Black Marrows are named for their dark colored hides which are encased in a distinct exoskeleton. Their skull and the top edges of their spine push out from under the skin as they age. As such, their young need excessive amounts of calcium for this armor to develop. The older a Black Marrow dragon is, the more skeletal their appearance. They often use their skeletal looks to lure in foolish scavengers or terrify predators. These vicious dragons love nothing more than to crack open bones with their stony beaks and eat the marrow inside. Voracious scavengers, Black Marrows will swarm and devour corpses both old and fresh, sometimes even dragging larger finds to the water to allow them to “ripen.” Despite their dreadful demeanour and often horrid stench, Black Marrows are devoted mates and parents.

Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.

There is one particular little town, a bleak and desolate village, in which all the dead are buried in stone mausoleums. This is not done out of any great respect for the deceased, but rather because this Marrow will get at them if they are buried anywhere else. Large and powerful, the male has no trouble digging up tombs and ripping apart coffins, easily accessing the corpses waiting within. However, the villager's attempts to keep him from desecrating the dead have done more harm than good; with his easy stock of food now frustratingly out of reach, he's instead turned his attention to hunting down the town's living occupants.