- This page is about the character in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. For the character in Lady on the Embankment by the same author, please see Cordelia Naismith (Lady on the Embankment).
Cordelia Naismith is a fictional character from the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Naismith, who first appears in the novel Shards of Honor, is a citizen of Beta Colony, and was a member of the Betan Expeditionary Force. She becomes the captain of her own command, an astronomical survey vessel in the Expeditionary Force. Brought up with Beta Colony's liberal and anti-militarist values, she despised the military mindset. On a survey mission on the newly discovered world that would later be named Sergyar, she was captured by the controversial Admiral Aral Vorkosigan of the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service/ They spent an arduous period on the planet's surface together, and during that time, they fell in love. While pregnant, on Vorkosigan's home planet of Barrayar, Cordelia was present at a soltoxin poison-gas attack on her husband by political terrorists. As a result of the soltoxin antidote, her child, Miles Vorkosigan, suffered severe physical deformities; her father-in-law, Count Piotr Vorkosigan refused to allow the deformed child to use his name. Instead, he was named Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, after Cordelia's own father. Cordelia and Aral intentionally had only one child Miles Vorkosigan. They later discover that a clone of their son Miles, named Mark Vorkosigan, had been created without their knowledge. While his legal status as a Vorkosigan is questionable on Barrayar, Cordelia unquestionably accepts him as her son. She endorses him openly to the rest of Barrayaran society, buffers his culture shock to Barrayar, buys him a ship to use to find Miles and even helps his love life by acting as a go-between for him, his girlfriend Kareen Koudelka and Kareen's parents. When she married Aral Vorkosigan, her name/title became Lady Vorkosigan. (possibly Lady Cordelia Vorkosigan). Then when Aral was appointed Regent, she was Regent-Consort Lady Vorkosigan. Later, with Piotr's death, she became Countess Vorkosigan. Then when Aral and she moved to Sergyar, and Aral became Viceroy, Cordelia became Vicereine Countess Vorkosigan. Cordelia maintains an independent and assertive front, being a full partner to Aral. This is a bit disconcerting to Barrayar, where women are just barely beginning looking beyond being wives and mothers. She heartily encourages imports of civilized thinking and goods that allows more freedom and independence for the people of Barrayar. Many of the 'old Vor' do not like her attitudes, but she does not let their opinions affect her.
References
Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor. Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar. Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior's Apprentice. Lois McMaster Bujold, Dreamweaver's Dilemma.
