Galen Panos Vorreena (Gae lehn PAN noss vohr REE nuh)

Dean Emeritus of Digital Architecture Engineering, Professor of Hyperspace Program Development, oh and also that "High Lord" bit

Originally created by Paul Sudlow and Chris Doyle, the authors of the Lords of the Expanse supplement for the West End Games D6 system; we created a grandson by same name for this role in our continuity, but we did not invent him.

Dean Galen Vasilis Panos, Ph.D (a.k.a. Count Vorreena, High Lord Vorreena)

Higgins notes:

To effectively write a precis on the High Lord of Reena Province that will serve the needs of current journalism, I have to give the full treatment to three different men. They all happen to be the same person. Context is critical for any article or holonews segment that includes this person.

Also: when checking historical documents, remember to verify the middle personal name or initial! "Dean Panos, G. V.", was named in honor of his maternal and paternal grandfathers and pursued related studies. "Dean Panos, G. D." was also "High Lord Count Vorreena" before Expansion Week, 12722. Their Deanships over their respective branches of Reena University overlapped by several years, during which G.V.'s mother and G.D.'s daughter Baroness Professora Ismini Glykeria Panos Reena was the confirmed High Lord's Heir, while cousin Lord Professor Costas Kallirroi Vorreena was the confirmed Count's Heir. All three perished in two separate Twilight bombardments, leaving Dean Panos as the first candidate for either role that could be ratified by the surviving members of the Council of Counts. Their scholarly accomplishments should be honored, but not mistaken for the work of a different member of this House.

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Dean Panos

Although it is neither mandatory nor customary within the Tapani educational systems, members of House Vorreena -- who have generally favored scholarly pursuits in service to their namesake Province -- often drop their Vorish noble name in favor of the closest related non-noble Tapani name from which they can claim direct descent. Various Counts and Countesses Vorreena have traced a direct line of ancestry for (currently) seven generations to Ian Vasilis Panos, who married then-Countess Thina Pelagia Vorreena. Galen Vasilis continued in his family's tradition of scholarship. He has steadfastly clung to the "Galen Panos" identity through the political turmoil of his life because he values service to his people through research and education. He has been "Professor Panos", then "Dean Panos" for most of his adult life. He did not anticipate ever becoming "Count Vorreena", much less "High Lord Count Vorreena". Answering to those forms of address requires a conscious effort for the man who still introduces himself as "Dean Panos from the Programming College".

As the highest authority within the Reena University College of Programming, Dean (Emeritus) Panos is a brisk but pleasant administrator and educator. He oversees the quality of education within his branch of Reena University, supported by Dean Yvona Hornek and her staff. He audits a session in each instructor's courses over the span of a given semester. He reviews the resources available, whether those are HoloNet bandwidth and storage capacity for students, or time on the most powerful research servers, or upgrade and maintenance parts for same.

He designed a one-day seminar, mandatory for all incoming students or new professors, on the system of checks and balances in the teacher-student power structure, including what steps must be taken by which person and when it is appropriate to bring a problem to the Dean's Office for resolution. For several years Dean Panos taught this seminar in person. After his off-campus responsibilities increased, he had to select three other professors he could trust to conduct the seminar in his stead.

Like many career computer programmers, Dean Panos is result-oriented, imaginative, fond of detailed marginal notes, and subtly anti-authoritarian in his thinking. If a process breaks "rules" or "tradition", Dean Panos looks at what the consequences of this alternate process may be on the entire system before he decides whether he will disapprove.

Dean Panos favors "tomfoolery", by which he means that he enjoys experiments that start from the question,

I wonder what would happen if I just...

On the other hand, he is poorly disposed toward resource-wasting work that could have been accomplished by a simpler solution. One of his earliest projects in his teaching career was to organize a campus-wide "Complicated Contrivance Contest", intended to teach students that such time- and resource-sinks were never worth the end result. Unfortunately the contest proved wildly popular. Competing student groups fought to invent the most ridiculous multi-step process for pouring a cup of imicasschay. The winning group proudly paraded the obsolete holopad that served as the contest prize across campus to their dormitory, where in short order it became the target of serial thefts. Within six months, "raiding for the CCC Holopad" became its own over-complicated tradition full of bragging rights.

Professor Panos disavowed the CCC, but never managed to suppress it. By the time he was established as Dean Panos, the CCC was fully entrenched in student culture. A highlight of each annual award ceremony is the Raid Critique, where Dean Panos uses the student groups' self-documentary holovids to give notes in "dissertation review style" on the previous year's attempts to steal the CCC Holopad -- interspersed, where he can manage it, with his indignance at various stages of developing the Contrivance submissions.

The Raid Critique is usually hilarious, insightful, and affectionately encouraging. It is also -- in classic Dean Panos methodology -- forbidden to record or digitally archive in any way. The High Lord of Reena Province aggressively pursues any leaked footage, should someone manage to circumvent the anti-holorecording technology lining the Student Center. Dean Panos hates the idea of a young creator's past tomfoolery being used against them in their future career.

When Galen Panos Vorreena was elevated to the position of High Lord, Reena University's Chancellor promoted Dean Panos to the semi-retired position of "Dean Emeritus of Digital Architecture Engineering". Simultaneously, his Associate Dean for Faculty was promoted to Dean of the College of Programming.

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High Lord Vorreena of Reena Province

High Lord Vorreena speaks in a calm, clipped manner. Every hard consonant is a sharp sound; every syllable is textbook-precise. High Lord Vorreena's voice projects into an auditory space so strongly that he can be heard over a babble of voices within the Council Chamber without assistance from electronics.

Those with long familiarity of Dean Panos hear High Lord Vorreena speak and usually suspect he is angry because of this vocal delivery.

They might be correct. If the duties of High Lord Count Galen Vorreena must interrupt the scholarly and administrative responsibilities of Dean Panos, then Galen Vasilis will be at minimum annoyed.

However, he conducts himself in his High Lord capacity so that others around him will be efficient, precise, and armed with factual citations to back up their choices. High Lord Vorreena feels the ethical weight of several million lives within his Province, their well-being dependent on good choices from their High Lord and his privy council.

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Count Vorreena

In his role as the noble power for specific components of Reena Province, Count Galen Vorreena is a difficult man to define. He has a healthy, understated sense of humor. He tends toward the Progressive Party within the Council of Counts, but not universally so. He dislikes the Tapani Ministry of Information. He takes a great deal of persuading before he would consider giving his support to any military expenditure bill. On the other hand, he favors Imperium funding and direct management of the Hyperspace Navigational Network throughout Tapani Sector.

For a man so averse to private spy networks, and so unlikely to appear at High Vor society events or even to give interviews on a news service, Count Vorreena can be astonishingly well-informed on facts and trends not known to his peers within the Council of Counts. When questioned about this by High Lord Count Vorkosigan after one frustrating Council debate, Count Vorreena gleefully lectured his colleague on the software programs used to coordinate navbuoys along the Procopian Shipping Lane ... and what traffic information can be extracted from the maintenance logs by any passing astrogator.

I am Dean of Programming at Reena University, you know.
All that time you spent being a soldier, milord, I spent being a researcher.

— one High Lord to another

Social

Reign

Because he became High Lord with insufficient training and a plethora of responsibilities, High Lord Vorreena pushed an unusual arrangement through the Council of Counts in the chaos of the Tapani Civil War. He is, of course, "Count Vorreena" as part of becoming High Lord of Reena Province.

But he divided up the Countship:

• As High Lord, Count Galen Vorreena rules all of Reena Province through the High Vor and Low Vor nobility within the "House Vorreena" collective.
• Furthermore, Count Galen Vorreena collects taxes and levies justice on major infrastructure areas of the Province, particularly Caloria Run and Reena University, and the Province capital city Aarti on Reena.
• Sister-in-law Faina Lada Vorreena, Dean of Botanical Studies at Reena University, is also Countess Vorreena. She is the noble who reigns over Reena System, collecting taxes and levying justice in service to High Lord Vorreena and Emperor Gregor Vortapani. She is also the first "reigning Countess Vorreena" to not be directly descended from the Panos line in some time, having married into the family.

This division of responsibilities may not continue in following generations. Baron Quinn Sheffield is the current designated High Lord's Heir while Lord Matvey Ilari Panos Vorreena is his mother's designated Countess's Heir, but these appointments may change if the next few years prove politically stable.

Family Ties

Galen Vasilis was born the third child of then-Lady Professora Ismini Panos Vorreena and her partner, Lord Professor Gavriil Bohdan Vorkontos. His oldest sister Charis Theria joined the Bene Gesserit religious order. Middle sibling Lidmila Avra emigrated to Coruscant shortly before the end of 12720; the family lost contact with her during Expansion Week, 12722. Lidmila Vorreena is believed to have changed her identity voluntarily, and since has not chosen to reveal herself or return home.

Galen Vasilis has one younger sibling: Baroness Ksenia Sveta Panos Vorreena, Dean of Business Administration. Her spouse is Countess Faina Lada Vorreena, Dean of Botanical Studies at Reena University.

Species

Human

Ethnicity

High Vor

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

• Tapani

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Ranked in descending order of importance according to the individual:

• Dean Panos
• Professor Panos
• High Lord Vorreena
• Count Vorreena

Ranked in descending order of precedent according to tradition:

• High Lord
• Count
• Dean Emeritus

Count Vorreena has not officially served in the military at any time.

Year of Birth

12682 49 Years old

Birthplace

Reena

Family

House Vorreena

Current Residence

Vorreena Embassy, Estalle Island

Pronouns

he/him

Gender

male

Eyes

black

Hair

black, graying

Aligned Organization

House Vorreena

Other Affiliations

• Council of Counts
• Reena University College of Programming
• Tapani Imperium