"Tribe-like." Sonia scoffs out the word, almost looking offended. She is, a little, to be reduced to such words. But she bites back any further commentary, drawing in a deep breath.

"I'm sure they told you what happens when a wormhole collapses -- that it sends out powerful blasts of radiation. Harmful radiation. It destroyed almost all the technology the Firsters brought with them, and killed plenty others. There were only fifty-thousand to begin with. Not that much for a starting population, under the circumstances." She shrugs, lips compressed. "So, yes. We reverted. Neofeudalism, or whatever you want to call it. Barrayar as it was by the end of the Time of Isolation grew out of that cataclysm -- can you imagine a society shaped by so violent an event? I won't pretend we have the cleanest history, but tell me, what pre-spaceflight culture does? Can you name for me an enlightened people who didn't make war on each other first?"

She shakes her head, letting the question fall rhetorically, because she keeps on talking. "'Ruled by our military' isn't quite right. It's...an oversimplification. The Counts -- those that serve the Emperor and govern their respective districts -- originally served an economic function. Accountants, actually. But they evolved along with the rest of Barrayar, became rulers and leaders as Counts. And the Vor are more than just a military aristocracy." Sonia looks straight at her, eye-to-eye. "Do you know what the primary virtue of Barrayaran culture is?"