The world of the Firebringer Trilogy is simple on the outside...dwelt by unicorns, gryphons, pans, pards (think cougar), herons, dragons, and wyverns, all ruled by the starry-eyed goddess Alma...she of the Thousand Eyes.  But underneath the simplicity is a culture so richly developed the reader is always finding something new...it's what makes the legend so timeless.

The Unicorns...
live in the Vale in exile.  Four hundred years before, their kind had been tricked by scheming wyverns who had been driven by the Red Dragons out of the Smoking Hills.  The wyrms sought refuge and a place to bring up their race back to its former glory.  And this is how red princess Halla and her people were forced to flee their rightful home, the Hallowed Hills.  But over many years came a prophecy, that one would come who would lead Alma's children-of-the-moon back to their ancestral dwelling place.  He would be black as the well of a weasel's eye, born under a dark moon, and a bringer of fire...the Seers thus called him the Firebringer.

The Gryphons...
are the unicorns' archenemies.  Part lion and part eagle, they are tempermental, dangerous and unpredictable. They invade the Vale territory every season, and the unicorns must always be on their guard.  A lasting hate, not completely understood, exists between the two kinds.

The Pans...
are a cautious, mysterious woodland folk.  Small, very skeptical, quiet and stealthy, they are feared by the unicorns who venture into the heart of the forests.  Like the gryphons, a mutual dislike for each other, never wholly rationalized, is apparent.  The unicorn king Korr upholds this hate of the gryphons and the pans thoughout the years without a second thought.

The Pards...
dwell on the Plains.  Long, sharp teeth, harrowing claws and ferocious disposition make them an ever present danger to Plainsdwellers.  They hide deep in the long, sun-washed yellow-green grass of the land, unseen to an unwary passerby.

The Renegades...
or the Plainsdwellers, the People, as they call themselves, are unicorns who live outside the Circle, who do not follow the ways of the Ring of such Valedwellers.  Free and wild is their life, and they follow their own path.  Unicorns of the Vale despise these People as Lawbreakers and Renegades, who have forsaken Alma's ways.  Consorting with a Renegade is considered both dangerous and derogatory.

The Wyverns...
tricked the unicorns centuries before into allowing them to dwell in the Hallowed Hills.  Now they have overrun the unicorns' ancient home, forcing the unfortunate kind into exile, much like their own exile from the Smoking Hills when the dragons drove them out.  They live, their young thriving, off the land of the unicorns...and haunt the sacred Mirror of the Moon where the unicorns' Vigil for Warriors-to-be always journey.

The Dragons...
are the most mysterious of creatures.  They live at the Edge of the World in the Smoking Hills in the midst of fire, ever-meditating, rarely ever seen, but always heard.  A long-lived, proud and ancient race, they are part of the key to unlocking young Jan's final path of destiny...