History Literature / TheFirebringerTrilogy

The trilogy is well-written but not very well known outside a few small (but devoted) groups of fans. They were hard to locate outside the library after they went out of print in the late nineties, but Firebird began publishing them again in paperback in 2003.

* [[{{Hypocrite}} Hypocrite Herd]]: [[spoiler:Korr's]] sudden appearance before the entire herd for the first time in two years (story wise) elicits shouts of "Tyrant!" "Murderer!" and demands for banishment. Jan swiftly puts an end to it when he points out that "all the herd ran mad that winter" and those who meekly submitted to [[spoiler:Korr]] were just as guilty for the herd's suffering. The herd is properly chastised and ashamed. (Jan is very good at this.)

* [[OracularUrchin Oracular Twins]]: [[spoiler:Jan and Tek's twin children, Aiony and Dhattar,]] are very powerful seers and are a wiser than many of the adult characters. They tend to say [[CreepyChild very uncanny things]] that [[CreepyTwins unnerve some of the people around them]].

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: [[spoiler:Korr]]

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Justified, as the prince or princess of the unicorns is also the herd's warleader.

[[quoteright:162:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/n6655a.jpg]]

# ''Birth of the Firebringer''
# ''Dark Moon''
# ''The Son of Summer Stars''

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves, [[spoiler:aside from those who were horses originally, like Jah-lila and Ryhenna, who only have the horn after they drink from the Mere of the Moon]]. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (red-maned ivory Ses, palomino Lell, red leopard-appaloosa Leerah, piebald Teki, and blue snowflake-appaloosa Calydor) are partly white-coated to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar, whose description suggests leucism or an extreme expression of cremello. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to the 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. And Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life; Plainsdwellers, however, are for the most part all about the free love and will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds. (WordOfGod is that Pierce wanted them to be more evocative of karkadanns than of the "docile, decorous, blanched, and fragile-looking" take on the concept typically seen in the west.)

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves, [[spoiler:aside from those who were horses originally, like Jah-lila and Ryhenna, who only have the horn after they drink from the Mere of the Moon]]. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (red-maned ivory Ses, palomino Lell, red leopard-appaloosa Leerah, piebald Teki, and blue snowflake-appaloosa Calydor) are partly white-coated to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar, whose description suggests leucism or an extreme expression of cremello. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to the 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. And Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life; Plainsdwellers, however, are for the most part all about the free love and will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds.

* HumansThroughAlienEyes: An amnesiac Jan spends a winter in a city of "two-foots'"in the second book. Much of what they do completely baffles him even after getting some lessons from Ryhenna.

* {{Unicorn}}: They're single-horned equines with tufted tails, goatees, and cloven hooves, [[spoiler:aside from those who were horses originally, like Jah-lila and Ryhenna, who only have the horn after they drink from the Mere of the Moon]]. They have a longer lifespan than horses, and are implied to be [[MadeOfIron much tougher physically]]. While quite a few (red-maned ivory Ses, palomino Lell, red leopard-appaloosa Leerah, piebald Teki, and blue snowflake-appaloosa Calydor) are partly white-coated to some degree or another, the most common colors seem to be grays, earth tones, and primaries; the only pure-white unicorn mentioned is Dhattar. As for any association with virginity? Well, the daïcha of the human city is some kind of priestess and the only human Jan really bonds with, so she may or may not be a reference to the 'only a maiden may tame a unicorn' part of the legends. And Vale-dwelling unicorns are [[spoiler:(or try to be)]] monogamous and mate for life; Plainsdwellers, however, are for the most part all about the free love and will only rarely form lasting pair-bonds.

* [[OracularUrchin Oracular Twins]]: [[spoiler:Jan and Tek's twin children, Aiony and Dhattar,]] are very powerful seers and are a wiser than many of the adult characters. They tend to say very uncanny things that [[CreepyChild unnerve some of the people around them]].

* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn

* SomewhereAnEquestrianIsCrying: The author uses many equestrian terms, usually correctly - but she does not seem to understand the terms foal (a young horse of either sex), filly (a young female), and colt (a young male). She uses 'colt' when she means 'foal' and vice versa.