Benvolio is the only child of Lady Julia of House Sawall, a much younger sister of Duke Gramble, and Prince Martin of Amber (although both Benvolio and Martin did not know this until recently). He was raised as a normal Chaos noble, being taught the courtly arts as well as those of combat and sneakiness. From an early age he proved to be not quite the political animal the other members of Sawall are, actually having a large number of moral scruples. This put his mother under a cloud from which she has still not fully emerged as she is partly blamed for this. However, compensating for this, from an early age Benvolio did prove to have a well developed sense of loyalty and duty to his family.
He is one of the thirteen noble members of House Sawall, the others being Duke Gramble, Julia, Dara (by marriage to Gramble; she has Pattern, but not Logrus by the way), Despil, Jurt, Mandor, Merlin, Yakob (his eccentric uncle; a Trump artist), Araminta (a maiden aunt), Uther, Gwendolyn and Miriam.
As he grew up, Benvolio developed a desire to step aside from House feuds and skulduggery, and maybe become a healer. This idea was soon quashed, but even so, in secret, Benvolio managed to get himself trained in medical skills by Lady Eris Usherbal. He also secretly did charity work among the UnHoused of Chaos with Karlin Praxithea of the Minor House Praxithea.
As he grew up further he met all the Amberites who came to Chaos, at various balls and receptions, but never really got the chance to talk to them or come to know them well, always being shuffled off when it looked like he might.
Recently, Benvolio discovered that his aunt Dara and cousin Mandor were thinking of arranging a marriage for him with a lady (he doesn't know who) of House Helibore, apparently in an attempt to make him useful to their schemes. Officially this is Grambles decision, but even to Benvolio it is fairly obvious that Dara and Mandor are 'Arranging It'. Benvolio is not too keen on this idea... And it has also curtailed his sneaking out to do charity work.
More recently yet, Julia finally told him the full details of his parentage, at the same time telling him of the 'delicacy' of this knowledge, as it could put him in line for the succession to the thrones of both Amber and Rebma (not that he wants to be heir to any throne!). Although this worried him a little, it also made him want to visit Amber and meet the other side of his family, the side he never knew he had.
He managed to persuade Julia, Dara and Mandor that he should go to Amber (and also hoped that this would give them a chance to forget their ideas of marrying him off!), so Dara and Mandor recently brought him to Amber via Corwins Pattern, currently suffering under an infestation of Logrus (apparently there was also an attack on the Logrus from Corwins Pattern recently, or so Benvolio was told by his cousin Jurt). Also his cousin Merlin had disappeared recently; Benvolio has offered to help find him.
After being given a tour of the castle by Princess Flora, he has been given rooms in the guest wing. At a ball in the evening for a visiting Rebman delegation led by Prince Thomas, he met Princess Taranis, Prince Adam, and Lord Cuchullian, three of the younger generation of Amberites (all his second cousins once removed) and this time was actually able to both talk to them and tell them who he really is...
Benvolio considers duty to family the most important thing in life. However, a close second to this he places the sanctity of human life; he has never killed, and intends never to do so if he can possibly avoid it (perhaps this is his personal form of the Madness of the Logrus). Unlike so many others in Chaos, he also does not really go in for the idea of revenge - he is far more likely to turn the other cheek instead. He also considers it much better to be loved than feared.
Although he has not been out into Shadow too much before now, basically enough to learn to full intricacies of Logrus use, Benvolio is experienced with sudden shifts in Shadow from living in SawallWays and JuliaWays, his mothers private offshoot of SawallWays, so he hopes his lack of experience with 'real' Shadow will not cause him too many problems...