Solaeus Arterius

Solaeus Arterius Pavonininus is the son and only child of Desolas Arterius III and his divorced second wife, Senestra Pavoninus. He was named by his father in honour of his paternal granduncle (who is secretly one of his paternal grandfathers), Solaeus Quentius. He has four older half-blood siblings - Desola Arterius, Fidellion Arterius, Selena Arterius and Achaea Arterius. As the great-grandson of Primarch Fidellion Victus, the incumbent Primarch of Palaven at the time of his birth, he was entitled to wear purple from birth but, like his siblings, only did so on formal occasions. He secretly felt undeserving of the honour, due to the actions of his mother against his father and extended paternal family.

Solaeus feels like he isn't a true Arterius; he thinks of himself as a bastard, believing that he is both inferior to his half-siblings and a stain on his father's lineage. This is despite the fact that his father loves him dearly and his oldest half-sibling, Desola, is a mother figure to him. Desola is a constant advocate for her little half-brother, actively calling out members of the Imperial Court or the insular social circle of the Familiae Martiales who mock him behind his back. She once even fought a duel for Solaeus' honour, winning easily. On Solaeus' sixteenth birthday, after he graduated from Bootcamp, she gifted him a silver corivel brooch with a single sapphire eye and told him that he was just as much of an Arterius as she was.

Idolising his older half-sister and wanting to be just like her, Solaeus trained hard to be chosen for service in the air force like Desola, pouring over hundreds of books on aviation and practicing in his sister's VR flight sim daily after school. As a teenager he began to play online flight sims on the Extranet, quickly mastering his craft and amassing an impressive lifetime high score. Desola, impressed with him, secretly filmed her brother wining a VR tournament and passed the footage to her commanding officer, suggesting that a career in aviation was in his blood. Impressed by the boy's abilities, her commanding officer then passed the information down to Solaeus' instructors at Bootcamp, along with a letter suggesting that the airforce had great need of young turians with such talent - turians like Solaeus.

During Bootcamp, Solaeus was called aside by his commanding officer and ordered to fly a time trial in the flight simulator with the stipulation that the time to beat would be hidden from him. Solaeus did as he was bid, successfully completing the course with two seconds left to spare. After this his training continued as normal, leading Solaeus to believe he had failed his test. It was only upon his graduation from Bootcamp that he discovered that he had been singled out for flight school based on his performance in the simulator, much to his delight.

Solaeus' callsign is *Ala Nigra*, meaning "Black Wing". He chose this name for himself after he was told he could not use the word *corivel*, due to the fact it could cause confusion over comms if he and his sister had similar names. Barred from using the name of the bird which had been the sigil of their family for centuries, Solaeus instead chose to refer to the animals' black wings as a way of equating himself to Desola and House Arterius in general. The name also carries more subtle connotations which relate back to his family. The turian word *ala* is also used to refer to a cavalry wing; several of his siblings serve in the mounted cavalry legions, as does his brother-in-law, Pireius. *Nigra*, while primarily the name of a colour, also alludes to Solaeus' semi-illegitimate status; in turian culture, black has traditionally been used as an adjective to describe illegitimate people and bloodlines. While Solaeus is technically not a bastard, he still perceives himself as one as he was born of his mother's deception and not love.