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Firebird: Tertiary Character Bios

This page is filled with SPOILERS for the Firebird universe. Do not read further if you do not want major plot or character developments revealed! Characters are listed in alphabetical order by their last name.

Lord Alef Drake and Jisha Teal – Minor characters in FIREBIRD. A member of the royal Netaian wastling class, Lord Alef has vanished from Netaia before the stories begin. Accompanied by commoner Jisha Teal and abetted by his fellow wastlings Lady Firebird Angelo and Lord Corey Bowman, Alef stages his own death and flees Netaian space with Jisha. The penalty for helping wastlings escape noble suicide is death, a risk Firebird and Corey are willing to take. Alef and Jisha live out their lives on a distant Federate world.

For a deleted scene from DAYSTAR featuring Alef and Jisha, click here.

Crown Princess Iarlet Angelo – Minor character in FIREBIRD, FUSION FIRE, and CROWN OF FIRE. As the firstborn daughter of Crown Princess (later Queen) Carradee Angelo and Prince Daithi Drake-Angelo, Princess Iarlet is second in line to the Netaian throne. Iarlet is named for the Netaian folk hero, Queen Iarla, who was the only wastling – then heiress – in Netaian history to ascend the throne.

Not much personal information is given regarding Princess Iarlet in the first three books. In FUSION FIRE, Iarlet is sent off world after an attempt to assassinate her mother. However, the princess’s shuttle is intercepted by agents of the telepathic Shuhr, who orchestrated the assassination attempt on Carradee. Iarlet and her younger sister Princess Kessaree are murdered; their bodies are later recovered by a Federate search team.

Queen Rinnah Angelo – Minor character in DAYSTAR, with a brief cameo in CROWN OF FIRE. Queen Rinnah Angelo is the third daughter of Queen Carradee Angelo and Prince Daithi Drake-Angelo. After her older sisters are murdered in CROWN OF FIRE, Rinnah is unexpectedly conceived by Carradee and Daithi in protective exile on the Sentinel sanctuary world of Procyel II.

Inheriting Carradee’s turbulent situation, Her Majesty Rinnah continues Carradee’s countercultural reforms and is credited with overturning generations of wastling law, which required extraneous heirs to find a “noble” death. As a third-born, Rinnah takes particular satisfaction in striking down those laws. Young Rinnah also helps introduce the Sentinel faith amongst non-Sentinel peoples, and she becomes instrumental in spreading the message of the Sentinels’ Messianic Boh-Dabar, when Tavkel makes his prophesied appearance in DAYSTAR.

Dr. Tarance Caldwell – Minor character in FIREBIRD and FUSION FIRE. Tarance is his parents’ eldest child; he and his younger brother Brennen have a strained relationship due to Brennen’s extreme telepathic abilities, the strongest in several generations. Brennen is taken to the Sentinel college at an early age and rises quickly within the Federate military Special Ops, which fuels the estrangement.

Tarance remains on Thyrica as a doctor. At the opening of FUSION FIRE, all five members of his family—Tarance, his wife, their two sons and young daughter—are found dead in their home. The Shuhr, renegade telepaths who share a common ancestry with the Sentinels, are responsible for the murders, due to a generations-long desire to thwart the Messianic prophecies concerning the Caldwell family. Upon the death of Tarance and his sons, Brennen becomes the only living male in the bloodline.

Prince Daithi Drake-Angelo – Minor character in FIREBIRD, FUSION FIRE, and CROWN OF FIRE. As the series begins, Prince Daithi has wed Crown Princess Carradee Angelo of Netaia. Having married into the royal line, he has revoked his right to bear children in his own name and for his family. It is clearly a sacrifice Daithi is glad to make. He and Carradee are among the few truly happy Netaian aristocratic couples.

Daithi displays a rare inner strength and confidence, having married a higher ranking wife without displaying the slightest insecurity. Netaian tradition creates dramatic changes in his life, but Daithi seems well adapted.

The events of FUSION FIRE show it can be dangerous to marry such a public figure, especially after Netaia’s Federate occupation. When the Angelo family attracts the attention of the renegade telepathic Shuhr, an assassination attempt aimed at Carradee leaves Daithi with traumatic spinal injuries and the Angelo line without hope of further heirs. Instead of committing “honorable” suicide as expected under the circumstances, Carradee abdicates and flees with him to the Sentinels’ sanctuary world. There, Daithi makes a steady recovery and fathers Queen Rinnah.

A monument to Queen Carradee and Prince Daithi is raised after their deaths by Her Majesty Queen Rinnah, on the grounds of the Angelo palace.

Labeth Kinsmen – Minor character in FUSION FIRE. Labeth Kinsmen is Ellet Kinsmen’s younger brother and a talented musician. He and his sister have an amicable relationship, although they have little in common due to their differing interests and ambitions.

Unlike the driven and ambitious Ellet, Labeth is easygoing, with a quiet wisdom and considerable compassion toward Firebird during their brief encounter on the sanctuary world of Procyel during FUSION FIRE.

Labeth eventually enters the priesthood. He is serving on Tallis when Kiel Caldwell is anointed Shamarr.

Zakain, Zared, Ze’en, Zeph, Zidee, Zilla, Zufan – Minor characters in WIND AND SHADOW. Zakain and the others are adult clones and half clones, created by the Mikuhran leader Jahana in an experiment designed to try and link cloned individuals via a perverted telepathic pair bond.

As is revealed over the course of the novel, linking the pre-born infants causes multiple dysfunctional tendencies among them, including a prolonged conscious of bond members after physical death. At the conclusion of WIND AND SHADOW, the bond is shattered by telepathic fusion. Only Zeph and Ze’en survive.

Ze’en and Zeph are mentioned in DAYSTAR by Lady Firebird Angelo-Caldwell, who implies that they have been adopted into the Caldwell family group as “uncles.”