=http://www.dendarii.com/space_opera.html |title=Space Opera, Miles and Me |year=2007}}</ref>

===Technology===
Most of the technology in the series is based on 20th-century engineering situations,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brycko |date=2022-09-29 |title=Artificial Wombs in Science Fiction |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/scifiwriting/comments/xr8l3u/artificial_wombs_in_science_fiction/?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=r/scifiwriting}}</ref> projected into null-g or alternative solar system situations. Biomedical advances such as cloning, artificial wombs (named "uterine replicators") and cryochambers to preserve and revive recently deceased people are featured heavily in the series.

Bujold presents issues of technological obsolescence and the high rate of failure of R&D projects in personal terms, via bioengineering. Two jump pilots with obsolete navigational brain implants and a number of characters created by genetic manipulation are psychologically stranded by the termination of the programs for which they were designed.

The series features gravity manipulation, both artificially generated in spaceships, and artificially suppressed in ground transport and elevators. ''Falling Free'' and ''Diplomatic Immunity'' explore the relationship between a culture adapted to an environment without gravity and one which depends on gravity.

===Computing and communications===
In most societies featured in the series, paper has been mostly replaced by either plastic sheets or electronic devices, and two-dimensional video is replaced by three-dimensional holograms. Most characters use portable computers called "wristconsoles" and personal computers named "comconsoles".

Interstellar messages, however, have to be recorded on a physical disc which is transported through wormholes at a high cost, and relayed between wormholes by the ships' communication systems, imposing both time and cost constraints on interstellar communications.

===Military technology===
As the series features a military background in several novels, special attention is paid to military technology. Ship-to-ship combat includes plasma rays and attacks based on gravity manipulation, and defensive countermeasures. Personal combat includes the use of combat suits, plasma rays, needlers, and nerve disruptors, which emit rays that destroy nerve tissue. Biological weapons are also mentioned in the form of wide-spectrum toxin bombs and genetically modified microbes that target specific races, and in some cases, specific people.

A [[truth serum]], "fast-penta", is a widespread tool used in interrogation. Several defenses are devised, such as induced allergies that kill the subject before they can reveal information, genetic engineering to create immunity, or compartmentalization of information on a need-to-know basis. Miles Vorkosigan has an atypical reaction to the drug, which enables him to thwart his enemies on at least one occasion.

===Biospheres===
In the Vorkosigan saga, humans live on planets with diverse degrees of habitability, and have developed diverse adaptation strategies to environments that are only approximately fit for human life. For example, Komarr is a cold planet with high CO<sub>2</sub> that is going through long-term [[terraforming]] to make it habitable, while Beta Colony is a hot, sandy planet where humans must live underground. Barrayar's vegetation is incompatible with Earth's, and often poisonous or [[allergenic]] to humans; Barrayarans clear native forest and use compost from Earth-descended plants or horse manure to grow new Earth vegetation. In spaceships and space stations, people live in closed ecologies in which air and waste are continuously reprocessed.

===Medical technology===
Medical advances are a fundamental part of the saga's worldbuilding. The most ubiquitous are "uterine replicators", devices that allow complete [[In vitro fertilisation|in vitro]] reproduction, with gene therapy ("gene cleaning") to correct for congenital defects. In ''[[Ethan of Athos]]'', this also makes possible an all-male society in which eggs are produced by ovaries maintained in a lab. The Cetagandan haut go beyond gene cleaning, deliberately engineering the human [[genome]] in an attempt to produce a post-human species (''[[Cetaganda]]'', ''[[Diplomatic Immunity (novel)|Diplomatic Immunity]]'').

Other advances include genetic manipulation to produce microbes and animals tailored for specific purposes, including decoration, or humans adapted for combat or to live and work in zero gravity. Fertile hermaphrodites have been created in an attempt to surpass gender roles. Medical prolonging of human life has advanced to achieve natural lifespans of 120 years or more, though Barrayar lags galactic civilization on this. Cloning is featured in the series, prominently in the person of Mark, Miles' clone-brother, and in a morally dubious industry on Jackson's Whole that grows clones of wealthy people to transplant their brains from elderly bodies to youthful, healthy ones.

Barrayar is an exception to most of these advances due to its long isolation from the rest of humanity. Women carrying their babies to term without uterine replicators are the rule at the beginning of the series, and there is an ingrained fear of mutation in its society. The social challenges posed by medical technology and Miles Vorkosigan's visible deformities are integral to the plot of several of the stories.

===Society===
The time required for wormhole jumps between planetary systems means travel and communication require time and effort which isolate each planet and allow it to develop its own culture, most of them derived to some extent from a culture known historically on Earth.

For example, the planet Athos creates a monosexual culture in which men reproduce in vitro without female intervention, Cetaganda is an empire in which hierarchies are based in genetic fitness, Jackson's Whole is a cutthroat criminal planet in which trade and money are law, and Escobar is a moderate planet focused on scientific advancement.

The novels do not focus much on several sources of social organization and prejudice on Earth, such as language, skin color, and religion. In general, Nexus inhabitants speak a common language, though they may know other languages or have a planetary accent.<ref name="language">Bujold discusses questions of language and race in her first essay in ''The Vorkosigan Companion'', pointing out that her universe does in fact have a full complement of Earth-descended skin colors and languages.</ref>  A good-looking woman, whether a four-armed quaddie, a Cetagandan haut-lady glimpsed in her floating bubble, or a Barrayaran damsel, has skin comparable to ivory or milk. On the other hand, the most prominent genotype on Barrayar is olive skin (and brown eyes and dark hair).<ref>The Vorkosigan Companion</ref> The Arqua family are described as dark-skinned, and the Durona group and Ky Tung are Eurasian.  Only isolated Athos has a planetary religion, though Cordelia Naismith and Leo Graf (the hero of ''Falling Free'') believe in a God.

The environment and history of the planets dictate their social structures and prejudices. For example, because of the isolation of Barrayar, located with a single wormhole to connect it with the rest of the galaxy, and its people having to defend a broadly habitable planet, Barrayarans both need and can afford a militaristic society. Their genetic isolation has led them to create a patriarchal society to preserve genetic purity. The Betans, on a hostile planet where they must live in domes, rely on industrial export and limit not only childbearing but also every kind of behavior that might be considered "antisocial". From their point of view, Barrayaran society is irrational and backward, while the Barrayarans view the Betans as sexually and politically undisciplined, referring to a "Betan vote" as an obstacle to decision-making. Planets accessible by many wormholes become centers of trade and finance, whether benign (Komarr, Escobar) or malicious (Jackson's Whole). Finally, some dwellers in space habitats look down on those who call one planet home as "dirt suckers".

===The Vorkosigans and Barrayar===
In all the books except ''Ethan of Athos'' and ''Falling Free'', the protagonists are connected to the planet Barrayar, home of the Vorkosigan clan. For this planet Bujold devised  a history which allowed for "swords 'n' spaceships" due to the transition between the Time of Isolation and galactic culture.<ref name="regency">See the beginning of her first essay in ''The Vorkosigan Companion''. Later in the essay she points out that the setting is appropriate for a [[Regency romance]] in the style of [[Georgette Heyer]], and in fact ''A Civil Campaign'' was compared by reviewer Anne McCaffrey to Heyer's work; see the blurb under "Book Description" at [https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Campaign-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/0671578855 this Amazon page].</ref> In the lifetime of Miles Vorkosigan, Barrayar uses spaceships, computers, and other high technology, but its culture remembers dueling, celebrates the Emperor's birthday by handing him bags of gold, and provides liveried life-sworn servants to carry love letters sealed with the writer's blood. In the conservative backwoods, some still practice [[infanticide]] if signs of mutation are detected.<ref name=":0" /> Stories of the evils of mutation are pervasive within Barrayaran culture.

Barrayar is a planet colonized by humans some four hundred years prior to ''Shards of Honor'', the first Vorkosigan novel. Shortly after colonization, the 50,000 settlers are cut off by a failure of the sole wormhole connecting Barrayar to the rest of humanity. During the following centuries, the "Time of Isolation", the colony regresses socially and technologically, eventually developing a [[feudalism|feudal]] form of government, in which the Emperor of Barrayar is supported by sixty regional counts and other minor aristocrats, identified by the honorific prefix ''Vor-'' in their names. The Vor caste is a military one, and Barrayaran culture is highly militaristic and hierarchical. The Counts, however, originate as accountants, with the duty of ensuring that the Emperor's taxes are collected. Because of Barrayar's tradition of direct military action, the Counts also become extremely militaristic.

Barrayar is eventually rediscovered via a different wormhole route controlled by the rich merchant planet [[Komarr]]. The Komarrans allow the neighboring expansionist Cetagandan Empire to invade Barrayar in return for commercial rights and concessions. Despite a significant technological advantage, the Cetagandans are finally expelled at great cost after many years of occupation and guerrilla warfare, in large part due to the leadership of General Count Piotr Vorkosigan, Miles' paternal grandfather. The Barrayarans then conquer and annex Komarr under the command of Admiral Aral Vorkosigan, Count Piotr's second son. Due to a massacre initiated by a subordinate, Aral Vorkosigan acquires the [[sobriquet]] "Butcher of Komarr."

Aral Vorkosigan later meets Cordelia Naismith, an enemy officer from Beta Colony, at the commencement of another war. Forced to work together to survive on a hostile planet, they fall in love and eventually marry, resulting in the conception of Miles.

An attempt to poison Aral during his regency for the child Emperor, Gregor Vorbarra, leads to the exposure of a pregnant Cordelia to a [[teratogenic]] compound, the antidote to the poison. Desperate experimental medical procedures are required to save the unborn baby, and the side effects of the antidote threaten to kill Cordelia. Miles is transferred to a uterine replicator to allow medical procedures that would threaten his mother. Miles' physical development is severely affected; in particular, his [[long bone]]s are short and fragile. As an adult, he is subtly but noticeably misshapen and no taller than a nine-year-old boy. As a result, he has to deal with the deeply ingrained prejudice against mutants on his native world (though he is not technically a mutant since the damage is teratogenic). With nearly pathological determination and high intelligence, aided by his supportive parents and their high social rank, he fashions an extraordinary military and civilian career for himself in the Barrayaran Empire.