Albino Dragons are so named because their translucent, scale-less skin lacks all pigment. Instead, to help protect their bodies from the sun, they are coated in an oily secretion that blocks the sun’s harmful rays. The call of an albino dragon is similar to a barn owl--a shriek instead of a roar.

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.

Tyto is deeply dissatisfied with his colorlessness. He looks in the mirror and sees a very boring dragon. He has tried getting his friend Jehan to make him a vest of gemstone scales, and that does make him feel somewhat better. He even brought some rare herbs to a human tattooist in a far away land in order to get pretty pictures drawn on his skin... only to discover that he has an exceptionally low tolerance for pain. Presently, he experiments with dipping himself into various vats of dyes, and while he has found ways of compensating for the oil that tends to make such things drip off him, the effects always wear off. Poor Tyto's friends hope he meets a nice dragon who persuades him that he's quite handsome just the way he is, someday.