Known before the wars and plagues as Paul Hoeller, he is a brilliant scientist who comes up with the concept of the bobble. Paul is an honorable man and when he realizes what the ruling Authority plans to do with the bobble, he tries to find a way to destroy the technology or at least to destroy the bobbles. He is unsuccessful in this endeavor for some fifty years though he knows that the Authority wants to kill him. This knowledge makes him incredibly careful and he spends the intervening years one step ahead of the Authority.