Red Dragons are similar to typical story book dragons. They shoot flames, can fly, etc. However, they aren’t evil creatures as depicted in myths and won’t go around raiding castles, killing knights, or kidnapping princesses. They live in a variety of habitats, from forests to coastlines to abandoned castles, usually in warm climates, and eat whatever living creatures they can find.

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.

While Firesong Weyr has a white dragon healer, Rula would prefer to have all important jobs in the weyr performed by red dragons, so she's appointed Ruflig as primary healer. Ruflig, unfortunately, has no idea what he's doing, and barely has enough expertise to wrap a wound. He would love to hand all healing duties back to Ryrrh, but he's not quite brave enough to defy Draliath, so he muddles on as best he can. Ruflig hasn't quite reached the level of spectacular incompetence that leads to spontaneous recoveries at the mere sight of him, but he has been heard begging patients to just pretend they don't have broken limbs.