Pascal Solaris is the son of Luitger Solaris and Sophia Karm, the former of whom is one of the various brothers of Beatrice Solaris. One of those rarities in House Solaris of an only child, Pascal is a polite, thoughtful man occasionally given to some flights of fancy (such as the naming of his ship, the Artemis). Blame for this quite often falls on his mother's shoulders within the House.
When he was young, Pascal originally started off on the track of becoming a dedicated scholar and librarian, devouring books with a terrible appetite. This worked for him, until he started reading about societies found out in Shadow, and stories of mystical relics hidden within them. Nothing would do but that the young man be able to study these rarities first hand. As a means to this, when he was in his twenties, he followed the militant path of the Solaris and joined the navy. Here, he served primarily as a scout, and learned the tricks he would need to explore more on his own later in life.
In his fifties, he left the navy behind and soon became a dedicated archaeologist, anthropologist and relic hunter in the Shadows, often disappearing for years at a time, returning to look up something in the family library or visit old friends in person, rather than speaking by book. His latest voyage, which had lasted over a decade, came to an end only when Pascal was injured at an excavation and returned to Amber to recuperate. He hasn't shown any signs of leaving just yet.
