As Simon Illyan says to Ekaterin when Miles is courting her in A Civil Campaign, "Do you know all those old folk tales where the Count tries to get rid of his only daughter's unsuitable suitor by giving him three impossible tasks?
The Dendarii Free Mercenaries, for instance, begin as pure imaginative figment, and through frantic improvisation, he conceals his deception from his recruits; their accomplishments make real his invention.
For instance: first, he is caught lying about his seizure disorder, and then the widow he loves is enraged when she discovers that he has been attempting to court her by stealth during her socially-recognized period of mourning.
[emphasis in original]In an article in The Vorkosigan Companion,[1] Bujold acknowledged several real-life inspirations for the character: T. E. Lawrence, a young Winston Churchill, "a physical template in a handicapped hospital pharmacist I'd worked with", and even herself (the "great man's son syndrome").
She also noted that she and her creation adopted dual personas, she as a housewife and writer, he as an aristocratic Vor scion and mercenary Admiral Naismith.
On the other hand, mainstream fiction and 'high' literature have traditionally focussed on the character and/or development of a protagonist; but how many such writers, from Dickens onward, have taken it beyond a single book?
A poison gas grenade was thrown into their bedroom during Cordelia's pregnancy with Miles but the couple's lives were saved by quick administration of the antidote—a violent teratogen that destroys skeletal development in a growing fetus.
Miles was slightly hunch-backed, but after his death and cryo-revival, a surgeon managed to straighten his spine a bit, giving him a valued additional centimeter of height.
When his famous grandfather learns of the prenatal damage, he tries to abort the fetus in the replicator, and later tries to kill the infant because he believes that "We cannot afford to have a deformed Count Vorkosigan.
[6] General Count Piotr is reconciled to his son, daughter-in-law and grandson when Miles becomes able to walk at age five, and shows a forceful interest in his grandfather's beloved horses.
This common ground, and observation of Miles' intelligence and determination, earns the boy Piotr's respect and acceptance, and they have a closer though still challenging relationship until the Count's death.
To compensate for the social disadvantage of his appearance, he develops tremendous charm and manipulation skills, even getting the Koudelka girls to march around as a "precision drill team".
His companions when growing up include Elena Bothari, Miles's bodyguard's daughter; his cousin, Ivan Vorpatril; and his foster-brother, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra.
At the age of 17, he fails the physical test to enter the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service Academy by jumping from a wall obstacle and breaking both legs on landing.
[8] To get over this disappointment, he takes a trip to his mother's home world, Beta Colony; has (unintended) space adventures for a few months; and improvises a force called the Dendarii Mercenaries into existence.
After graduating he is asked to resolve an infanticide charge in Silvy Vale, a rural area of his father's district (described in "The Mountains of Mourning").
Deciding to join the objectors on ethical grounds, a naked Miles convinces the base commander to use an alternative method, but at the cost of ending his career as he is charged with mutiny.
Four years later, Miles is killed while trying to rescue his clone-brother, and although he is successfully cryo-frozen and revived, he is left with a condition which causes periodic seizures, particularly under great stress.
Shortly thereafter, Vorkosigan accompanies one of his new colleagues, Lord Auditor Vorthys, to Komarr, home to the sole wormhole connecting Barrayar to the rest of the Nexus.
To make a bad situation worse, Miles has fallen in love with his host's wife (later widow), Ekaterin, who just happens to be on the verge of leaving her emotionally abusive husband when disaster strikes.
Ekaterin, professing after her bad experiences with her late husband to be violently allergic to marriage, moves back to Barrayar with her nine-year-old son, Nikolai, to stay with her uncle, Lord Auditor Vorthys.
Due to the Imperial security concerns surrounding her husband's death, she is not at liberty to refute the allegations, even when her relatives attempt to move her son to "safety".
In "Winterfair Gifts", they are married during the mid-winter festival that marks the beginning of a new year on Barrayar, and survive yet another attack in which Ekaterin is poisoned by one of Miles' Auditorial suspects.
Bujold has stated that she feels Miles dies at age 57; however, when later asked if she still had that opinion, she emphasized that "The writer should always reserve the right to have a better idea.
According to his mother, Cordelia, Miles invented Naismith, because Barrayar gave him "so much unbearable stress, so much pain, he created an entire other personality to escape into.
He then persuaded several thousand galactic mercenaries to support his psychosis, and ... conned the Barrayaran Imperium into paying for it all"[5] Miles Vorkosigan himself once said to Emperor Gregor Vorbarra of Barrayar, "I guess Naismith is me with no brakes.
This was especially true on Earth, when fleeing the Cetagandans, he had to work in the Barrayaran embassy as Miles Vorkosigan, while still commanding the fleet during a difficult and expensive refit.
As Ivan Vorpatril describes it, Vorkosigan as Naismith means "full tilt forward, no inhibitions, innocent bystanders scramble for their lives."
Miles, under the influence of his mother's Betan upbringing, refuses to kill Mark or even hinder him, and only desires that he come to Barrayar as a true Vorkosigan.
During this time, Mark invested in a business deal with the galactic scientist Enrique Borgos, who had created a new insect livestock he called "Butter Bugs".