Magelight Pygmy Wyverns make their homes deep under the earth, and produce a flammable, oily secretion from the tips of their tails to make light. The substance is long-burning, and brooding mothers douse their eggs in the oil while they incubate. Hatchlings’ tails subsequently catch fire at birth after coming into contact with their burning shells. Magelights are useful to human miners, as they are docile and easily trained to alert to the presence of methane damps, caved sections of tunnel, and proximity of nearby dragons to ensure the safety of crews.

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.

Pygmy dragons are the smallest category of dragons, being on the same scale as domesticated animals. They are often found around concentrated populations of dragons, relying on their larger brethren to ward away potential predators and leave scraps. As such, the majority of a pygmy’s diet is scavenged. Due to their tiny size, pygmies do not breed with larger varieties of dragons.

In many regions, there are tales of entities called "aleya", "will-o'-wisps", "friar's lanterns", or "fairy-fire", mysterious things shine at night and lead people off safe paths, though what they actually are depends on who's telling the tale or the speaker's scientific or magical background. Two days' walk from the "backwards" town of Tesila is a mined-out cave network surrounded by bog, and here, A Torch does not just revel in stories of supernatural lights, he IS one of these lights. Late at night, he turns his tail-flame yellow and bobs it serenely in easy sight from journeyers, purposely leading them out of the safe zone and into mire and sometimes into the caves themselves. To A Torch, this is a hilarious prank, watching them scrabble about, lost; to his mistlet compatriots, this is rather mean, even though he doesn't think so; and to the local xenowyrm living in one of the caves, this is a wonderful opportunity to snag a zero-effort meal.