[LMB] Can Non-Vor become Vor?

[D. Reed]

--- On Thu, 4/2/09, Peter Granzeau <pgranzeau at cox.net> wrote:

> 
> The existence of the Vor as a military caste seems to be a
> holdover from the Time of Isolation.  Notice that at
> the Academy, Miles was known simply as "Kosigan", not as
> "Vorkosigan"; the Academy evidently accepts non-Vor
> students, and makes them all equal by removing the "Vor"
> from their names.  This, to me, is a signal that being
> Vor has become less important, and non-Vor can rise to
> positions of power in government (and, undoubtedly, business
> and industry).  It may no longer be of any importance
> to create new Vor (compare to the modern United Kingdom,
> which no longer creates hereditary lords, and has removed
> them from control of the [powerless] House of Lords).

Not quite true. He's Kosigan in the entrance exams, but back to Vorkosigan in the Academy proper in the epilogue. From text-ev, the way for non-Vor to "launder their class origins" and become eligible for traditionally Vorish jobs is to spend twenty years as an Imperial officer. As of A Civil Campaign, the aristocratic and autocratic underpinnings of Barrayaran society do not appear to be fraying at the seams quite yet. And while Gregor did marry a non-Vor, she's the closest thing to Komarran royalty there is.