Gregor and Laisa's kids

[james]

Do we know their names, or their ages with respect to one another? All I can find is a reference to 'Flowers of Vashnoi' where they have 2 sons and 1 daughter, but I've not read that novella and despite knowing I should I'm hoping someone can just tell me?

It's basically one throwaway line in a story, but if we have canon names I'd prefer to use them and if not does anyone have any feelings about what their names might be? I know that apparently the Vorbarra family doesn't name the sons after the grandfathers, but otherwise I got nothing.

Thanks all!

Comments

[seekingferret]

I've been relistening to Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and there's a line "till Gregor married Laisa Toscane and the boys came along, to many people's relief.”, so I'd guess the sons are older than the daughter. Which was obviously, as the quote indicates, a political decision as much as a personal one, presuming that uterine replicators were involved. I haven't read Flowers of Vashnoi yet either.

[james]

Yeah, that was all I had, as well. Two boys followed by one girl.

[lannamichaels]

Nope, no canonical names. I have no idea if anything's been put on the List.

All I need from this canon are namesssssss

[james]

I don't suppose we can just ask Lois to please name the kids so we can have the canon. ;-) But at least when I name them myself, I won't have someone yell at me for being wrong!

[beatrice_otter]

All I need from this canon are namesssssss

Yeah. Bujold, I love you, but pleeeaaaaaaaase give us more naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames!

[southerncontinentskies]

There are never any names.

I was tickled when I finally got around to reading FoV and found that factoid, though, because it was definitely the headcanon I already had. Though honestly, it's just logic (sadly); they need an heir and (at least one) spare, and then they have room to have a daughter. And of course I've always though Gregor would want a bunch of kids, for a lot of reasons.

Further headcanon, which has absolutely no canon support at all: they don't stop at three. In FoV Ekaterin mentions that she saw the baby princess recently, so canon (other than GJatRQ? Unclear what the relative timeline is there) hasn't caught up to any further hypothetical Vorbarras.

[james]

I love the idea of a lot of kids, but I wonder how much is competition with Miles and his large brood, despite the fact Gregor would deny it completely.

[southerncontinentskies]

That's an interesting thought.

I also think there's a bit of Cordelia's "I come from a planet with reproductive controls and Barrayar doesn't have ANY" sort of excitement for Laisa (and also the only child thing), because you can't tell me Komarr, with its very limited resources and living space, doesn't have some sort of measures to discourage large family sizes, even if it's only social pressure.

[james]

Oh yeah, that's a good point about what Laisa might be feeling about having kids.

Though I wonder if anyone has talked to Gregor about having too MANY branches of the family tree and what it will do to the future inheritance problems, but Ivan will point out that it makes it easier for everyone else to avoid being in line for the throne if Gregor has a bunch of kids. ;-)

I do think Gregor would have as many girls as they can, just to make a subtle point about women's place in Barrayaran society - his daughters are going to be doing more than just marry well, so maybe someday his grand-daughter will become Emperor.

[southerncontinentskies]

You know, I hadn't considered that about Gregor's hypothetical daughters, but you're absolutely right.

And I think the first time one of them wants to marry a prole is the first time the conservatives get on board with the idea that a woman should be able to hold her name and title in her own right, regardless of marriage.

[desertvixen]

Oooh yes...

[dira]

My experience of people wanting naaaaaames in the past is that Lois hates naming characters until and unless she has a reason to, to give herself room to maneuver if she has a Better Idea at some point. :D

So probably there will never be canonical names for the kids until there's a book about one of them.

[james]

I would be ok with another book in the series. :-D

[danceswithlife]

For those who might be interested (and haven't read it yet), there's a IMHO really good novel length fanfic on AO3 called, "Cordelia's Family." It's told almost entirely via correspondence (a few, but not many from Cordelia)by the next generation(s). It includes Gregor's kids. It goes on for about 40 years into their lives. CW: as you can imagine, covering that length of time, it includes major character deaths. The intro to it says:

Cordelia's Family
by FanFicReader2016
Summary: For the prompt: How Cordelia's daughter's affect [sic] Barrayar or Escobar or anywhere, really.

To know Cordelia's daughters, you must also know her family. All of them, from her brother to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren yet to come.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14943969/chapters/34625685

[elf]

I had vaguely thought they'd be named by Vor tradition - Serg + Laisa's father's first name for the eldest, then Serg's middle name & L's father's middle name... and then realized that no, Gregor is probably not naming his son Serg. Hmm.

He might go with Laisa's father's names, following Miles' pattern and setting a tradition for "children with offworld mothers get their maternal grandfather's names." Adds a bit of exotic variety. A few less Donos and Xavs to trip over. Remind everyone that Barrayar is not so isolated anymore, while still keeping some of its traditions.

Of course, that doesn't fix the problem of not having any canon names to work with.

[james]

Well the Emperors don't use that naming tradition - Gregor is not named Ezar, after all. Which makes sense that you'd want the rulers to have unique names so you could refer to them historically.

So basically Gregor's kids' names are a free-for-all.