Barrayar
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Barrayar is a planet in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series of novels and stories.
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[edit] Geography
Barrayar is Earth-like, but its native vegetation is inedible for humans and Earth-descended life; terraforming is necessary for settlement. It has several continents, as well as islands in its oceans. Since there are areas of Arctic-like climate, as well as temperate zones with winter snow, it has to be assumed that there are also polar land masses under icecaps. Geographical diversity is similar to the Earth, with flat plains, high mountains, swamps and river valleys.
[edit] Culture
Barrayaran culture is feudal, dominated by a military caste known as the Vor, headed by an Emperor and sixty Counts each governing a district. (On Barrayar the title of Count is derived from accountant, since the original Counts were tax-gatherers.) Counts and their liege-subjects have reciprocal duties and obligations to each other. Members of the Vor class have the syllable "Vor" prepended to the original surname. The original surnames were mostly Russian. The result is somewhat similar to the use of "Von" for the Junker class in Prussia in the 19th century.
The whole setup is not unlike early-Meiji-era Japan, particularly since Barrayar was isolated from the rest of the known galaxy for many centuries, and devolved into a quasi-medieval level of technology. Modernization is proceeding rapidly at the time of the Vorkosigan Saga, but at the price of a great deal of culture shock. While the cities are modern, much of rural Barrayar is still not too different from conditions in the "Time of Isolation."
[edit] Ethnic groups
There are four major ethnic groups on Barrayar, descended from Greek, Russian, French and English-speaking forebears, presumably to be found among the original colonists.
[edit] History
Not much is known at this time about Barrayaran history, but it appears that some time after the first colonists arrived, the wormhole that allowed them contact with the rest of the galaxy closed, isolating them on Barrayar. During the "Time of Isolation," wars were frequent, with the Vor fighting among themselves, until Emperor Dorca the Just united Barrayar under his rule. These centuries of warfare made Barrayaran culture very militaristic, as did the invasion from Cetaganda that occurred about twenty years after the end of the "Time of Isolation." The occupation period continued for around twenty more years, costing about five million Barrayaran lives. After the Cetagandans were defeated, Barrayar was determined not to allow this to happen again, and conquered Komarr, the planet that controlled the only wormhole that allowed access to Barrayar; the Komarrans had accepted bribes from the Cetagandans to allow their invasion fleets to pass through the wormhole. This gave Barrayar a very militaristic reputation in the rest of the civilized galaxy, not unlike Prussia or pre-1945 Japan.
